What's Going On: Infrastructure Mixer, Teach for America, Menopause

There is an upcoming event providing potential opportunities for minority, women and disabled owned businesses. City of Philadelphia and the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO) is hosting an industry networking breakfast on Tuesday October 24th providing opportunities to Connect with prime contractors, subcontractors and project owners. Be the first to access the City's new procurement forecast for public works. Meet diverse firms & learn how to become certified as a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) and register as Minority/Women/Disabled Owned Business Enterprise (M/W/DSBE). To tell us more I speak to Lily Reynolds, Director of Federal Infrastructure Strategy in the Mayor's Managing Director Office More information: https://infrastructuremixer.eventbrite.com/

There are few jobs more critical to the future of our children and our country than teachers. but it’s been more challenging than ever for those in the profession. Teach for America is working to provide a pathway to teaching. Anna Shurak, Executive Director, Teach For America – Philadelphia talks about their program’s efforts to train the next generation of teachers.
Website and social media handles and tags
teachforamerica.org/greater-philadelphia
Instagram: @tfaphillypham
X: @tfaphillypham o
FB: https://www.facebook.com/TFAGreaterPhilly/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/teach-for-america-greater-philadelphia/

We have a frank conversation about - menopause with Gerianne DiPiano serves President and Chief Executive Officer of FemmePharma, a pharmaceutical industry executive and women’s healthcare expert. We discuss the definition of menopause that occurs not only as part of the aging process but also for younger women due to surgery or medical treatment. We also discuss some of the approaches to treating the symptoms of and why it's important to openly discuss menopause.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Good morning, Welcome to what's goingon, a show about making a difference
in our lives and our communities.I'm Lorraine Ballard Moral. We're going to
have a frank conversation about metopause thismorning. Also if your move to help
kids Teach for America could be foryou. But first, a great opportunity
for women, disabled, and minorityowned businesses. Obtaining government contracts is incredibly

(00:23):
important for minority owned businesses. Governmentcontracts and other types of contracts, whether
it's cities or other large organizations,provide a stable and often lucrative source of
revenue. But a lot of minoritybusinesses don't know where to go. Well.
Tuesday, October twenty fourth, theCity of Philadelphia and the Conference of
Minority Transportation Officials, we'll be hostingan industry networking breakfast and to tell us

(00:48):
all about it is City of Philadelphia'sDirector of Federal Infrastructure Strategy and the Managing
Director's Office, Lily Reynolds. Thankyou so much for joining us here today
and tell us about this great opportunityfor minority contractors. Thank you so much,
Lauren, it's great to join you. We are focused on really sharing

(01:08):
information about upcoming public works contracting opportunities. So you can think of these as
construction projects and building projects where wework with the private sector to do construction
for things like roads, bridges,parks, sidewalks, sometimes buildings and rec

(01:30):
centers, airport facilities, waterway systems, sewer systems, all sorts of things
that are the infrastructure pieces that makeour city run and function. And right
now, we have a lot ofmoney coming to the city from the federal
government as well as state and localdollars that are increasing the amount of public

(01:51):
works projects that we're undertaking, andso we're really looking to build those projects
as well as provide opportunities for minorityowned business as, women owned businesses,
and really businesses that are located herein Philadelphia to be aware of what we're
looking for and what opportunities are comingdown the pike so that they can start
preparing and getting themselves ready to becompetitive for this type of permanent contracting.

(02:15):
Lily, I wonder if you cangive us an idea of what kinds of
businesses you're looking for to come tothis mixer. Yeah, so we really
welcome everyone, but our target focusis on construction companies and companies that do
work in construction related activities. Sooften the city has for public works contracting

(02:37):
a prime contractor, sometimes it's referredto as a general contractor, and those
contractors are usually specialized in a certaintype of infrastructure, so whether they are
a heavy highway or a building construction, and then they really work underneath with
their team with subcontractors that often havespecific specialties. So some of that could

(03:01):
be specialties in concrete or masonry,just as an example, and so we're
looking for companies in those types offield as well as folks that are in
an adjacent field. Like we thinkthat there may be some businesses that are
out there in the finishing trades orin interior building renovations or demolition, and

