JULY 2018 VOLUME 16, ISSUE 7
Rich Nickel, President and CEO of College Success Arizona
2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 1 HEALTH READ ON ARIZONA ADVANCES EARLY LITERACY + ELEMENTARYJULY PRINCIPAL ADVOCATES FOR
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PUBLISHER
Andrea Tyler Evans “My fourth-grade teacher Dr. Stoner and her parrot Martha, who made science fun!”
EDITOR
Karen Werner CREATIVE DIRECTOR
“My high school English teacher Ms. Andreotti, who acted out ‘The Scarlet Letter’ and signed every note with a bright red A.”
Cheyenne Brumlow
"My kindergarten teacher, Miss Kite, for making me believe that teachers changed their last names to be creative!"
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Tom Evans WEB EDITOR
Jamie Killin
"My eighth-grade math teacher Mrs. Glenn, who I still see now and then to this day. "
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Lynette Carrington, Judy Pearson, Carey Peña FASHION WRITER
Tyler Butler ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Jillian Rivera
On the Cover PHOTOGRAPHY
Greg Hyland
"Mr. Zipser, my social studies teacher at Madison Meadows. His passion for teaching kept me engaged throughout middle school."
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JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 3
Frontdoors Magazine is dedicated to the memory of Mike Saucier.
TABLE OF CONTENTS {july 2018, volume 16, issue 7}
EDITOR’S NOTE................. 05 The Year of the Student NEXT DOORS..................... 06 Phoenix’s “Central Park” COVER STORY................... 10 Education Innovation CAREY’S CORNER. . ............ 18 His Favorite Subject Was Recess 10 QUESTIONS WITH......... 22 Read On Arizona’s Terri Clark KITCHEN DOORS............... 26 Where We Ate This Month OFFICE DOORS.................. 28 Phoenix Mercury’s Vince Kozar
22
GIVING IN STYLE............... 32 Fashion by Robert Black CHARITY SPOTLIGHT........ 36 Casa Center for Positive Social Change BOOKMARKED................... 40 Who’s Reading What this Month A 2ND ACT. . ....................... 44 Kaity’s Way OPEN DOORS.. ................... 46 Filling the Gaps for Our Kids
28
4 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
32
EDITOR’S NOTE {on the job}
THE YEAR OF THE STUDENT A few months back, Social Venture Partners Arizona held its inaugural Ed Pitch, where college students from around the state presented ideas for innovating education. I was inspired to see young people share their solutions to education challenges in Arizona.
Since the time we planned this issue, education in Arizona has become arguably the state’s most talked-about issue. So we are pleased to offer a look at what some of the nonprofits in our community are doing to offer a brighter future for Arizona’s young people.
How would these bright young minds improve pre-K to 12th grade education? Beto Vargas would combine face-to-face and online instruction in language arts classrooms. Alexandra Mooney and Cyrus Commissariat would develop an early literacy program for children in Native American communities, where only 11 percent of kids currently are proficient in English language arts. Christopher Figueroa would connect high school students with high-performing community college peers to help bridge the gap between high school and college. Samantha Mooney and Karis Felthouse would match retired volunteer mentors with vulnerable youth to address the 924:1 student-to-counselor ratio in Arizona. And the winner of the Judges Choice Award, Amanda Gyrzkewicz would incorporate the “I Can Math” curriculum into pre-K classrooms to build foundational skills and provide hands-on experience for future educators.
Our cover story spotlights College Success Arizona, which helps low-income and underrepresented youth not only attend Arizona’s colleges and universities, but succeed at them. In our 10 Questions column, Arizona literacy director Terri Clark addresses Read On Arizona’s work to help the state’s third graders read at grade level. Charity Spotlight looks at Casa Center for Positive Social Change’s groundbreaking efforts to prevent abuse in the next generation. And Carey Peña reports on the work Dr. Chris Lineberry is doing to integrate health and wellness into our children’s curriculum.
All told, Social Venture Partners Arizona awarded more than $70,000 to these students for sharing big ideas that simultaneously solve problems and make our state a better place. It was heartening to see how fresh perspectives could disrupt traditional thinking in such positive ways.
We think summer is the perfect time to take a hard look at Arizona’s education challenges and ask how organizations can come together to contribute to a solution. In this way, when the new school year starts, we can make 2018-2019 the year of the student.
Karen Werner EDITOR
@kwerner409
JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 5
NEXT DOORS {ahead of the curve}
PHOENIX IS ABOUT TO TRANSFORM ITS OWN VERSION OF CENTRAL PARK Tom Evans | Contributing Editor
I jokingly tell people you can claim you are an Arizona native if you were here before construction of Interstate 10 was done through Phoenix. As hard as it may be for newbies to believe, back in the day you had to actually take surface streets to traverse Phoenix from east to west. The I-10 was completed in the late 1980s, and it wasn’t without controversy. The route of the freeway, as you know, cuts through the heart of the city. Residents of central Phoenix had significant concerns about noise created by the new superhighway. So the planners came up with a fairly unique solution — build a tunnel in a place without a hill. Thus, the Deck Park Tunnel was born as well as Margaret T. Hance Park, which was designed to take the artificial real estate created by the tunnel and create a lush new 6 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
oasis in the middle of the city. Anchored by the Burton Barr Central Library and home to several key cultural attractions, the park was to be a gathering place for Phoenicians and a point of pride for the community. Except that it never quite took. Some festivals and events have worked quite well at Hance Park, but it’s never quite grabbed the public’s imagination, and it’s not really on the list of places that you want to go to hang out outdoors. Light rail has made the park more accessible, but it has always lacked a sort of je ne sais quoi. It attracted a significant homeless population and a bad reputation, and Steele Indian School Park ended up taking the mantle of “Phoenix’s Central Park.” But now, the City of Phoenix is looking to change that, and help the park reach its potential as a public asset and a destination
for locals and tourists. The effort is a $100 million upgrade — with most of the funding coming from private donations — and a collaboration between the Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department, Phoenix Community Alliance and the Hance Park Conservancy.
new walking paths and promenades and more appealing areas for people to congregate. Plans include a new 1.2-mile urban pedestrian and bicycle loop, a 200 percent increase in the number of trees and a 30 percent reduction in the amount of hardscape in the park.
“We want to activate the areas around the core around the Burton Barr Library and make it more of a destination park for people from central Phoenix and other parts of the Valley,” said Gregg Bach, public information officer for the Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department. “And with the addition of that programming it would take some of the negative activity people see there now and push that out of the park.”
And, a major goal of the effort is to make the 32-acre park a safe and attractive place to be at night, including increased lighting and what’s being called “an immersive, waterbased experience” at the center of the park.
