GirlTrek: When Black Women Walk Together, Things Change

Featuring T. Morgan Dixon, Co-Founder & CEO GirlTrek and Dr. Gary Bennett, Professor and Dean of the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences at Duke University

Morgan: [00:00:34] Girl Trek gets what the women in the civil rights movement got. It's that we can use our bodies as kind of a locus of control, that we can use our bodies as instruments kind of in our own liberation, and that our feet can be kind of the actual tool or pathway to freedom. The optics of black women walking in their neighborhoods, in the blackest neighborhoods across America. And that is a powerful story. And it is a powerful strategy for change, because when black women walk, they talk. And when they talk, they begin to solve problems together. So that is our change theory. [00:01:15][40.6]

Tulaine: [00:01:22] You're listening to System Catalysts. Each week you will hear personal stories of change makers who are bringing more inclusive connective system level solutions to our most persistent challenges. I'm to Layne Montgomery. Many well-intentioned people believe that for sustainable systems change to occur, one must start by tackling flawed systems. This seems to make all the sense in the world. After all, isn't that what the term systems change means? What we often forget is that systems are incredibly complex and mostly out of our direct control. If we begin there, we might quickly end up feeling powerless. But there is one part of the system that we have great agency over our own bodies. Morgan Dickson, co-founder and CEO of Girl Trim, began a health revolution for black women by first taking care of her own health and her communities. When Morgan Dixon and her best friend, Vanessa Garrison, co-founded Girl Chip, they wanted to fix a systemic issue Black women getting sicker and dying younger due to centuries of racial injustice. But they didn't go straight to the health care system or to the many institutions plagued by systemic racism. Instead, they convinced their community to walk every day together. This was back in 2010. Today, Girl Trek is the largest social movement for black women in the country, and their members are organizing in ways that not only improve their health but also spark significant change in their communities. Full disclosure I have the privilege of serving as the board chair of Girl Track. So I'm really excited for you all to hear this conversation. Today, we will learn about a grassroots approach to systems change, one that begins with oneself and one's community and gradually moves toward institutional and policy change. One rooted in our own personal agency. In this episode, Jeff Walker spoke with our guests, Morgan Dixon and Dr. Gary Bennett. [00:04:02][160.0]

Jeff: [00:04:04] It's amazing what you have done already with about a million and a half black women walking together, over half of them every day, which is amazing. We're looking for models and you're definitely one of those for other people to look at and say, How can I do things like that? Building a system change model, being a catalyst officiate you. [00:04:25][21.0]

Morgan: [00:04:26] Thanks for having me, Jeff. You're a good podcast voice. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to. You know, systems change is a big and juicy word, and that fuels exciting to explore. [00:04:37][11.8]

Tulaine: [00:04:42] What today is. A systems Change movement started with two young friends with an idea. Morgan co-founded Girl Track with Vanessa Garrison. The two met in the nineties when they were both college students in Los Angeles. [00:04:56][13.8]

Morgan: [00:04:58] Vanessa, who's been my best friend for 25 years, I went to the University of Southern California and she unfortunately went to UCLA. This is our arrival school. I was in the marching band and so that rivalry was intense. She could care less. She was studying world arts and culture and like, twirling on the grass and studying textiles. [00:05:16][17.9]

Tulaine: [00:05:16] Around the world. [00:05:17][0.5]

Morgan: [00:05:18] She could care less about the rivalry, but for me it was serious. [00:05:20][2.2]

Tulaine: [00:05:22] Morgan, on the other hand, was majoring in business. Despite going to rival colleges and studying completely different subjects. Morgan and Vanessa had something in common. They both worked their way through college at an investment banking firm called DLJ. [00:05:37][15.4]

