KUCI: Get the Funk Out!

EUNICE LIN NICHOLS
Vice President, Innovation, Encore.org
@eunicelnichols
ABOUT EUNICE
Eunice Lin Nichols is obsessed with bringing older and younger generations together to solve society’s greatest challenges, creating a better future for all. She is Vice President of Innovation at Encore.org where she leads the Gen2Gen Innovation Fellowship.
Previously, she ran the Generation to Generation campaign, an initiative to mobilize 1 million adults 50+ to help young people thrive and The Purpose Prize (now a program of AARP), which has awarded over $5 million in prizes to nearly 100 social entrepreneurs over the age of 60 since 2006. She also spent 11 years leading a portfolio of initiatives to expand the social contributions of older adults in California, including scaling Experience Corps from one neighborhood school in San Francisco into a thriving Bay Area program helping thousands of kids read by third grade.
Eunice has been recognized as a Next Avenue Influencer in Aging and is a graduate of the Billions Institute Fellowship for Large-Scale Change. In 2019, she received the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award for advancing innovative and effective solutions to California’s most significant issues.

Lisa Marsh Ryerson is president of AARP Foundation, the charitable affiliate of AARP. A bold, disciplined, and collaborative leader, she sets the Foundation’s strategic direction and steers its efforts to realize an audacious vision: a country free of poverty, where no older person feels vulnerable.
Since she took the helm, AARP Foundation has implemented pioneering initiatives, explored new avenues for collaboration, and secured unprecedented funding to support programs and services that truly change lives. In its last three-year strategic plan, AARP Foundation generated over $5 billion of income for older adults through work and jobs, tax refunds, and credits and food security benefits.
She also has served on the boards of numerous higher education and nonprofit organizations, including the Council of Independent Colleges, Southern New Hampshire University, Shriver Center on Poverty Law, the Congressional Hunger Center, and National Women’s History Museum.
Lisa has spearheaded innovative partnerships with other organizations to create and advance effective solutions that help vulnerable older adults increase their economic opportunity and social connectedness. Before joining AARP Foundation, Lisa served as the president and CEO of Wells College in Aurora, NY.
Twitter: @PresRyerson
WATCH: http://getthefunkoutshow.kuci.org

Ernest Gonzales, PhD, MSSW - Associate Professor; Director of the MSW Program and The Center for Health and Aging Innovation
Areas of Expertise: Gerontology and productive aging: employment, volunteering, and caregiving; health equity; discrimination and prejudice; intergenerational research; cross-national aging research; social policy
Biography
Ernest Gonzales is an Associate Professor, Director of the MSW Program at NYU Silver, and Director of The Center for Health and Aging Innovation. He is a scholar in the areas of productive aging (employment, volunteering, and caregiving), health equity, discrimination and social policy. His research advances our understanding of the relationships between healthy aging, social determinants of health, productive activities, and intergenerational contexts. His research has been supported by The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institute on Aging, U.S. Social Security Administration, AARP Foundation, Fan Fox and Samuels Foundation, and other public and private funders. Dr. Gonzales publishes in leading scientific journals and he is on several editorial boards.
READ MORE: getthefunkoutshow.kuci.org

Let's Talk Race pulls no punches as it examines why white people struggle to talk about race, why we need to talk about race, and what obstacles preclude conversations that promote racial understanding and social action for racial equity.
Written by two specialists in race relations and parents of two adopted African American sons, the book provides unique insights and practical guidance richly illustrated with personal examples, anecdotes, and prompts for personal reflection and conversations about race.
Coverage includes:
Seeing the varied forms of racism
How we normalize and privilege whiteness
Essential and often unknown elements of Black history that inform the present
Racial disparities in education, health, criminal justice, and wealth
Understanding racially linked cultural differences
How to find conversational partners and create safe spaces for conversations
Conversational do's and don'ts.
Let's Talk Race is for all white people who want to face the challenges of talking about race and work towards equality.
Fern L. Johnson, PhD, is Senior Research Scholar and Professor Emerita at Clark University, specializing in race, culture, and language. Her publications include Speaking Culturally and Imaging in Advertising, and many journal articles. Fern co-authored, with Marlene Fine, The Interracial Adoption Option, which draws on their experience as white parents of African American son
Marlene G. Fine, PhD, is Professor Emerita at Simmons University, specializing in cultural diversity, leadership, and dialogue. She authored Building Successful Multicultural Organizations, and her articles appear in a broad range of journals. She is a seasoned speaker and workshop facilitator. She lives near Boston, Massachusetts.

