DISCOVER THE PERSONAL AND COMMUNITY IMPACT OF ALF

OUR LEADERS REACH NEW HEIGHTS

Before Mustafa Tameez joined ALF, his career in politics – including serving as campaign manager and political director for former Houston Mayor Bill White – had led to many transactional relationships throughout Houston. In becoming an ALF Senior Fellow, Mustafa recognized that what he really wanted in his career were the deeper, meaningful relationships that he had forged within ALF – relationships that go beyond the work, but also serve to make collaboration easier and to propel important work forward.

“I realized that you can get to know people on a different level, that you can be vulnerable with people and people can be vulnerable with you.” Mustafa credits his experience in the Senior Fellows program as seminal in helping him consider how to bring people together across contentious issues in his own work. It starts with building trust. 

“I learned from my time with my ALF classmates that you can be vulnerable with people and you can build community. Now, in convening groups, I put things out openly and honestly and trust that people will respect the shared space and one another.”

Mustafa’s new approach to leadership through relationship-building was critical to his emergence as the brave leader he wanted to be. 

He was emboldened to take on challenges that he previously would not have accepted so eagerly.

This personal and professional growth led him to develop and lead Houston Police Department officers in an implicit bias training. This was a new horizon for Mustafa, and one which demanded careful attention to what might allow people to engage authentically in challenging topics.

“I built the training to be experiential because of what I learned in ALF. Everything we did in ALF was experiential, and that moved the way I think and feel. For these officers, I knew we had to create a shared experience that would change the way they think and feel.”

The results were clear. After 18 months and reaching more than 5,000 officers, the training received some of  HPD’s highest ratings ever, despite the inherent divisiveness of the subject matter.

Mustafa claims that part of the ALF’s unique impact is that it creates connection, opens up vulnerable relationships, and creates the possibility of real work together on difficult topics in a cohort of leaders who are true contemporaries and peers. They are the people who must work together if Houston is to continue to thrive.

OUR LEADERS SPARK COLLECTIVE IMPACT

Alim Adatia’s experience with the ALF network was unconventional. Having seen ALF fellows including Mustafa Tameez in action and in community, Alim knew he wanted to pursue the experience for himself. What he witnessed from ALF fellows and as an ALF fellow was a shared mindset to see the City of Houston succeed paired with a propensity for collaboration, meaningful relationships, and transparency.

“It allowed me, at a crucial point in my career, to really shed layers in front of a group of people that I respected–things that were personal, professional, and emotional–and become vulnerable. Exposing yourself in front of a group of people like that builds that type of bond that you can’t mimic in another setting. It requires a level of commitment and vulnerability.”

Prior to his ALF experience, Alim collaborated with ALF Fellows to design and implement an Implicit Bias community relations training for all 5000 officers in the Houston Police Department (HPD) system. Over the course of two years, Alim recalls experiencing the “most nerve wracking and fulfilling professional engagement on a weekly basis.”

Together with Mustafa Tameez, he designed an experiential program that deployed ALF’s methods with the goal of creating “ a space and an opportunity to address some very difficult issues that were polarizing; to build a sense of trust and perspective for the officers in the work that they do every day.”

“But it’s a very difficult conversation to have. And it’s a very difficult project to execute on it the right way. And I think if nothing else, that’s what ALF is about, is that you are surrounded by a group of individuals who genuinely believe in improving the quality of life and the betterment of the Greater Houston region.”

After becoming a fellow, Alim explains “it became clear to me that some of these things that we had them do very much mimic some of the activities that we went through during ALF, and it gave these officers unknowingly an opportunity to engage in difficult conversations through the ALF model, before I even knew what ALF was. And that was incredible.

Reflecting on the experience, Adatia shared, “You actually got some of these folks to talk about some really difficult issues. You’ve got individual officers who stood up in the room who are veteran officers who said things that they’ve never told other officers before about the life experiences that people in their families feel.”

OUR SPACE WILL GIVE OUR LEADERS ROOTS

Geraldina Interiano Wise started her ALF journey out of necessity and with a sense of urgency to realize the leadership skills that would be necessary to bring ALMAAHH–a Latino arts and culture organization advocating for a Latino Museum of Cultural and Visual Arts–to life.

ALMAAHH was generated out of a shared desire to make a space for all Latinos to be honored. “Which is the opposite of what I see: they’re left behind, they’re transparent to society, they’re not understood or even acknowledged.” Wise noted she’s spent a lifetime seeing all the ways that in Houston, the Hispanic community is not seen.

For Wise, the greatest take away of her ALF experience was the importance of building trust. Trusting herself, as a leader with a specific set of skills, and trusting others, to bring in the expertise she needed for her work. It allowed her to move without fear, and instead provided the self-awareness that “I can put my positive energy into effective leadership–I don’t need to have all the answers, that made it more sustainable for me.”