(03:23):
while that certainly could be part ofan infrastructure project, we also are interested
in talking to them as well andsee if maybe they do more work on
maybe cabinetry or some of the interiorfinishing trades. They maybe not have in
their portfolio so far a bridge projector a sidewalk project, but they have
a baseline that they may and theymaybe have interest in learning more about some

(03:44):
of the outdoor what we call horizontalinfrastructure construction work. Lillie, I wonder
if you can talk a bit aboutsome of the barriers that often get in
the way of these minority contractors.Tell us what are some of the things
that they need to know, anycertifications they need, any kind of special
training that they need in order toenter into this. Yeah, that's such

(04:06):
a good question, and for goodreason. In some cases, there are
some high bars that businesses do needto pass sometimes in order to be ready
for government contracting. And at leastfrom the government perspective, you understand that
that's because we really want to makesure that we are vetting and are certain
that the businesses that we're asking tobuild a bridge that we're going to have

(04:27):
residents using every day is a vetted, qualified, reliable firm that really can
perform the services that they say theycan and also are in good business standing.
So certainly all of the things thatyou might think of in terms of
just really making sure your business isin order, your finances are in order,
those are all basic requirements. Butthen there's also specific requirements, especially

(04:50):
in spaces. If the business wantsto get credit for being a minority owned
or women owned business, there arecertain certification process sees that are available to
those businesses, and so we'll haveinformation at this event as well as on
our city's website under our Office ofEconomic Opportunity where you can learn about how

(05:11):
to become certified. And the reasonthat that's a BEINTE is to go through
that step for a minority or womenowned business or disabled own business is because
we often put goals on our contractsfor what percent of participation we want to
see those businesses have. Let's saywe're building building a bridge, we may
say we want to have twenty percentof the prime and some contractor mix really

(05:34):
focus on businesses that fall into someof those categories. Sometimes it can be
higher, sometimes it can be lower. And so even if there's a business
that is minority or women owned,they won't get sort of the credit for
that unless if they're currently certified.So that's why we want to make sure
that they are certified, and thatreally helps them open up also future opportunities

(05:55):
for work because they can then beidentified by other prime contract or by government
agencies who are really looking to workwith them and to make sure that they
have that participation right. So,in other words, there are minority businesses
who may not be certified, maynot have everything in place that they need,
but they can still come to thisevent because there are opportunities to learn

(06:16):
about certifications and what are the requirementsthat they need to fulfill in order to
get these contracts right, that's right. I think another thing that you asked
about barriers a minute ago, andI think another thing that we're trying to
provide at this event is an opportunityfor networking. And what we see as
being a big potential barrier or abig you know, if you overcome it.

(06:39):
A way to access a lot ofwork is getting to know others in
this field. So whether it's otherbusinesses that perhaps could be prime contractors that
you could be on their project withthem, or I was at an event
yesterday in North Philly speaking to someminority owned businesses in construction, and one
of the takeaway messages was really thinkingabout rather than seeing someone as your competitor,

(07:02):
seeing them as someone that you canwork with, because there may be
a time where you don't have youhave too much work on your plate,
so you want to share it withsomebody else or vice versa. Navigating all
the space is really strengthened by networkingso that's something that we'll be providing,
as well as opportunities to network withthe government agencies like CEPTA, like pen

(07:25):
DOT which is the State Department ofTransportation, the Water Department, a lot
of different agencies will be present totalk about the upcoming opportunities they have,
so contractors can come and learn aboutspecific questions and a dialogue that they may
have. Sounds like a great opportunityfor any minority contractor or business that's interested

(07:45):
in becoming a contractor getting these contractswith governmental organizations and entities. This is
a place to go. So it'shappening on October twenty fourth. Where is
it going to happen, What timedoes it start and end? And also
do people need to register in advance? Yeah, so it's going to be
on Tuesday, October twenty fourth.It will start early. We know contracting

(08:07):
is an early early risert crowd,so it will start at seven thirty in
the morning. We'll have breakfast forthose that register in advance. It will
end by ten am so folks canget on with their day and their day
of work. And the location isat the sheet Metal Workers Hall which is
at thirteen zero one South Columbus Boulevard, So that's near Columbus Boulevard and Washington

