Dr. Kishimoto
Welcome to The Stories We Tell, June edition. I’m Dr. Christina Kishimoto, your host, and I have an incredible guest with me today, Dr. Meisha Porter. She is the CEO and the president of the Bronx Community Foundation. And just by the name of that, you grabbed my heart. How are you doing, Meisha, welcome?
Dr. Porter
I’m so well and so glad to be on with my sister from the Bronx.
Dr. Kishimoto
I’m excited because I’d love for people to know a little more about your story if they don’t know you. Though, I don’t know how they can’t know you! Especially if they’ve passed through New York. I mean, you’ve held everything from teacher roles to principal roles, Superintendent roles, and community roles. You’ve been a resident of the Bronx and engaged in important policy matters in New York and nationally.
So, I’d love to dig in a little bit, learn a little more, and share some of the work you’ve been doing. What’s interesting is you and I met a while ago. I was in Hartford Public Schools. You were in New York. You were a school principal of the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice. And I was meeting you for the first time because I wanted to hear about your best practice school. Can you tell us a bit about founding that and that work?
Dr. Porter
Well, listen, Christina, first of all, my favorite job was being a principal. I love that school. I love everything about it. And probably a big part of it was that I was a part of the birth and origin story of that school. That’s why this work I’m doing now is full circle. So, that school grew out of a community process. They were building a new Supreme Court complex in the Bronx. I was 19 years old and part of a youth group. And we were like, we don’t need any more jails. We need schools. And what was really interesting was you have your kind of ideas as a young person about what a courthouse means. And then we started engaging with the people who actually worked in the courthouse and in the court system, and a good friend to this day, who was a lawyer at the time, got connected with us. And he was like, let me tell you why a courthouse matters. And so we understood why we needed the courthouse, but we also understood that the courthouse had to become a learning place for young people. And so, the vision behind the school was how do you create a space where young people learn about the system not by going through it, but by partnering with it? And that’s what we did at Law and Government. We created relationship experiences for young people to learn the inner workings of a court system and what potential career opportunities were there for them. It was my favorite job, and it demonstrated the power of young people, the power of community, and the power of activation around an idea.
Dr. Kishimoto
I love that story and all the energy you just showed and passion for that whole story. The work you did there with a whole team of community members was exactly what attracted me to visit you and see what this is about. What was really fun and exciting about this, and I hope you always remember this, is that I went back to Hartford with the team that I went to visit with, and we established a Law and Government Academy in Hartford. We were so motivated by you and the team and what was happening there.
And what’s interesting is that you said we needed to open schools, but it wasn’t just opening schools; it was opening these schools that were designed in particular ways that really engage young people with ways in which they want to be engaged in learning. During a time when the federal government was incentivizing closing down schools in many ways, as we went into No Child Left Behind and deeming schools failing schools. New York, Hartford, and other districts were putting together these ideas around: you can’t just shut down schools; you might have to shut down something that’s not working, but you have got to reopen. And you’ve got to keep that engagement of community.
Dr. Porter
And it matters. School is the center to me. It is the center of community, and everybody goes to school. And the closing of schools is a really hard experience. But the reactivation of a community around a problem, and how do you become the owners and creators of it? We have graduates who are lawyers, who are court officers, who are police officers, who work in probation, who developed relationships with judges and lawyers that they retained to this day. We were able to do the things that we always talk about. How do we ensure that young people see a pathway to a career? How do we ensure that young people have an adult in their school and in their community to who they’re connected within that network? And so, we were able to do all of that. When someone asks you about your child, your whole face lights up, even in the worst moments. That’s how I feel about the Bronx School for Law and Government and Justice.
Dr. Kishimoto
What was fun is that the third point you added in there is the focus on justice and having young people in their community talk about what justice means to them. And to be part of that design. We love that back in Hartford, which was getting the young people talking about what this means, especially when we know in urban centers, a lot of our BIPOC young people have had negative experiences with the so-called justice system and giving them back the power to redefine and what justice means to them. Especially if there was good design. It was amazing.