The gist of it is creating a park experience that provides more enjoyable uses of outdoor space, including increased shade, creation of
“Right now it’s not a park that has a lot of activity in the evening,” Bach said. “This is the type of change that would really activate it and program it throughout the day, where right now we just have that happening during events.” It’s great that the park is getting an upgrade from an aesthetic standpoint, JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 7
NEXT DOORS CONTINUED
but there are a ton of practical reasons why it’s a good idea as well. Cities, at their core, are designed to be places that have the kind of infrastructure that can support large populations living in the same place. And Phoenix is seeing a significant uptick in construction of dense, multifamily projects and a move away from urban sprawl. When you think about where the great parks of the world are located, you think of Central Park in New York, or Hyde Park in London, or other places that have “big city density.” Phoenix isn’t there yet, and never quite will be, but the city is seeing an influx of thousands of new residents to its urban core. Those residents need outdoor spaces. If you live on a one-acre plot in Paradise Valley, you probably don’t need to go to the park to get your outdoor fix. But if you live in a one-bedroom flat in a high-rise downtown, you need quality public spaces to fully enjoy the Valley’s quality of life. That’s why it’s so critical to make our parks as welcoming as possible — they are going to be used with increasing frequency as time goes along.
8 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
“As we’re seeing all the development that is going on downtown with residential towers and growth of downtown, it’s important to have this signature park,” Bach said. “A lot of those properties don’t have backyards, so this provides that aspect and serves the role of a neighborhood park.” The transition is still in its early stages, Bach said, and it may be done in phases over time as funds are raised. If you want to keep tabs on progress, check back to the project’s web page at Phoenix.gov/Parks/ HanceRevitalization. But the wheels are in motion, and one day in the somewhat near future, we may have our own world-class park in the heart of downtown Phoenix.
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JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 9
COVER STORY {by karen werner}
10  FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
EDUCATI N INNOVATI N College Success Arizona is helping students – and the state – get more out of higher education
Arizona’s economic growth faces a challenge. Only 44 percent of Arizona’s working adults have an associate degree or higher, but by 2020, 70 percent of jobs in the state will require some form of higher education. But simply attending college isn’t enough. To enjoy the full benefit and participate in the state’s present and future economy, students need to graduate. Still, just over half of the full-time students working toward bachelor’s degrees at Arizona universities will graduate within six years. And if a student is from a low-income background, or is a minority, or is a first-generation college student, or attends college part-time, the chances of success are even lower. College Success Arizona is working to remedy this by supporting college students from disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds. A A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, it does
this by providing a combination of scholarships, mentoring and emotional support to help students stay on track and graduate. “This is our 13th year of awarding scholarships and mentees,” said Rich Nickel, president and CEO of College Success Arizona. “With this year’s group of scholars, we’ll have been able to help over 1,400 highpotential, low-income Arizona students with mentoring and scholarship awards to attend Arizona’s colleges and universities.” College Success Arizona’s roots stretch back to a trip former Governor Janet Napolitano made to Washington state, where she saw Bob Craves, a founder of Costco, discuss a program he had created to make higher education accessible to low-income students. Before that time, Arizona had not made much investment in incentivizing low-income students to attend colleges and universities. So Napolitano; Craves; Don Budinger, the founder of the Rodel JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 11
COVER STORY CONTINUED
Foundation; and Frank Brady, a former audit partner with Ernst & Young, founded Arizona College Scholarship Foundation in 2005. “One thing they learned very early on was just because you handed a student a check, you were not really guaranteeing success at the higher-education level,” said Nickel, who came to the organization in 2012, shortly before it was rebranded as College Success Arizona.
literally have ❝We students who are a flat tire away from dropping out of school.
❝
— Rich Nickel
This year’s 132 scholarship recipients come from across the state, from communities such as Casa Grande, Holbrook, Winslow, Bullhead City, Avondale, Tucson, Gilbert, Cottonwood, Prescott, San Luis, Mohave Valley, Scottsdale, Kingman, Douglas and Phoenix. Most of them are the first in their families to attend college. And if the statistics hold, about 70 percent of them will graduate within six years — nearly double the rate of their peers who don’t have access to College Success Arizona’s services. Nickel attributes the large discrepancy to the organization’s focus on the daily habits of success. “Sometimes they haven’t had the kitchen table discussions around what it means to be successful,” he said. “What may be considered a nuisance to some families is a tremendous issue to other families. We literally have students who are a flat tire away from dropping out of school, only because of that, not because they’re not capable of doing the work.” 12 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
Nickel points to tragic stories where students get into school, attend a few semesters, accumulate debt, drop out, and are worse off than if they never went. So College Success Arizona focuses on college success in addition to access. The organization does this through its success advisers, who connect students with the resources they need. They’re all professional advisers, most are bilingual, and they focus on building a mutually accountable relationship. They meet with the students on their campuses several times a semester and are otherwise available to them via electronic communication. Their focus is on helping students solve problems or overcome barriers that would otherwise keep them from continuing in school. One such student is 27-year-old Dawt Khun, who hails from Burma. After her father died in an accident, Khun was forced into child labor by the Burmese government. She arrived in the U.S. as a refugee in 2008, without her family, and was placed in foster care. At 17, she started her freshman year at Trevor G. Browne High School in Phoenix, knowing no English, only Chin, her native language. Despite this, she graduated four years later with a 3.9 grade point average and 20 units of community college credit. “I found out about College Success Arizona while I was in high school,” she said. “I wanted to go to college, so I worked hard to get help.” As a College Success Arizona scholar, Khun received $6,000 a year for all four years of college — money she used to help pay her tuition at Grand Canyon University. Khun graduated in 2016 and is making plans to attend graduate school, with the goal of becoming a pharmacist. She is grateful for the help she received from College Success Arizona and knows that it has been been
College Success Arizona By the Numbers* Students currently
Value of services provided
in the program:
and scholarships distributed:
927
$16.7 million
Total students
Freshman retention rate:
awarded to date:
89%
1,287 Graduates produced:
381
Overall retention rate:
72% First-generation
Six-year graduation rate:
college students:
67%
70% * as of December 2017
College Success Arizona president and CEO Rich Nickel recently met with new scholarship recipients.
JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA  13 
Want to Help? Rich Nickel, president and CEO of College Success Arizona, says the best way to lend a hand is to help the organization build its capacity. Beyond this, he encourages citizens to remind the business community and policymakers of the massive upside for Arizona’s economy if we continue to increase our educational attainment rate. To learn more, visit collegesuccessarizona.org.
Above: Rich Nickel enjoys getting to know the new College Success Arizona scholarship recipients. Left: Dawt Khun graduated from Grand Canyon University in 2016. 14  FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
COVER STORY CONTINUED
key to her achievements. “Sometimes I would not know what to do but I found that if you ask people, they are usually willing to help,” she said. “Hard work will pay off.” This is the philosophy College Success Arizona teaches, to chip away at seemingly impossible goals. “Four years is a long time. So the way we go about that is trying to bite off small pieces,” Nickel said. “We focus on setting mid-term goals and shorter-term goals and accomplishing each of those leading up to a successful end. After a while, a semester has gone by, and then a year, and then four years.”
great place to live in the future, we do that by serving low-income, high-potential students who would not otherwise participate.” There’s evidence that the state’s interest in education is trending powerfully upward. “There’s been data for the last three years in a row that show that the public
We focus on setting ❝ mid-term goals and
shorter-term goals and accomplishing each of those leading up to a successful end.