(08:31):
Avenue. And it's free, right, It's absolutely free. It's open to
the public. We do ask thepeople register in advance. Folks can go
to Infrastructuremixer dot event bright dot com. This sounds like a wonderful event for
anyone interested in getting a contract withthe government. And this is the City
of Philadelphia Infrastructure Mixer Networking Event onOctober twenty fourth. Lily Reynolds, director

(08:56):
of Federal Infrastructure Strategy in the Mayor'sManaging Director's Office, thank you so much,
Thank you. Ran. There's adwindling number of qualified educators available to
meet the demands of an expanding studentpopulation. Factors contributing to this shortage include

(09:20):
low salaries, challenging working conditions,high burnout rates, and inadequate resources for
professional development. Addressing this issue iscrucial to ensuring that every student has access
to a quality education and that theteaching profession remains attractive and sustainable in the
long term. One organization that isworking hard to help make that happen is

(09:43):
Teach for America. Joining us rightnow. As Anna Sharrek, Executive director
of Teach for America. Thank youso much for joining us here today.
Yes, thank you so much forhaving me. Well, in another life,
I was an education major and Ihave ever since been very very committed
to bringing to the world information abouteducation, the importance of it, and

(10:05):
teaching. And so I wonder ifyou could tell us what is Teach for
America. We work to ensure thatall students have the opportunity for an excellent
education, and we work to recruitdiverse leaders who are committed to educational equity.
And so we recruit recent college gradsand career changers into our organization.

(10:31):
We train them to be educators.We work with schools and place our teachers
in schools where teachers are needed themost. And then as a result of
the experience, many of our membersstay on in the teaching profession and or
go on to work in other importantfields that influence outcomes for students. And
so we're very grateful to have thisopportunity to continue to serve in Philadelphia.

(10:56):
We've been here for twenty years,and as a national organization, we've been
in existence for thirty three years.Very interesting. So I did touch on
some of the challenges that face theteaching profession, certainly the burnout, some
of the challenges having to do withviolence that's existing in our communities and the

(11:16):
culture wars that are out there,that many teachers are being forced to resign
or have been fired because of comingup against that, And I wonder if
we can talk a bit more aboutwhat are some of the things you are
doing to address some of these issuesand encourage people who might potentially want to
teach, but take a look atsome of the challenges that teachers face.

(11:39):
How do you reach those individuals?Yeah, great question, Laurien. So
you know, first and foremost,at the end of the day, regardless
of what side of the culture warsas you named, you sit on,
we need excellent teachers in the classroomfor our students, for our higher world

(12:00):
in our country to thrive, asour students are really the next leaders for
all of us. And so aswe're seeing teacher shortages broadly, there are
really multiple reasons educators are leaving theworkforce, and there are fewer professionals that
are considering teaching as a viable career. And really the pay hours, increased
politicization that you named has not madeit attractive for the as a profession for

(12:26):
gen Z and gen Z is setto make up more than a quarter of
the workforce by twenty twenty five,and so Teach for America has really focused
on evolving to meet the needs ofthese gen Z individuals alongside the needs of
our students and communities, and justto underscore this gen Z is really the

(12:46):
most diverse generation in history and seekingmeaningful careers that align with their values and
so as a purpose driven generation,they really yearn to address major societal issues
and create a positive impact. Soat Teach for America, that leads us
to really think about the systemic issuesand the structure of the teaching profession that

(13:07):
is increasingly out of step with whatmatters most to this generation of college graduates,
and thinking about how as a profession, teaching and education has to evolve
to really reinvent the system and thinkabout things such as teaching compensation conditions,
supportive environments, and how we aresetting teachers and educators up to be successful

(13:33):
with students so that we can reallyexperience the full potential and impact of our
schools and with our kids. Solet's talk about what need people need to
do in order to become a partof Teach for America. Who are you
looking for to sign up and whatare their qualifications and what steps do they
need to take? Yeah, thanksso much. So. We are looking