“Learning about trust, and practicing that trust was a really big skill set—I’m not sure I knew I needed it.” Wise explains it was a mindset shift about what it means to be a leader, and furthermore what it means to be a servant leader.  At ALMAAH, Wise explains, “we are all self-proclaimed servant leaders to the extremely complex Hispanic community of Houston.” A community as diverse as it is strong. So we knew we needed to first and foremost cultivate trust to understand the Latino community in Houston.

“The way we were going to be able to do that was to start listening to people; through community engagement.” Wise explains what came out of that authentic process was a community desire for “a home” for Latino culture. “We don’t believe we belong anywhere.” She explains, “We need to have something that is for us, a magnet for the Latino community”.

“I believe that physical space cannot solve for all the centuries of being left out of the conversation. We know there are some years before those physical doors can be open. But we believe we can be digitally native, before we need to be bricks and mortar, because people are needing to connect.”

It’s still a relatively young organization, Wise explains. “We understand that there are a million things that have to fall into place, but we are working on the million things; one at a time. We are staying curious, staying flexible, making connections, and dealing in trust.” A strategy for emergent leadership that Wise pulls from her ALF journey.

OUR SPACE WILL GIVE OUR LEADERS ROOTS

Anne Whitlock understands as well as anyone the power that place and space hold for both individuals and communities.

As the founder of a place-based community development organization called Connecting Community, Anne has devoted a career to building pathways to opportunity and vitality for the people in the Gulfton and Sharpstown neighborhoods of Houston. Though she is rooted in this community, Anne herself does not have a dedicated working space.

“Our work happens in parks, schools, churches, and fall festivals. It places us among the people that we serve and makes our relationships even more solid. Part of that is we don’t have the luxury of walling ourselves off in an office somewhere.”

Anne understands that it’s important to congregate in places where people feel equal, safe, and inspired. As an actively engaged ALF Senior Fellow, she sees this as a critical part of the next stage of ALF’s journey as well.

She contrasts the sacrosanct experience of collaborating among ALF Fellows in nature with other, “soulless corporate campus rooms” that exist across the city and its corporate landscape. In the former, “everybody gets out of their comfort zone and you’re more or less even. It’s the great leveler.”

Anne envisions a dedicated ALF space where this feeling of being on equal footing is extended beyond the great outdoors – and it reaches beyond the four walls of ALF and into communities as well.

She certainly sees this in her own day-to-day work.

“It’s about showing up, and every day that has a different way of manifesting itself. When I was walking through the KIPP school the other day, I knew every single person down to the kids in the hallway. We’ve shown up in enough places that we’re known.

I think that that’s the way we should be thinking about leadership in Houston – just showing up, getting out of our comfort zones, being curious, and asking good questions.”

OUR SPACE WILL BE HOUSTON’S SPACE FOR CULTIVATING NEW LEADERS IN THE COMMUNITY

ALF Senior Fellows are uniquely shaped by the experiences from their diverse backgrounds that shape their influential roles in the moment while planting the seeds for the success of the next generation of leaders.  Sandra Rodriquez exemplifies this quality of today’s ALF leaders.  

The oldest of five children born to Mexican immigrants, Sandra grew up in the Gulfton neighborhood, sometimes referred to as the “Ellis Island of Houston,” where she experienced poverty, a high crime rate, poor housing conditions, and a lack of investment in educational and social services. As she entered her teens, she realized that what seemed to be normal in her everyday life was not the way it should be. The influence of a Latina woman speaker at her high school and the opening of a community center in her neighborhood influenced Sandra to embark upon a journey of leadership and service.

Sandra noted that her first realization was that “the majority of students were Latinos of color, but the leadership did not reflect that fact. So, I was motivated to run for a class cabinet seat…it stirred some people up, but I wanted to ensure that the Latinos were represented.”

She was elected as the Class Secretary which reflected her second realization that, “It’s great that others are coming into our community to help us change. But change must also come from within the community.” She would go on working for the Mayor’s Office and helping to open up several Community Resource Centers in the Gulfton area. Her commitment to the Latino community in Gulfton would continue with her leadership role as president of the Gulfton Super Neighborhood Council, a civic group that seeks to improve the neighborhood through new projects and collaborations.

The year 2019 would prove to be a turning point in Sandra’s career and public life.  She entered ALF Class XLVIII, embracing ALF values and teachings along with the collective wisdom of her newfound classmates. Their encouragement and support were important factors in Sandra’s decision to run for Houston City Council, a race that she would lose in the run-offs but would gain immeasurably from the many “doors it opened.” Among them were collaborations with other ALF Senior Fellow such as Anne Whitlock of Connect Communities to improve transportation, safety, and walkability in the Gulfton neighborhood.

ALF EQUIPS ITS LEADERS TO DO THE WORK IN COMMUNITY

Lharissa Jacobs is less than a year into launching Fit Houston, a nonprofit that empowers under-resourced communities by promoting physical activity and improving the quality of life for Houstonians. Today she is a community builder, a founder, and a recognized leader, but she didn’t always see herself that way. 