Nickel points to big-name corporations that have not come to Arizona because of concern that the state does not have the skilled labor force to fill their positions. “We have lost opportunities,” he said. As a result, College Success Arizona, Achieve60AZ and other organizations are looking for ways to achieve a more highly educated workforce through avenues other than scholarships alone. “Even if I did a great job and we raised money and gave 250 scholarships a year, we wouldn’t really be providing impact at the system level,” Nickel said. “If our mission is to increase the attainment rate of the state, to make Arizona a
❝
The education and business communities are taking note of the organization’s accomplishments, realizing that educational attainment must be a top priority to boost prosperity and build Arizona’s economy. In fact, a group of more than 70 community, business, philanthropic and education organizations throughout the state have formed an alliance called Achieve60AZ with the goal of creating a more highly educated population. The thinking goes that this will attract businesses to Arizona, increase the tax base and decrease poverty.
thinks education is our number-one issue. It had always been immigration,” Nickel said. “What we’re seeing, I think, is a shift toward being a pro-education state.” To capitalize on the momentum, College Success Arizona is working with educational partners from across the state to identify potential scholars whose graduation from a four-year university will increase Arizona’s competitiveness in the years ahead. Organizations such as Arizona GEAR UP, Helios Education Foundation, Educational Talent Search, Be A Leader Foundation, Jobs for Arizona Graduates, College Bound Arizona and many others are working closely with Arizona’s colleges and universities to ensure that the state can compete for highpaying jobs in the decades to come. “The data clearly say the more highly educated a person is the more money that person is going to make, the more civic responsibility that person is going to be accountable for and the healthier that person is going to JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 15
COVER STORY CONTINUED
be. Really, everything trends off of the level of education a person has,” Nickel said. For all of the talk of economics and data, College Success Arizona changes the lives of students on a personal level. Marquis Quarles is an example. “Marquis is one of the first students I really got to know and his story still hangs with me,” Nickel said.
Brands, an apparel company that owns UGG and other popular shoe brands. He plans on pursuing his chartered financial analyst credential within the next three years, so he can pursue other opportunities in finance.
Stories like Quarles’s are not unique. In fact, Nickel says one of the great perks of his job is seeing the transformation that occurs between the Homeless on occasion, time students come Quarles watched in as 17 year olds to his mom go through interview and when physical and mental they emerge as young abuse at the hands of adults a few years later. her relationships. Many “We have a personal nights when Quarles relationship with them was at home, he slept in many ways,” Nickel on the floor because An ASU grad, Marquis Quarles said. “Our success now enjoys a successful drive-by shootings advisers go to weddings career in finance. tend to hit high. and funerals and get invited to birthdays “We were on Section and see them start their families.” 8, we were on food stamps, and we were on everything you can think of,” Quarles said. “When I was a kid it was really hard to have that positive mindset ‘that I can do anything.’ I didn’t see that around me.” After graduating from McClintock High School in Tempe, he became a College Success Arizona scholar and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Arizona State University. His success adviser, Myrna Cardenas, helped guide him through college. “She was always honest with me, and I would approach her with anything, and I felt safe doing that,” he said. “Myrna was like my cheerleader; she’s the one that kept me going.” Today, Quarles is 25 and works as a credit analyst for the Santa Barbara-based Deckers
College Success Arizona scholars have gone on to become pharmacists, nutritionists, nurses, veterinarians and researchers. One launched a successful digital content and web company in town, while another runs fitness activities at ASU. “We have Native American students who are becoming doctors going back to their reservations to help,” Nickel said. “Immigrant children, students who’ve been part of relocation – we don’t think that education should depend at all on ZIP code, race or ethnicity.” Nor should success. That is why College Success Arizona is betting that the pool of educated young talent it supports will improve our state’s future.
Frontdoors editor Karen Werner is a writer, editor and media consultant. She has interned at The New Yorker, worked at Parents Magazine, edited five books and founded several local magazines. Her work has appeared in Sunset, Mental Floss and the Saturday Evening Post. 16 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
The Eide Bailly
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LEARN MORE AT eidebailly.com/resourcefullness
JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 17
CAREY’S CORNER {carey peña reports}
HIS FAVORITE SUBJECT WAS RECESS Elementary principal advocates for health and wellness Carey Peña | Contributing Writer
“If your why is not bigger than your obstacle, your obstacle will win.” We all face obstacles in our lives. However, the most successful people I have interviewed over the years know how to overcome obstacles with purpose and perseverance. They clearly understand the why. Like many of the people I interview on my podcast, Carey Peña Reports, I found out about Chris Lineberry’s story when someone said to me in passing, “I know a guy you have to meet. His story is so inspirational.” That always gets my attention. Chris Lineberry, Ed.D. is an educator, author and nationally known advocate for giving our kids a break. Lineberry began work as a teacher and had a lightning-fast rise to becoming a principal, while in his 20s, at a rural school in North Carolina. There were extremely high expectations for this wunderkind. And with high expectations often come a high degree of stress. 18 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
One day in 2006, Lineberry was sitting in his office when something didn’t feel right. Tightness in the chest. High blood pressure. His coworker, who had some medical training, said seven words Lineberry will never forget. “Son, you are having a heart attack.” That moment changed the course of his life. “A lot of times in life, some of the things you think could be the worst things that could happen turn out to be a tremendous blessing. I received a gift that day when I had my heart attack. What I thought was important, really wasn’t,” Lineberry said. “It shifted the whole way I look at being an educator and leader in schools.” He realized the stress he was feeling in his own life was similar to the stress many kids were feeling. This realization only deepened when tragedy struck at a nearby school. “A fifth-grade child took his own life over his test scores,” Lineberry said, still clearly pained by this story.
Under Chris Lineberry′s guidance, Stanfield Elementary has received many awards, including being named a HealthierUS Gold School — the only school in Arizona to earn this distinction.
JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 19
Students at Stanfield Elementary grow corn, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, melons, lemons and more.
CAREY’S CORNER CONTINUED
“What are we doing?” he wondered. “Maybe we need to change our approach.”
the check. Now Stanfield Elementary has a beautiful 2,000-square-foot gym.
From that moment on, Lineberry began to change his own life, and the lives of all of the children who came into his orbit as an educator. He implemented an hour of physical activity for students every day, and he had teachers integrate health and wellness into their curriculum.
They planted a garden outside where students grow melons, tomatoes and cucumbers, among other things. Inside the school, there is a hydroponic garden where members of the staff can be found gathering ingredients to make salads for lunch.
