Chris Staten: Coaching Fitness, Community, And Career Success

BE Modern Man: Chris Staten

Executive, career success and development speaker, fitness coach; 27; Client Partner Executive, IBM; Co-Chair, Greater Boston Black Network at IBM

Twitter: @CSinTech; Instagram: @christheoptimist

One of my mottos is to do everything I can while I can. This drives me to be committed to my career success and community in various ways.

As for my career, I am a client partner executive at IBM interfacing with clients to help them be more competitive and innovative from a technological standpoint. The division I work in generates about 40% of IBM’s annual revenue.

I also co-chair the Greater Boston Black Network at IBM, championing community for over 60 black IBMers in the Boston Area.

For my community, I speak at colleges and high schools about the importance of “professional presence” and the need for career exploration. My passion for career success and development for the next generation comes from my own experiences when I found it challenging to find a career that aligned with my interests and needs upon graduating undergrad. As of April 2019, I have touched over 200 students in college and high school regarding their career pursuits.

I serve as a fitness coach at OrangeTheory Fitness, as I am passionate about health and wellness, especially in the black community. Weekly, I coach over 100 clients as they get closer to their fitness goals.

I also serve as a mentor with Minds Matter Boston, which helps gifted youth who come from low-income backgrounds gain admission and scholarships to college.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF IN LIFE?

I am most proud of being a son, brother, uncle, and mentor to the next generation!

HOW HAVE YOU TURNED STRUGGLE INTO SUCCESS?

I wasn’t the best student in high school, barely graduating with a 2.0 GPA. I attended junior college and had to walk 45 minutes one-way to class in my freshman year. There were times where I questioned what I was doing and why I was doing it. I was also a football player, an undersized one at that, which deepened my doubt that I could take that next step in life.

I refused to give up because I knew that all of my actions were positive contributions to my long-term success. I knew consistency and daily deposits would yield a return on my investment.

Fast forward! I earned a Division-1 scholarship and succeeded academically. I was honored with a couple of dean’s list awards and became a starter during my senior year at Murray State University.

This 4-5 year struggle proved to me that “trusting the process” is key!

WHO WAS YOUR GREATEST MALE ROLE MODEL AND WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM HIM?

I am fortunate to have a community of black men that poured into me at an early age. My father, grandfather, brothers, and family friends, they all saw my greatness before I did.

I learned from them that there is a season for everything. There is a season to have fun and there is a season to be serious and take care of business. These seasons can be days, weeks, or even years long. However, you have to be cognizant of which season you are in.

WHAT’S THE BEST ADVICE YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED?

Don’t just do the right things; do things right!

HOW ARE YOU PAYING IT FORWARD TO SUPPORT OTHER BLACK MALES?

I mentor formally through organizations and informally as many young black males contact me though LinkedIn and Instagram soliciting guidance.

I also speak at high schools and colleges on topics such as career success, exploration, and navigation, professional presence, black male achievement, diversity and inclusion, and various topics about the technology industry.

HOW DO YOU DEFINE MANHOOD?

For me, manhood is about delivering on your promises to your family, loved ones, and others who are around you. Manhood is not shying away from high expectations, but rising to each occasion by giving your best effort. This applies to men in both our professional and personal lives.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT BEING A BLACK MAN?

Unfortunately, a narrative has been painted about black men that show us as docile and misguided. When I show up, whether it is in a business meeting or at a family reunion, the respect that is given an educated and strong black man whose opinions are fact-based is what I like the most.

 

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BE Modern Man is an online and social media campaign designed to celebrate black men making valuable contributions in every profession, industry, community, and area of endeavor. Each year, we solicit nominations in order to select men of color for inclusion in the 100 Black Enterprise Modern Men of Distinction. Our goal is to recognize men who epitomize the BEMM credo “Extraordinary is our normal” in their day-to-day lives, presenting authentic examples of the typical black man rarely seen in mainstream media. The BE Modern Men of Distinction are celebrated annually at Black Men XCEL (www.blackenterprise.com/blackmenxcel/). Click this link to submit a nomination for BE Modern Man: https://www.blackenterprise.com/nominate/. Follow BE Modern Man on Twitter: @bemodernman and Instagram: @be_modernman.

 

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Stacey Abrams tackles voter suppression in new book due out in June

Stacey Abrams will soon have a new book out that focuses on the need for voting reform.

Our Time is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America is expected to be released this June and is being published by Henry Holt and Company. It draws from Abrams’ own experience running for governor of Georgia in 2018 and the numerous challenges that came out regarding voting suppression – from access issues to the purging of voter rolls, according to The Hill.

READ MORE: Stacey Abrams confirms she’d consider being VP: ‘I will not diminish my ambition’

In a hotly contested race, Abrams, a Democrat, narrowly lost to Republican Brian Kemp, many believe in part because of Georgia’s voter suppression tactics including limited access to voting precincts in Black neighborhoods. Abrams conducted research on voter suppression for her book and hopes future elections will see an easier process for all people to vote.

“The future of our democracy depends on correcting all that is wrong with our elections process, including the insidious practice of voter suppression,” Abrams said in a statement, according to the Associated Press. “And we must remind voters of their power to be seen and to demand action not simply on election days but every day.”

Abrams’ name has been floating around as a possible 2020 vice-presidential candidate since her Georgia gubernatorial defeat. Abrams was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives where she served for 10 years. She started Fair Fight, a voting rights organization, also published Lead From the Outside.

READ MORE: Stacey Abrams executive producing CBS drama based off of her first book

Our Time is Now, Abrams’ second nonfiction work, is a “blueprint” for the changes Abrams hopes to see made, according to Henry and Holt. Abrams has also authored eight works of fiction using the pen name, Selena Montgomery. The former Georgia legislator is currently executive producing Never Tell for CBS and PatMa Productions, a drama based on a novel that Abrams published in 2004 under the nom de plume.

The post Stacey Abrams tackles voter suppression in new book due out in June appeared first on TheGrio.

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Sex, Explained Was a Lot of White Noise and Mansplaining

As I sat and binge-watched what I thought would be an inclusive, sex-positive, informative series, I realized that Netflix and Janelle Monáe sold me a dream of black kink and birth outside the binary.

Read more...

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Missing Brooklyn teenager found safe and reunited with her family

Five days after a 14-year-old Brooklyn girl went missing, she was found safe and has returned home to her family.

READ MORE: Teen, who prompted citywide Amber Alert, confesses she staged her own kidnapping

When Jenna Hospedales, a freshman at the esteemed Brooklyn Tech High School, did not come home after school last Thursday, her family grew worried. Her mother, Jennelle Hospedales, phoned police to report her daughter missing and said she had never gone missing before. Also, the mom said there was no questionable activity on Jenna’s social media accounts, according to PIX11.

Crystal Hospedales, Jenna’s cousin, told CBS that this deeply concerned family because it was unlike Jenna.

“She is not a child who is super on social media. She’s not a child that dates. She’s not a child that has a wild side. She has never left home, so we are extremely concerned,” Crystal Hospedales said.

Jenna’s friends told the family that they last saw her boarding the G train at Fulton Street and South Elliot Place in Brooklyn around 3:15 on Thursday, Jan. 9. The NYPD 77^th Precinct, who had asked for the public’s help in finding the girl, said she never arrived home. The family went all over Brooklyn, posting signs with the girl’s description and they also asked for help on social media.

On Sunday, Jenna’s mom pleaded with anyone who knew anything to help her find her baby girl.

“I hope she comes home,” Jennelle Hospedales told WCBS. “That’s all I want. I just want my baby home.”

READ MORE: Atlanta lawyer reported missing earlier this week found dead in hospital

On Tuesday afternoon, her prayers were answered. The family breathed a huge sigh of relief when Jenna was found and returned home. It is unclear where the teenager was and where she was found.

The NYPD took to Twitter to thank the public for their help.

“UPDATE: Jenna has been located and reunited with her family. We would like to thank everyone that showed concern and shared her information on social media,” the precinct tweeted.

UPDATE: Jenna has been located and reunited with her family. We would like to thank everyone that showed concern and shared her information on social media. https://t.co/BrRNbfLI5u

— NYPD 77th Precinct (@NYPD77Pct) January 15, 2020

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Elizabeth Warren makes debate case: Democratic woman can beat Trump

By ALEXANDRA JAFFE, STEVE PEOPLES and DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Elizabeth Warren made a forceful case for a female president and stood behind her accusation suggesting sexism by progressive rival Bernie Sanders in a Democratic debate that raised gender as a key issue in the sprint to Iowa’s presidential caucuses.

