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Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams

Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams

By: Dr. Kirk Adams PhD
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 Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams is a compelling podcast series that brings listeners into the world of accessibility, leadership, and social change through the lens of one of the most influential voices in blindness advocacy. Dr. Kirk Adams, former President and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind and a lifelong champion for the rights of people with visual impairments, hosts this insightful and inspiring program.2024 Economics Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Supercharge Your Bottom Line Through Disability Inclusion: April 29, 2025: Kristin Smedley and Charlie Collins, Co-Founders, Thriving Blind Academy

    Supercharge Your Bottom Line Through Disability Inclusion: April 29, 2025: Kristin Smedley and Charlie Collins, Co-Founders, Thriving Blind Academy
    May 29 2025
    In this episode of Supercharge Your Bottom Line Through Disability Inclusion, Dr. Kirk Adams dives deep into the mind-set and mechanics of building a flourishing life and career without sight. Blending scholarship, lived experience and laugh-out-loud storytelling, the trio unpack what really moves the employment needle for blind talent, and how every company's bottom line can grow in the process. ✅ What You'll Learn ✅ The T.H.R.I.V.E.R.™ Formula-Tools, Handi-capable mind-set, Responsibility, Independence & interdependence, Value, Emotion, Risk-taking-and why it's the “operating system” of the Academy. ✅ How a new Grant Cardone Foundation partnership will fly 100 blind youth (ages 15-21) to Miami for elite leadership & financial-literacy training-at no cost to families. ✅ The power of high expectations and internal locus of control in Dr. Adams' own journey from childhood blindness to C-suite leadership. ✅ Why “enabling is disabling” and how letting kids scrape their knees builds unstoppable adults. ✅ Kristin's forthcoming feature film “Curve Ball”-think Erin Brockovich x Rocky-showing how inclusive Little League changes hearts (and wins championships). ✅ Real-world ROI: why only 4 % of DEI programs include disability and how that's leaving billions on the table (plus the fix). 🎙️ Host Dr. Kirk Adams - Former Lighthouse/AFB CEO, PhD in Leadership & Change, and founder of Innovative Impact LLC. 🎤 Guests Kristin Smedley - TEDx speaker, author of Thriving Blind, mom of two blind collegiate honors grads, and the visionary force behind Thriving Blind Academy. Charlie Collins - Best-selling memoirist (Tripping into the Light), serial entrepreneur and certified Jack Canfield Success Principles trainer. 🌉 Connect & Take Action 🔗 Join the Academy (family membership $97/year): ThrivingBlindAcademy.org SYBL-TDI-05-29-2025-Kri… ✈️ Mentor Program (ages 15-21) - limited to 100 seats; apply now! SYBL-TDI-05-29-2025-Kri… 🎬 Support “Curve Ball” and help rewrite Hollywood's blindness narrative. SYBL-TDI-05-29-2025-Kri… 📅 Register for Dr. Adams' next “Supercharge Your Bottom Line” LinkedIn Live (last Thursday monthly). #️⃣ Hashtags #DisabilityInclusion #BlindEmployment #ThrivingBlind #DrKirkAdams #KristinSmedley #CharlieCollins #GrantCardoneFoundation #THRIVER #AccessibleLeadership #DEI #InclusionMatters #Podcast #Webinar TRANSCRIPT: Speaker1: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, doctor Kirk Adams. Speaker2: Welcome, everybody, to Doctor Kirk Adams monthly live stream webinar. I am Doctor Kirk Adams and the webinar is titled Supercharge Your Bottom Line through Disability Inclusion. And we really talk a lot about employment and the barriers to employment for people who are blind, and the success factors that lead to successful employment for people who are blind. And I did my doctoral dissertation, which is called Journeys Through Rough Country Ethnographic study of blind adults employed in large American Corporations. And I learned a lot of things that I see emphasized and highlighted by the thriving Blind Academy. And I have the two co-founders of Thriving Blind Academy with me today. So Kristin and Charlie, if you could say hello. Speaker3: Hey. Good to be here. Speaker4: Hello. My name is Charlie, and I'm also very grateful to be here. Speaker2: Great. Great. So my retina is detached. When I was five years old and I went to a school for blind kids first, second and third grade. And I got three things given to me there that later, as an adult researcher, I found were strong predictors of successful employment for blind adults. One was blindness skills. I learned to read and write Braille the same, same time. Sighted kids were learning to read and write print in first grade. I learned how to travel confidently and safely with a long white cane. And I learned how to type on a typewriter so I could type for my teachers. Today it would be keyboarding and using assistive technology. I was also given high expectations and many kids with disabilities that are their families like mine. My parents were in their mid 20s when my retinas detached. They'd never met a blind person before. So many, many kids are born into families who don't have knowledge or experience, and Sometimes they have preconceived notions about the capabilities of people with disabilities, and they have low expectations of their children. And schools sometimes have low expectations of children, and those become internalized. So my school had high expectations. My parents had high expectations. My dad ...
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: May 22, 2025: Interview with Brandy Schantz, Host, Living Chronic Podcast, Founder Schantz Business Group Disability Consulting, Chair, State of Virginia Rehabilitation Advisory Council