Morgan: [00:05:39] I was a financial analysts believe it or not. Studied business at USC, and I did it for about five years. I worked my way through college full time, 40 hours a week, and went to school full time. And so did Vanessa. And that was kind of our common ground that there's no way this is ideal what we're doing, working full time and going to really good schools full time. But somehow we're doing it and somehow we're going to need to support each other through this very difficult time. I needed to because I didn't have any money for college and neither did she. And so DLJ offered free meals to their employees, and that was clutch for a college student who was paying her way through college. So these sorts of things bonded Vanessa and I really quickly. And what happened when I was at DLJ is I realized from a systems change perspective. Well, first of all, I was making more money as a 22 year old than either my parents had ever made in their lifetimes, which didn't feel fair to me. It didn't feel fair. And then we were kind of women. Among other women, Vanessa was a receptionist, and all of the receptionists were like, really, really, really beautiful and, like, well-educated women. But there are hardly any men a kind of that level. And then we had kind of Pitney Bowes, which was our kind of it folks. And they were all men of color, black men, Latino men of color. And then the bankers themselves. And there is such a lack of diversity in the room. And I didn't even know that amount of money existed. Like, I didn't even understand that people were taking home tens of millions of dollars on the books and then all the other things, the bonuses and everything. I didn't understand that. And so in some ways that radicalized me just in some ways, I didn't believe in business anymore. I thought maybe I could get myself and my family out of poverty by starting kind of a storefront. I didn't understand investment banking at the time. And so it really was disruptive in my life. And I was thinking, there's no way in this lifetime I get ahead enough to be able to support my sisters in Saint Louis or my uncle in Crenshaw, Mississippi, or rebuild the porch of my grandmother's house. There's no way I can get ahead quickly enough unless I kill myself doing it. Like, there's no way. And so I decided to live instead. And I decided to be radical about my own life instead and to live boldly, kind of outside of the constructs of injustice. And so I tried to exploit every opportunity to live my best life outside of systems of oppression and injustice. And so that meant studying power. So I changed my major from business to politics into political science. And I changed my major to a double major in African-American studies to really come from an asset lens and say, what do we have that is powerful? [00:08:36][176.9]

Jeff: [00:08:37] It's a great story of that. Thank you for that. So when you looked at system change, a lot of different cases, people identify something that they can affect, change around, something that they can focus everyone around, that people can be passionate about. And yours is clearly, you know, this idea of equity. And so how did you guys come up with this health intervention and how did you decide, I'm going to unite black women? And you could do a lot of things that you somehow you guys connected around this idea. [00:09:10][32.8]

Morgan: [00:09:11] Yeah. You know, it's fascinating. It's because we didn't have a target audience. We were the target audience. And so we had to figure out things that allowed us to live, thrive. I am a student of history, and I love American history. And I particularly like understanding and studying the stories of forefathers and the founding of America. And, you know, they were on to something with this idea of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness later property, or they're onto something. And when you are starting kind of a revolution of ideas and culture, you really do have to start with the system of the body, right? You have to be able to live in your your family has to be able to live, and you have to be able to provide food for yourself and clean drinking water for yourself. And that might sound dramatic. But the state of affairs in America is one in which people who look like me and people who have my background, my particular background, where I'm one one generation from two farmers, my father and my mother. We're both sharecroppers. It's very easy that I could not provide for myself in this country. And so I want to start by. Providing for myself. And I want to start by living in a world where I don't feel so much stress that my chest is tight every day. And so I actually knew that I needed to feel this notion of freedom and liberation in my own body first. And then I didn't actually need to ask permission for that. And that felt powerful. So if I could somehow eke out space to be able to exist in my own body and not be valued by my labor to others and not give myself away to kind of the machine of both capitalism, of democracy, of whatever it is that uses black women's bodies, Then if I could somehow. Reclaim my body. That that was a starting place. And so I did that and Vanessa did that. And so we challenged each other to try to get healthy. You know, if anyone's seen our TED Talk, Vanessa talks about losing the women in her family prematurely. [00:11:17][126.3]

Vanessa: [00:11:19] One night after pressing my hair before the first day of eighth grade, my grandmother went to bed and never woke up dead at 66 years old from a heart attack. By the time I would graduate college, I would lose two more beloved family members to chronic disease. My aunt Diane dead at 55, my Aunt Tricia dead at 63. After living with these losses, the hole that they left, I decided to calculate the life expectancy of the women in my family staring back at me. The number 65. I knew I could not sit by and watch another woman I love die an early death. [00:11:55][35.3]

