2026

Design Decisions

Wherever You Are In The Hard Things, These Stories Are For You, Too | Design Decisions

Realizing social justice is not a simple or linear process, and the weight of the work can wear us down. Whether you are actively engaged on the front lines of your work, taking time to rest, or simply trying to survive the everyday realities of living within oppressive systems, we need you.

Social Justice Origin Stories is here to remind you that wherever you are in the struggle, these stories are for you.

May 20, 2026
The Justice We Imagine

The Justice We Imagine Vol. 4 | Social Justice Origin Stories

This is Volume 4 of “The Justice We Imagine”, a special series from Social Justice Origin Stories. This series focuses on storytellers’ responses to three essential questions:  

When is true social justice possible?

What shapes our approach to the work?

Why does understanding and sharing our social justice origin stories matter?

As you listen to their responses, reflect on what your answers might be.

May 13, 2026
Personal Journeys

The Power of Relationships and Lived Experiences with Sharman Spieser

After witnessing the racism her Black students experienced up close on a bus trip to Kentucky, Sharman Spieser’s awareness shifted from understanding how racism operates on an intellectual level to a deeper understanding gained from lived-experience.

She reflects on how segregation, isolation, and scarcity thinking operate within a white supremacist capitalist system to keep us apart, and emphasizes the power of building authentic, trusting relationships that create the conditions for honest dialogue to happen as a way of unlearning white supremacy and advancing antiracist social change.

April 29, 2026
Design Decisions

Introducing Design Decisions | Social Justice Origin Stories

This is Design Decisions: a space where I share news and updates about Social Justice Origin Stories as it continues to grow and evolve. More than updates and announcements, though, it’s a space for meaning-making, where I expand on the ideas, values, and design decisions that shape this work. It’s a space to think out loud, and a place where I talk through what it’s like to build social justice origin stories in this time we’re living in, and the things I learn and experience along the way.

April 22, 2026
Organizational Histories

Thinking Beyond Direct Practice And The Clinical Office: Macro Pathways with Patrick Taylor

Patrick Taylor, LCSW, US Air Force veteran and doctoral student in Social Work at USC, tells the story of how learning about the Grand Challenges for Social Work in his program and being surprised by how few Social Workers knew about them led him to recognize the experience as a systemic issue. Taylor’s research led him to coin the phrase the Micro Pipeline in Social Work (MPISW), the systemic funneling of social workers into clinical roles at the expense of macro exposure, development, and support.

Taylor describes how social work’s identity became tied to a medical model and overly associated with mental health. He shares his own pathway from his early beginnings as a sociology student through his experiences with the clinical licensure process, and explains why he created Macro Pathways as an early-intervention, social worker-informed prototype to help students and professionals reimagine macro work, build community, and move the profession toward balance, prevention, and broader influence.

April 15, 2026
Personal Journeys

Boundless Awareness with Pooja Kothari

Pooja Kothari, Esq. begins her social justice origin story with memories of her father, who helped cultivate her abilities to think critically as a child, her early awareness of sexism in gender-segregated cultural spaces, and her later experiences with racism and internalizing shame as a cis, queer, first-generation Indian-American woman of color. Recalling her experiences as a former public defender with the Legal Aid Society Criminal Defense Practice in Brooklyn, NY, Pooja reflects on how she became more courageous and a better advocate thanks to her mentors Michael Letwin and Azalia Torres, and explains how systemic racism shapes courtroom dynamics and even defenders’ assumptions in ways that can make or break client outcomes. 

She also talks about her relationship with resisting internalized oppression through finding community and “depersonalizing” oppressive messaging, while also resisting internalized patterns of power through developing practices of accountability and self-correction. This journey informs her work as the founder and principal facilitator of Boundless Awareness, where she develops and facilitates anti-oppression and anti-bias curriculum for workplaces and organizations.

Pooja’s storytelling reminds listeners that their activism can start today by identifying and challenging their assumptions.  

April 1, 2026
Educational Segments

Scholarship as Resistance: Elevating The Stories Of Black Employees Under Authoritarian Leadership with Darryl B. Rice

Dr. Darryl B. Rice, Associate Professor of Management and Richard T. Farmer Associate Professor at Miami University, returns to talk about a recent article he and his team published on how authoritarian leadership harms Black employees in the workplace.

He talks about the leadership implications of their research and validates Black employees’ instincts as they experience racism at work. Dr. Rice also shares practical advice for organizational leaders and listeners contemplating their next moves on their activism journey.

We discuss racial retrenchment and the ongoing backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, the impact left in the wake of institutional leadership’s capitulation to the current administration, and the need for courageous leadership in these times.

We also learn about what’s next in his area of research, focusing on the impact of inclusive leadership, trust, and organizational commitment to equity.

March 28, 2026
Personal Journeys

Look For Hope Everywhere With William “Bill” Vanderwill

Reflecting on his 50-year career as a Social Worker, William “Bill” Vanderwill speaks on the importance of strengths-based practice, intergenerational communication, community organizing, and the grassroots power of everyday people taking actions for social justice. 

Listen in to hear insights from the man I affectionately call “the Fred Rogers of Social Work.”

March 18, 2026
Organizational Histories

Recreating Home: Justice Over Everything with Byron Green-Calisch

Dr. Byron Green-Calisch shares how he turned 14 years of higher education and leadership research into consulting, public media work, and activism in Florida. He shares how racialized campus crime alerts and gaps in leadership education shaped his scholarship and pushed him to claim roles as educator, activist, and healer, grounded in collective liberation and a desire to help the helpers.

Byron also tells the origin story of the cookout moment that led him to co-found Justice Over Everything with State Rep. Michele Rayner, Esq., a coalition-based social justice center that leads with an intersectional approach dedicated to activating, fortifying, and uplifting communities in the margins of the margins.

March 4, 2026
Educational Segments

Sankofa Bird: Affirming Blackness From The Start of Early Childhood Education with Anissa L. Eddie

Drawing on her expertise in social work and education policy and her lived experience as a Black biracial woman, Dr. Anissa L. Eddie shares how intentional racial socialization in the earliest years can disrupt anti-Blackness, foster radical self-love in Black children, counter the formation of harmful biases, and promote racial equity.

Dr. Eddie also shares her personal “Sankofa Bird” journey: reclaiming what was missing in her own racial identity formation to empower future generations.

Her storytelling reminds us why it’s never too early to engage children in racial equity work in developmentally relevant ways.

February 18, 2026