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: May 22, 2025: Interview with Brandy Schantz, Host, Living Chronic Podcast, Founder Schantz Business Group Disability Consulting, Chair, State of Virginia Rehabilitation Advisory Council
    May 22 2025
    In this 34-minute episode, Dr. Kirk Adams speaks with Brandy Schantz—former U.S. Army officer, consultant, and chair of Virginia's State Rehabilitation Advisory Council—about her late-onset disability journey. Schantz describes being diagnosed with severe Crohn's disease, the complications that followed, and how an adverse reaction to medication led to dysautonomia and neuropathy, forcing her to create her own work-from-home accommodations years before remote work became common. The conversation compares the medical and social models of disability, highlights flexible scheduling as a low-cost but effective accommodation, and outlines how wellness and hybrid-work programs can help employers retain skilled staff who develop chronic conditions. Schantz also explains the role of state rehabilitation councils in connecting disabled workers with career supports. TRANSCRIPT: 00:09 Welcome to podcasts by Dr Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Dr Kirk Adams. 00:38 Welcome everybody to podcasts with Dr Kirk Adams, I have a wonderful guest today, Brandy Schantz. Brandy is host of The Living chronic podcast. She's the founder of Schantz business group disability consulting, and she is chair of the state of Virginia's rehabilitation advisory council. So you are a busy bee, Randy, yes, yes, I am. But you know, I have to say, it's been some of the most rewarding work of my life, so busy and humbled at the same time Wonderful. Well, we're going to come back to you and just just a minute and dig into your really interesting journey and your great vision for the future. And for those who don't know me, I am Dr Kirk Adams. I'm talking to you from my home office in Seattle. I am a totally blind person. Have been since age five. My rep was both detached. I went to a school for blind children for second and third grade, and learned to read and write Braille and travel confidently and proudly with a white cane and to type on a typewriter so that I was equipped to succeed in public school, which I started in fourth grade, and I was I was the only blind kid in all of My schools from fourth grade through my PhD, 02:02 I entered the world of business out of college, facing a lot of the barriers to employment that so many of us with significant disabilities experience. So I have a frustrating time finding employment, but I have had the experience of being a successful 02:22 disabled employee in corporate America, working in banking and finance, and I have had the experience of employing large numbers of people with disabilities as president and CEO of the Lighthouse for the Blind and then the American Foundation for the Blind. 02:38 I focus my time and energy now with my consulting practice, innovative impact LLC, and I say I was looking for fun, innovative, high impact projects that will accelerate inclusion of people with disabilities, 02:54 to work with people that I like. And so I met Brandy some time ago, and she kindly invited me to be a guest on her living chronic podcast. I wanted to I wanted to talk less about myself and more about her on so invited her to join me today, and Brandy would just really love to 03:17 hand you the talking stick and hear about your journey and what has led you to focus your intention on disability inclusion, 03:28 what you're doing currently? Where do you see your work going in the future? I would love to love to hear some successes, what's working well, and, of course, any challenges that you may be discovering, and we always learn from our challenges, and then then we'll let people know how to get in touch with you. So the floor is yours. 03:52 Thank you so much for having me on the podcast. You know, I was so excited to meet you, have you on my podcast. I really love the collaboration. It's such a different world here. You know, like you, I started in a different industry. I was an Army officer, and then I went into consulting and did a lot of work in the housing and finance sectors before I really had my own experiences becoming disabled much later in life. As a matter of fact, I had switched careers originally because I was diagnosed with a very severe form of Crohn's disease, and I just frankly, couldn't leave my house before noon, even on my best days. And I needed some sort of job that I could work from home in the mornings. So, you know, I had a little bit of an idea of what it was like to be challenged with a disability. Fortunately, I was able to pivot pretty quickly and deal with that. But five years ago, at what stage you your army career had ended? 05:00 Yeah, at that point, yeah. And you were Yes, yes. I left ...
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    34 mins
  • Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: May 1, 2025: Interview with Barbara Deane and Effenus Henderson, Co-Founders, ISDI and the Northwest Diversity Learning Series (NWDLS)

