 break in the midst of the in the middle of the present in the middle of the story just for you to get a moment to think about what you think is going to happen next and then we'll move on to the rest of the presentation. I may ask a couple of questions if you don't have anything to say that's fine if so just chime it out and that'll be great and I'll just move forward so let me know if for some reason you cannot hear the audio that I'm about to play but here we go. Acceptance. She was so excited. She recently found out she was accepted to the college of her choice. She would be the first in her family to attend and graduate from college. The one person more excited about her acceptance was her mother. She was so proud. Her baby girl was going to college. She couldn't wait to brag to her brothers and sisters about her great daughter. She went to share the news with her brother. After all he always helped her daughter with her homework. When she shared the good news he responded by saying don't let her go to that college. Those white boys will eat her alive. She'll be home before the first semester ends. So what do you think about that? What do you think about the conclusion of that? Was that something you would have thought would have happened by someone sharing something that good news with their relative, with their brother about her daughter? It's definitely a good news Chantara but you know what it's something which you know when the story was played I was also running my thoughts and when it's there was a particular mention about a certain race school and color you know then you think oh so does it mean that this the person who is talking to someone else is not from the same community and some preconceived kind of bias or preconceived kind of a notion about a certain thing. Right. Anybody else have any thoughts? So this story actually was mine. It's a it's something that's kind of stood out for me for quite some time obviously since it happened to me. I didn't hear about it obviously until years later but it was the story of my mom being so excited for me graduating from high school and being actually the first member of my family to go to college and that response from my uncle was just kind of flooring to her. She didn't expect it she thought for sure he would be this strong advocate of mine because he was someone who always championed me in my education and so it was the first time that I'd heard of someone that I thought would be a mentor someone I thought would be on my side not necessarily being 100% there and 100% on my side now it obviously it wasn't the last time because I'm you know we're adults and things happen in our lives but what I've tried to do from the time that I graduated and went to A&M and graduated to the time that I've worked as a consultant at NASA for 13 years and moved on to having my own firm and working in oil and gas and also having my own nonprofit is I've learned that these kind of situations are going to happen and they're going to be shocking and when you're in it but it also allowed me to be able to take a step back and start to think about well what are some of the things that I would have wanted to have happened or what has made me stronger because that situation happened I mean once I realized that and I found out a couple of years later that that was kind of the thoughts or not just that one member of the family but several members of the family it just kind of made me want to be able to I guess show them number one that I was going to be able to do well and graduate and not have a problem but also to note that I didn't really absolutely need a cheering squad for me to be able to move forward so anyway that was just a kind of a quick just kind of teaser to make you start to think and level set on the types of the conversations especially around advocacy support even diversity and inclusion that that we're going to be having here in the next maybe 15 minutes or so I'm going to level set just a little bit here and talk about diversity inclusion of course we are and or this is an organization that knows diversity well and talks about diversity but I try to like this I like to simplify it a little bit and talk about diversity beings it's being being invited to a party or invited to a dance and inclusion is being asked to dance once you get there and so you get that visual of when you're a little kid and you have all of the girls on one side of the room and all of the boys at their first dance and nobody really wanting to intermingle nobody wanting to to be the first ones to come into the middle of the dance floor and dance together well they were there they all joined in they came to the party they came to the dance so yep that's diversity they've checked the box but once they started to intermingle that became inclusion now the third piece of that is something that's really really important too and that's equity and equity is you know being a part of the building of the dance being a part of the party being on the dance committee having to say so and who's being invited and who's creating the playlist what types of music is going to be played making sure that everyone feels welcome so equity is just what it is you know being invested being invested in the success of the event of the organization of the group so that was just a little bit of level setting well the question is why does all of this matter all of this matters because things like this keep happening i'm not sure if you've guys heard because i know you guys are not here but Syracuse was having a whole lot of you know racial turmoil and it was you know posted about a new york times time and time again at the end of last year and so what was happening was there was you know racial slurs and things happening on the college campus but it got to a point where there were 15 days of just crazy unrest there were sit-ins and there was marches and people were asking for the president of the university be removed just because nothing was happening and the one thing that I always think about here is who advocated for the students during this time because they went right in this happened in november late november so they