Steven Rowley, bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus and The Editor, returns this May with THE GUNCLE, a warm and deeply funny summer read about a once-famous gay sitcom star who, after an unexpected family tragedy, gains custody of his niece and nephew for the summer. It’s a moving tribute to the power of love, patience, and family in even the most trying of times, wrapped up in the humor and heart that have become trademarks of his work, and will be sure to please readers of Rowley’s earlier novels and fans of Andrew Sean Greer, Maria Semple, Grant Ginder, and Matt Haig. THE GUNCLE is a perfect book for summer reading and Pride Month coverage.
"A laugh-out-loud heartwarmer." —O, The Oprah Magazine

Synopsis:
The film tells the inspiring true story of Dream Alliance, an unlikely race horse bred by small town Welsh bartender, Jan Vokes (Academy Award® nominee Toni Collette). With very little money and no experience, Jan convinces her neighbors to chip in their meager earnings to help raise Dream in the hopes he can compete with the racing elites. The group's investment pays off as Dream rises through the ranks with grit and determination and goes on to race in the Welsh Grand National showing the heart of a true champion.
Run Time:
113 minutes
Website/Socials:
#DreamHorse

Danielle Henderson, a TV writer for shows including Maniac, Divorce, and Difficult People, creator of the viral Feminist Ryan Gosling meme, and cohost of the podcast I Saw What You Did, shares her memoir THE UGLY CRY. With signature humor, wit and deep insight, she reminisces on being Black, weird, and overwhelmingly uncool in a predominantly white, granola town in upstate New York.
“The Ugly Cry is the funniest memoir I have ever read. It is also achingly sad. And powerfully redemptive.”
– Augusten Burroughs, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Running with Scissors
“If you fight that motherf**ker and you don’t win, you’re going to come home and fight me.” Not the advice you’d normally expect from your grandmother—but Danielle Henderson would be the first to tell you her childhood was anything but conventional. In her memoir, THE UGLY CRY, she shares how she grew up and grew wise with the help of her foul-mouthed, horror film-loving grandmother in Warwick, NY.
Abandoned at ten years old by a mother who wanted to start a new family with her drug-addicted, abusive boyfriend, Danielle was raised by grandparents who thought their child-rearing days had ended in the 1960s. Under the eye-rolling, coarse, loving tutelage of her unapologetic grandmother—and the horror movies she obsessively watched—Danielle grew into a tall, awkward, Sassy-loving teenager who wore black eyeliner as lipstick and was struggling with the aftermath of her mother’s choices. But she also learned that she had the strength and smarts to save herself, her grandmother gifting her with a faith in her own capabilities that the world would not have most Black girls possess. With humor, wit and deep insight, Henderson upends our conventional understanding of family and redefines its boundaries to include millions of people who share her story.
In interviews, Danielle Henderson discusses:
· Growing up Black and on food stamps in the overwhelmingly white, crunchy town of Warwick, NY
· How being raised by her strong, unfaltering grandmother whose unconventional ways of expressing love taught Danielle to have a strong will and a sharp sense of humor
· How she has learned to overcome, deal with, and talk about childhood trauma
· Her grandmother’s hysterical, wildly inappropriate, yet sound advice
· Where the title of the book THE UGLY CRY came from
· The role that research played in her writing process, as she depicts details from coming of age in the 1970s such as escalators in Macy’s and New Jersey’s infamous Action Park
· What it means that Danielle is moving back to Warwick this year to care for her grandmother – the very person who saved her life.
Danielle Henderson reminds us of the capacity we all have to survive, the momentous joy we can find amidst the moments of pain, and that laughter can be found at every one of life’s corners. Razor sharp, irresistibly charming, and utterly hilarious, THE UGLY CRY is both Danielle’s happy ending and the beginning of what is sure to be a long writing career of a breakout talent.
About the Author:
Danielle Henderson is a TV writer whose credits include Maniac, Divorce, and Difficult People. A retired freelance writer and former editor for Rookie, she has been published by The New York Times, The Guardian, AFAR Magazine, BuzzFeed, and The Cut. A book based on her popular website, Feminist Ryan Gosling, was released in 2012. Danielle currently co-hosts the podcast I Saw What You Did There with Millie De Chirico about the weird ways we respond to and learn to love movies. She likes to watch old episodes of Doctor Who when she is on deadline, one of her tattoos is based on the movie Rocky, and she will never stop using the Oxford comma.

Synopsis:
From Kim A. Snyder, director of the Peabody Award-winning documentary Newtown, comes an insightful, rousing coming-of-age story of a generation of youth leaders determined to take the reins and fight for justice at a most critical time in our nation's history. Sparked by the plague of gun violence ravaging their schools, Us Kids chronicles the March For Our Lives movement over the course of several years, following X Gonzalez, its co-founders, survivors and a group of teenage activists as they pull off the largest youth protest in American history and set out across the country and globally to build an inclusive and unprecedented youth movement that addresses gun violence prevention, racial justice, a growing public health crisis, and shocks a political system into change.
Watch The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Interview: X González’s March for Our Lives Documentary Made Sundance Film Festival History - NBC.com
X González’s March for Our Lives Documentary Made Sundance Film Festival History #Sundance #USKids #Fallon #JimmyFallon #Kim Snyder

Imagine the nicest, liveliest, most gregarious self-made entrepreneur you could ever hope to meet. This is Southern California born and bred financial advisor, Michael Warkentin. Then recognize that he also happens to be quadriplegic. Altitude Not Attitude follows one man’s ambitious once-in-a-lifetime global adventure, traveling around the world amongst gorgeous European landmarks and spectacular vistas, all while exploring the six phases of recovery to which everyone who has experienced tragedy can relate. The uplifting and award-winning documentary premieres on Apple+TV and ITUNES on June 8th distributed by Gravitas Ventures, a Red Arrow Studios Company. The feature film marks a directorial debut for the promising Hispanic actress-turned filmmaker Magi Avila (A Better Life, Dog Eat Dog, First Kill).

Generations United (gu.org)
Donna Butts is the Executive Director of Generations United, a position she has held since 1997. For more than 30 years, Butts has worked tirelessly to promote the well-being of children, youth and older adults through nonprofit organizations across the country and around the world. She began her career in her home state of Oregon as a youth worker with the YWCA, where she worked one-on-one with teens and saw the positive effects of intergenerational programs firsthand.
Butts has held leadership positions with Covenant House, a New York-based international youth serving organization, and the National 4-H Council. She served as the Executive Director for the National Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting and Prevention before taking the helm of Generations United.
An internationally sought-after speaker, author and advocate, Butts frequently speaks on intergenerational connections, grandparents raising grandchildren and policies effective across the lifespan. Her commentary has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor and the Wall Street Journal. She has been interviewed on the TODAY Show, National Public Radio and ABC News, and was invited by the United Nations to sit on four expert panels most recently on intergenerational solidarity and social cohesion in preparation for the 2014 20th anniversary of the International Year or the Family.
In 2004, Butts was honored with the National Council on Aging’s Jack Ossofsky for Leadership, Creativity, and Innovation in Programs and Services for Older Persons. She served as a 2005 delegate to the White House Conference on Aging. A respected author, she has written countless articles, chapters and publications regarding the welfare of children, youth and older adults.
Butts received her undergraduate degree from Marylhurst College and is a graduate of Stanford University’s Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders. She is a former chair of the board of the International Consortium of Intergenerational Programmes (ICIP) and serves on the board of the Journal of Intergenerational Relationships. She was recognized three years in a row (2012, 2013 and 2014) by The Nonprofit Times as one of the Top 50 most powerful and influential nonprofit executives in the nation.
In 2015, she was named one of the Top 50 Influencers in Aging by Next Avenue. Under her leadership, Generations United received the 2015 Eisner Prize for Excellence in Intergenerational Advocacy. Recently she was honored with one of the 2017 International Federation for Family Development Awards.
Check out Generations United’s newest report, Family Matters: Multigenerational Living Is on the Rise and Here to Stay.