After moving to Arizona, where Lineberry is currently the principal at Stanfield Elementary School, he authored the book, “Recess Was My Favorite Subject…Where Did It Go?” He is an aggressive advocate for his students, many of which live below the poverty level, and for students across the country. “We can help children to become healthy, happy, whole people — and have academic success," he said. Lineberry and his team applied for, and won, the competitive $100,000 “Don’t Quit Get Fit” grant awarded by Body By Jake Global and the National Foundation for Governors’ Fitness Councils. Governor Doug Ducey joined Jake Steinfeld to personally present 20 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
That’s not all. Stanfield Elementary has been selected as one of three schools nationally by the Centers for Disease Control to be featured in a series of documentaries that will be released in the fall, showcasing their efforts to address the needs of the whole child. And Lineberry has been appointed as a national ambassador to Active Schools, an organization that advocates for increased physical education and physical activity in our country’s schools. All of this is not without controversy. “I have taken criticism for mandating recess and implementing some of the changes that I have,”
Lineberry said. But he is not deterred. His why is bigger than the obstacles in front of him. “We have disconnected from our why for being teachers and gotten too focused on test scores,” Lineberry told me with a great deal of passion as we sat for our interview. “Academics are important, but our purpose is far greater than a test score. We are promoting a shift from teaching content to teaching kids.” Now Lineberry is taking the message outside of Arizona. As co-founder of Core Purpose Consulting, he and his partners work to share their why message on a national stage. They are urging educators and leaders to think about students as people, rather than scores. It is an innovative approach, to be sure. “America has never been a leader in academic achievement,” Lineberry said. “Where we have excelled is in grit and innovation.” For Chris Lineberry, the why is powerful. It is a journey that began over a decade ago as a stressed-out young man, clutching his chest, and wondering what had gone wrong. “When I had my heart attack I chose to change some things; some were more delayed than others,” he said. “As I changed, so did my perspective on the world. When it comes to education, although challenging, it is a great time to be an educator. Educators are charged with developing the minds of our youth, yet challenging our kids to look at the world and find out how they can make it better. What better way to teach than to live the example.”
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480-840-1589 | sales@greenlivingaz.com JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 21
10 QUESTIONS WITH
Arizona Literacy Director
1. You grew up in Arizona and now serve as the state’s literacy director. Talk about that journey. I grew up in Mesa, graduated from Westwood High, went to Brown University in Rhode Island and majored in literature in society. After Brown, I was drawn to the nonprofit sector and became the executive director for Literacy Network of Greater Los Angeles. Then I ran an education foundation and ultimately a statewide early literacy organization called Bring Me a Book. That’s where I began to see that we really needed to all be rowing in the same direction. When I talked with
22 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
my staff in San Diego, Los Angeles or Sacramento, what I kept hearing was that we were all doing our best, but we weren’t very collaborative. In 2012, Arizona was looking for a state literacy director to coordinate literacy efforts. I was intrigued by the idea of bringing the learning I had gained over the years back to Arizona, so I threw my hat in the ring and was lucky to get selected.
2. Tell us about the work Read On Arizona is doing. Read On Arizona is a statewide publicprivate partnership of agencies, philanthropic
organizations and community stakeholders that are all committed to improving early literacy outcomes for children from birth through the end of third grade. Through using data to determine gaps and identify solutions to help fill those gaps and implement an approach in a collaborative way, we are reducing duplication and doing what we know works.
3. Why is third-grade reading so important? Research has shown that third grade is an excellent checkpoint on the path to becoming not only a successful reader, but successful in school and in life. Early literacy is more than just reading. It’s communication, it’s speaking and listening, and especially critical thinking. If you think about all those essential skills for anyone as they go through school, college or whatever job they want to pursue, early language and literacy skills are part of the foundation for that learning. If students are on track at third grade, they’re mostly on track to graduate high school and be ready for whatever career they want to pursue.
4. Where does Arizona currently stand in regard to grade-level reading? I like to be an optimist. Over the last 10 years, when we look at what the country uses as
a metric, which is the National Assessment for Educational Progress, Arizona is below the national standard. But over the last 10 years it is the third most-improved state in reading for fourth graders out of all states. I like to make sure we understand that context — that over the last 10 years we may have started further behind, but we’ve made a lot of progress. But when we look at where we’re at and where we need to be, we still have a lot of work to do. Arizona uses a state English language arts assessment called AzMERIT. When we measure our progress as a state, only 44 percent of third-grade students are passing that AzMERIT assessment for English language arts. The bigger issue — and why I say we have so much more work to do — is that an equal number of kids, 44 percent, are minimally proficient, meaning our lowest category of four categories. It breaks down that 44 percent are minimally proficient, 12 percent are partially proficient, and then the 44 percent that are passing are 31 percent proficient and 13 percent highly proficient. So we have to do much better for our most struggling readers.
5. Is the needle moving in the right direction? I’d say yes. It’s amazing we’ve made the reading progress we’ve made as a state during very economically challenging years. What we have to understand is that it takes eight
JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 23
kinds of support they need. I can share that Arizona has the lowest vision screening rates of any state for children aged 0 to 5 in the country. Healthy vision is a key piece of being able to learn to read. We’re below the national average in children enrolled in preschool and only about a quarter of our 3 and 4 year olds are in a quality learning setting. So it’s no wonder we have children starting that first day of kindergarten already significantly behind.
6. You’re a mother yourself. How did you encourage your sons to love reading?
years to build a reader. That’s why Read On has two target goals. We want to increase the number of children entering kindergarten with the skills they need to succeed as well as focus on more students at the end of third grade reading proficiently. To do that, we need to invest more resources, but we also have to be smart about how we invest in making sure that children have the kinds of support they need in their earliest years. It’s not just about what our education data is telling us, it’s also about what our health data is telling us and what our economic data is telling us. We need to understand as a community and as a state where our children and families are and what 24 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
My husband and I read to them from a very young age. We also made sure that conversation was a big part of their daily routine. I think that’s a big part of the secret sauce, not only helping them develop a love of reading but to develop a strong vocabulary. Finding what they’re interested in, reading a book over and over again. When they were young, we went to the library every Saturday and they got to pick the books that they wanted to check out. I continued to read with my two boys until they were well into middle school — they’re teenagers now. I remember we read "Ready Player One" together and they loved it so much I had to hide the book each night so they wouldn’t read ahead of me.
7. What’s new with Read On Arizona right now?
We’ve just updated our strategic plan and have five strategic focus areas. One of the key shifts is we’re going to be exploring the success that we’ve seen in some of our Read On communities and partners’ work. We just got funding to launch what we’re calling our acceleration zone project. The idea behind it is that those that have seen progress around school readiness or thirdgrade reading will unpack what they feel has caused their success, especially those that have been able to either minimize or almost eliminate the gap between how economically disadvantaged students are reading versus all students. We want to understand how they’re being successful and then ask what it would take to accelerate that work.
8. Any other highlights? One of the other things we’re excited about is our Smart Talk awareness campaign for language and literacy. We launched it because the data was showing us that we had to focus more on making sure families understood what they can do for their children in those very early 0 to 3 years. There’s a lot of research that shows that a child’s vocabulary by the time they are 3 is one of the best predictors of how successful a reader they’ll be. So we developed this campaign to raise awareness among parents and caregivers about talking and reading with young child starting from day one, and that it makes a big difference in how that child’s brain develops. We also wanted to stress that there are everyday opportunities to incorporate it. So we have five easy ways to incorporate Smart Talk: ASK questions, DESCRIBE and RESPOND to your child when they’re showing an interest, REPEAT what they’re saying and READ with them every day. We break it down
and show examples of how they can try it.
9. If people want to support Read On Arizona, how they can help? The best way for community members to support Read On Arizona is to actively get involved in your local Read On community work, whether that’s donating or serving as a volunteer. You can make donations to Read On Arizona through our collaborative fund at the Arizona Community Foundation. That funding goes to support Read On work throughout the state.