went right into the holidays so there was nothing done during that time in the holiday time they come back to school a couple of months in we get you know blindsided by this coronavirus and everything everyone's back at home again and all of the promises that were made all of the things that people said they were going to do to ensure that these students felt secure these students felt safe i i wonder what happened to that because you know they haven't really been able to make any progress and going into the next school year if that school is open and students are on campus or whenever that happens and students are on campus again the question is who's going to be there to ensure that none of this happens again so that's also something that happens when there's a lack of support a lack of advocacy and you know that is why these kind of conversations are really important to make sure that people understand why things are happening right and you know just from a corporate standpoint out another example the luggage company away who sold themselves as being very inclusive on paper and as it turned out you know they were had a very toxic toxic organization where people just didn't feel like they were included at all in any of decisions they never felt like they belonged and so what it turns into is a lot of different organizations and what you see here on your screen right now are stats from nonprofits but different organizations in general have formal diversity statements 52% of nonprofits actually have one hello someone said something 52% of nonprofits actually have a formal diversity statement but 31% of those nonprofits with the formal statement actually only 31% actually have a strategy for how they're planning to move forward and that kind of reminds me so much of you know what we see in corporate America what we see in different big companies not just in America but all over the place that are just saying hey we're going to do this we're going to be diverse and we're going to ensure that everyone's included included but it turns into just lip service and so what we want to be able to do what everyone wants to be able to do is ensure that there's a way forward there's a path an actual real path that you know what it looks like you know what it sounds like you know what it feels like to be able to advocate for advocate for someone to be on the road to having one of those organizations that not only talks to talk but actually walks to walk now I was mentioned in my bio this about my my framework and I just wanted to be able to share just so you know that it's actually a method to all of this that I'm talking about that this transformative ally framework that I created does take you through the steps from advocacy supporting coexistence and the one thing that I like to talk about which we're about to speak on right now with advocacy is what it looks like what it takes to be able to be an advocate we hear those words so much what people will say I advocate for women I advocate for people of color I advocate for him or her and when you go and ask them what have they done they've just used the sentence they've just said that that's what they do and so for advocacy what I'm to you the definition I use when I talk about advocacy is the act or process of supporting a cause or proposal and even a person so a lot of times I've heard people say I wouldn't have a problem advocating for you well my question back would be what does that mean there are three things that I think about when I think about advocates and the things that we need to do as we decide whether or not we are going to advocate for someone because it is a decision it's not automatic but that's what's what you're going to do for someone but you need to understand that if you are going to advocate for someone it's you need to know who you are and be able to change anything that is you know that that needs to be changed so when you think about it you notice and correct your biases we all have them we all have biases and so it would be unrealistic for someone to say oh I'm perfect I'm good I can advocate for anyone you possibly could advocate for people but understand that you have to keep yourself in check because life happens and bias is kind of seep out here and there but when they do you just have to be willing to acknowledge them and correct them and also be willing to listen listen to understand listen to people's stories and experiences a lot of times we hear people share their stories and the first thing we want to do is come back and rebut or come back and share our story understand that being an advocate is not about you it's about the person and what they need and sometimes they just need you to listen they don't need you to share your piece they don't need you to tell you to find the holes in their story or anything because it's their truth at that moment and that's the one thing that we you know all need to understand and sometimes it's hard because we may not agree or we may not feel like that's something that we can you know really relate to but just listen that goes a very a long way and also being an amplifier being an amplifier in you know mentoring but also allowing access to different networks there was a story I think it was about maybe three four years ago maybe even longer that it started to you know get around and it was a story um related to President Obama's um administration where he had a lot of women a part of his administration one of the you know first times that a president had as many women and women of color in their administration well the ladies found that it was still very difficult to get their voices heard they had a seat at the table but they didn't really have a voice every time they went to speak someone would speak over them and so they decided they got together and said we're going to amplify each other so every time one woman said it had a great idea and it seemed to be that it was kind of shoved out of the way another woman spoke in spoke up and said great idea Karen I love that you thought XYZ and so what they were doing was not only amplifying the idea but amplifying the person and it kept going and it kept going