(uplifting gentle music) - Hello, everyone.

It is time for "Powerful Women, Let's Talk".

Thanks so much for joining us today.

I'm Jennifer Moss.

And it is a pleasure to bring you today's Powerful Woman, from the national front out of New York, Leslie Fields-Cruz.

She is the executive director of Black Public Media.

She's also the executive producer of the award-winning series, "Afropop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange."

Now enjoying its 14th season, "Afropop" has garnered several awards, and is still the only National Public Television series focused solely on stories of the Black experience.

And to that point, Leslie is an artist, a producer, and arts administrator who advocates for authentic representations of people of color.

In the '90s, she pursued an acting career, but then decided that she preferred the director's chair and working with youth.

And so, we're glad to welcome you, Leslie, to "Powerful Women, Let's Talk".

- Thank you, Jennifer.

Wow.

I was, you talking through that bi, "I'm like, oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

Okay."

(laughs) - So, let's start by talking a little bit more about your role as the executive director of Black Public Media, and the importance of having a national public television series focused on the stories of the Black experience.

- Well, I mean, I have been with Black Public Media, it used to be known as the National Black Programming Consortium.

I joined them in 2021.

I mean, I'm sorry, 2001.

Yeah, it's been that long.

Sometimes I have to think like, wow, I've been here for 20 years.

And you know, I joined.

I had been working with independent filmmakers, and I had this opportunity to join NBPC, and I was like, "Oh, okay.

And I'm helping the independent filmmakers.

And we're trying to get these stories about the Black experience on the public television.

This is great.

This is gonna be the best job ever."

And so, and you know, obviously it has been 'cause I'm still here.

But one of the things that I noticed early on was that we would fund projects and then they would come in, or we would acquire content, and we would try to, you know, reach out to the national strands like "Independent Lens" or "POV" and say, you know, "You should take a look at this film.

We hope you want it."

And then, you know, at one point that around 2008, I was just sort of left with all of these different titles from throughout the African diaspora that didn't have a home.

And I was like, "Well, we could try to distribute these with American Public Television individually, but that would take a lot of, it would just be too much more than I was willing to.

- Very cumbersome.

- Right, cumbersome.

- To try to each individual.

- To do each individual one.

So I said, "Well, hmm, let's have our own series."

And so, that's how "Afropop" launched.

I was the series producer at that point.

Our executive director was Jackie Jones at the time, and she was like, "Leslie, this is great.

Let's go for it."

And so we did it.

And now 14 seasons later, we are still running with "Afropop".

We have a great slate.

You can actually binge everything right now on, if you go to pbs.org or go through your Roku, you can watch all five of the titles.

We've had stories from the US, from the UK, from throughout the continent in Africa, from Brazil, Australia.

I mean, you know, we really, for us, the series is an opportunity for us to show the breadth of the Black experience, and that there's just no one way to be Black.

There's several multiple ways.

And so that's the celebration of the series.

- And tell us how "Afropop" came to be, how you kind of spawned that idea, got that idea going.

- So I was, I had actually attended, I was at a film market in South Africa, and had a chance to go watch this South African hip hop film.

It's called "Hip Hop Revolution."

And it was the story focused on how hip hop, which had been imported from the US during the early 1980s, a time of apartheid, how they, the young people, the youth, of that time of which I'm like, "That was me."

(laughs) - (chuckles) That's right.

Exactly.

- They were, they used that as a form of disruption, as a way to undermine what was happening with apartheid.

And then the South African artists started to create their own hip-hop music, and it sort of flourished.

And the documentary was the history of its evolution, and how they've really created their own form of hip hop with a very South African flavor and South African stars.

So I saw that, and I went, "Wow, I love this story.

And I'm an African-American.

I think this story would resonate with other African-Americans in the US."

So I came back, I contacted a filmmaker, and she was interested.

I said, "I'll be back in touch.

I'm gonna try to bring this film to the States."

So I came back, and then it, I had also come across two, three other films at the market.

We had a couple of films that had just, we had just acquired from other parts of the world.

And I said, you know, "Let's try to put these, let's create this series."

This was when I was, you know, if "Independent Lens and "POV", they don't want it, so okay, let's, have our own series.

That way we don't have to try to market each one of these individually.

We can market this series.

And that's really how it came about.

And so, and now I'm the executive producer because I'm also the executive director of Black Public Media, I mean, yeah, of Black Public Media and the series is just doing really, really well.

One of last season's films, "Mama Gloria", it was nominated for a GLAAD award.

- So wonderful.

Congratulations.

- We're excited to be able to bring these stories to public media, and to make sure that the public, no matter where they are, no matter who they are, can engage with these dynamic experiences.

- And that was gonna be my next question, was that even, it's the authentic stories, and looking at the Black experience, but it's not just for Black people.

I mean it, the whole idea in getting the story out is for multiple cultures to learn, and dive in to, and appreciate, right?

- Absolutely.

Absolutely.

I mean, I think that one of the things that is exciting here in the United States is that we have all of these different cultures, right?

So we can learn from each other.

I grew up in Southern California.

I had, you know, friends from all walks of life.

And, you know, you go into someone's home.

You learn something about them, and something about their culture.

And so I, you know, I'm sort of feeding into the curiosity that we have as human beings to wanna know and understand who our neighbors are because they really are our neighbors.

There are South Africans who live here in the States that have had children who are here in the States.

There are Nigerian Americans, there are, you know, Caribbean Americans, we're all here.

And so these experience speak to them, and they speak to the broader population of people, anyone who's interested in just understanding and knowing one another culture, who would, people of another culture, or the experiences of another culture.

- Absolutely.

So Leslie, you have quite the accomplished career on this journey.

Are you enjoying the journey?

Let's delve into what Leslie is talking about as she delves through and continues on with these award-winning series, and being the executive director.

But, are you enjoying this journey?

- I am.

I mean, it's funny, I was talking to my parents the other day, and my sister, who's out in California with them, she's like, "Oh, you gotta watch this film.

And it's part of the series."

And my parents were like, "Oh, we're so proud of her."

And then my mother said, she said, "Yeah, but you know, if she didn't like it, she wouldn't be doing it."

And I think that's sort of been my, throughout my career, whatever work I wanted to do, whatever job I had, it had to be something that I like.

It had to be something that I believed in, that there was a mission or something attached to it.

I'm one of those types of folks I really want to, I want to make, I guess I wanna bring goodness into the world, and light into the world.

I want people to be informed.

And so this type of work feeds that.

And then of course, because I have an, I'm an artist, and I like film, and I like documentaries, it just sort of coalesced into this like, okay, Black Public Media, this is where you're at.

And so I really enjoy what I do.

And when I stop enjoying it, I will probably retire and move on to something else.

(laughs) - And move on to something else.

One of the other things I read that you like to do, you like working with youth, and as we talk about powerful women, how important is that work 'cause you do direct a youth theater?

- Yes.

- Is that correct?

- Yes.

I actually, when I first started, and I graduated with a background in psychology, but I always liked working with young people.

And when I moved to New York, I was like, "I'm gonna be an actor."

And then I quickly figured out, like, I needed more control, (laughs) you know?

But one of the things that I enjoyed, I had started interning at a youth theater company, and I just enjoyed being able to work with young people using theater as a way to teach them how they work together, what it means to collaborate, how do you work through differences with each other when you're actually trying to put something together to share with an audience or with the world.

I was also excited, young people, they come to the stage and they come to theater with just open minds, and open hearts, and just willing to try anything.

You know, sometimes you gotta pull 'em back.

It's like, "Oh no, we're not gonna do that."

(chuckles) - