MILK Podcast: Lost and Found, Season 3, Episode 14 Cross Promo EPISODE SWAP with The Only One in the Room: Actress and Producer Kimberly Russell

MILK Podcast is swapping feeds with The Only One in the Room Podcast. Co-Hosted by Laura Cathcart Robbins, a writer and a recovery thriver and survivor, each episode, Laura and her partner Scott interview a person about their Only One story, highlighting stories of being “othered” and encouraging connection between listeners and guests.  

On this episode of Only One in the Room, Laura speaks to actress and producer Kimberly Rusell. Her story as a mother is a fascinating one. Kimberly was a young actress, dating celebrity after celebrity and then (predictably) found the love of her life on a film set. She married Michael Bonewitz, they had three beautiful babies and then made the decision together to put her acting career on hold while she raised their three children. But a chance encounter with a stranger, a mom at her kid’s school, threw them all an unexpected curveball: Her dying wish was to have Kimberly and Michael take her five children after she died and raise them as her own. What would you do if you were faced with a question that would change your life and those of an entire family that isn’t your own?

Check out this conversation between Laura Cathcart Robbins and Kimberly Russell on The Only One in the Room Podcast. They are two Moms I’d Like to Know. Follow @theonlyoneintheroom on instagram and theonlyonepod.com

MILK Podcast: Lost and Found, Season 3 Episode 13: Electing Black Women during Covid-19, Racial Justice and Higher Heights Redux with Political Fundraiser and Consultant Kimberly Peeler-Allen

Kimberly Peeler Allen is back with Mallory two years later in the MILK Studio. Kimberly has been working at the intersection of race, gender and politics for almost 20 years. She is the Co-founder of Higher Heights, a national organization building the political power and leadership of Black women from the voting booth to elected office.

Higher Heights has helped drive the national narrative about the power of Black women voters and has inspired countless Black women to step into their power whether it is as voters, activists or elected leaders.

Kimberly and her Co-Founder Glynda Carr built Higher Heights from an idea on the back of a placemat into a network of over 90,000 members, donors and activists across the country that have helped elect 10 Black women to Congress, 1 Black woman to the US Senate and grow the number of Black women in statewide executive office and leading our nation’s largest cities.

A highly skilled political fundraiser and event planner, Kimberly was the principal of Peeler-Allen Consulting, LLC from 2003 to 2014, the only African American full-time fundraising consulting firm in New York State. Kimberly served as finance director for Letitia James’ successful bid to become Public Advocate of the City of New York and the first African American woman elected citywide in New York’s history. Kimberly also served as the Co-Executive Director of New York Attorney General Letitia James' Transition Committee when she was elected to that office in November of 2018.

In 2018, Kimberly was selected as one of the Roddenberry Fellowship's 20 established and emerging activists to devote an entire year to projects that will make the U.S. more inclusive and equitable through their inaugural cohort.

Kimberly also serves as a board member of ERA Coalition and the Fund for Women's Equity. She is currently a visiting professor at the Center for American Women and Politics at Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.

She is drawing on her life experience as an organizer and operative to write her first book, Activist Momma, a celebration of this intersection and the gifts that mothers bring to movement work. It profiles the lives of a group of black women who are leading some of the most impactful movements at the local and national level. 

Follow Kimberly on twitter @kimberp_a and @higherheights and @higherheightsPAC to support getting more Black women into elected office. You all better have voted in your state's primaries, or Kimberly will be very disappointed, and you don’t want that.

Episode 43: Two Jews/Three Opinions, The Tree of Life Shooting, and Saving Starfish with Rabbi Leora Kaye

Rabbi Leora Kaye is the Director of Programs at URJ, Union for Reform Judaism, and she joins Mallory in the MILK Studio. They discuss Anti-Semitism, parenting while Jewish, and how we can be more inclusive as Jews and as humans. As a Rabbi, Leora seeks ways to expand people's understanding of Judaism, encouraging them to approach their spiritual lives on their own terms.

Leora's work experience spans the Jewish world and includes education, programming, and filmmaking. She first combined her interests in media and ethics by working on the Sundance award-winning documentary Blue Vinyl. She went on to work as the rabbinic consultant for Shalom Sesame, and has been an adviser on many other media projects. As Director of Community Engagement at Congregation Rodeph Sholom, Leora spearheaded innovative initiatives including the synagogue's groundbreaking conversion program. She also served as the Youth Director of Temple Israel in Boston and as Associate Director of Programming for Synagogue 2000.

In her current position at the URJ, Leora is responsible for creative advancement of the core priorities of the Reform Movement: Tikkun Olam, Strengthening Congregations, Audacious Hospitality, and Youth. Leora graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and received rabbinical ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. She and her husband Doug Gordon, a writer and television producer, live in Brooklyn with their children, Galit and Zeb. She is on twitter @LeoraKaye.

Read more on the Tree of Life Synagogue by Mallory Kasdan in the Washington Post.