until finally President Obama actually acknowledged them and he actually recognized what they were doing and started to really make more of a concerted effort to make sure that they were they were being heard at the table so being an amplifier is huge because right now while we're working in these online settings those shy people those people who you know tend to not speak up even in face-to-face meetings they're almost non-existent right now in online um online environments because they don't want to speak up they don't want to be seen and or heard so you have to be able to draw out their ideas amplify them they may be typing it in in the chat box and it's up to you if you have a voice in that meeting and you feel comfortable to go ahead and say hey you know Derek keep with something great in the chat that's a good idea you know just to amplify and make them feel more comfortable in their room in the room in that space that is what advocacy is so what does it look like it looks like listening as we mentioned it looks like referrals making a phone call or even inviting someone to the table advocacy is one of those things where you do what you can it's not necessarily about being big and being out in the open unless that's your platform and we're going to talk about that in a second but it's only you know what you feel comfortable with doing and sometimes it's just lending the ear can you think of a time when someone's advocated for you either personally or professionally just you know think for a moment who said something who's um you know who's listened to you who's made a phone call and you may not have even expected it most of us may have something yes you someone want to share hi Brandon here i like i'm a young person who is involved in like activism um and even like within not-for-profit structures um youth are often youth voices are often ignored especially marginalized youth um one of my allies who uh was an old you know um like uh a seasoned activist um she off we had a like offside conversation before a meeting started and she offered to kind of like echo something if people kind of tried to speak over me and so in the meeting when someone started to speak over me or repeat exactly what i said she would then say with my permission she said like oh i you know i think brandon just brought that point up or i think brandon was speaking so yeah that's amplifying right there she's she's being your voice until you're able to you know be that voice for yourself um that's that that's perfect that's exactly what um advocacy feels like how can you say what that felt like to you how did that did you appreciate that and how has that kind of helped you in that in that in those settings since then sorry could you repeat that um i i just asked um um how did you feel you know when she was doing that did you appreciate the fact that she was doing that and also have how has that helped you moving forward in those settings i mean it definitely i appreciated that she had the conversation with me first because like it's always important to know you know how you can best help a person and not just assume that what you're doing is helpful um and i think it empowered me a little more to be strategic about how to make sure my voice is heard in meetings um and i've used that same principle when trying to support other people uh in circles like especially women often get talked over in meetings and myself as like a non-binary person um but who presents as like a man i often um i try to use that privilege by you know having conversations off side with the women in my circles to ask them if there's you know ways i could support them and i make suggestions like that um so i found it's definitely uh equalized um meetings especially because meetings can become very like it can just become like a diatribe right yeah anybody else want to share but that's you know that's really you know that whole that that whole idea of amplifying someone else's ideas giving them the uh space in the room to be themselves and just allowing them to grow is really what we're talking about here so this is Doug Doug Westby Gibson uh was someone who has been who has been instrumental in my career for a very very long time and um for the longest time i i think i thought i would think about the interviews he came on campus as a manager hiring manager for Boots Allen Hamilton and he interviewed me for my first job as a consultant where i worked for NASA for 13 years and and from what i understand his advocacy of me from the moment he met me started you know well before i even really knew that i was going to be accepted and at the time i was going to take the job with the company he went in and advocated for me with the managers of the company because i did not have a 4.0 GPA which is what they were looking for the best consultants right always the ones that have the 4.0 GPA yeah and so um i didn't i had i had a b average probably like a 325 or something like that but they wanted someone and they had few on the camp on anm's campus that there were business degree um it 4.0 you know that kind of thing kind of stellar uh in the eyes of the interviewees well for me that wasn't me but there was i also was a student who was working for jobs my senior year i was taking 18 hours because i was trying to get out of there i had student loans i had lots of things that i had going on that i wanted to get out and start working well duck advocated for me and as i understand i he was the sole voice in the room that constantly said shan't here is the person we need for this job she's the person that knows how to work and so on and so forth i later i didn't find out about this too much later and when i say much later i mean several years into the company that i found out that he was the one he was that instrumental in ensuring that i worked for the company and so um had he not done that um i wouldn't uh i probably wouldn't be speaking with you right now because my career of course probably would have taken a different direction and um what i loved about the story was that he didn't tell me he'd probably to this day i think we've only just spoke about it maybe a month ago because he knew that i was going to add him to my presentation deck but that wasn't something that he felt like needed to be brought up he wanted to do it because he felt like that was something that he was supposed to be doing advocating for others speaking up when he felt but when he felt like that they're you know that person wasn't in the room so i you know have my story of advocacy and what that looks like to me now 85 percent of the job security days are through networking that means that it's really not about what you know not many more it's about who you know and that really is a is a huge deal because 60 percent of women still say that they're not satisfied with decision-making processes at their organizations probably because they haven't networked into the organization enough or haven't had as many advocates that have been really willing to speak up for them and allow them to kind of climb the ladder so those are things that we you know need to just consider and just note that that's still there it's still in play i know i i hear a lot of times people say especially when i speak at big companies this kind of thing doesn't happen anymore we have all of this you know these different networks and these different people these different categories of organizations that are considered diverse they have all kinds of ways that they can reach the top not necessarily so we have to really start thinking about how we're doing the work it's not just about putting things in place there has to be work another example of what something what advocacy looks like if you haven't seen um Joaquin Phoenix's acceptance speech for the BAFTA it's just like advocacy 101 it's only about three minutes long so if you go out and even if you googled him this past year when he won for won the BAFTA for the Joker he used his platform in the biggest ultimate way to speak up for people of color and people that are you just felt an unwelcome in that space and so it's just um and he's already kind of like socially awkward because he you know kind of gets into his roles but it really does show what it feels like and sometimes it's uncomfortable because he definitely looked uncomfortable but instead he kind of went through it and he made sure that he was able to speak his piece and so advocacy looks like people using their platform advocacy looks like people saying you know hey this is what someone else was saying amplifying and listening now the one thing that you can think about and it's not something that we need to talk about here but just kind of having the back of your mind who could benefit from your advocacy who could benefit from you kind of sticking that for them just as Brandon was just saying you know he's been able to do that for women and different people in the room in their spaces being able to have them you know side discussion and say hey I'm willing to share on your behalf I'm willing to speak up on your behalf if it looks like you're not being heard who could benefit from those things who can benefit from a phone call or just listening have that in mind and you know maybe you're willing to you know do that work and a couple other examples about advocacy before I wrap up is just I'm not sure if any of you've heard the story of Marilyn Monroe and Ella Fitzgerald well Marilyn Monroe long story short is she loved Ella Fitzgerald and she wanted to ensure that Ella was able to get her due as a wonderful wonderful vocalist unfortunately during that time a lot of black women were not allowed to blacks were not allowed to some of the major clubs so Marilyn made a call several calls and she started to get the owners of different clubs to let Ella speak sing and she could guarantee that the room would be full because Marilyn would show up to every performance so Marilyn used her platform she used who she was to show up for someone else and to ensure that that other person had made got a shot and you know I just think you know had Marilyn not done that you know we may not you know have been blessed with solid a great music of Ella Fitzgerald and then there's the like great Robin Williams who you know used his platform used his stories used his abilities to be able to help others he had in his writer that certain number of homeless people had to be on the set working during movies that he worked on whether they were just you know doing little small tasks it didn't matter he just wanted to ensure that other people had an opportunity to have a job to get food and so that is truly advocacy and no one ever knew he was doing it I only heard about the story just recently as the writer actually became public but he's done it for years apparently he'd done it for years and so you think about the people who may have gotten a job who may have been able to pay for food who may have been able to take care of their families simply because he took a stand and he used his platform to help others and so to me that's kind of the epitome of what advocacy is is to be able to use what you have in the space in your comfort zone to be able to help someone else are there any questions no okay so I only have a couple of other things to say about this besides thanking you guys so very much for allowing me to to share to spend some time and to understand one your organization and understand each and every one of you if there's anything that you want to share with me after this meeting or if you think about it feel free to go out and text TAF to 31996 and you'll be able to send me there's a link that you'll get on your phone you can provide the evaluation to me let me know what you thought or share any experiences or even anyone that you feel like may need to hear this story this is this 20 minute 25 minute talk is just a snippet of what typically goes for like 90 minutes with a lot more conversations with a lot more examples and come discussion around how to be a strong ally and how to advocate for one another because that's something that's super super important we need to be able to do that for one another in order to be able to move forward and to really say that we're we're working within a diverse and inclusive environment finally I love quotes and so this