Insight Pt. 2: Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, Deputy Sheriff Recruitment, Evoluer House, Sista Strut

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning. You're listening to Insight, a show about empowering
our community. I'm Lorraine Balladmorrel. We'll be speaking with Cheryl
Ann Watlington of Evelor House to discuss this summer's free
youth workforce development programs and how our organization is creating
life changing opportunities for young women across the region. We're
honored to be joined by doctor Heather K. Beasley, a

(00:22):
leading voice in cancer research and equity, as part of
our coverage of the twenty twenty five Sisters Struck Breast
Cancer Walk that takes place June twenty first, doctor Beasley
talks about her work on the genetic and environmental causes
of cancer and how we can better support Black women
facing breast cancer. First, we begin today's show with info
on the Philadelphia Deputy Sheriff's recruitment drive. We welcome Sheriff

(00:46):
Rochelle Bellal, the first African American woman elected sheriff in
the city of Philadelphia. She's joining us to talk about
the upcoming second Deputy Sheriff recruitment drive happening this summer,
and partnership with a bunch of folks. I want to
thank you so much for joining us here today. Start
by telling us why the deputy sheriff recruitment drive is

(01:06):
so important right now.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Oh, it's more than important. First of all, thank you
very much allowing us to have this conversation about what
we are doing here in the sheriff office and reference
to recruitment. We appreciate that the Phillip the Sheriff Office
is hosting a series of summer recruitment This is very
important because around the country everybody is down in manpower

(01:30):
law enforcement, police sheriffs around the country, and because all
the things that happen to bring us to this point
you're talking about civil unrests and the pandemic. It seems
like nobody wants to be a sheriff or a police officer.
So it's very important that we get out in the community,
let them know what it is that we do. Let
them know about this career that they can have in

(01:53):
becoming a sheriff. That's what we're doing. It's very important,
and we are working around the clock and around the
city they get this done.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
What are some qualities you're looking for in candidates and
what should applicants expect from the hiring process.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, we're looking for those that are eager to start
their career or for those who are experienced that want
to move from another law enforcement agency to the sheriff's office.
What we need in them physical agility. They need to
be able to be physically fit. They need to be
able to pass a background check. That means we're gonna

(02:29):
check out your background, social media, anything that you have
done in your life in the past ten years. We
need to look at that. We're not going to say
that you're not gonna make it through, we just need
to look at it. We also looking for those that
are mentally capable of doing this job, because being a
sheriff is not an easy job. It's a rewarding job.

(02:51):
So we're gonna look at those things. When we say
physically fit, they can go up on our website right
underneath the recruitment application or right on the east there
it tells them what do you need to be physically
fit and reference to the sheriff, a reference to your
age train.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Also, the upcoming event that is happening on Saturday, June
twenty first, from ten am to two pm at Stutis
Playground is in partnership with several elected officials and I
wonder if you can talk about the importance of collaboration
in recruitment and community trust.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Well, it's collaboration with the elected officials up in that area,
but you don't have to live up in that area
to come to this. Pennsylvania Representative Anthony Bellman, State Representative
Dersha Parker, and Senator Sharis Street are all our partners
in this. It's about building a safety team that reflects
the communities that we serve, a team that understands the

(03:50):
neighborhoods and cares about their future. Attendees will meet current deputies,
ask questions, and learn how to apply for the role
of deputy sheriffs. They will get all of that at
that meet and they will get me and I will
have a conversation with because I really need them to
think about the sheriff's office as a career.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
I wonder if you can talk beyond employment, what does
a career in the sheriff's office offer to individuals looking
to make a difference.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
It offers everything that we have in this office. Basically,
you can be a deputy sheriff as court security. You
can be a deputy sheriff in the warrant unit that
is out there in the street serving warrants, trying to
get people off the street that have warrants that is
causing problems in our neighborhood. You can be a K
nine officer. You can be a bike unit person that

(04:40):
if you like bikes, we have that. You can be
our real estate department where you can be in there
learning about the real estate process and the shriff's cell process.
Or you can be in our civil unit. Our civil
unit are the ones that serve the paperwork on any
foreclosure tax lian cells and they basically work all out
and canmmunity also, so you have opportunities to be whatever

(05:04):
it is that you want to be. And you can
be in our community engagement because if you're a person
that likes to be in a community, we like to
be seeing, touch and felt for those citizens of this city.
And if you like being our community to be part
of our community outreach.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
How can the public support this initiative even if they're
not applying themselves.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Call your family up or your brother, your sister, your cousins,
your nephew, your nieces. You got people coming out of
college right now and they're trying to figure out what
it is that they're going to do. This is an
opportunity to start off at a good salary, good benefits
as to do it. So if you don't want to
be you have family members, you know, you do call