10. Any final literacy tips for parents or caregivers? Make it fun at home! The decoding and comprehension will come at school. Find books they’re interested in — it doesn’t have to be chapter books. Graphic novels, comic books, Sports Illustrated for Kids, whatever it might be. Let them pick a book they’ll like and read with them and to them as much as you can, especially when they’re little. To learn more, visit readonarizona.org.
JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 25
KITCHEN DOORS {where we ate this month}
SEED SHACK Gilbert Sisters and owners of Seed Shack, Jade and May Au have vegan dining down to a natural science. I started with a delicious sampler of plain, jalapeño cilantro and roasted red pepper hummus with veggies and toasted pita points. For my entrée, I enjoyed a tangy and filling beet burger with a Shack-made patty of beets and beans with mashed avocado, cucumber and greens served atop multi-grain toast. The burger was served with tornado fries, a huge twisting curl of potato (or zucchini), beer-battered with a kiss of seasoned salt. It was the tastiest version of French fries I’ve had anywhere! — Lynette Carrington Photo: Lynette Carrington
NELLIE CASHMAN’S MONDAY CLUB CAFE Westin Kierland Resort & Spa Nellie Cashman’s Monday Club at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa captures the feeling of Arizona — from its name, which honors the celebrated Arizona entrepreneur and businesswoman Nellie Cashman, to its local ingredients and Arizona spirits. To further the authentic Arizona experience, the restaurant incorporates variations of recipes dating from the late 1800s, before Arizona was even granted statehood. When the Frontdoors team recently visited, we loved the lighter menu items such as the Cashman’s salad with organic greens, local apples and agave yogurt dressing as well as the farmer’s wrap with mushrooms, roasted red pepper and pesto aioli rolled into a tomato tortilla — both of which were perfect for summer dining on a hot, Arizona day. — Jamie Killin
Photo: Nelli Cashman′s Monday Club Cafe
WOW WOW HAWAIIAN LEMONADE Scottsdale It’s hot outside and I was happy to discover the variety of cool tropical lemonades and healthy noshes at Wow Wow Lemonade, the first Arizona location of the Hawaiian-based franchise. The microgreens avocado toast was a tasty lunchtime indulgence that left me feeling good about my choice. I also had the super fruit pitaya bowl packed with organic pitaya, banana, organic strawberries, coconut milk, organic granola, kiwi and pineapple. Other menu options made with locally and Hawaiian-sourced ingredients include overnight acai bowls, oat bowls, superfood drinks, island time smoothies, greens bowls, kombucha on tap and cold brew iced coffee. — Lynette Carrington
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Photo: Lynette Carrington
The Breadfruit & Rum Bar Downtown Phoenix Photos: Andrea Tyler Evans
So there you are…hunkering down for another Phoenix summer…when an island breeze blows in. You’ll find it at The Breadfruit. This is NOT a kitschy scene filled with cheap island decor. This is a bar stocked with nothing but rum on shelves that look like ship timbers. It is the place to tiptoe out of your comfort zone and order Punch Bowl Special — a daily rotation of inspired rum punches. (Difficult for control freaks like me, but oh so worth the surprise.) I sampled my friend’s Shim Sham, too: rum and pineapple heaven with freshly ground nutmeg. This is the place for sustainable day boat scallops, coated with rum and jerk rub, seared in a cast iron skillet — in fact, everything served is sustainable, right down to the cocktail swizzles — as well as sweet shrimp simmered in Red Stripe beer and house curry. Stroll on in, mon, you won’t regret it! — Judy Pearson JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 27
Phoenix Mercury Chief Operating Officer
VINCE KOZAR
Photo: Barry Gossage
28  FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
OFFICE DOORS {leadership}
HOW THE PHOENIX MERCURY AND VINCE KOZAR ARE LEAVING ARIZONA BETTER THAN THEY FOUND IT Judy Pearson | Contributing Writer
His office is a vision of orange and purple (the Mercury’s signature colors), with random tchotchkes scattered about. This includes a bobblehead of team forward DeWanna Bonner, but more about that later. What you notice first about Vince Kozar is his intensity. His job as the WNBA Phoenix Mercury’s chief operating officer is a smorgasbord of tasks and coordination, but it’s clear his passion is in community payback. “If we aren’t using this platform to do good, we’re wasting it,” he said. “We’re part of this community. And while we’re building a fan base, these athletes, and all of us, are really good about getting involved in causes that are incredible.” The team has a rigorous schedule, playing 34 games in 94 days. Included in that time frame are practice and travel days, and many of the team members then go overseas in the off-season to play on an international stage. All of these commitments pull players away from family and loved ones. But Kozar gives these women enormous kudos for their big hearts and willingness to do good.
He said, “What really makes me happy is responding to something in the moment. For example, in the wake of the Houston hurricane last year, Brittney Griner texted me and asked what we could do for her hometown. In the span of three days, we put together a breakfast and raffle, and raised $66,000. The team, the fans, everyone got involved. It was great.” The team has a number of community service programs that Kozar is clearly proud of. One standout is Rock the Pink, their signature breast cancer event. It creates an environment of support and celebration. “We want survivors to know we’re behind them,” Kozar said. “So many have been touched by the disease. We combine personal stories — we have players who have lost parents — with those of fans. Connections are made with folks from the outside that otherwise might never have happened.” Pride Night is another important event, stressing the fact that the Mercury welcomes everyone. The team celebrated its fifth-annual event last month, making them trendsetters. Kozar said with a sly smile, “The Suns just did their first Pride Night this past year.” Again, the intensity and sense of purpose shine.
JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 29
Tom Leander moderates the Phoenix Suns Pride Night pre-game panel with president of ONE Community Angela Hughey, former NBA player Jason Collins, president of Greater Phoenix Leadership Neil Giuliano and Vince Kozar.
Kozar sees his job as much more than basketball. For young girls, and young boys, the Mercury players represent the fact that girls can do lots of things, including sports. The players coming into the league now never knew a time before it existed. It’s living progress. “Much of what our league is about is visibility,” Kozar said. “We’re the intersection of all kinds of women: women of color, the LGBT community, and women with true athletic talent. Giving that visibility to young women is important. It says, ‘You can be selfdeterminant, and anything you want to be.’” Oh, and the DeWanna Bonner bobblehead? Yeah, she’s holding her infant twins, with two trophies at her feet. Fitting, considering the new mother of twins also has twin WNBA championships in 2009 and 2014. Kozar smiled. “The head coach has two kids, the assistant has three, players on the
roster have given birth. They’re working moms. And on game nights, we have a team nursery for them, complete with playpens, toys and a nanny,” he said. So what inspires Kozar personally? “I’m inspired by the bosses who have empowered me to go out on a limb, and passionate about helping uplift others,” he said. “I’m on the advisory board for ONE Community, a group focused on non-discrimination in employment and housing, since the LGBT community is not a protected class in Arizona. I’m also on the board at Valley Youth Theatre, the only youth theater in our state whose participation is free to its members.” Bottom line, Vince Kozar hopes the generation growing up in Arizona today sees their home state as a welcoming, inclusive place, where they’re protected and encouraged to be themselves.