Sanders vehemently denied Warren’s accusation, which threatened to split the Democratic Party’s left flank — as well as the senators’ longtime liberal alliance — at a critical moment less than three weeks before voting begins.

“Look at the men on this stage. Collectively they have lost 10 elections,” Warren exclaimed on Tuesday night. “The only people on this stage who have won every single election that they’ve been in are the women.”

An incredulous Sanders responded: “Does anybody in their right mind think a woman can’t be elected president?” he asked. “Of course a woman can win.”

There was a final moment of tension between Sanders and Warren after the debate ended. Having shaken the hands of her other competitors, Warren was shown in video declining to shake Sanders’ extended hand.

With the Democratic field tightly bunched among four leading candidates, the debate offered an opportunity for separation. But none of the six candidates on stage had the kind of moment likely to reshape the race in the final weeks before voting starts. Instead, the debate was generally marked by a focus on weighty issues of foreign policy, climate change and how to provide health care for all Americans. Even when disputes emerged, most candidates quickly pivoted to note their larger differences with President Donald Trump.

For his part, Trump spent Tuesday night campaigning in Wisconsin, a state that is critical to his reelection effort. He tried to encourage the feud between Sanders and Warren from afar.

“She said that Bernie stated strongly that a woman can’t win,” Trump said. “I don’t believe that Bernie said that, I really don’t. It’s not the kind of thing Bernie would say.”
Despite such prodding, the debate stage drama was far from the explosion some Democrats feared. Candidates moved with ease through a variety of topics, disagreeing with each other but generally avoiding personal attacks.

Sanders did step up his attacks on former Vice President Joe Biden over his past support of the Iraq War and broad free-trade agreements. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who was mired in the middle of the pack, seized on Warren’s shifting positions on health care.

Billionaire Tom Steyer acknowledged making money from investments in the fossil fuel industry, but highlighted his decade-long fight to combat climate change, an issue that came up repeatedly throughout the night.

Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, sometimes struggled for attention in a debate that often featured points of conflict between his rivals. Perhaps his strongest moment came when he described how, as a military veteran who is vocal about his faith, he could stand up to Trump in a general election.

“I’m ready to take on Donald Trump because when he gets to the tough talk and the chest thumping, he’ll have to stand next to an American war veteran and explain how he pretended bone spurs made him ineligible to serve,” Buttigieg said. “And if a guy like Donald Trump keeps trying to use religion to somehow recruit Christianity into the GOP, I will be standing there not afraid to talk about a different way to answer the call of faith and insist that God does not belong to a political party.”

Questions surrounding war and foreign policy dominated early on. Sanders drew a sharp contrast with Biden by noting his own opposition to a 2002 measure authorizing military action against Iraq.
Sanders called the Iraq invasion “the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of this country.”
“I did everything I could to prevent that war,” Sanders said. “Joe saw it differently.”
Biden acknowledged that his 2002 vote to authorize military action was “a mistake,” but highlighted his role in the Obama administration helping to draw down the U.S. military presence in the region.
Several candidates condemned Trump’s recent move to kill Iran’s top general and his decision to keep U.S. troops in the region.
“We have to get combat troops out,” declared Warren, who also called for reducing the military budget.
Others, including Buttigieg, Biden and Klobuchar, said they favored maintaining a small military presence in the Middle East.
“I bring a different perspective,” said Buttigeg. “We can continue to remain engaged without having an endless commitment to ground troops.”
The debate featured just six candidates, the fewest of any such forum this cycle after escalating party rules prevented other candidates from participating. For the first time, not a single candidate of color appeared on stage. Every candidate was white, and four were men.
That was a stark contrast from the earlier days of the 2020 contest, which featured the most diverse field of candidates in history. The party is trying to navigate broader debates over how to reflect and embrace the crucial role women and minority voters will play in 2020. To defeat Trump this fall, Democrats need to ensure black, Latino and suburban voters are excited to vote for them against the Republican president.
The debate marked one of the final moments the senators in the race will participate in a campaign-related event before returning to Washington to sit as jurors in Trump’s impeachment trial. Those proceedings are likely to begin by the end of the week, making it difficult for senators running for president to spend time with voters Iowa in the contest’s final days.
“Some things are more important than politics,” Warren said. “I will be there because it is my responsibility.”
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Peoples and Superville reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Bill Barrow in Des Moines contributed to this report.
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Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, “Ground Game.”

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