(05:46):
them up, tell them this is an opportunity and a
career that they can engage in being a deputy share
for the City of Philoplia.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
So many opportunities in the Sheriff's office. And again there
is an event that's happening on Saturday, June twenty first,
from ten am to two pm at Sturgis Playground, two
hundred West sixty fifth Avenue right here in Philadelphia. Tell
us where people can find out more information not only
about this event that's a recruitment event, but any further

(06:14):
recruitment events that happened throughout the summer.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
So we got a few more recruitments events. We're going
to be having them all year, but this one is
at Sturgeons. You can go to Phillyshriff dot com. We
had those flyers up there if you missed that one.
We got one Junior twenty eighth. It happens to be
my birthday, and that's going to be the forty three
hundred block of North American Street. Come on out and
apply for deputy sheriff and come help me celebrate my

(06:37):
birthday at the same time. July to twelfth is another
event that we're having out in Frankfort Paul's Park, forty
six seventy three Paul Street, Philadelphia. That's July to twelfth.
We're going to continue to have different events around this
city because at under this new administration, they are now

(06:59):
advertising suriff deputy recruitment more than just once a year.
Prior to this, it was only advertised once a year,
and I mean only put up on a city website,
not radio, not TV, not on the billboard, not on
anything else. But at this point it's on everything. So

(07:20):
coming out to our recruitment job and make sure you
let your family know. Go to phillyshriff dot com and
talk them into it. I got mothers called me, can
my son do yes? Let me walk them through the process.
Come be a deputy sheriff. It's rewarding.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Well, it sounds like you're trying to do everything you
can to make this a process that people can be
accessible for. And there are so many opportunities to check
out whether or not you want to join the Sheriff's
Office to become a deputy Sheriff. I want to thank
you so much, Sheriff Rochelle Beulah, the first African American
woman the elected sheriff in the city of Philadelphia. Thank
you so much for joining us here today, and hopefully

(07:59):
listeners out there will take this opportunity to check out
the website or go to one of the many events
that you're offering all throughout the year. Thank you so
much for joining us today.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
And thank you so much for having us. We appreciate you.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
I'm Pluschette Wiggins, Ambassador for Voices with the American Cancer Society.
Your voice can Change lives. The American Cancer Society invites
Black women to join Voices of Black Women, a powerful
new research study shaped by over seventy years of trusted science.
This study aims to understand how cancer and other health
conditions uniquely impact Black women and how we can change

(08:57):
that together. Be a part of this movement health equity.
Learn more at Voices that Cancer dot oid.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
We're joined by Cheryl Ann Wadlington, the visionary founder and
executive director of the Evelor House, a nonprofit organization that
is empowered over ten thousand girls of color, providing esteem, leadership,
and career readiness. Cheryl is an award winning journalist, image activist,
and mentor whose work has been recognized nationally, including here

(09:34):
by iHeartMedia when she received the WDAS Woman of Excellence Award.
She is helping young women transform their lives and thrive.
The Evelorre House is currently enrolling for its free summer
youth workforce development programs. We're going to talk about that
with Cheryl. Thank you so much for joining us and
tell us. For those who are unfamiliar with Evelor House

(09:57):
and your programs, tell us about the programs and your mission.

Speaker 4 (10:00):
Yes, Evelor House is a twenty one year old nonprofit
organization and empowers girls between the ages of thirteen and eighteen,
specifically girls of color. We run summer programs. Our programs
include a personal development, a workforce development, podcast training which
helped girls also learn how to produce and monetize their

(10:22):
own podcasts. And we have one more. It's helping us
write our eve Little Girl e news. So doing research
and actually writing and editing, and of course I call
on my journalism friends for that. So that's what we
do and we're here today to talk about our summer
program that is absolutely free, and I want to say

(10:44):
to mothers, this is a fantastic program that you need
to get your daughter in. It is taught by top educators,
top tier educators, and girls learn everything from mental health
and suicide preventions, which is really imporant right now, given
that the experts are saying that the development of young

(11:04):
girls' brains is not they're not developing because of all
of the violence that they're seeing on social media and
from police, from police beating up and killing black people.
That's just a fact. Also, they're failing in school. This
is still some overturn from the pandemic. Our girls will
be learning things also like sexual health, healthy relationships, intersectionality,

(11:28):
girls' rights, and education, resume writing, financial literacy. Those are
just a few of the great things that we empower girls.
So that our goal is to make sure they graduate
high school on time, a ten of four year college
and help break that inner generational psycho poverty that I

