Dr. P On The Pod Pernessa C. Seele

In observance of Stress Awareness Month, Dr. P.  sits down with Cary Goodman, founder of Black Men's Wholeness, an initiative to heal the impact of stress on Black men's lives.   

Cary L. Goodman, a native of Richmond, VA, has a sincere passion to empower faith communities to operate at their fullest capacity in areas of health promotion, advocacy programs, outreach and development. For over 16 years, he has been dedicated to establishing and expanding health programs across the United States by building the capacity to address health disparities that greatly impact congregations and the communities they serve by strategically leveraging faith-based and community partnership to impact sustainability. 
Currently, Cary is a Program & Strategic Development Consultant for The Balm In Gilead, Inc. where he works diligently at the intersection of faith and public health nationally to address the burden of various diseases the impact African American communities.   A highly skilled strategist and national speaker adept at leading relationship building and engagement opportunities, he has forged various faith based and public health community partnerships and coalitions. With a sincere passion to empower black men, Cary founded Black Men’s Wholeness, an initiative designed to engage black men in conversations focused on areas that reassures wholeness such as trauma, emotional and mental health, and fatherlessness.
An ordained minister, Cary deems himself a “connector” where he focuses on the significance of outreach and engagement, establishing coalitions, collaborating, and relationship building in order to increase accessibility and sustainability to strengthen congregations and communities. 
 

Phil Gee was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) in 2015, one year after retiring from a very successful thirty-three-year career holding a number of engineering, manufacturing and supply chain senior level positions. 
Since his PD diagnosis, Phil and his wife, Julia (who first met in the 1st grade & have been married for 36 years), have become active advocates for others living with PD and their care partners. In 2017, they moved from metro Atlanta to Hilton Head, and immediately joined the local Rock Steady Boxing program, an intensive boxing/exercise program that has proven to slow the progression of  Parkinson’s Disease, which is  incurable.

They began to look throughout the South Carolina Lowcountry and didn’t really see other Black people who said that they had PD. That started their journey to become PD advocates, helping others with PD and their care partners to learn more about PD and how to live a better life with the disease. 

Phil has served four years on the Parkinson’s Foundation People with Parkinson’s Advisory Council. Julia is currently on the Advisory Board for the Foundation’s Carolina Chapter, and chairs their local PD Support & PD Care Partner Support groups. Together they have participated as panelists and speakers in a number of PD symposiums, co-chaired multiple Parkinson’s Foundation Moving Day Fundraisers, and participated in several pharmaceutical focus groups/patient panels. 

Today, they are active with the Special Interest Group – Black Diaspora steering committee working to drive development of solutions to mitigate health disparities in the Black Community with a focus on issues of the Black PD Community.

Evelyn Stevens, MPH, is the Senior Director of Community Engagement at the Parkinson's Foundation since September 2022. Prior to this role, Evelyn held positions as Clinical Research Project Manager, Clinical Research Coordinator III, and Clinical Research Coordinator II at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in the Division of Hematology and Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center. Before that, Evelyn worked as a Health Educator and Clinical Research Coordinator at Penn Medicine's Raymond and Ruth Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine in the Abramson Cancer Center. Evelyn holds a Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Temple University and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology: Bio-Psychosocial Health from Lincoln University.
 
 
 

Natasha Aldridge is a Perinatal Health Justice Equity Advocate and Family Support Professional with a mission to ensure that every pregnant, postpartum, and birth family has access to and receives safe, equitable, high-quality care. 

Ms. Aldridge has served over 70 families with Full Spectrum Community Doula Support and assisted over 400 women with holistic wrap-around services, within the last four years. She brings a broad array of expertise. Starting her business Natural Queen Essentials with being an ambassador and guidance coach for Endometriosis, she then began assisting clients with preconception wellness which then led her to becoming a Doula. 

After becoming a Full SpectrumDoula, she began to collaborate with local collectives, non-profits and volunteering in the local jail. In the jail she found her passion with assisting with weekly peer support, prenatal yoga, and justice births and separation visits along with the facilitation of justice involved lactation. Becoming a prison doula, led her to maternal mental health, trauma informed training, and lactation support.

With a background of Business Administration/ Management and Criminology she also brings being a Certified Virginia State Doula, ChildBirth Educator, Certified Maternal Mental Health SupportSpecialist, National Advanced Prison Doula, Facilitation of Doula Trauma Training CertifiedLactation Support, Surgical Birth and VBAC Birth Support, Nursing Assistant and Medical Billing andCoding, Fertility/Abortion Doula Certification Menstrual Equity Facilitation. 

Within the last few months she has assisted with the on-boarding of 100 Doulas, received the Catalyst of Change Yearly Award and became a member of Mom Congress, and collaboration with community service agencies to establish national and state, cultural interventions through outreach specifically working in the states of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Texas in hospitals, homes and birthin gcenters to advance best practices and improve outcomes in maternal and infant health through policy. As Natasha navigates this journey, she leads an array of mentorship and team building within the Perinatal Community. 