closing this out with a quote that says if it doesn't challenge you then it won't change you and that is definitely holds true for diversity inclusion equity allies and advocacy so thank you so much thank you very much Shantara that was an amazing presentation really fits so well with our organization and I think something that we're hoping to see changes in our greater society now is as all of everything thank you very much for presenting today it is oh Shantara yes I just want to convey my thanks I mean this is my first experience with with with this wonderful organization journey to diversity but I'm very impressed and I'm very touched by by your story also and I'm so glad that you are from Texas I am in Mississauga and the whole team of of this this wonderful organization is sitting in Berry and we have people I understand from Peter joining from BC but I'm I'm so glad that no matter where we are we are all talking about bringing awareness we are all talking about advocacy we are all talking about our own journey and and sharing stories so thank you very much thank you thank you okay and thank you very much so I will move on and introduce our next keynote speaker Eddie Kampa Jesus Kampa is a currently serving as executive director for the council on law enforcement education and training for the state of Oklahoma he was born and raised in El Paso, Texas he has over 27 years of continuing law enforcement experience serving as a chief of police on two different occasions as a result of his last tour as chief of police in a city impacted by racial divisions he created and implemented the innovative no colors no labels initiative designed to remove the preconceived notion that police were racially motivated NCNL provided a safe community for all citizens in 2017 he was named Dr Martin Luther King junior humanitarian of the year by the NAACP he is a leader who believes in diversity and that a workforce should mirror the community they serve build a master's degree in criminal justice and security administration and is currently working on a PhD in public service leadership he's a strong supporter and believer of the 21st century policing procedural justice and an active supporter of prison reform he is the owner of both America's best strategic security group and leaning through leading through adversity so thank you very much for joining us Eddie and I'll pass it over to you well awesome thank you thank you for having me it's an honor to be have the opportunity to speak to a group especially about something that's very close and hard to my heart you know it's about diversity and you know of course there seems to be a common theme here with the Texas group we've got two speakers from Texas so we must be doing something right in Texas right that's what I keep telling everybody here in Oklahoma because I said you know I we joke around a lot and I said you know things were were so bad here in Oklahoma you had to bring a Texas boy to fix things and then of course I got to hear their comments about Texas and how bad our football team is with the both the Dallas Cowboys and the Longhorn so you know I got it I'm going to dish it out I got to be able to take it right so as as my bio said you know I was born and raised in El Paso Texas to a single parent my mother my work ethic and and my ability to to think on my feet and everything came from her but I was actually raised by my grandmother so I always tell people you know whatever you do whatever you do is please don't don't ask me to do any manly things you know don't ask me to iron and I can sew so if you need any of that done I'll be more happy to help you out with that so uh you know I I spent 20 years of my career working with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office I retired as the Chief Deputy and I oversaw many of the major sections of our group I oversaw narcotics I'm not sure if anybody's familiar with El Paso County but we border Suidad Juarez Mexico which is one of the most violent cities in the world today because of the drug cartel and the issues with with the drug violence El Paso is a very diverse community you know we we have a lot of Hispanics a lot of you know Mexicans uh Latino people from Latin America and stuff like that but we're also very unique because we're home to one of the largest military bases in the in the world and that's Fort Bliss you know we have over 100 000 soldiers stationed there at Fort Bliss and we have different diverse groups and different uh you know diversity groups and stuff like that so El Paso is made up of uh it's kind of like a melting pot there's there's just a little bit about everything you know we we were very diverse we're very accepting we're very family oriented and it's it's it was uh an eye opener when I finally decided to retire from the El Paso County Sheriff's office and accept the job in a east Texas community which uh I I referred to as um as a sundown Texas uh and I think uh Ms Chatman would probably know what I mean why they call certain areas sundown towns because uh they're not very welcoming to people of color um you know and you better not be caught outside when the sun goes down because some bad things will happen to you uh I I um I accepted a police chief job there and the reason I was brought in was to change the relationship between the community and the police department one of the major issues that they were faced was is this community had had a lot of racial issues a lot of racial tension and they did not really get along the community looked at the police as as being biased and rightfully so I mean they had every right to do so basically uh I found out that the reason I was hired was because there was some issues with the last Caucasian police chief and they were never going to hire an african-american police chief because that just wasn't in the cards so they settled for the little short fat caramel guy uh I wasn't white and I wasn't black but I was brown and I was caramel so I kind of fit in that platform and they're like hey maybe this guy can fix things you know and it's kind of sad that uh I didn't know those were the comments that were being made behind the scenes uh