(13:54):
for individuals who are invested in ourstudents, in our community, and who
fundamentally believe that all students have thepotential to live, grow, and thrive
in our world. And so equitybased, diverse educators who are willing to
do this work, willing to learn, and have the fortitude and experience to

(14:16):
know what it takes and that it'snot going to be easy. As an
individual who came into the program asa two thousand and four core member in
Philadelphia, I never thought that Iwould still be here twenty years later.
In fact, I had studied politicalscience and policy studies and didn't want to
do education policy till I had taughtand quickly learned that how policy. Having

(14:41):
great policy is essential, and alsohaving folks doing the work and willing to
implement great policy is also another keypiece of the puzzle. I bring this
up because we're not looking for folksto come due two years and leave to
do something totally different. We're lookingfor folks who fundamentally to leave in the
potential of our students and why educationis so essential to the future of Philadelphia.

(15:07):
And if people are interested in applying, there are various ways to get
involved. You can apply through ourwebsite to learn more, through our recruitment
team and a an and or alsocontact us directly and we'd love to be
in connection. We also need acoalition of support and currently are working with
many other organizations because Teach for Americadoesn't solve the education problem in isolation.

(15:33):
We do it with partners across thecity and so any sort of involvement,
whether you're interested in joining, interestedin joining the core, and or just
being involved in our efforts to assurethat our students have the opportunities that they
deserve, we welcome that sort ofpartnership and coalition. If people want more
information, what's that website Teach forAmerica dot org. Fantastic and a sure

(15:54):
rec Executive director for Teach for AmericaPhiladelphia. Thank you, thank you so
much, Thank you so much.Here's a heads up. We are going
to be talking about women's sexual healthmenopause. It's the natural biological process marking

(16:15):
the end of a woman's reproductive years. It has its pros and it has
its cons. On the positive side, menopause brings relief from the monthly menstrual
cycle, eliminating the need for contraceptionand sanitary products. Many women also experience
a sense of liberation from the physicaland emotional symptoms of menstruation. Additionally,

(16:36):
some women find that they have moretime and energy to pursue personal interests once
they're no longer focused on child bearing. However, menopause has its drawbacks.
The most prominent con is the arrayof symptoms associated with hormonal changes, including
hot flashes, mood swings, andsleep disturbances, which can definitely impact a
woman's quality of life. That's whatwe're going to be talking about today.

(17:00):
Pause. Joining us is Jerry andA Piano, President and chief executive officer
of fem Fharma and also chair ofthe board. A pharmaceutical industry executive and
women's healthcare expert, Jerry Anne foundedfem Pharma in response to the industry's narrow
focus on women's health needs such ascontraception and hormone replacement therapy, and the

(17:21):
lack of attention to other important women'sdiseases and disorders. She's joining us here
right now. Thank you so muchfor joining us, and I gave a
very brief overview of menopause. Althoughwe associate menopause with aging, there are
other circumstances in which menopause can occur. Can you tell us what those are?
Yes? Well, first of all, thank you for having me as
your guest, Lorraine. I reallyappreciate it, and women's health are passionate

(17:45):
fem pharma, so I'm very happyto have this opportunity. You asked the
question about other circumstances where women mightenter menopause, and so there are a
number of different factors. One surgicalmenopause, for whom they're ovaries and perhaps
their uterus has been removed, willprematurely enter menopause. And then there are

(18:08):
also those women who are in whatwe call chemical menopause, and chemical menopause
is what you might imagine women whoare taking certain medications. Perhaps they are
undergoing chemotherapy or some other form oftherapy for conditions like breast cancer, ovarian
cancer, or a condition called endometriosis, which is when tissue grows outside the

(18:34):
lining of the endometrium and forms cyststhat are in the peritoneal cavity, so
that can be a reason for treatmentwith drugs that will suppress the production of
estrogen in place a woman in chemicalmenopause. Right, So, there are
lots of different circumstances in which womencan go into menopause. Let's talk more

(18:56):
about some of the side effects,some of the ex experiences that women can
have when they're going through menopause.So I have seen as many as sixty
one different symptoms that women may experiencewhen they are going through menopause. The
ones that we hear about most frequentlyare issues that we see on TV,