Dr. Porter
And the other part of it is, and I know you guys did this in Hartford, and I was so honored that I got to come see you as you were planning. I was a young person when I started doing this. This was not a school that the adult said; this is what we need. This was a school that students, young people, older adults, and community members said we need this school now. We know that we need this courthouse. We also need the school to be a part of it. I’m not 19 anymore, but to see a school, to see the physical structure, to see young people graduating from that, which I was a part of almost 30 years ago, that started from an idea. That’s super empowering for a young person.
Dr. Kishimoto
It is absolutely. So I was sitting at an event, one of those national conferences that we go to, and a colleague came up to me and said, Meisha Porter is sitting over there with a group from New York; she’s the new Chancellor and do you happen to know her because that person knew I was from the Bronx and New York and said, do you know Meisha Porter. I said, of course, I know Meisha. So, I went up to you, and you and I started talking. In fact, I think I forgot to turn around actually to introduce the person who wanted to meet you because I was so excited to reconnect.
And it’s been so much fun just watching your trajectory. The first woman to serve as chancellor in New York, right?
Dr. Porter,
First black woman.
Dr. Kishimoto
So, it’s like layers, right? First woman, first black woman. It’s layers. And you came from inside the system. You had innovated; you had just demonstrated this love of students and love of learning. You were the ideal leader to go in as an education person to become chancellor. What was that like for you?
Dr. Porter
It was a couple of things. It was also in the midst of the pandemic. I was deeply honored, because it’s an honor to be chosen, to get tapped. So, I was deeply honored. But I also was deeply moved by the moment. I was the executive superintendent before I got tapped into the chancellor. And I felt like most of the decisions that were being made about schooling were being made in service of the adults returning, not really thinking about what young people needed. As a leader in the Bronx, I live in the Bronx, raised my family in the Bronx, very aware of the needs of our community, I knew that for the majority of families and students, remote learning wasn’t working. I really wanted to come in. And I said there were three things on my agenda: open, open, open. And I really wanted to make sure we reopened the school system to better serve communities that weren’t being served properly.
I enter every role thinking about the last role I had and what I would need my leader to be. And so, when I was a principal, I thought about teachers and assistant principals and superintendents in New York City. I thought about what principals needed. And the same as Chancellor, I thought about not only what superintendents and principals needed from me, but what families needed from me, what teachers needed from me. And I thought it was really important to center all of that in my being as I stepped into that role because it was such a traumatic, hard time.
I had to think about how we get families to feel safe coming back in our buildings, and all of those people. How do we make these conditions doable and viable for teachers who are also grappling with what’s happening with their families? We are nurturers to the fullness of who we are. And so, I brought my full woman into that role to really think about how I was showing up in service of all the roles that I had, but all the roles that I was responsible for serving.
Dr. Kishimoto
I love that, and I love that you put that out there. We do, as women leaders, bring our whole gender identity to the role as well, as well as who we are as women, as family members, and as people who tend to be grounded in community and in that collective.
So, over a million students. The largest school system in the United States. Not an easy position to go into. You’re such a humble leader. You’re couched in community. That’s why you’ve done the roles you’ve done and why you’re continuing to do the roles that you are leading. And so how do you go into a position like that, that just by its very sheer size and complexity, it’s so political, and still accomplish being centered in community, students, and families?
Dr. Porter
It is a deeply political role. Whether you’re in a small district, or a really large district, or the largest district in the country, it’s a super political role. And so, you’ve got to grapple with that. People come into these roles, and they’re like, I am simply here for the children, or I’m simply here for the leaders and teachers. But actually, your constituent base changes. Although the most important work that happens in the system, happens in classrooms between our babies and teachers. So that is clear.