Judy Pearson is a journalist, published author, and the founder of A2ndAct.org. Her organization supports and celebrates women survivors of all cancers as they give back to the greater good in their 2nd Acts. Her passion is finding those who have healed themselves by helping others. 30 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
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Shelley Caniglia: 602-292-6862 | Steve Caniglia: 602-301-2402 JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 31 TheCanigliaGroup.com | UrbanConnectionRealty.com
GIVING IN STYLE {fashion in the philanthropy lane}
FASHION IS ART AT FASHION BY ROBERT BLACK Tyler Butler | Fashion Writer
A vintage vibe radiates from Fashion by Robert Black. But the joy this building exudes is nothing new. For 56 years the historic White Hogan building on East First Avenue was home to three generations of Native silversmiths. At the time, jewelry created in the building broke the mould for Navajo jewelry, presenting a new “modern” Native American chic. In fact, the store was so iconic that items created there were featured in Life magazine in 1956 and are still coveted today. When the building sold in 2008, Arizona was in the midst of the Great Recession. However, visionary Doreen Picerne realized the value of this spot in the heart of the Southwest’s “Rodeo Drive” and purchased the building without having a purpose for the space. Having been a customer herself at the White Hogan, Picerne was dedicated to preserving a little bit of Scottsdale history. Picerne partnered with her longtime friend
32 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
Robert Black, who is known for his role as CEO of the Ford Robert Black Agency. They discussed their mutual love of vintage, their desire to contribute to Scottsdale’s artistic community and the need for the White Hogan to have its next iteration. And so, Fashion by Robert Black was born. Because of the pair’s deep roots in the community, they wanted to create a shop that would not only beautify the Valley, but also contribute to causes that are meaningful to them both. So far the shop has supported 75 fashion shows, an average of eight per year. As a team they have been drawn to charities moving important issues forward, but ones that don’t have a “machine” behind them. A few examples are Two Pups Wellness Fund, Scottsdale Artists’ School and the Phoenix Indian Center. The duo also recognizes the value of Arizona’s blossoming arts and culture scene and Picerne and Black are fans of Fashion
This Bob Mackie gold gown is a perfect example of the kind of vintage style featured at Fashion by Robert Black. Photo: Kelly Cappelli
JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 33
GIVING IN STYLE CONTINUED
Group International and F.A.B.R.I.C., located in Tempe. Their affinity for collaboration has led them to share pieces they have acquired with schools and other organizations that teach fashion history. Their support of the Heard Museum, Phoenix Art Museum and museums in Santa Fe, Portland, Salem and even The Smithsonian Institution has enabled them to showcase their collection while educating people at the same time. Their ever-evolving collection of vintage pieces was not easily amassed. They originally set out to collect rare couture, pristine vintage pieces and one-of-a-kind finds. At first they traveled far and wide to acquire a collection of interesting, immaculate, classic fashions that would entice the community. Today, 90 percent of their inventory walks in the door. Black finds it “amazing the clothing that people have kept because of emotional attachment.” Looking for items from the 1920s to 1990s has become an obsession for the pair. They seek out items with unique color, pattern,
style, design and fabric. They recognize their customers are looking to “step out of their box in fashion,” so they stray from anything that appears too mainstream. They only procure items that “pop.” The shop avoids anything that relates to trends and instead sticks to well-made fashions that were the hallmark for design in their day. Picerne and Black take their mutual love of preservation and collecting and together have created a place “where history meets the modern lifestyle.” Because they believe fashion is an art form, they continue to support creativity and the use of innovative fabrics, cuttingedge design and sustainability. They shun fast fashion and champion quality versus quantity. As the boutique nears its 10-year anniversary, it is focusing on the new trend in vintage: the 90’s. Since vintage is classified as items from at least 20 years ago, the 2000s will soon be the “new vintage” and buyers can expect to find Fashion by Robert Black ahead of the curve as this new decade approaches its vintage debut.
Robert Black’s Etiquette for Trying on Vintage Vintage clothing is a one-of-a-
cannot be replaced, so Fashion
kind treasure that is both rare and
by Robert Black recommends
hard to find. It is also delicate and
the following rules of etiquette.
• Do not rush. Zippers can break, and seams can rip. • Take off shoes and heels before trying on clothes. • Take care when wearing lipstick; better yet, remove it. • Do not try on over other clothes. Vintage fit is unique, and sizing is not the same as modern day.
34 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
• Remove any sharp jewelry or anything that may snag. Earrings, especially those that dangle, may get caught in laces and chiffons. • If you need assistance with fasteners such as zippers, buttons or snaps, ask. • Ask for care instructions. Some garments may need special care.
Shopping at Fashion by Robert Black This upscale secondhand
private collection room for high-
boutique specializes in high-end
end designer pieces. Shoppers
women’s clothing, including
should note that today’s sizing
couture pieces. The store is
standards are not applicable.
categorized by color as Black
So, sizing is done by bust,
believes people are most drawn
waist and hip measurements,
to this aspect of fashion. The
located on each hang tag.
shop then mixes the decades (1920s to 1990s) within those color categories. It features a
To learn more, visit fashionbyrobertblack.com.
section for formal gowns and boho maxi dresses as well as a
Tyler Butler is a corporate social responsibility practitioner, columnist, blogger and influencer. Through her endeavors with her firm 11Eleven Consulting and her column and blog, Giving In Style, Tyler is connecting communities, companies and causes to make positive change possible.
CONNECTING WOMEN WHERE THEY WORK, LIVE OR PLAY Join us where you live, work or play to connect with like-minded women to share information, ideas, contacts and opportunities. Learn more at: eastvalleywomen.org | centralphoenixwomen.org | womenofscottsdale.org
JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 35
GIVING BACK {charity spotlight}
The Casa Center Brings Social-Emotional Learning to the Classroom Lynette Carrington | Contributing Writer
THE STORY When Casa was founded in 1973 by social work majors at ASU, it was known as the Center Against Sexual Assault. It reflected the women’s movement at the time and proved to be a much-needed support service for victims of sexual assault and domestic abuse. Support included a sophisticated crisis hotline and victim service in Valley emergency rooms. A few years later, the organization began offering abuse victim counseling and then sexual abuse prevention programs aimed at educating children. It also added dating violence prevention education for teens in 1985. In 1988, current CEO and president Stephanie Orr joined Casa as its director and much has changed since her arrival. “I came naively because I wanted to be the director of a licensed mental health
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center as I had my master’s in counseling,” Orr said. Thinking she was going to be working with women, she discovered that Casa was primarily assisting children. “I made it my goal that we were going to become the largest provider of prevention education in the country,” she said. In the mid-1990s, Casa added an anti-bullying program. Shortly after, it rolled out classes teaching social and emotional learning (SEL). The SEL programs have now become the cornerstone of a series of educational endeavors that have proven successful at local schools. Teaching effective methods of emotional and social competencies became Casa’s focus and in 2012, the nonprofit made a pivot with a name change that more accurately reflected its mission — Casa Center for Positive Social Change.