Tulaine[00:11:57] Vanessa's story is a reflection of the reality of our country. Due to racism, sexism and other systemic barriers that have contributed to income inequality. Black women have a life expectancy 5 to 10 years lower than other racial groups. Around 80% of black women are overweight and over half of them are obese. In an attempt to counter this, Morgan and Vanessa challenged themselves and other women in their community to improve their health. [00:12:25][28.7]

Morgan: [00:12:27] We landed on walking every day because we didn't we weren't athletes. [00:12:31][4.4]

Jeff: [00:12:32] So it's not. [00:12:35][2.7]

Morgan: [00:12:36] Like I did backpacking. I did all sorts of things. But really, like, come on, who are we kidding? I need something that is affordable, that is in backpacking, is not affordable to me. I went through an astronaut leadership instructor. Now I did not. It's not affordable. I can barely afford the boot. [00:12:52][16.7]

Jeff: [00:12:55] He did the. [00:12:55][0.3]

Morgan: [00:12:55] Chicago half marathon together. It was she did great. It was really pathetic for me. So I needed something I could do everyday that was affordable, that was accessible, and that was meaningful. And so we did a ten week challenge with just our friends, which has over 500 people on this old school email listserv. And we said, Can you walk ten weeks with us, five days a week, 30 minutes a day? [00:13:15][20.0]

Tulaine: [00:13:16] Morgan and Vanessa had read that walking for 30 minutes, five days a week helped disrupt disease and build overall health. [00:13:24][7.4]

Morgan: [00:13:25] Walking is such a powerful prescription that if it were in a pill form, it would be a magical drug. It reduces diabetes and heart disease and many, many other deadly and chronic diseases. Almost by half if you just walk 30 minutes a day. So we are on to something and all of our friends did it with us. We walked for ten weeks while we were working other jobs. I was working at Teach for America and I was a classroom teacher. And when the ten weeks are over, Jeff, people are like, okay, what are we doing next? We're going to work. So we knew we were on to something. There is such like a craving for like continued empowerment and advocacy for ourselves. [00:14:04][38.6]

Tulaine: [00:14:09] They kept the momentum going and launched a girl drink in 2010. Four years later, with 20,000 members, they set the ambitious goal of reaching 1 million by the end of 2020. Today, Girl Trek has approximately 1.5 million members, representing 7% of the total population of African-American women in the United States. Over 60% of the members have lost weight. 90% are now experiencing fewer symptoms of depression. [00:14:38][29.3]

Dr.Bennett: [00:14:40] It really works. And it works for a couple of reasons. So the biggest challenges that we have in physical activity promotion are developing and sustaining motivation and keeping people engaged. [00:14:51][11.3]

Tulaine: [00:14:53] That is Dr. Gary Bennett, a behavior change scientist and a Girl Trek board member. [00:14:58][4.9]

Dr.Bennett: [00:14:59] For the long time horizon, it's often necessary for people to experience physical changes that accrue to physical activity promotion. And people in my world of behavior change. Science have spent a long time asking a very simple question. It's actually why I got into the field. How do you motivate people to do something that's good for them that they don't necessarily want to do? In the case of physical activity, it's a real challenge. If people have been sedentary, getting off the couch and moving around hurts. You sweat sometimes. If you move too quickly, you can experience injury. All of these things are not particularly motivational. It's often difficult to find people to do it with you, and if you do, it's hard to find people who will support you while you're doing. All of these things are real. Create friction in the development of motivation. And what Girl Trek has done on the motivational side is that they've nailed the two things that I think are absolutely critical. How do you incentivize people to develop kind of a motivational spirit? And they do this through appeals that are grounded in history and culture. And once they have a little bit of motivation, they help them to join a social group that will continue to keep them motivated and provide the social support that's necessary to keep them engaged. And so women join the walking groups and they do it over the long term. I can't describe it the ways in which those challenges have been the target of a considerable amount of scholarly attention for a long, long time. And I think without appreciating the several hundred papers that underpin what they're doing, they really nailed it. And that that, to me, is just it's very exciting. [00:16:34][95.1]

Tulaine: [00:16:35] Dr. Bennett first encountered Girl Trek years ago at a workshop by the Council on Black Health. [00:16:40][4.8]

Dr.Bennett: [00:16:41] It's a collection of mostly academic researchers and some community activists who've been interested in animated by topics related to improving the health of black populations. And at the time, we were heavily focused on obesity. And so we had a lot of obesity scholars who were there, and we were trying to think about how to hear from voices who were dealing with issues that were related to the topics of obesity, physical activity, nutrition, but who were outside the academic community. And I won't forget this because I was on the planning committee and I heard someone say, Well, what about Girl Track? And a few folks in the room had a sense of who they were. And I was a little suspicious. I was like, what are they what are we talking about here? That they're making walking groups. Okay. Like, that's that's it's cool. That's cool. That's interesting. But, you know, what's what's their take? What do they have? What they have to contribute to our to our conversation here. And that day that they came in to do the workshop, I was sitting in the back of the room and Morgan was leading the presentation and I saw a vision in her comments as she was walking through the mission of Girl Track, her aspirations and and at that time I think they had about 100,000 women walking. And she stated with absolute unapologetic clarity that aspiration of Girl Trek was to get a million black women walking. And I sat in the back of the room. At this point, I'm ten years into my academic career. I'm a pointy headed academic. I've brands, I have papers, I'm a public health scholar as a Harvard professor. People thought I knew what I was talking about. Some days of the week. I thought I knew what I was talking about. And I sat in the back of the room and I was moved beyond measure. I sat in the back of the room and I thought I hadn't seen anything. I hadn't heard of anything quite like what Morgan and Vanessa were imagining. It was completely aligned with what I thought of at that time as a public health approach to this pandemic of inactivity and of obesity and of stress and overwhelm. And I was I was bowled over. I can't I can't even really put into words. It was one of those moments where, you know, there's some times when folks who are just mission driven, utterly charismatic, they can just, in fact, even excite you. And if you can get a point headed academic who's a little bit cynical about these things, excited, you're doing something. So I went up to them like a fanboy extraordinaire at the end of this talk. And I think I, you know, lay prostrate and said, if I can be helpful in any way at any point, you just let me know. I know I'm a guy. Just do I do work in this area. Whatever I can do, let me know if I can do a little review on your guy. Well, lo and behold, they called me. And shortly thereafter, I found myself on their board. And I've been involved ever since. And I'm fond of saying, and I believe this more today than I did, that I have never seen a finer example of a public health intervention than his girl track. It is absolutely inherent to all of the scholarly imaginings of what a public health intervention should be. But it's better than that because it's grounded in an organic movement that's linked deeply with history and culture, and it moves people in the same way. I was moved all those years ago, and when they had a million women walking, I cheered. I teared up and I learned at that moment never to question the intentions and the drive and the will of people who are moved by their values and who have the sort of charismatic appeal that we're going to be at. [00:20:16][215.2]

Tulaine: [00:20:19] But these women aren't just improving their health. They are building community and organizing in different ways from cleaning their neighborhoods and joining social justice movements to launching search committees for missing children. [00:20:33][13.3]

Dr.Bennett: [00:20:34] The walking is a critically important part of what's happening. Everyone knows that. But actually, when you're on the walk, people are talking about events and they're talking about everything. And there's multigenerational parts of this. And the fact that the movement don't like the fact that history and culture are interjected into these conversations, I think provides more opportunities for substantive relationships to be formed and to be formed in ways that aren't necessarily about the walking. And that is really, really important, again, in getting people motivated, keeping them motivated, and helping them to think about themselves as being connected with something bigger than themselves. One of the fundamental understandings in behavior change is that if we can get people connected with the idea that they're doing something bigger than them, we can often help to create a sense of purpose that helps to build and sustain that motivation. And I think that's what they're doing, particularly with the movement building elements for Morgan. [00:21:30][55.4]

Tulaine: [00:21:30] What's powerful about this movement is that it starts with one's body. [00:21:34][4.0]

Morgan: [00:21:36] We can use our bodies as kind of a locus of control, that we can use our bodies as instruments kind of in our own liberation, and that our feet can be kind of the actual tool or pathway to freedom. And that is powerful because we do walk in the legacy of the civil rights movement. And so it's so it's powerful. The optics of black women walking in their neighborhoods, in the blackest neighborhoods across America, we literally figuring out which when the thousand black neighborhoods in America and made sure we had women walking in those neighborhoods. And that is a powerful story. And it is a powerful strategy for change, because when black women walk, they talk. And when they talk, they begin to solve problems together. So that is our change theory. We walk, we talk, and we solve problems together at scale. So when I lace up my sneakers like I did this morning and I walk out, it feels really like a radical act of hopefulness and mindfulness and optimism. And that feels necessary right now. [00:22:46][69.3]

Tulaine: [00:23:34] Girl Trek has also grown their movement and spread a culture of health through their popular podcast, Black History Boot Camp. [00:23:42][7.2]

Morgan: [00:23:43] We created something called Black History Boot Camp during COVID. One because it was a scary time, not only in terms of just isolation, which we know can be deadlier than cigaret smoking, particularly in graduated ages for our seniors and our elders. Social isolation is deadly. So that was frightening. But then there's a global pandemic that we had no idea where there was going to be an end. And we just it was scary. And a lot of women and Girl Trek really depended on convening in the streets of their neighborhoods with neighbors as a source of hopefulness. So we looked for another source, which was the road we have traveled. And black history is full of affirmation, and it is full of stories of resilience and blueprints for change making. It's full of them. Shock for. [00:24:34][51.2]

Morgan: [00:24:35] Shock. [00:24:35][0.0]

Morgan: [00:24:35] For one of my favorite stories that we told was a woman named Georgia Gilmore. And please listen to that episode. [00:24:42][6.4]

Tulaine: [00:24:43] You can find a link to this episode in our show Notes. [00:24:45][2.3]

Morgan: [00:24:46] Talks about a woman in Montgomery who is not the character that you may put in your annual report as like the Changemaker of the year. She curse too much, lots of profanity, had lots of children. She was kind of a big, towering figure in Montgomery, and everybody loved her, but she wasn't going to be a talking head. She's going to tell it like it was. And Georgia Gilmore during the Montgomery bus boycott was pivotal. [00:25:15][28.5]

Tulaine: [00:25:18] The Montgomery bus boycott was a 13 month mass protest in 1955. It ended with the ruling that segregation on public busses is unconstitutional. [00:25:27][9.9]

Morgan: [00:25:30] She was also a really great cook. I mean, she made good lime of beans and good black eyed peas and good sweet potatoes. She made incredible fried chicken and pork chops and fried fish. And people knew Georgia's food. And so what happened during the Montgomery bus boycott, I'm sure all of your listeners are students of history, but this is where African-Americans decide who who are. The majority of bus riders decided to stop taking public transportation in protest so that they could protest the segregation laws on the bus where they had to sit at the back of the bus. It was incredibly effective. But one of the reasons it was effective is because there was an alternative way to get people to work, right? So lots of people walk to work, which is great. And beautiful photos there, and it's an inspiration for Girl Track. But then lots of people worked as domestics far off and they needed to get to work and so they needed to coordinate drivers. Some of those like Uber before Uber, and they needed to pay and compensate those drivers. And so Georgia Gilmore sold soul food, used the money to be a philanthropist, to underwrite the cost of drivers in the Montgomery bus boycott. It was a pivotal role She gave more than anybody else during that period. It was fascinating. Her entire business model was to make this food at a low cost, sell it because it was delicious, and then underwrite the needs of the drivers and sell it. She became so famous, you know, the Kennedys came and got her food. Dr. King came and got her food. And it was really important, the role that she played. And so we tell stories like her so that ordinary women understand how powerful their change making can be to change systems, right? That it's kind of one vital input, that is a necessary input that someone may have missed. Someone may have missed. That's the power proximate leadership that nobody was paying the drivers was clutch in that strategy. It was clutch and only she knew how to do that in a quick turnaround. [00:27:29][119.4]

Tulaine: [00:27:30] Just like in the past, black women today are showing up for their communities in incredible ways. And these are the kind of women Girl Trek recruits. [00:27:38][7.9]