I thought I was you know being chosen because I was the best candidate not really because of you know my my skin color and they needed to kind of break that racial gap so I was advised that there was a lot of racial issues going on when I took over my agency 98 percent of my agency was Caucasian and all of a sudden here comes this little brown guy who's going to start making changes from a big uh organization like the El Paso County Sheriff's Office so there was a lot of issues you know there was some internal candidates who were overlooked for the position um the minute I took the job and started meeting with the community one of the things where you know the police are racially motivated you know we don't get we don't get the adequate patrolling only the white neighborhoods get get you know patrolled and things like this and I saw a lot of tension and uh you know the workforce didn't the workforce there didn't display you know the the the community you know there was while the majority was white there was a lot of minorities there including you know African Americans Hispanics Asians and a lot of things that we actually were the majority but uh the minority or the majority whatever they want to call themselves as being the Caucasians were the ones in power and control and the money and they pretty much kept things up you know at bay so when I took over I I'm kind of like Miss Chatton and said you know I'm one of those guys that walks the talk you know so I'm about community and and bringing change and being an advocate for people and things like that so I started creating these new programs you know one of them was the no colors no labels initiative which was a program designed to remove the preconceived notion that the police were racially motivated now that's really hard to do when the police aren't really racially motivated you know and it's like oh my god how am I going to do this you know so the first thing I had to do is I had to start broadening my hiring practices I had to start bringing in a diverse group that would be symbolic of the community that we serve you know so uh I started broadening out and I started reaching out and and recruiting you know outside of our area you know and saying things like you know Spanish speaking preferred uh you know things like this so all of a sudden we started changing for lack of better words the color of the organization you know we brought in some more Mexican Americans we hired more African Americans we we started changing the the conception you know we started making little things so then the next thing I did is what one of the things that people don't understand is that we're all the same I mean regardless of our skin color we're all the same you know you cut us up we bleed red you know we all have the same body parts we all we're all the same we're made of the same and one of the things that the no colors no labels did was what it started doing is I started involving the community I went out to all the community leaders started talking to them bringing them together and people would say you're crazy there's no way you're going to get this group of this group to sit with this group and I said you know what watch because there's one thing that I've learned and this is the reason you know I'm a little overweight uh is because I love to eat so I know that when you do one thing and you put food in somebody you invite somebody to a meeting and you tell them that you're going to feed them for free they're going to show up so you know we we did a no colors no labels cultural awareness meal and what we did on that first meal is it was a Hispanic Mexican food layout and we got one of the local restaurants to sponsor it we had about 30 people show up and as we started speaking and talking and talking about the reasons why we eat the food that we eat people started connecting that's like hey wait a minute you know one of the things we as Hispanics and Mexicans have to put up with is we're called beaners because we eat a lot of beans but people didn't understand that the reason we ate the beans was because that was the only way we could get our protein because we were too poor to kill the cow or kill the pig because you know we then we couldn't get the milk and we couldn't kill the chicken because then we couldn't get the eggs so then the african-americans were like well wait a minute well the reason we you know uh neck bones and and and and um oh my god um uh uh I lost it but you know the neck bones and the gizzards and the and and all the stuff was because that was the leftover food of the animals that they process so they were able to connect to that and then the and then the white folk you know the the older ones but well you know what the poorer ones were like well we can relate to that because you know we ate grits and stuff like that which was the only food that we had so as they started connecting all of a sudden they started talking and we started getting together and the more that we started to understand our culture the more we started coming together so every month we would host what you know the next one was the african-american meal you know and for that one we had about a hundred people show up and all of a sudden people are like wait a minute how did you get that family to sit with that family when they're white and they're black and they can't stand each other and they're sitting at the same table eating and talking and joking like well because they are they're starting to understand each other and that's all it is people are afraid of the unknown so once you explain things to them and you break food with them and you joke and you talk and you start bringing people together and that's how you bring a community together well as we started working with our no colors no labels initiative and changing the demographics of our organization by bringing in diverse individuals you know from all over the state and different colors and different races we started to do something that hadn't been done in years you know we brought down the crime rate by 20 percent the next year we brought it down another three percent we started but no we started the cool cops ice