 when we look and reach for the solutions of the past, they did not give us a resolution. They did not give us the outcome that we were looking for. I do believe, and that's why it works so hard in technology and entrepreneurship, we're not going to make the change unless we find economic engines in these communities, these local communities that are job creators. Everybody can't be an entrepreneur, but for those who can, if they stay in those communities and produce income streams and wealth streams in those communities, we can make a change. My name is Joanne Rohl. I'm the Dean of the School of Business at Meagher Eris College, City University of New York. I am also the immediate past president of the National HBCU Business Dean's Roundtable. I first fell in love with economics in high school, but honestly, I didn't know black people could be economists. I went to the University of Miami and saw my very first black economist professor, and that was it. I went to a couple of other schools, but when I got to Howard, it was like feeling at rest, feeling like I have found a place. And I used to tell my faculty, you know, I've been to several other institutions, and you guys worked me so hard. Why do we have to read so many books? Why do we have to do all of this? And one of my professors, he's long gone now, Dr. Joseph Howe, chance he was a renowned labor economist, and he said, you know, the books weren't written for us. You may have to rewrite the books, but first you have to know what's in them. And so that's shaped me. A lot of the things that we do, the problems we see, are not solved. And so we have to come up with innovations and creativities that are not necessarily there. And Howard taught me or showed me that we could be creative and we could solve problems with solutions that don't currently exist. So I quote a lot in listening because I find that my work is profound. And listening is a breath. It's like a life understanding where some different perspectives or someone, so where someone else comes from. So I'm a black female economist. And when I first started, there were not many people that looked like me. And so I had to listen a lot to really understand where they came from and what perspective they had. And then I could participate at a different kind of level. A lot of times what I find is people want to talk. But they're talking so much they can't hear. I'm the vice president of the Global Listening Center. It's an international organization that focuses on the importance of listening to each other. And I'm talking about it at a very high humanity-like level. We have a lot of crises that is inflamed by us not listening to each other and hearing each other. So listening is very important. Poverty and the poor have been with us forever. But also, it's in parallel, the abundance we are experiencing now is also profound. So, you know, it's a challenge to say, and I'm a student of equity. I have been since my doctoral work. It seems as if humanity has to have the will to address the struggle. And unfortunately, I mean, the number one goal for the United Nations, SDG, is the elimination of eradication of poverty. And we look like we're getting further away from it, especially after COVID instead of closer to it. It is my hope. And that's why I like the study of technology and entrepreneurship. If we push down because the price point of some of the technologies is coming down so that entrepreneurial opportunities could be available to the poor, maybe we could push up more of this opportunity so that I'm not looking for the poor to go away, just to have fewer poor and poverty across the globe. I'm not pointing my finger at any one place in the globe. We have poverty in every place of the globe. But if we pull together our technology and our entrepreneurship in areas where there is less abundance, I believe that we can make a change and we can change the world. My idea is that many times we're always looking at someone else to be the change maker. We look at ourselves and we say, what can I do? So where I would like to, and what I've been encouraging in the last couple of speeches, I did a couple of speech at the UN, UNGA 78 side events. And I encourage everyone, the uniqueness in you. Everyone has a purpose. Everyone can help make a difference. Don't wait for Joanne to figure out what it is that you should do, but find within yourself how can you help not necessarily the big differences, but the small things that you can do. For example, when we first started working with some of the global leaders around the world, there were a lot of voices talking about the future of work, but it wasn't from the bottom up, from the top down, a lot of folks. And I'm not disparaging that. But we put out our first book, The Future of Work and Entrepreneurship for the underserved to be voices that were not normally heard in this space. Because a lot of times people say, what the poor should do? But I'm like, well, have you ever been poor? Do you really know what it is? Have you ever missed a meal? And you're going to tell us? And so that body of work came from countries, at least 20 or more countries. The scholars were from all over. And then there was a demand to do more. So we did another book and we put out the sustainability and the future of work and entrepreneurship, talking about similar issues. And we put out a call for papers. It was peer reviewed. A tremendous number of scholars from around the world wanted to participate, to let you know that there is a demand for these voices to be heard. And so when I was looking at the work, it's like, okay, so we've done this, but how have we changed? How have we shifted? How have we started making the difference? And so where I've taken the work, actually, the book should be published later this year. It's talking more about really practical things that all stakeholders can do, the private sector, the public sector partnerships, the community leaders, even students can have a role in making a difference and making a change. And we don't have to wait for one person or one body. In fact, what I say often is the wealth in the world is not in the hands of the government. The wealth in the world now is in private hands. And so we need to stop looking at the solutions of the past and to go back to my Howard statement that I said earlier. We have some problems that are old problems, but need new solutions. And if we all work together, collaborate together and join in this movement of making a difference by action. You know, academicians love to talk and so they can talk all day long and produce papers that no one ever reads but themselves. I would like to take the work down to the people who can make a difference and who don't necessarily read the academic work, but are waiting to see a sea change and what we do with the underserved. Within the U.S. specifically, since the civil rights, you know, the gap, the income gap, we would think with all of the policies, all the public, blah, blah, blah, that's going on, that gap with his shrink. For a lot of structural reasons, it has not. It has gotten wider. The income gap, the wealth gap. And so when we look and reach for the solutions of the past, they did not give us a resolution. They did not give us the outcome that we were looking for. I do believe, and that's why it works so hard in technology and entrepreneurship. We're not going to make the change unless we find economic engines in these communities, these local communities that are job creators. For those, everybody can't be an entrepreneur, but for those who can, if they stay in those communities and produce income streams and wealth streams in those communities, we can make a change. We haven't yet, because I think we thought that someone else was going to do it. And no one else has. And so we have to do it ourselves. We have to become the change makers. We have to become the job creators. We have to become the ones that lift the people up. And they will work with you. And that's been my experience. We work with several economic development corporations in the community, and they work with us. And it's tedious work. It's not easy work, but I do see differences and changes. So my suggestion is to everyone, don't just look around to your neighbor. Say, what can I do today? Can I help an entrepreneur, a small business person? Can I give to those who can help others? What can I do? Make it personal. Don't make it institutional. When we make this personal, I mean, I guess you can see that this is very personal for me. I grew up in a segregated town. I'm old enough to have lived through segregation. I believe in the economic development that can come from entrepreneurship and business development in communities that are undeserved. A very personal experience. So it's not an accident that I became an economist. I love the tools that economists give us. They give us both quantitative and qualitative tools to attack our socioeconomic problems. And so, with that, I think that's me. That's what I do and what I love, and this is what I've become. I just did a blog post about a young man, and his goal was to take underserved folks in the community and teach them about investing and Wall Street. And I said that was the personal, because he had been an investor on Wall Street. He had been a trader on Wall Street, and he didn't see people who looked like them. So instead of just walking away and creating his own body of wealth, he said, I want to reach back and I want to help others in my community become traders, become investors, or whatever it is, but to develop financial wealth. And so that's what I'm talking about. He took it personal to the development of others so that the whole could be greater, and it's not just him.