But there are a lot of very vested interested parties in what’s happening in schools. And so, I think what was good for me is, I had a lot of those relationships before I became chancellor. It is a blessing, honor, and privilege that there was a lot of respect for me in that role. And people appreciated it, particularly in that moment that I had come through the system. I was clear about my intentions: open, open, open, open, open. Everybody knew that about me. And so even if you didn’t agree, we could have a conversation about why. I remained grounded in what was important for me to do in that role. But I recognize that there were different relationships that I had to engage in. And when folks say to me, I don’t want to do the political part of this job, I’m like, actually, if you want to serve kids and families, you have to do the political parts of this job. There are resources and opportunities not for you but for your communities and in those relationships. And so, part of the work is developing and managing those political races, relationships, and service of what you actually want to do for children and families.
Dr. Kishimoto
If you know how to leverage politics, and if you remember that as a leader, you actually are empowering that community to lead as a community, to lead as a collective. We have fixed budgets, we have fixed resources, and yet, in New York City, we have tremendous resources. It’s what I loved about growing up in New York and growing up in the Bronx. People remember the bad things of the 70s and 80s in New York City, especially the school system. There were a lot of things that needed a lot of love and care and attention, a lot of policy attention. But at the same time, it’s a resource rich community as a city of its size. And it was wonderful. And politics does play a role in bringing in those resources and bringing in the folks who really have control of those resources.
Dr. Porter
For sure, absolutely. And that’s a part of the work.
Dr. Kishimoto
So now you are in this other incredible role. You have this wonderful life to tell us about. I know it hasn’t been easy, but it’s an incredible life. You’ve had this career trajectory that gives a lot back to you as well. And you continue to give back to the community. You are now the president and CEO of the Bronx Community Foundation. And so, lots of work that I’m sure you’ve done in education that you bring into this role. What are you thinking, why are you doing this? Why did you stay in the Bronx?
Dr. Porter
Well, a couple of reasons. The first one was because I love the Bronx. I’ve always said in my role as an educator, and it remains true now, that part of my work as an education leader, from principal to Chancellor, was about disrupting and dismantling systemic racism but also retelling the Bronx Tale and centering the community that you and I know and love.
There’s an entire national deficit narrative about the Bronx. Folks told me not to take this role because it was the Bronx. And that made me want to take it even more because I felt like I don’t know how I could ever be too big for the Bronx. The Bronx made me and positioned me for all the roles that I’ve had.
Second, I took the role because I felt like I could bring the fullness of my experiences, relationships, political views, and the light that I had garnered over my career and build this foundation, which really is about bringing a level of historic investment to a borough that has been traditionally and historically underinvested in.
Dr. Kishimoto
The Community Foundation, to my understanding, is the first of its kind and still the only of its kind. And so, what is the mission of the Community Foundation?
Dr. Porter
The Bronx Community Foundation is the first and only foundation solely dedicated to the Bronx in the first and only Community Foundation. Community Foundation’s do two things. They focus specifically on place-based giving and this idea of participatory grantmaking with those who are most proximate to the problem design the solutions. We spent the last year engaging in conversations with residents, nonprofit leaders, and partners about what you want us to be. What do you need us to be? So, let’s not make assumptions that we absolutely know. But let’s have conversations. And out of those conversations came a really powerful message about one, you have to be a foundation, a grantmaker, not a foundation and name alone, but a grantmaker, someone who gets resources in the community. Perfect check. We’re also conveners; we convene partners and organizations around important issue areas in a borough. And last, we engage in what we call strategic programmatic partnerships, where we focus on two areas that we think, one, we have a particular level of expertise, and two, will make a historic and impactful change in a barrel. So, education, Meisha’s here. Then the other area is digital equity in the Bronx. Up to 40% of Bronx sites don’t have access to high-speed, high-quality internet.
Dr. Kishimoto
That is hard to believe, isn’t it?