(19:19):
like hot flashes and night sweats,and you mentioned sleep disturbances. The ones
that aren't often discussed because they areconsidered embarrassing or taboo are the vaginal symptoms
of menopause, or what we referto as the genito urinary syndrome of menopause.
As you might imagine, it's thegenitals, the vagina, the volva,

(19:42):
and then the urinary tract. Urinarytract symptoms could include frequent urinary tract
infections that would include itching, burningfrequency. It also may involve overactive bladder,
so this could be the desire whenwoman has to go, go,

(20:03):
go to put it in the vernacular. So the genito urinary syndrome of menopause
is also quite prevalent, and thevaginal involver symptoms of menopause impact a woman's
quality of life significantly. So italso impacts one's intimacy, perhaps right,
And it seems as though we've madea lot of strides and having frank conversations

(20:26):
about sexual reproductive health, but westill have a long way to go,
and it's very important for us tohave open conversations about menopause and its impact.
Some of the things that you talkedabout can have a substantial impact on
equality of life. Now, whena woman is experiencing menopause, there are
so many choices ahead for her andsometimes conflicting information about the best way to

(20:52):
address those concerns. Can you tellus what the latest best practices are regarding
addressing those those concerns. Hormonal replacementtherapy is one aspect that has had sort
of conflicting points of view at Somefolks are saying that it increases your chances
of getting cancers and others say thatthat is over emphasized. What is your

(21:17):
opinion on that, So, firstof all, my view is just my
view. I am not a physician, I am a researcher, and I
am a pharmaceutical industry executive and providerof consumer products as well. So I'm
going to answer based upon lots ofexperience that I have working in the multinational
pharmaceutical industry and specifically with companies thatdid develop hormone replacement therapy. And yes,

(21:44):
we are learning more about ways inwhich to address metopausal symptoms. So
the most benign approach is always theapproach that I recommend to my friends and
one that I use myself, whichis to start with lifestyle changes, and
lifestyle changes may include addressing the individualsymptoms of menopause. So for example,

(22:11):
if one has vaginal or vulvar dyness, they're over the counter products that one
may use to alleviate those symptoms,so that is a starting place. So
intravagally administered products such as the onethat we have in our portfolio of products,
the Mevita product line, and thenthe revolver products for the outside of

(22:34):
the vagina that can be used forthe skin intimate skin outside the vagina.
For issues of sleep, there arecertainly sleep supplements. These are non prescription
products with heavy doses of melatonin andother ingredients that have been used historically like
gabba and elthianine and ashwaganda. Solooking for products that can ameliorate some of

(23:00):
those types of symptoms is a goodstarting place. Then we have the hormone
replacement therapy issue. And hormone replacementtherapy has been around for many, many
years, and it was one ofthe mainstays of a large multinational company that
I worked for. And yes,there is a lot of conflicting data that

(23:22):
is out there. So if you'vetried lots of other resources, all the
more benign resources that are made withouthormones, perhaps hormones would be something you
wanted to discuss with your doctor.So there was a study that came out
a number of years ago which suggestedthat there was an increase in the risk

(23:45):
of certain cancers, hormone dependent cancersand cardiovascular disease. Those studies are legitimate
studies, but more information has cometo the fore and what we're now learning
is that perhaps one can extend one'suse of hormone replacement therapy safely, but

(24:08):
it really is an individual decision andit really must be made with consideration of
all of your risk factors. Soif you are a person that has had
breast or a variant or some othertype of hormone dependent cancer, this is
something that you want to evaluate carefullywith your healthcare practitioner because in fact,

(24:30):
there may be an elevated risk foryou. Similarly, if you are an
individual that woman who is prone tocardiovascular disease thromboembolic complications, you will want
to speak with your practitioner, whetherit's a gynecologist, a primary care practitioner,
but someone who understands the metabolic issuesthat you may be facing. So

(24:55):
it does require a woman to beher best self advocate and can sult with
her position about her particular symptoms,the symptoms severity, and perhaps the opportunity
to start with something that is benignand if that does not provide the appropriate
level of relief, to perhaps considermoving to something that is made with hormones.

