Women’s History Spotlight: Former Flash Editor Tiffany Edmondson

Joel Murchison Staff Writer

Before the month is out, The Blue & White Flash would like to honor one of its own former editors for Women’s History Month, Tiffany Edmondson.

Edmondson graduated in 2013 from Jackson State University with a bachelors in mass communications (aka journalism and media studies) with a concentration in broadcast production and a minor in political science.

During her time at JSU, she served as the editor-inchief of The Blue & White Flash and was instrumental in the success of the publication during a difficult. Edmondson was the editor when publications staff member Latasha Norman was killed in an act of domestic violence.

Many on the staff who knew and loved Norman, found it difficult to cover the story as it unfolded. Edmondson took the lead and produced a story that was picked up by other national publications.

Edmondson also obtained a coveted internship with the White House Correspondence Associates Program. This opportunity led to many others, including her current work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

While in Washington, Edmondson worked with the Washington Wizards NBA basketball team for seven seasons in game entertainment and production. She was the instant replay video editor. She also worked three seasons with the Washington Football NFL team.

For the last three years Edmondson, who is member of the Junior League of Washington, has added freelance production assistant to her resume, working on the set of reality shows filmed in D.C.

Edmondson studied mandarin Chinese at Jackson State and studied abroad with Jackson State’s China Initiatives. This paid off as she currently works abroad in China.

The Flash spoke to this alumnus on the rise.

The Flash : What does a true day in the life of your line of work looks like?

Edmondson: My job is more on the side of financial management. I’ll give you a prime example of my day today. My role is the administrative officer of Foreign Agricultural Service for our China post for USDA. I am like the liaison between our offices in China and headquarters in Washington, D.C. There are only two people in the world who have my job, myself of course here in China and Geneva Sweden. Managing a budget and covering all aspects overseas throughout our range. The Flash : “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.”

What does this quote mean to you?

Edmondson: Well for one, that quote speaks many volumes as influence is where you combine all your trials, setbacks, and experiences to help advance the next person. Also, being able to get others to trust you while following you and their own path and to not go through those same setbacks. Because we can always learn from each other. I never want to be the only person with all the knowledge. I have a passion to spread the wealth of knowledge to others as that is influence.

The Flash : Please give us an example of how you helped coach or mentor someone. What improvements did you see in the person’s knowledge or skills?

Edmondson: Anytime a young person is around the age of graduating, I always ask the parents if I could talk to them. First, I always make sure to feel kids out to get a better understanding of them and guide them to their goals. For instance, parents tend to want a certain thing or lifestyle for their children, while I ask the child what is it that they want to do? A majority of the time, they don’t know which is highly understandable.

Secondly, I then ask them what are some of the things they love doing, no matter the requirements or schooling.

Thirdly, I help them get a better understanding of what they want to do, as sometimes parents might not see the value in their dreams.

Lastly, I guide them in finding scholarships and internships to provide or pursue their dreams, while coaching and motivating them to just simply apply to things as we tend to psych ourselves out of things for fear of the unknown and failure.

The Flash : What is your favorite adventure about working overseas in a foreign country?

Edmondson: Understanding the roles of diplomacy and the role of foreign service officers would be one. Before I got in, you would hear about diplomats and not know what they really do.

When you’re working in an embassy overseas you can pretty much experience any job you can imagine! From university level to economics and political science. The value of being a diplomat is being able to have range to cover anything overseas, This became the most eye-opening experience.

The Flash : What is your favorite childhood memory?

Edmondson: Writing mini commercials and stories.

The Flash : What inspires you to keep going?

Edmondson: I never want it to be about me. As you can ask Ms. Shannon Tatum (Student Publications Manager), I have been working in the government for years and I’m always sending back different programs and opportunities for students.

I’m always sharing information because a lot of times as alumni, we have an obligation to want better for our universities by sending money. Money is very imprtant but supporting our students with career and networking opportunities is as well.

Sometimes HBCUs and schools in the southern states lack resources and opportunities that are out there for students. Because a lot of fellowships, internships, scholarships, and opportunities are mainly targeted or directed to these Big 10 or Ivy League schools. We are in the south. We tend to receive this information last or not at all. I always make sure that I send back opportunities for young people to achieve their goals.