A life long social activist, Obery Hendricks is one of the foremost commentators on the intersection of religion and political economy in America. He is the most widely read and perhaps the most influential African American biblical scholar writing today. His recent book, Christians Against Christianity: How Right-Wing Evangelicals Are Destroying Our Nation and Our Faith (Beacon Press, 2021) has gathered wide acclaim. Cornel West calls him “one of the last few grand prophetic intellectuals.”
A widely sought lecturer and media spokesperson, Dr. Hendricks’ appearances include CNN, MSNBC, CBS, Fox News, Fox Business News, the Discovery Channel, PBS, BBC, NHK Japan Television and the Bloomberg Network. He has provided running event commentary for National Public Radio, MSNBC, and the al-Jazeera and Aspire international television networks. Dr. Hendricks has served in the Religion and Foreign Policy Working Group at the U. S. Department of State under Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry; was a member of the Faith Advisory Council of the Democratic National Committee, for whom he delivered the closing benediction at the 2008 Democratic Convention; served on the National Religious Leaders Advisory Committee of the 2008 Democratic Presidential campaign. He is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at The Democracy Collaborative in Washington, DC; has been an Affiliated Scholar at the Center for American Progress; was a Senior Fellow at The Opportunity Agenda social justice communications think tank; is on the Advisory Board of the Institute of Christian Socialism; and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). Dr. Hendricks has been a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post and Salon.com, a former editorial advisor to the award-winning Tikkun magazine, and a contributing editor to The Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion. The Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation has called his work “the boldest post-colonial writing ever seen in Western biblical studies.”
Hendricks’ award-winning book, The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus’ Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted (Doubleday, 2006), was declared “essential reading for Americans” by the Washington Post. Social commentator Michael Eric Dyson proclaimed it “an instant classic” that “immediately thrusts Hendricks into the front ranks of American religious thinkers.” The Politics of Jesus was the featured subject of the 90-minute C-SPAN special hosted by the Center for American Progress, “Class, Politics and Christianity.” The tenth anniversary of its publication was acknowledged at a major 2016 panel at the American Academy of Religion at its annual convention in San Antonio, TX. Governor Howard Dean, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, has called his book, The Universe Bends Toward Justice: Radical Reflections on the Bible, the Church and the Body Politic(Orbis, 2011), a “tour de force.”
A former Wall Street investment executive and past president of Payne Theological Seminary, the oldest African American theological seminary in the United States, he is currently a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in the Department of Religion and the Department of African American and African Diasporic Studies; a Visiting Professor at Union Theological Seminary; and Emeritus Professor of Biblical Interpretation at New York Theological Seminary. An Ordained Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Hendricks holds the Master of Divinity with academic honors from Princeton Theological Seminary, and both the M.A. and Ph.D. in Religions of Late Antiquity from Princeton University.     

Jay Ell Alexander is motivated by her passion for sparking a change in the minds and bodies of others through her entrepreneurial spirit. As owner and CEO of The Vaughn Strategy, a branding and public relations firm and Black Girls RUN!, a national running organization, she leads a powerful movement that has resonated with a huge audience. 

Over the last decade, she has established herself as a communications professional with a true commitment to community engagement through her passion for health and fitness. She is also the Founder/Executive Director of the BGR! Foundation and the co-owner with her husband of C+J Alexander Investments. 
Black Girls RUN! has helped shift the consciousness of culture for over 250,000 African American women, encouraging them to adopt a healthy, active lifestyle through running, movement and community. It has also transformed the running community and aided in the diversification and increased participation in the sport of endurance distance running. Alexander has received national and international notoriety since the start of her tenure including partnerships with Saucony, Ford, Facebook, Brooks Running, REI, Fleet Feet and media coverage on NBC News, Good Morning America, ESSENCE, The O (Oprah Winfrey) Magazine and Ebony Magazine.
A native of Norfolk, Va., Mrs. Alexander received her Communications degree from George Mason University and her Master’s degree in Strategic Public Relations from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is also a graduate of the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business Nonprofit Executive Leadership program and a Certified Run Coach.
She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (Spring 2007) and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). She serves a variety of community boards and has completed numerous half marathons, 10Ks and 5Ks and two marathons. She has been recognized by iPower Richmond 30 under 30, George Mason University Black Alumni’s 40 Under 40 and the Rising Star Award by PRSA Richmond.
Jay Ell and her husband Christopher are the proud parents of 4-year-old, Chris, Jr. and 2 year old daughter, Jaycee. They are also proud pup parents to an 8-year-old black Lab, named Luna.

Don't miss The Balm In Gilead's  Multiple Myeloma Spotlight on our website!
This week's guest, Dr Joseph Mikhael MD, MEd, FRCPC, FACP,  leads the M-Power project in the African American community for the International Myeloma Foundation (IMF). Dr. Mikhael is a Professor in the Applied Cancer Research and Drug Discovery Division at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope Cancer Center. He is the Chief Medical Officer of the IMF and Director of Myeloma research at the HonorHealth Research Institute. 

Dr Mikhael specializes clinically in plasma cell disorders, namely multiple myeloma, amyloidosis, and Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia. He is the PI of many clinical trials, primarily in relapsed multiple myeloma, and his other clinical research interests include pharmaco-economics, communication skills, and media relations. Dr. Mikhael also serves as the Treasurer on the executive board of the American Society of Hematology. 

Dr Mikhael has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles in these fields, and lectures internationally on a regular basis.  He is also the chair of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council at TGen.  Dr. Mikhael is heavily involved in training future researchers, and mentors junior faculty worldwide.  He also spends nearly 20% of his time in the third world developing collaborations in myeloma and finding ways to enhance access to novel treatment agents.