(25:19):
Right, So, what is itin our society that prevents us from
having these open conversations. I rememberthere was a show called All in the
Family, and one of the bigepisodes in this show that hasn't been around
for a long time, was oneof the main character experiences symptoms of menopause,
and that was like, that washeadline news that that was even brought

(25:42):
up as a conversation. I thinkthat would have been like in the seventies
maybe, And so we've made someprogress, certainly, but we certainly need
to have these conversations openly and withoutyou know, having the hesitations that sometimes
people have when it when we talkabout issues related to our sexual health.

(26:03):
And so, yes, this isgreat that we're having this conversation. What
would you recommend to women out thereand men who are with women who are
experiencing these symptoms, what would yousay to them? Well, first of
all, it's not a taboo topic. Menopause is simply a transition, and
it's Leu Ambrisandine, who's a favoriteauthor of mine and a researcher, would

(26:27):
say it's the upgrade. So theupgrade is what you just mentioned earlier,
which is that it can be atime of liberation for women. But it
is simply a transition and it isnot a taboo, no different than when
we started menstruating. So if you'rea woman and you had your menstrual cycle,
that wasn't considered taboo and when youdecided or didn't decide to become a

(26:49):
mom. That wasn't a taboo,and menopause isn't a taboo either. But
we need to do a better jobof education, and we are those of
us that have entered the menopause spaceare doing a better job of providing education.
And it's not just the education ofthe lay woman or man. It

(27:10):
is also forging ahead with education forthe healthcare practitioner to help her to ask
the questions, the pressing questions relatedto this transition in life, for example,
doing a survey of one's sexual life, understanding that sexual health is an
important part of our quality of lifeand understanding whether that's been impacted by menopausal

(27:37):
symptoms, and similarly asking questions aboutthings like sleep and anxiety and changes in
mood. So all of those questionsare part and parcel of giving the best
possible advice for symptom relief, andour healthcare practitioners are spending more time investing

(27:59):
in that education. But women needto be their best self advocates, So
we encourage women to look for goodresources, whether they are podcasts or whether
they are at aeradyte publications. Educateyourself about the symptoms of menopause. Your
website and your company addresses many ofthe issues that we just discussed, and

(28:22):
you specifically have products that are onthe side of the non medical, more
natural approaches to menopause. So tellus if we would like more information not
only about those products, but aboutmenopause in general. Where do we go?
So fem Pharma hosts a podcast,actually I'm the podcast moderator. It's

(28:42):
called the Love Mia Vita Podcast,and we interview healthcare practitioners who are leading
the charge on menopause education. Wetalk about everything from dermatological issues to sex
to metabolic conditions and much more.And then we have a very substantial number

(29:02):
of blog posts. Again these arelargely transcribed from our podcast, but not
exclusively, and so you can learnmore information about menopause and menopausal symptoms in
those two ways. And then theproducts that we have available are products that
are made with great care, sothey are made under what is called GMP,

(29:25):
and all of the ingredients are pharmaceuticalgrade ingredients. And much of the
technology, particularly for our vaginal involverproducts with technology and know how that came
from our sister company, which isa prescription pharmaceutical company where we have done
research and development in women's health fortwo decades. Well, I'd like to

(29:45):
thank you so much for shedding lighton this very important topic, which is
menopause. It happens to us alland let's be ready for it. And
those who are in the process ofexperiencing menopause, whether it's because of the
aging process or because of some ofthe other issues, check it out.
Fem Pharma is one resource for informationabout this. Jerry and Piano, President

(30:10):
and chief executive officer of fem Pharma, thank you so much, thank you,
it's my pleasure, and thank youLorraine. You can listen to all
of today's interviews by going to ourstation website and typing in keyword Community.
You can also listen on the iHeartRadioapp Keywords Philadelphia Community Podcast. Follow me
on Twitter and Instagram at Lorraine Ballard. I'm Lorraine Ballard morl and I stand

(30:32):
for service to our community and mediathat empowers. What will you stand for?
You've been listening to what's going on, and thank you