(11:49):
think Philadelphia of metropolitan cities we keep that number one title,
which is said, so that's what we do. And like
you said, we've graduated tens of thousands of girls and
I think we're on our third generation. And so now
we're hearing a lot of mothers saying they're putting their
daughters in the program, and they're saying, like, I'm two

(12:09):
years old and I was an ever little girl, and
it's so nice to hear that they still know that
they are an ever little girl and what that means.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
So, yeah, you know, and I think the proof is
in the pudding because there's so many programs out there,
but yours is really very successful. You have an excellent
graduation rate, you have among the girls. You have a
very high rate of girls who go on to higher
education or further education.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
Right our girls, Oh, it's one hundred percent college acceptance.
One hundred percent of our girls go to a four
year college or other forms of higher education. And they're
not going to just like average schools. They're going to
top tier schools like Fordham, University of Penn NYU, And
fifty one percent of them are going to school on

(12:57):
full ride scholarships and fifty one percent and is coming
out of college debt free.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
That is incredible. So anyone listening out there who has
a daughter or is mentoring a young woman, you really
have to look into this program because it is a
proven success program. You've mentored and empowered so many young
women over the years. I wonder if you could share
a success story that really stays with you.

Speaker 4 (13:21):
Well. For example, one girl was bullied so her mother
had to homeschool her. I mean, she had to crap
beat out of her. And it was because she was
dark skinned and they said she was plus sized, so
they beat her up for that reason. So she went
through our program. She got a scholarship to more College

(13:41):
of Art. Now she has her own wardrobe business. She
graduated from college. We have another success story of girls
coming out of the foster care system. They might have
been shuffled through knows how many homes, but I know
one she got like a quarter million dollars in scholarship
money and she graduated from a top college. Now she's

(14:05):
going back for her masters. So those are just a few,
you know, not to mention any other sad stories. But
when I say sad, like for instance, one girl we
stayed in her life after she got removed from her home.
She was diagnosed bipolar, but five years later she made
it to law school. Wow yeah, wow, So you know

(14:27):
they're just miracles. After miracles after miracles.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
Well, you are in the business of creating miracles, and
that is what's so extraordinary about evelor House. You mentioned
earlier about mental health issues and identity challenges. I wonder
if you could get a little more in depth about
how evelre House supports their holistic development, especially when it
comes to emotions and mental health.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
Well, what isn't talked about. This is a long conversation,
and I don't we care for how I talk about
it is environments that are specific to girl of color.
Our environment is specific to girls of color. There are
a lot of statistics to say how they're mistreated, they're
judged differently. Those are just facts. So what we know
what research says systems have failed our girls and it's

(15:16):
getting worse. So we do know no one can teach
our girls better than us, so we have to be there.
And when we talk about identity, of course, being gay
is still a taboo in black communities. That's not really
going to change that much no time soon. So you know,
like for example, one year, we had a large population

(15:37):
of girls who identified as LBGTQ, and then they add
on all the other initials that I can't keep track
of so we create an environment that is friendly to all.
These are girls who are still asking how do I
come out to my mother? They don't know which way
to turn because society is saying so much. So, you know,

(15:59):
in addition to the LBGTQ, also the identity of what
is it like to be a black girl? How do
I navigate life through the microaggressions that I'm going to
experience and to the fact that every time I walk
out my door, I know I am judged because of
the color of my skin. So that's a different dynamics.

(16:22):
We actually have a class of called microaggressions how to
counter them, you know, whether it's someone asking about your hair,
you know, can I touch it? Or talk? You talk
like you talk nice for a black girl, you know,
those kind of crazy things that young girls need to
know how to navigate life. So a lot of our

(16:42):
classes were designed with girls of color in mind and
in things that they are, that they experience and that
they are going to continue to experience.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
When does the un that the Summer Workforce Development Program
begin and where do people need to go in order
to register?

Speaker 4 (16:58):
Right? It begins June to twenty third and it ends
August twenty second and they can go to our website
to register. Now there are only a few spots left
by know we're a little more than halfway filled, so
they can go to everlore house dot org and evelore
is spelled e vo l u e r house dot.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
Org to register. Great, and I believe it's online. Is
that right? It's virtual?

Speaker 4 (17:27):
Oh? Yes, this is a virtual program. And I don't
want parents to think, oh, my daughter needs to be
in person with in order to learn. No, we have
a proven, dynamic program that keeps girls' attention to the
point where they want to come back. So that's one
thing we've mastered, and that's what also adds to our credit.