Stephanie Orr, president and CEO of Casa for 30 years, is a fierce advocate for the emotional welfare of children.
THE CAUSE Casa programs fall into three categories: those that prevent children from becoming abuse victims, those aimed at preventing children and teens from getting into abusive relationships and programs to keep children from becoming abusive people. “I became obsessed with offenders and the commonalities of criminals and domestic violence offenders,” Orr said. “We started studying emotional intelligence. We realized we can tell children every week what not to do, but we need to teach them to replace those negative learned behaviors they maybe grew up with because of family dynamics.” Educational programs orchestrated by Casa have reached more than a million children in the Valley, stopped sexual abuse and resulted in the arrest of hundreds of sex offenders. With its current efforts, Casa educators
travel to schools teaching SEL programs. Feedback has been tremendous. Schools report that their students behave better after receiving Casa’s kindness, empathy and positivity training. What’s more, students in Casa classes have requested more training because they enjoyed what they had learned. “The more that children intrinsically learned these new skills, the more they were starving for more,” Orr said. Casa classes take place in dozens of schools each year and there is a waiting list. Rather than assembly-style, classes are taught weekly in smaller groups, with a different topic covered each week, and then move into a larger classroom setting. Eventually Casa teachers instruct school teachers in the SEL program and parents become involved, too. JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 37
GIVING BACK CONTINUED
THE LATEST “There is a huge movement in our country based out of Massachusetts and started by Mitch Lyons, a retired lawyer,” Orr said. “He started a grassroots advocacy movement in Boston called SEL4MA.” Thousands of members in the group from all walks of life advocate to the legislature, funding sources and schools to get SEL into Massachusetts schools. Building on that momentum, Orr founded SEL4AZ in conjunction with Casa. Arizona was the second state in the country to embrace the movement and is continuing to work directly with Lyons.
SEL4AZ has joined with 13 other states to form a national SEL4US program. “We are all now in alliance,” Orr said. “All of our states are forming these groups and building up the advocacy.” Ultimately, Orr would like to see SEL programs taught in every school in Arizona. “The uniqueness of Casa is that we know this is a defining solution to decrease violence,” she said. “I say it’s the biggest paradigm shift in the history of mankind.” To learn more, visit casacares.org.
Lynette Carrington is an Arizona native with a robust background in public relations, marketing, business communications and business ownership. She has been an ongoing and frequent contributor to dozens of local, national and international publications and websites since 2004, with more than 15,000 published articles. 38 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
Arts & Culture Directory FALL 2018
RUNS IN THE AUGUST 2018 ISSUE OF FRONTDOORS MAGAZINE AND ONLINE AT FRONTDOORSMEDIA.COM THROUGH NOVEMBER 2018
Frontdoors Media is once again putting a spotlight on the incredible arts organizations that call the Valley home with the August 2018 issue of Frontdoors Magazine. We believe the arts have the rare ability to benefit the Valley because they attract creative people, bind communities and benefit the economy. We’re excited to share this special directory and all the organizations that will be a part of it — and to do so we’ll be broadcasting it to our 35,000 subscribers and followers. This special directory will also be presented across all FrontdoorsMedia.com platforms including our website, social media channels and the The Knock newsletter through November 2018. All ad reservations and art must be received by July 15, 2018.
For more information on special issue advertising packages, contact andrea@frontdoorsmedia.com. Artwork can be designed by Frontdoors Media. Inquire for details. 3104 E. Camelback Road #967 | Phoenix, Arizona 85016 | 480-622-4522 | frontdoorsmedia.com JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 39
BOOKMARKED {what are you reading} Educators Share What They’re Reading this Summer
DR. CHAD SMITH Principal of Pat Tillman Middle School
IS READING “Creating Innovators” BY TONY WAGNER
H I S TA K E “Tony Wagner’s ‘Creating Innovators’ is an intriguing look at the state of education and how the system is educating creativity out of our children. With high-stakes testing and accountability, we are systematically removing creativity and innovation from our classrooms. As the world economy continues to change, we must begin to focus on
several survival skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, agility, initiative, analysis, communication and curiosity. In his book, Wagner stresses the need to nurture, teach and mentor creativity and innovation. This book made me think deeply about what I can do to foster a culture of innovation and curiosity at my school.”
DR. CHRISTINE WILKINSON Senior Vice President and Secretary of ASU, President and CEO of the ASU Alumni Association, and Managing Director of Trustees of ASU
IS READING “Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World” BY EILEEN McNAMARA
H E R TA K E “Eileen McNamara, Pulitzer Prize winner and former Boston Globe journalist, researched extensively to provide a different insight into this powerful and wealthy family, focusing on one of the daughters instead. Eunice demonstrated the same drive, strength and toughness in her advocacy for those less fortunate, especially
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children who were disabled, disadvantaged or delinquent. While she is remembered for launching the Special Olympics, her fingerprint is on numerous other advocacy programs for youth. The author brings the reader along quickly into this intriguing and complicated family and highlights Eunice well.
BOOKMARKED {what are you reading}
DR. DANIEL SCOGGIN Co-Founder of Great Hearts Academies and President of Great Hearts Foundation
IS READING “Washington: A Life” BY RON CHERNOW
H I S TA K E “This biography was a delightful read that gave deep insight into one of our most important presidents, who was first the most senior military leader in the country. And what impressed me most about this man is his humility and ability to
listen to others before making huge decisions that held the fate and lives of his countrymen in the balance. He then had the courage and resolve to stand by his convictions under tremendous physical danger and psychological pressure.”
BRIAN F. SPICKER Chief Program Officer of Valley of the Sun United Way
IS READING “New Power” BY JEREMY HEIMANS and HENRY TIMMS
H I S TA K E “I liked the book because it gave me a new lens to look through, so I could see what some of the big factors are in this enormous amount of disruption of familiar power models in philanthropy as
well as the business world. It helped me understand how to channel some of this disruption in a more productive way as it relates to creating social impact and change.”
JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 41
BOOKMARKED {what are you reading}
FORMER WEATHERMAN DAVE MUNSEY WRITES AUTOBIOGRAPHY Lynette Carrington | Contributing Writer
Former Fox 10 weatherman Dave Munsey enjoyed a storied 51-year career in television. The Emmy-winning newsman also has the distinction of being the on-air news personality with the longest stretch at only one channel in Phoenix. His autobiography “Munsey Business: 51 Years of Weather, Water Safety and Celebrity Interviews” debuted June 8. Munsey hadn’t considered writing a book. “It just wasn’t something I thought I could do,” Munsey said. “I had written things before for a high school publication and a military publication during my time in the service when I worked in media.” Around the time he decided to retire in June 2017, there was tremendous feedback from the public. “People said they were going to miss me,” Munsey said. “I didn’t expect that.” In response, he decided to share Facebook posts about past stories he had reported on and celebrities he had interviewed. Encouraged by the enthusiastic response, he started taking notes and organizing them. Writing his book became a consuming 42 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
passion. “Munsey Business,” a title that Fox 10 sports anchor Jude LaCava suggested Munsey tweak from his original title, “Monkey Business,” includes 103 chapters, each a unique story about Munsey’s life or career. According to Munsey, “This might be a how-to book, if you wanted to have a career like mine. But I don’t think that could be achieved anymore. Back then, we were just learning what the microwave truck and satellite truck were.” In his earliest years of broadcasting, Munsey built his name on live reporting and being in the field. “I was doing stories that nobody else did,” he said. “If there was a guy who built a doghouse that had air-conditioning, that was the story I did.” The largest chapter in the book is devoted to Munsey’s signature program, “Watch Your Kids Around Water.” Born out of the loss of a friend’s 2-year-old son from drowning, Munsey became known for the catchphrase and educated and reminded others tirelessly. No one will ever know the number of lives the campaign saved, but it is something of which Munsey is proud. “People do remember me more for ‘Watch Your Kids Around Water’ than anything else,” he said.
