E18: Part 1, A Family of Activists- From the Inside Out, with Eileen Cooper Reed and India Martin

In this first episode of a two part series with Eileen and India, we explore the cross section of family, race, culture, and gender in the forming and reforming of identity. India and Eileen traverse across the broad territory of community, control, the fear of our own power, and transforming equity in corporations, communities and the United States. Eileen Cooper Reed is a change maker and advocate. Her entire adult life has been dedicated to the improvement of the human condition particularly for children and families of color. Before becoming a lawyer, Eileen was trained in community development and worked in both rural and urban settings.After graduating from the University of Cincinnati College of Law, she did a stint at the US Court of Appeals before settling in as a Juvenile Court Referee. In 1993, Eileen opened the Cincinnati office of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF). Her passion and dedication for improving the lives of our most vulnerable children and their families was exceptional and eventually she assumed the helm of the Ohio office of CDF. Eileen’s devotion to service led to her election to the City of Cincinnati Board of Education where she served two four-year terms and was chosen President by her colleagues four of those years. While on the Board of Education, Eileen was elected to the Executive Committee of the Council for Great City Schools, the preeminent organization committed to urban education. At CCGCS, she chaired the National Advisory Committee on Black Males.  India Martin is a 25-year veteran of financial services and member of the Forbes Coaches Council. A career expat, she spent 20 years of her career in Europe and Asia holding global COO, CIO and CTO roles. In her final role at JPMorgan, she was managing director and Global COO for Investment Banking Technology and Operations, where I had multi-billion-dollar budgetary management for a staff of more than 15,000 people in 40 countries. A diversity, equity, and inclusion practitioner, she is focused on race and gender equity and has taken more than 10,000 people through her racial equity capacity building workshops. She is on the coaching faculty of Georgetown University’s Executive Master’s in Leadership Program and is a visiting instructor at Howard University’s for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Certificate program. During her time in Europe, India was named one of the top 50 businesswomen in Europe and also to the UK Powerlist for successive years. India speaks fluent French and functional Japanese. She sits on the board of Euromoney Institutional Investors PLC , is married with 3 children and lives between Washington DC and London. The Beyond Listening Podcast is brought to you by We are Open Circle, a social impact organization that helps change-makers, community groups, and organizations evolve and thrive with integrity. Our Beyond Listening Program was designed to transform the way teams work with complexity, rapid change, and the wisdom of diversity, in a world that demands constant collective adaptation. Sign up for our newsletter for more Beyond Listening Podcasts, and view our upcoming trainings.