Dr. Meisha
Right, in 2024. What that says to me and you, my friend, is that in the pandemic, 40% of families didn’t have access to a high-quality education. So, digital equity education is connected. But it’s also connected to all of the things that impact the Bronx. That means up to 40% of families didn’t have access to services in the pandemic that they needed the Internet to access. That means 40% of businesses and the Bronx was the borough with the lowest rates of PPP loans during the pandemic. That means businesses didn’t have access to the resources to keep their businesses going. And so that’s who we are. We engage in what we call a transformative philanthropic framework that is centered around convening, grant-making, and strategic programmatic partnerships.
Dr. Kishimoto
I love that. And when you think about the Bronx as a microcosm of the world, every ethnic, racial, and community group is represented in the Bronx. You have mom-and-pop shops all the way through big corporations there. So, you have this incredible diversity economically, and you have incredible diversity in terms of people. And this really rich, beautiful history. And, of course, you have the Yankees. You gotta mention the Yankees if you’re mentioning the Bronx.
I would love for you to start wrapping us up and talk about the lessons you gleaned most from growing up in New York that really say, I really am a Bronx girl. This is because this is what we learned. And you and I have had conversations about the way in which we’ve learned that boldness, our resilience, and our go-after-what-you-want kind of personalities that we have. What are you bringing into the Community Foundation and into just who you are today?
Dr. Porter
All of those things, but you know what I learned in school, as a school leader and Chancellor, and all of those roles, was about the possibilities. I believe in possibility. And I don’t see a limit.
I grew up and went to New York City public schools. We weren’t poor; we just didn’t have money. So, I grew up in a very similar situation to many of the communities that I serve and have become all these things. I’ve also seen young people in similar circumstances do transformational things with their lives. I run into students of mine at least once a week doing something amazing.
We talk about this international deficit narrative. Two presidents came to the Bronx, Reagan, and Carter, to use the Bronx as an example of this negative community, or uninvested community. And both left and didn’t do anything. But after both of those visits, the Bronx stood up and rebuilt its own buildings and rebuilt its own communities. And so, I take all of those lessons, and I’m going to build a foundation that’s never been seen before. And we’re going to bring a level of investment into this borough that’s going to be so powerful that it’s going to be transformative and resilient and innovative in the same way the people of the Bronx are.
Dr. Kishimoto
I love that vision. When I think of the Bronx, I only think about it so warmly, in terms of everything it meant to me. I have family that still lives in the Bronx, and it has been just so much a part of who I am. I’d love to close with this question, Meisha.
Now that you’re working in this particular role that is really couched in community, their voices leading, what can you tell us about how the Bronx is positioned today? It doesn’t look like it did when I grew up, or even a couple of years ago, or pre-pandemic. What does it look like today?
Dr. Porter
The Bronx is probably one of the most diverse communities. And that diversity is growing. We have more African communities and more folks of Muslim heritage. When we were growing up here, it was a predominantly Latino population. Our population has diversified. And the beauty of diversity lives in the Bronx. There’s a lot of investment in development in the Bronx right now. So, the skyline looks different, but the people are the same. The people are the same in terms of the joy, pride, and power. And what I’m excited about is people being a part of this moment. I think the Bronx is at a very crucial moment where the people are ready to stand up and build the institutions and organizations to make it greater than it’s ever been before.
Dr. Kishimoto
There you have it, folks, Dr. Meisha Porter. Two boogie-down Bronx girls being able to sit down and talk. Love you, girl. I love what you’re doing. I love the sisterhood of all the women who have come through the Bronx when we get together. You know, there’s just this energy in the room, and I so love that you have come onto the show to share your story or at least part of your story with the community. Thank you so much.
Dr. Porter
Thank you for having me. And you know you are no slouch, my sister! It is an honor and a privilege to share space with you and to be a part of you lifting the voice of our community. So, thank you so much for never forgetting where you come from.
Dr. Kishimoto
Thanks