“When I first wanted to join ALF, it seemed like I would never be good enough. I think being the child of immigrants – where my mom came from rural Philippines and my dad was a Holocaust survivor – you think you don’t quite understand the system. I didn’t understand how people got to know these high-level leaders. And so for me, it felt a little unattainable.”

What Lharissa found, however, was an inclusive community that provided mentorship, support, and empowerment to be the leader she was meant to be, and not anybody else. Her perspective on ALF totally shifted – leadership was not an insider’s club.

Through ALF, Lharissa also experienced an even more dramatic change in what she wanted her career to look like.

“Something in my brain shifted. So yes, I got the promotions while I was in the program, which I don’t think was a coincidence. But it became more about what I wanted my time on this earth to be.”

Lharissa felt drawn to work that would leave a positive mark on the community. Through the Houston 2036 initiative, started by ALF Senior Fellows, she incubated and launched Fit Houston which she leads today.

She carries this perspective shift from ALF into her new role. A friend recently reminded her that she always wanted to be a CEO, so why didn’t she give herself that title? Her response was “it just didn’t matter anymore. A title has totally lost its meaning because I have a purpose now.”

Lharissa notes that making good on your purpose can only work if you have relationships and networks to help advance that purpose, and she’s grateful to the ALF community for serving that role.

ALF has also provided the encouragement for those leaders like Lharissa who are more comfortable deep in the community than upstairs in the board room. 

Building community requires us “to hand over the microphone to the resident, to the community. This is their time to talk, and we’re going to be good listeners.”

COMMUNITY IS SHAPED BY BRAVE LEADERS COLLABORATING TO CONNECTING HEARTS AND MINDS

ALF Senior Fellow Dr. Dona Murphey represents the story of authentic values being aligned in the pursuit of serving the common good. As an M.D. and Ph.D in the field of neurology and neuroscience, Dona sought a career path that would utilize her skills in the struggle to understand and ultimately cure all forms of dementia. This was a personal as well as professional quest as three of her grandparents lived with dementia and she harbors a 31-fold risk of contracting the disease. However, she found that her initial career choice did not meet her most important criteria of putting the well-being of people before the success of the company. “I was really struggling with being in a position at a company where I felt my values were not very well aligned with the values of the company…ALF helped me explore that misalignment.”

Dona left that company although she had no clear professional path forward at that time. However, she noted that “ALF gave her the confidence and courage to stand by her aligned values.” That decision would lead Dona on an innovative path utilizing her medical acumen and leadership skills to create a public benefit company called PrognosUs. Its mission is to eliminate racialized health care disparities in dementia care by connecting caregivers and community health workers in culturally and linguistically affirming settings to allow for greater management of the disease. Currently, PrognosUs offers materials and services in Korean, English, and Spanish.

In birthing her new venture, Dona turned to ALF Senior Fellows for support and collaboration. A key source of expertise regarding the business and organizational aspect of PrognosUs was Senior Fellow Dr. Eddie Patton whose practice in neurology is supplemented by his MBA from Rice U.  ALF Senior Fellows Mike Dotson, CEO of Access Health and Shane Chen, COO of Hope Clinic have also provided additional collaborations with Dona, and more are on the horizon.

Dona hopes that in the next five years PrognosUS will make a significant impact upon black and immigrant communities here in Houston and then begin to share this model on a global scale. Given Dr. Murphey’s passion and energetic commitment to her authentic values, one can readily predict a positive and successful prognosis.

COMMUNITY IS SHAPED BY BRAVE LEADERS COLLABORATING TO CONNECTING HEARTS AND MINDS

The ALF Senior Fellows community is a setting that is always primed for the creation of new projects and collaborations. For that reason, one never knows what might emerge from a gathering of ALF Senior Fellows. Such was the case when Dr. Eddie Patton chanced upon his colleague Dr. Dona Murphey at an ALF gathering. Their casual acquaintance as neurologists led that evening to the beginning of a wonderful collaboration in furthering Dona’s work creating PrognosUS, a platform to give caregivers and family members in underserved communities resources and a support network to assist them in their care of loved ones with Alzheimer’s and all forms of dementia.

Being a neurologist would seem to be the most needed resource for Dona in the development of PrognosUS but Dr. Patton’s primary contribution did not come from his medical background but rather from the business sector. Dr. Patton earned an MBA from Rice U. which enabled him to offer skills and tools essential for PrognosUs’s development as an organization. “I help startups, particularly in healthcare, with advice on fundraising, board matters, protecting intellectual property, and anticipating needs for future growth.”

His ALF experience was instrumental in embracing a different perspective on leadership. “These leadership courses from the medical community had a more singular and narrow scope. ALF helped me professionally to come outside the box of looking at leadership, particularly in healthcare, as having a broader community impact.”

Dr. Patton’s experience with his Class LIII fellows deeply imprinted upon his thinking the notion of servant leadership and making the commitment to work for the common good. ALF’s Senior Fellow Network became his setting for incubating this successful collaboration.