Morgan: [00:27:40] The women who work on the national team are experts from the field and have earned a spot on the national team because they've done the work already and they come with receipts of great respect in the streets. So those are women like Cynthia, who's in Jackson, Mississippi. And Cynthia was a reluctant organizer. She was very active in her church. She came with a very soft voice and she said, I don't think I can do these talking points. And we saw something in her. We have something called the three R's, which is, are you reliable? Do you show up rain or shine? These are audience organizers. Do you have radiance? Which for us is like Fannie Lou Hamer, doesn't mean you have to be a size six. It means that you don't have to talk about being healthy because people see it from the inside out. They see your glow, they see that you're doing the work and they want to be like you. We call that radiance. And then the third R's rallying when you speak to people follow, right? So if it's if you're on the Usher board at church and you are coming out doing an army of ushers, like when you talk to people follow. So Cynthia had all three, but she didn't know it. She didn't know it, but we did. We're pretty good at that. It's one of the things I think Vanessa and I are great at is really identifying talent. And when I tell you, Jeff, in two years, she had organized hundreds of walking crews all across the state of Mississippi, became the most powerfully organized state in the entire girl track movement. And in fact, we lost one of the organizers she identified. She died in the streets from a heart attack. Her name was Donna Stamps, and she was from Edwards, Mississippi. And this tiny town of Edwards, Mississippi, when we got the phone call that Donna passed away, I was nervous, Jeff. I was nervous that she was walking, that she passed away, that she had an girl. I was just nervous about this movement in liability and protecting. And I'm embarrassed now to even say that because her entire community rallied behind her, invited us to the funeral girl. Truckers from all across the state of Mississippi showed up where these big, beautiful corsages leukocytes. The choir saying there's an army rising up to break every chain. Her daughter became an organizer. They do a walk for Donna every single year. And I am saying that black women are still dying and we know that. So that is an example of what happens that when one of us falls, ten more. And Cynthia now is leading all of our faith based initiatives on the national team. And I called her in November and I said, Cynthia, we have the funding. And she was like, Let's talking about it. It's like, I want you to lead all of our churches. And she said, What do you mean? I said, I want you to join the national team and lead all our churches, organize all the churches in the country, the black churches in the country, and put walking teams in every black church. And she started crying and she said, Choose working. Well, this is the funny, really small part of the story is after she started organizing with Girl Track, she read she ran for school board and won. So talk about systems change. So she's now on girl tracks, national staff. She's uniting the faith based communities. She's putting girl track crews in every black church. That is the caliber of national staff member and girl track. [00:31:01][201.5]

Tulaine: [00:31:02] Girl Track has big plans for the future. Their goal is to better support their members, creating change in their communities, as well as implement policy change. [00:31:10][8.4]

Morgan: [00:31:12] So we've developed something called the Wavemaker app, which will be a $100 million fund to put money in the hands of proximate leaders. It will be a match fund where if you walk, your miles are matched to dollars. And that's important because as we are walking, we are auditing the needs of our neighborhoods and that's powerful. If we walk and say, you know, we could put a community garden here, but unless you have the $2,000 to buy seed, to get soil, to put the garden there, it feels like it's not attainable. But if you got 20 of your friends to walk 100 miles with you and the now you've earned $2,000 and you spend down that money, and then we tell the story and we elevate the story of women working together in order to grow food and a food desert or a food swap. We want to stand behind that as an organization. So our women are out there walking. We've been walking for years now. We've been greeting our neighbors, we've been picking up trash. We've been doing the things that are necessary to earn the trust of our community. And now we are ready to lead. We have been training. That's why it's called boot camp. We have been training, we've been exercising. We are ready and energized army of do gooders that are ready to get out and make change. So that's what's coming forward with Girl Trek. In addition to that, because we understand that local action is powerful, that proximate leadership is powerful, but we also understand that policy matters, right? We also understand that fair pay matters, that land distribution matters, that the way that in environmental oh my God, climate change is really important to the health of black women. Right? And so how do we then direct this army in really powerful ways to affect policy and to get involved in democracy in a powerful way? So we said we walk together. That's behavior change. We know walking is the single most powerful thing you do. We talk together, walk, talk, which is narrative change. We are creating inspiration on the ground level and creating macro narratives of change making with black women. And then we solve problems together, both by putting money in the hands of proximate leaders and by changing policy. We achieved our mission in 2020, which was to rally and inspire million black women to walk for better health and to inspire daughters. We did that. It was November 18th, 2020. Tamika Cornelius became our millionth member. So that was mission accomplished. We really could have closed the door saying we had behavior change. We really could have said mission accomplished. What you don't hear in nonprofits very much, and that's a reason to celebrate. Well, we said when we get to a million, we will ask a million black women what we do next. We did. We took two years to listen and now we have a new mission. And that mission is to increase the life expectancy of black women by ten years, in ten years. So we're going to take the next year and a half to really scale up to get infrastructure, to get the funding we need. We're going to start that new mission in 2025 and we are going to achieve it by 2035. And that requires systems. So we are super excited about that. We've cataloged all of the things that make black women live longer, but all of the things that are killing black women and we are engineering solutions to make sure that we can increase life expectancy. So that feels very exciting. And I can't wait to celebrate with you in 2035. [00:34:24][192.0]