The Blue & White Flash congratulates Tiffany Edmondson on her achievements and know that she has more ahead of her.

Tik Tok ban, Tasha K, Brandy and Gov. Desantis top trending topics

Aaliyah Jones

Staff Writer

Desantis files controversial

HB 999 Florida Gov. Desantis proposed and filed HB999 that calls for the removal of all black and Latina Greek organizations from college campuses. The bill also proposes the removal of the courses, majors, and minors for Jewish studies, feminist theory, and gender studies and any centers and programs curated for black, Latina, Asian, Pacific Islander, and LGBTQIA+ students. The bill even points out tenured faculty in Florida who’s, if the bill is successfully passed, tenure eligibility will be placed under review by a new board of trustees appointed by Gov. Desantis.

This obviously created a large uproar, especially amongst all BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ students attending higher education institutions in Florida, because this would mean forcing them to completely withdraw their existence from the campus community completely and give up all places for them to organize in peace. The real conversation starts when we start to think about how this could trigger similar changes in other states including, Mississippi.

Congress chews up TikTok

CEO Shou Chew TikTok CEO Shou Chew finally appeared before Congress. Many American users of TikTok heavily disagree with Congress and its plans to ban the popular app in the US permanently. The reasons Congress members want to ban TikTok, which were addressed during the hearing, mainly fall under the categories of the app possibly being a threat to national security and the negative affect the app can have on children.

Chew was pelted with questions over and over again concerning the security of TikTok, what ties he has to China, and what the company does with the data collected. Rep. McMorris Rodgers said that TikTok is used as “a weapon by the Chinese Communist Party to spy on you,” during the hearing but did not pledge any tangible or legible proof to support his claim.

For clarification, Tiktok is based in Los Angeles, Calif. and Singapore while its parent company, the company that bought into TikTok, ByteDance, is based in China.

Though Chew from Singapore and does not have any business connection to China, Congress members seem to be under the impression that China can somehow pull political business strings through ByteDance to then force TikTok to relinquish all U.S. data they’ve collected. Chew says he has released data to China and has no plans off doing so in the future.

Tasha K loses appeal for defamation

The defamation lawsuit won by Belcalis Almanzar Cephus, aka Cardi B, against YouTube blogger Tasha K (LaTasha Kebe), was upheld after Kebe lost an appeal. Tasha K was ordered to pay $4 million for defamation, according to Insider, after Cardi filed and won a lawsuit claiming that the blogger had created a hate campaign against her online through her audience and various forms of social platforms. One might say justice was served twice on the behalf of Cardi and her legal team. In fairness, Kebe made a series of videos on her YouTube channel in which she made various direct claims about Cardi’s marriage, motherhood status, and accusations that Cardi has abused hard drugs and contracted herpes. Well know it’s time to pay the piper Tasha K!

Descendants: The Rise of Red brings back Brandy We all remember the hit classic remake of Cinderella starring Brandy, Paolo Montalban, and the great Whitney Houston that was originally aired in 1997. Well, the leading couple are coming back to reprise the roles as Cinderella and King Charming once again in the new “Descendants: The Rise of Red”. The movie is expected to air late 2023. Brandy fans and Descendants fans alike are on edge to see if the pair can showcase the old school Disney magic they once shared.

Disney brings Princess and the Frog to the screen Princess Tiana from “Princess and the Frog” will be gracing the screens in a new live action version. So many beautiful actresses and singers like Coco Jones and Ari Lenox have posted their audition tapes for the role as Princess Tiana, leaving fans shaking in anticipation and excitement as to who will land the role.

There has also been a flip-side to the announcement of the role being up for discussion. Sadly, people have been creating terribly closed-minded discourse around who should play Princess Tiana as well as leaving colorist comments under posts discussing the role. Some think Tiana would be better played by lighter skinned actresses like Zendaya while others point out the purpose of staying true to the character design and choosing a dark skinned young woman to play the role since there is a plethora of women who can easily fill the role. There has even been slight discourse on Twitter around choosing non-black men like Timothy Chalamet to play Prince Naveen.

The views expressed in this trending topics column are those of the writer(s) and in no way represent the views of The Blue & White Flash.

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