cream truck you know one of the things we had is we had a very segregated community where a lot of the african-american community lived and they were which here's the funny thing the african community african-american community lived in this park in these apartments but so did the poor white people lived in those apartments and they got along just fine because they had one thing in common they were both poor they they both understood each other they understood that they weren't given these opportunities so one of the things that i noticed is that the children were always scared of the police for the very simple reason that the only time they saw us is when we came to arrest mom or dad or brother or sister or something like that so i partnered up it took an old ambulance i partnered up with a graphic store i made a phone call to blue bunny ice cream and said hey look i got this idea i want to convert this ambulance into an ice cream truck and i need a sponsor to provide ice cream truck and here's my idea and they're like are you serious are you kidding i'm like no you know so they sponsored the ice cream truck we started going out handing out ice cream to the different kid you know to all the different community areas and all of a sudden here comes this big ambulance we painted it like an ice cream truck it was called cool cops and we changed the words a little bit we probably got it we're probably gonna get in trouble for it but we changed the words to the bad boys cop song you know it's bad boys bad boys what you're gonna do when they come for you and we added the part you're gonna come out and have ice cream with us you know and uh so we would drive around with our lights and sirens we hit these different apartments and everyone was like what the heck is wrong with you guys we'd go out me as the chief my my co-workers you know we'd make sure that you know we had a diverse group and we were just handing out ice cream having the kids come talk to us well our juvenile crime went down that year and and it just we started bringing the community together the unfortunate part is that there's several things that people hate they hate the way things are and then they hate change and and it's really hard to to get change so I could not change the attitude of the old guard police department of the old guard of the police officers their mentality didn't want to change they they fought it you know they they made a lot of stories about me a lot of rumors about me and they took the fact that because I'm Hispanic I come from El Paso I must be a drug dealer because you know look at him he looks like one of those mafia drug dealers you know I used to be a professional wrestler I own my own wrestling company for many years as a side gig and my name there was El Hefe you know because I ran the company so everybody referred to me as El Hefe well you see he's even got a he's even got a drug cartel name he's El Hefe he's running all the drugs and this and that I'm like oh my god you know I later found out that when I was hired one of the detectives made the comment well hell I guess they're gonna there's gonna be a taco truck outside outside the police department selling tacos on taco Tuesday and you know it was really rough but coming from a diverse community I wasn't used to that you know it was kind of like a culture shock when I got to this town and my family was you know was heartbroken because you know my wife my wife's a very attractive lady I have no idea what she's doing with me I've offered to get her eye surgery and then I kind of realized that she would leave if I did that so I said no I better not you know she's a very educated woman she's a professional she's also a director at in one of the school district for one of the school districts she went to Walmart to to purchase some things in this city and the cashier says oh honey I'm sorry you can't pay for this here our ebt machine doesn't work here and since you're Mexican and you're gonna pay with food stamps you need to go to that cash register and my wife's like what and so I don't need to pay with food stamps what are you talking about I don't I don't need your your hat started this big ordeal it was just it was just crazy you know so so we we made a lot of changes and I was very honored that in 2017 I was honored with the Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award and that just really showed that we did we made a lot of difference I started noticing a change in my kids attitudes you know my son was referring to kids as the brown kid the black kid but naming the white kids by name so I brought him and I said hey what the heck is wrong with you I said why why did you say Ken Ken John and Jimmy come over and and my black friend well they call me the brown kid so I call him the black so we had to have these these talks and I started noticing a lot of changes so I made the decision to I said you know what I've done the best that I can I can't do anymore for this community because I can't change the officers you know I'm a different breed of police officer as you heard in my bio I believe in procedural justice I believe in prison reform I believe in everybody having a second chance I'm not your common police officer and that's one of the things that I think I've struggled with around the world around my career because I have a different mindset I'm very 21st century thinking I'm very progressive I like change not for the sense not for the sake of change but I like change when it's required and when it comes to diversity you have to in order to be successful in moving business your organization your community you have to have diversity because you have to be well educated and well mannered and understand that while there we all look different we're all the same so you know through our no colors no labels initiative that was a very big thing but as soon as I left they shut down the no colors no labels initiative took all the stickers off the cars ended the cool cop ice cream their crime rate is back up and they have a new police chief and they're back to doing things they're all the way they used to and that's fine so you know I went home started working on