JULY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 43
A 2ND ACT {stories of perseverance}
FINDING THE WAY Becoming upstanders rather than bystanders Judy Pearson | Contributing Writer
This is the story of parents experiencing the unthinkable, and then doing the unimaginable.
if Bobbi would speak at the conference to be held three months later. Bobbi agreed.
When beautiful and talented Kaity Sudberry was 16, she began dating a polite, respectful and caring young man. About six months into the relationship, he became possessive, jealous and obsessed with knowing her every whereabout. Six months after that, Kaity realized this was an extremely toxic relationship and broke it off.
Researching for the conference, Bobbi discovered staggering domestic violence statistics. At her next grief counseling session, she told her counselor she was sick and tired of crying. “I just feel like I need to DO something,” Bobbi said. The counselor, together with the ASU professor, planted the seeds that would blossom into Kaity’s Way in 2009.
Shortly after the breakup, Kaity’s former boyfriend assaulted her. With both the police and school officials involved, he was suspended from school. However on his return, he assaulted Kaity again, this time being expelled. But his erratic and threatening behavior persisted via phone calls, prompting Kaity to file an injunction against harassment. Five days later, on January 28, 2008, Kaity was walking home from school. The young man grabbed her from in front of her house, pulled her to the side yard of the house next door, and killed her with a shotgun. Then he turned the gun on himself. Three days later, a neighbor approached Kaity’s grieving mother, Bobbi Sudberry. The neighbor was an ASU professor of women’s studies who was putting together a conference on domestic violence. She asked 44 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | JULY 2018
The organization’s mission is to advocate for healthy teen relationships by providing education, skills and tools to youth and their allies. “Everyone is a solution to this problem,” Bobbi said. “It’s an epidemic, a societal disease. So the inoculation must come from society, too.” The organization uses the “P.E.A.C.E.” approach — Patience-Empathy-AcceptanceCaring-Equality — in all of its work. And that work includes workshops and speaking opportunities anywhere and everywhere. Their target population is young people ages 13 to 24, but for maximum success, Kaity’s Way must also reach parents, court and law enforcement personnel, middle and high school teachers, community college instructors and medical professionals.
Bobbi Sudberry receiving a Phoenix Suns Amazing Women Award presented by the Suns and National Bank of Arizona.
Bobbi Sudberry has also been the impetus behind a law dubbed “Kaity’s Law,” which widened the parameters of domestic violence and protection to include dating relationships. Such protection might have made a difference in Kaity’s case. As a small consolation, Bobbi says, “We teach people to be upstanders rather than bystanders,” a poignant way to view a vital social problem.
The founders of Kaity’s Way, Bobbi and Ric Sudberry, are shown here with their children. Kaity is to the right of her mother.
Kaity’s Way has just created an evidencebased curriculum for schools and juveniles on probation, which has yielded some remarkable moments. When kids have made bad decisions, regardless of their nature, they’re given the choice of either pleading innocent and going through the court system, or accepting guilt and going through a Kaity’s Way workshop. Insomuch as the workshops mirror the P.E.A.C.E. mission, they fit any infraction. Parents are required to attend with their child. A father, whose job requires him to participate in a variety of educational events, went through the program with his daughter. He
was so impressed he called Bobbi to tell her he was going to have his other three daughters go through a workshop as well. And then there was the young woman who approached Bobbi as she was preparing for a workshop. Kaity’s Way does presentations for the Arizona Department of Economic Security, which includes the foster care program. “I attended your presentation the first time when I was in foster care,” the young woman said. “Because of you, I realized I was in an abusive relationship, and got out of it. Every time I attend your workshops, I learn something new. This will be my fourth time.” What a testament to a program that grew out of a mother’s grief. What a 2nd Act. To learn more about Kaity’s Way, visit kaitysway.org.
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OPEN DOORS {publisher’s page}
FILLING THE GAP FOR OUR KIDS At their core, nonprofits are created to provide an answer or solve a problem. This is true in the education space as well. Physical fitness and healthy living programs for elementary schools have increased in order to not only educate but, in many cases, provide instruction when budget cuts have meant the loss of P.E. programs altogether. I want to shine a light on three organizations providing these important lessons today.
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JUMP ROPE FOR HEART Teaching heart health and what it means to give back Started in 1978 by a physical education teacher in Milwaukee as a way to combine physical activity and community spirit, Jump Rope for Heart became a national program for the American Heart Association in 1979. In recent years, a Hoops for Heart option has been added to the effort as a second program that uses basketball. This past year over 500 Arizona schools and more than 316,000 students participated in the annual school-day event. The kids not only learned that exercise like jumping rope and shooting hoops is good for them, the program raised more than $1.3 million to fund research and education about heart disease, still the number-one killer of all Americans. The program is offered to all schools and has resulted in many stories of kids recognizing the signs of a family member suffering from a heart-related emergency, and even performing life-saving acts. american.heart.org/jump-hoops
PLAYWORKS Making recess a positive, inclusive experience for all kids Started in two Berkeley, California schools in 1996 in response to a principal’s cry for help dealing with daily bouts of fighting on the playground, Playworks is now a valued program in 1,300 schools in 23 U.S. cities, including the Phoenix area. In 2015, the Playworks Arizona program set a Guinness World Record for the world’s largest game of red light, green light. Recent school survey results show the program’s ability to prevent bullying, build leadership skills, learn problemsolving and teach empathy through the power
of play. Moreover, Playworks coaches have become a valuable resource for schools that have lost full-time P.E. teachers over the years. The program is growing from 100 partner schools and youth programs to 120 in the coming school year and has become a beloved part of the elementary schoolchildren’s day. playworks.org/arizona
SHAPE UP US Tackling childhood obesity across our community and beyond Former personal trainer and educator Jyl Steinback took the lead as executive director of Shape Up US in 2009 to prevent obesity and empower children and their families to lead healthier, happier lives. The organization provides teachers, children, parents and the community at large with educational tools to create lifelong healthy habits. Programs such as the Hip Hop Healthy Heart Program for Children are being used in six Arizona school districts and 15 other states. Watch for an event partnership with “American Ninja Warrior” in the Phoenix area this fall! shapeupus.org
Cheers to innovation in education and healthy living!
Andrea Andrea Tyler Evans PUBLISHER
@AndreaTEvans
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