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: May 1, 2025: Interview with Barbara Deane and Effenus Henderson, Co-Founders, ISDI and the Northwest Diversity Learning Series (NWDLS)
    May 1 2025
    On this episode of Podcasts with Dr. Kirk Adams, Kirk sits down with ISDI co-founders Barbara Deane and Effenus Henderson to explore how the Institute for Sustainable Diversity & Inclusion is helping organizations move “from better arguments to better outcomes.” The trio trace their shared history on Washington State's Governor's Committee on Disability Issues and Employment, then dive into the origins of the Northwest Diversity Learning Series, why 2025's sessions are built around the Aspen Institute's Better Arguments Framework, and how ISO 30415, the Global DEI Benchmarks and intercultural-competence research shape ISDI's evidence-based approach. Listeners will hear candid stories of corporate triumphs and HR “sticky situations,” learn how sponsors co-design each year's curriculum, and discover practical ways to tackle today's backlash against DEI while keeping accessibility and systemic equity front-and-center. Whether you're an HR leader seeking new tools, a manager craving civil discourse, or a changemaker looking for a community of practice, this conversation offers both inspiration and a clear on-ramp to the 2025 NWDLS workshops. Tune in, take notes, and join the movement toward sustainable inclusion. TRANSCRIPT Speaker 1 00:09 Music. Welcome to podcasts by Dr Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Dr Kirk Adams, Speaker 2 00:37 welcome everybody to the cleverly titled podcasts by Dr Kirk Adams, and that is me. I am Dr Kirk Adams, speaking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And today I have two amazing guests, Barbara Dean and Ethan is Henderson. I'm going to tell you how we all got connected in a minute, and then ask them about their incredible journeys. Some years ago, when I was in the role of president and CEO of the satellite House for the Blind, before moving to New York and assuming that same role at American Foundation for the Blind, I was contacted by the transition team for Governor Jay Inslee when he was first elected and asked to serve on his transition team, and shortly thereafter, once he was installed as our governor, asked to join the Governor's Committee on disability issues and employment. And I don't remember FNS if it was the transition team or the Governor's Committee or the Governor's Committee, okay, but you and I spent a lot of time together, yes, and a lot of meetings, and I took a lot of notes whenever you talked, because you had a very deep knowledge about disability inclusion and Federal, State and local policies and the history of diversity, equity, inclusion, and I learned so much from you. And then, of course, in 2016 my wife and I relocated to New York City, and then Washington, DC, as I had the privilege and honor of leading the American Foundation for the Blind Helen Keller's organization through through a transition and a restructuring. And then when I had accomplished what I set out to accomplish, there, I returned home to our cozy little house here in Les, and I decided that I was ready to not lead an organization of that size and scope again. And I love nonprofits. I love nonprofit boards, but I was ready not to report to a nonprofit board for a while, so I decided to strike out on my own and just look for, I say, fun, innovative, high impact projects that would accelerate inclusion of people with disabilities and to work with people I really like. So that's what I'm doing now, and as I followed a blueprint that I discovered on how to launch a consulting business that said, reactivate your network and reach out to people that you trust, admire and respect, tell them what you're doing. So that's when I reached out to effin us on LinkedIn, and said, Remember me from the Governor's Committee. I'm back, and I'm looking for fun, innovative, high impact projects. And he introduced me to Barbara Dean, and Barbara, I think you have, might have got me my first paid training opportunity with Delta Dental of Washington. And I had a chance to talk to all of their HR professionals across their network about disability inclusion on a virtual Zoom meeting. And they asked me how much I would charge. I didn't really know what to say, so I said something, and they paid that was, that was the start of my consulting practice. So I think I have you you to thank Barbara for getting that ball rolling. That sounds good. Yeah. Fast forward a year and a half or so, and fell, fell into deeper conversation about Barbara and FNS, and learned about the Institute for Sustainable diversity and inclusion, which we all fondly call is di and the amazing history of the nonprofit is the place it has held in Our community, not only ...
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    55 mins
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