my phd I own my my speaking company and leading through adversity is my whole entire life I've had to lead through adversity I've been in leadership roles for the last 13 years a lot like Miss Chapman had said earlier just to echo on hard things you know my biggest critics were my family I came from a single parent household we were poor we lived on the wrong side of the tracks while all my aunts and uncles you know they were educated they were married their kids were going to be the success stories we just hope Eddie doesn't end up in jail you know I'm like really so it's always forced me to work twice as hard now I'll be sitting I'll be honest with you why am I working on a phd just because I would be the first one in my family to actually have a phd because even as much as I what I've done and have I accomplished in my career I own my own businesses I am the executive director I started off as the chief deputy I mean as a deputy became the chief deputy of the second largest sheriff's office in the state of Texas became a chief of police twice I'm the executive director for the entire state of Oklahoma I'm in the process of finishing up my book we have a we have a animated series and I'm going to try to share with you just the first episode just so you can kind of see it it's a little bit rough because it's kind of hard to do when when you don't have the the funds that you need to to create an animated series so COVID really did a number on us when we were going to show this at some of the film festivals this year and try to get somebody to back it and of course the COVID kind of killed all of that and killed all of our speaking stuff so I'd like to go ahead and share that with you now it's about a minute and a half but I just want you to kind of see that it's based on my story of my time in that city and these were the things that were being said and how I was being treated so I've never done this through Google Meet so I hope I do this right so let me know if you can see it uh I'm trying to share my screen can you all see my screen not at this moment uh Eddie okay uh well how about now yeah it's coming yeah it's there okay uh well and here's the thing so I am trying to share my screen but I guess I had to have this in some kind of file because it's not letting me share the link that I had so what I'm going to do is I'm going to copy and paste the link on the chat box uh let's stop this and I'm going to copy and paste it on the chat box it's like a minute and a half I mean but about two minutes I'm sorry you should all have that in your chat box and when you have a chance you might want to copy and paste it check out that one small little uh trailer when you have a chance does everybody see that on their chat box and uh if you would be kind enough to email me at this address and just let me know what you guys thought about it I would really appreciate it that's Jesus Eddie Kampa gmail.com once you get an opportunity to check it out and just let me know what you all thought of it um but that's just a little bit of how we were treated during our time there uh does anybody have any questions any any anything you all want to say or anything that we want to talk about at this time yes sir I I'm again um very impressed uh very moved and I'm so glad you know what I go with the same notion we are all coming from the same melting pot I may have a beard or a turban I may look different but inside we're all same we we what shapes us is where we were born and then what what shaped our parents where they were born but eventually through eyes we see through nose we smell through mouth we eat and we are all same I'm I'm so glad I'm part of it and and listening to your story and your initiatives I'm and I'm very glad that I'm part of it uh today and thank you very much again for sharing that well it's my pleasure and like I said you know we have it's funny because we're in 25th and uh I can't believe we still have these issues you know um when I got the job here in Oklahoma uh it was a year after I had left uh sundown Texas I almost said where I was from a quick google search you'll find out where I came from so um when I first walked into my interview and I walked in and I and I saw 13 Caucasian males and one few Caucasian female I said well I ain't getting this job there's no way they're hiring me uh I don't fit the profile but uh the great thing about Oklahoma is it's been very welcoming it's been very very well receiving and this is what they wanted they actually wanted change and what they when they said they wanted change they really wanted change and they've allowed me to implement a lot of the 21st century policing ideas that we have so basically what we do here at CLEATS which is the council on law enforcement education and training is that we regulate uh and train all police officers for the state of Oklahoma so like in Texas it's called TECL here in in Oklahoma we're CLEATS so with that you know that's just a little bit about me I mean I can go on and on and there's a lot of things like that but I know we're limited in time and everybody's got a busy schedule so I just want to say thank you to everybody for giving me the opportunity to share a little bit of my story with you and why I think diversity is important because once we started including people and started in you know like you said there's a difference between being invited to the dance and then being asked to dance I've been invited to a lot of parties and very few times have I been asked to dance so I'm very lucky that I've had the opportunity here in the state of Oklahoma to dance uh I've been a you know as a state director I have a direct line to the governor and he's a very progressive one so while I don't think our political uh alignments align together but we've been able to show that yeah we we can work together you know it's just being included and that's what procedural justice is you know let me tell you my story let me tell you my side of it listen to it think about it and once you make your decision as long as it's fair I'm okay with it so once again if there's no other questions I'll turn it over back to our host and say thank you very much