Tulaine: [00:34:28] And now our Rapid Fire segment. [00:34:30][1.9]

Jeff: [00:34:34] What's one word to describe your journey as a system catalyst? [00:34:37][2.8]

Morgan: [00:34:39] I think, hungry. I know that sounds silly, but I have such an appetite for change making and I'm always looking for the next best solution. I'm just hungry for change making. [00:34:54][15.2]

Jeff: [00:34:55] What's been one of the most gratifying moments along this journey? [00:34:58][2.2]

Morgan: [00:34:59] There is a national convention of the Church of God in Christ, and it is the largest gathering of African Americans as a convention in the country. It's a gorgeous place to go. Well, my mother was there. [00:35:11][12.2]

Morgan: [00:35:12] And so. [00:35:12][0.2]

Morgan: [00:35:14] I got I went to the White House. Jeff, I've I've been in magazines on CNN, all these sorts of things. When I tell you, this woman was not more proud than the moment I. [00:35:23][9.4]

Morgan: [00:35:24] Stood on. [00:35:24][0.5]

Morgan: [00:35:24] The Kodak Convention stage and talked about the power of black women walking together in common cause, she gave me a one woman, one mother's standing ovation. And I tell you, for me, as one of the members of Girl Track, it felt like I was bringing change to my community. And that is the heart of girl Track is how can you influence the behavior, the narrative, and the systems within your proximate kind of locus of control? [00:35:52][28.0]

Jeff: [00:35:54] What about your organization keeps you up at night? [00:35:55][1.4]

Morgan: [00:35:57] Scale. You know someone. One time I was writing a grant and they were asking us to do a competitive analysis of the other organizations that are doing this work, you know? And I said, No, we are competing against the McDonald's marketing budget. That is our competition. Like, how do we make walking sexier than a Big Mac saying that's what we really are trying to do? But it feels like it requires I know it requires a level of fiscal sponsorship and investment that keeps me up at night, but I'm up for it because I worked at an investment bank and I know that resources are not scarce at all. So $100 million is. [00:36:40][42.9]

Morgan: [00:36:40] The tip of. [00:36:41][0.5]

Morgan: [00:36:41] The iceberg. [00:36:41][0.1]

Jeff: [00:36:43] For listeners who are wanting to be people like you. System Catalyst, how do you think they have to start? [00:36:48][4.8]

Morgan: [00:36:49] You have to start by what works for you. You have to start by figuring out the gaps and systems that first of all, you can find some air and some space to be able to leverage change. And then you have to do what works for your aunt, for your mother, for your neighbor, for your cousin. Figure out how everyone can thrive in your community. And it doesn't have to be a zero sum game. How can you thrive without asking permission from anyone else? Do that in scale. That is something that I think is really important. And then when you get the momentum, then you can change the difficult. People start with the difficult and get completely demolished and deflated by these kinds of systems. If we started with the food systems. My God, I would have quit ten years ago. And yet I understand that food is half of the equation in Girl Trek. But we started with something we could control, which was our behaviors. Then we moved on to something we could with a little bit of power, a little bit of amplification control, which was the narrative and mindset. And now that we have collective power, we have people power. We can now change systems. I think there are many pathways to systems change. This is the grassroots pathway, the movement building people power pathway. [00:38:11][82.5]

If you want to learn more about GirlTrek, head on over to girltrek.org