(17:48):
We can keep girls engaged online.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
That's fantastic and it also makes it more convenient for
people not only in the Philadelphia area, but I guess
people all across the country could could be part of
this program as well, which is awesome. Sherah Wattlington, you
are just doing such amazing work over these many years,
just really uplifting the lives of so many thousands of

(18:13):
young girls of color, and we thank you for everything
that you do. Evelre House is an extraordinary program for
young Girls of Color. Sherah Wadlington, founder of everlor House,
thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (18:27):
Thank you, Loraine for having me.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
Today. We're joined by doctor Heather K. Beasley, a dedicated
scientist and advocate in the fight against cancer. Doctor Beasley
is a Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology of Cancer Fellow at
Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She also serves as chair of
the a ACR Associate Member Council and is an active
member of Minorities in Cancer Research and Women in Cancer Research,

(19:07):
two critical groups within the American Association for Cancer Research.
Her work is focused on uncovering the genetic and environmental
causes of cancer, especially within underrepresented communities. We're here to
talk about breast cancer and Black women and women of color,
and also about the upcoming Sister Strut sponsored by Iheart's

(19:30):
WDASFM Power ninety nine and Rumba one six one, a
powerful event to raise awareness, celebrate survivors, and uplift the
voices of Black women and women of color affected by
breast cancer. So, doctor Easley, thank you so much for
joining us here today. First of all, can you tell
us about your journey into cancer research and why you
chose to focus on molecular and genetic epidemiology.

Speaker 5 (19:51):
Yes, first of all, thank you so much for having me.
It's a pleasure in hearing all those things you said
about me. I'm like, who is this person you're speaking about?

Speaker 3 (20:00):
You know what?

Speaker 5 (20:01):
This is a new field that I've actually transferred into.
So how it got into cancer research was really in
grad school. I've always loved understanding cancer because it's so
many different moving pieces in the puzzle. With a lot
of other diseases, we know how it forms, we know
how it progresses, we know treatment outcomes. But unfortunately with cancer,

(20:22):
because there's so many different parts that go into how
cancer forms and how cancer moves, how cancer develops into tumors,
tumors that actually end up moving to other parts of
the body, really really gotten my scientists parts of my
brain really excited. So in grad schools when I was
first introduced to cancer research, and then I really wanted
to understand why it disproportionately affected different communities, which is

(20:46):
why I got into health disparity research. And so that's
kind of the beginning of the journey for getting into
that research. Now, the whole magic that you talked about,
the molecular and epidemiology of cancer. That's a new problem
where I've actually on from basic science. So basic science
meaning I'm sitting at a bench in a white lab coat,
pipetting things and hoping things will happen. And I moved

(21:08):
ford to the clinical side of cancer research where I'm
working only with patient tumor samples. And so that program
allows me to get a lot more hands on clinical
research so that I can affect new treatments, new therapeutics
that will be helpful for patients as we move forward.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Well, the key question that we'd like to talk about
today what are some of the key disparities in breast
cancer outcomes for black women in particular, and how is
your research helping address those gaps.

Speaker 5 (21:36):
Yes, there's quite a few disparities that exist. So I
particularly work in breast cancer research. And so what we
know about the particular molecular subtype of breast cancer that
I study. It's known as triple negative breast cancer. Now
it's the finest triple negative because scientists like to make
it very simple. It's just negative. Her three main receptors

(21:56):
that would drive the cancer estrogen progesterone in her too.
Because triple negative breast cancer doesn't have these receptors on
the tomb on itself, you can't give it the same
types of drugs that would stop other types of breast cancer.
So one molecular subtype, as I mentioned TNBC for short,
it disproportunately affects black and Latina women. And because of that,

(22:17):
we're looking at what are some of the biological differences
between black and brown women and comparison to white women
that developed triple negative breast cancer, and so how many
research particularly affects those as we are doing a deep
dive into all the genetics. So is there a biological
difference between these groups of women, and how can we

(22:38):
stop some of these cancer progressing once the patients are diagnosed,
And so that's particularly where my research comes in. As
we're understanding the genetic background of these patients that makes
it different. We're also evaluating their treatment outcomes and looking
at patient history, so did their parents, did their grandparents,
did aunt have breast cancer? And how we can look

(23:02):
at hereditarian other genetic markers as to better help us
understand how a patient would develop breast cancer, especially triple
negative breast cancer, and can we better make therapeutics that
would help. There are limited treatments for this particular type
of breast cancer.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
Doctor Beasley, we often talk about that disparity, and I'm
so fascinated that you're looking into some of the genetic
elements to the disproportionate impact of breast cancer on black women.
But also the other part of that conversation has to
do with disparities in healthcare and institutional racism that has

(23:43):
had an impact on women of color throughout these many,
many decades. I wonder if we can talk a bit
about the other external aspects that impact the survivability for
women of color and when it comes to breast cancer.

