Have you ever wanted to make a change in your community and not known where to start? Do you have children? Have you ever cared about traffic or where alcohol can be sold or food insecurity or mental health or flu vaccinations or access to books? Your community public schools are the place where you can have an impact on every one of those issues and so much more. In this episode, I spoke with Kate Noble, President of the Santa Fe Public School Board and CEO of Growing up New Mexico about public Schools as the foundation for community wellness. Kate is brilliant and funny and deeply passionate about public education.

Kate Noble was born in Santa Fe and got a wonderful education in the Santa Fe Public Schools. She graduated from Santa Fe High School and attended Columbia University in New York City, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies. Kate spent 10 years at the BBC’s Business News Desk as a producer, reporter and anchor. She then returned to Santa Fe and began working for the City of Santa Fe in economic and community development, where she focused on growing local businesses and local talent. She joined Growing Up New Mexico, an early childhood community organization, in 2018, and became CEO in 2023. She is proud to have her son in the Santa Fe Public Schools and considers him her greatest teacher.

Kate has spent the last eight and a half years serving on the SFPS Board. She believes in the power of running a good meeting, and values the different viewpoints of fellow Board Members. She is proud of the progress made during her time on the Board including increases in graduation rates, and raises for staff.

Both/And is a project of the New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs. www.nmcsap.org
Need support? Call, text, or chat the NM Sexual Assault Helpline at 1-844-NMSAHLP | 1-844-667-2457 | www.nmsahelp.org

Intro music: "Can't Get Enough Sunlight" written and recorded by Michelle Chamuel http://michellechamuel.com/
Logo: Alex Ross-Reed
Produced by: Jess Clark
Edited By: Dacia Clay at Pillow Fort Studios
https://www.pillowfortpodcasts.com

What would you do if a house is on fire and the firefighters on the scene not only refuse to put it out, they joyfully add fuel to it while joking about how great it was to start the fire in the first place? After talking with today’s guest, Shiwali Patel, Senior Director of Education Justice at the National Women’s Law Center, about protecting students under Title IX, this is the scenario that came to mind for me. Thankfully, when faced with the endless challenges of navigating systems that are being increasingly weaponized against the very people they were meant to protect, Shiwali doesn’t run from the fire. She is equipped with years of experience, a deep well of passion, and a belief that even as systems are falling apart around us, we can still make meaningful change and protect students.

Shiwali Patel (she/her) is the Senior Director of Education Justice at the National Women’s Law Center where she oversees advocacy addressing sex-based harassment in schools and works to strengthen civil rights protections for LGBTQI+ students and advocates broadly for civil rights in education. Previously, she was at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), where she worked on policy and guidance interpreting Title IX protections, including schools' responsibilities in responding to sexual harassment, protections for transgender students, and the rights of girls of color. Shiwali was also an Administrative Judge at the U.S. Department of Energy, a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in D.C. in the Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Unit, a judicial law clerk, and a community educator at the D.C. Rape Crisis Center. Shiwali currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights’ Education Task Force and on the Board of Directors of Callisto. She is also an adjunct professor at American University where she teaches Gender and Law, and Sex Discrimination in Education at the law school.

Links:

The Lawyer who Can’t Let it Go

Defending Trans Women’s Rights

The Midlife Crisis of Title IX

Don’t Believe Betsy DeVos

The Proposed Title IX Rules Make No Practical, Moral, or Legal Sense

Years Later, We Must Amend Title IX to End Sex-Based Harassment in Schools

Ending Sexual Violence 50 Years After Title IX

Both/And is a project of the New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs. www.nmcsap.org
Need support? Call, text, or chat the NM Sexual Assault Helpline at 1-844-NMSAHLP | 1-844-667-2457 | www.nmsahelp.org

Intro music: "Can't Get Enough Sunlight" written and recorded by Michelle Chamuel http://michellechamuel.com/
Logo: Alex Ross-Reed
Produced by: Jess Clark
Edited By: Dacia Clay at Pillow Fort Studios
https://www.pillowfortpodcasts.com

“We don’t have a problem with support for sex ed in this country, we have a problem with prioritizing it, and making it an issue that they want to stick their neck out on. We have an action problem”

In this episode, I had the absolute joy of speaking with Jaclyn Friedman, author, organizer, and Executive Director of EducateUS, a movement working to bring about a complete transformation of K-12 public sex education in the United States, in order to foster a new generation of Americans who are secure in their own bodily sovereignty, recognize and respect that sovereignty in everyone else regardless of race, place, creed, class or gender, know all the essential facts about how bodies work, and are fully prepared to build loving relationships with themselves and others.

Jaclyn and I took a deep dive into comprehensive sex ed as a liberatory and anti-authoritarian tool that creates change far beyond the high school classroom.

EducateUS is led by Founder and Executive Director Jaclyn Friedman, a lifelong activist, advocate and organizer. Friedman’s work has globally popularized the affirmative consent standard of sexual consent. Her first book, Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape, was one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Top 100 Books of 2009, and has inspired new laws in five U.S. states, as well as policies on countless campuses across the country and the world. She also spearheaded the legendary #FBrape campaign, which forced Facebook to address and exclude content that promotes or trivializes violence against women under their hate speech policy, and is founder and former executive director of Women, Action & the Media (WAM!).

LINKS:

Drinking and rape lets wise up about it

Educate US Action

Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Power and a World Without Rape

Unscrewed: Women, Sex, Power, and How to Stop Letting the System Screw Us All

What You Really Really Want: The Smart Girl's Shame-Free Guide to Sex and Safety

Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World

Sex Ed For Social Change

Both/And is a project of the New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs. www.nmcsap.org
Need support? Call, text, or chat the NM Sexual Assault Helpline at 1-844-NMSAHLP | 1-844-667-2457 | www.nmsahelp.org

Intro music: "Can't Get Enough Sunlight" written and recorded by Michelle Chamuel http://michellechamuel.com/
Logo: Alex Ross-Reed
Produced by: Jess Clark
Edited By: Dacia Clay at Pillow Fort Studios
https://www.pillowfortpodcasts.com