Speaker 5 (24:00):
Absolutely, you bring up an excellent point. There are so
many more factors that go beyond the biological understanding that
we have of how breast cancer forms and how breast
cancer progresses. Before that patient even gets to their mamber
gram and gets a suspicious finding that later has to
be followed up by the pathologists, this woman is exposed
to environmental factors and other factors, as you mentioned, external

(24:22):
factors that also play a key role in how breast
cancer is diagnosed. Now, it is not new to anyone
to know that there are systemic barriers or systematic barriers
that exist for women of color. There have been lots
of studies that have surveyed women that live in impoverished
neighborhoods women that live in affluent neighborhoods, and sometimes most

(24:45):
of the time, the treatment outcomes are the same between them.
Now that's different when we compare those against women that
are not African American or latinum. And so as we
look at that, that helps us understand that breast cancer,
there are so any other factors that weigh in on
how patients are treated. Could it be that these patients
are diagnosed later. I currently am working on a study

(25:08):
that looks at patients that are diagnosed early, so that
we can kind of take out one of those variables,
which is, of course, these influences that come from maybe
the perspective pathologists or oncologists didn't take the patient's concern
into account, and that talks about some of the systemic
racism that you talked about. We're looking into how those

(25:31):
factors do play a very integrall role in how we
understand breast cancer. And so, as you mentioned, those are
known factors that absolutely can play a major role. We
actually a ACR has the upcoming Health Disparities Conference that
happens every single year, and the keynote speaker this year
is doctor Robert When and he's given several talks about

(25:53):
this in the past, and he talks about how your
zip code directly influences how you're treated when it comes
to cancer treatment. And so that is something that definitely
shouldn't be in the equation when we're thinking about how
to treat patients, but we have undoubtedly shown that it
does make a major difference in treatment outcomes. And so

(26:16):
just to bring that to play the ACR, we'll have
a talk about that, and I believe it's in September.
It's in Baltimore this year, but that will be addressed
yet again some of those pieces that been into health
equity when it comes to cancer diagnosis.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
And finally, what steps can our listeners take right now
to help protect their health or support someone navigating a
breast cancer diagnosis.

Speaker 5 (26:39):
That's fantastic question. So there's a lot of things. The
main thing is making sure we know our bodies and
know our own health. It's important to if you have
the ability to ask your parents, on your mother and
your father's side, if breast cancer runs in the family
and also these self breast examser are quite important. We

(27:00):
have known that early detection is going to be key
for treatment outcome, so knowing your risk is important by
knowing your family history, but also doing those self breast
exams are going to be incredibly important, and women over
forty it is recommended that you do get those yearly mammograms.
We know that black women biologically have what is known

(27:21):
as dense breast, which means that these mamma grams are
not sometimes as easily able to detect breast cancer. So
it's quite important to bring these conversations up with your
primary care physician and making sure that we just advocate
for ourselves the doctor and get all the attention that
we need to make sure that we feel comfortable with
everything that's said at the doctor.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Well, I just want to remind folks that Sister Straut
is happening Saturday, June twenty first. The rally starts at
eight walk kicks off at ten am. You can go
to our many website WDASFM dot com. We can also
go to Power ninety nine Philly dot com and Rumbo
one oh six one dot com And of course if

(28:01):
you want any information about breast cancer or any kinds
of cancers. The AACR has an amazing website that has
information on every single type of cancer that you could
think of, and also support an information that can help
individuals through their cancer journey. I'd like to thank you
so much for joining us today. Doctor Heather Beasley, scientist

(28:25):
and advocate in the Fight against cancer, a Molecular and
Genetic Epidemiology of Cancer fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center,
also serving as chair of the AACR Associate Member Council,
an active member of Minorities in Cancer Research and Women
in Cancer Research, two critical groups inside of the American
Association for Cancer Research. We thank you for what you're

(28:48):
doing and we wish you luck in finding some of
the solutions to the cancers that are disproportionately impacting women
of color. Thank you so much, Thank you so much.
You can listen to all of today's interviews by going
to our station website and typing in keyword Community. You
can also listen on the iHeartRadio app ye Words Philadelphia

(29:09):
Community Podcast. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Lorraine Ballard.
I'm Lorraine Ballard Morrel and I stand for service to
our community and media that empowers. What will you stand for?
You've been listening to insight and thank you

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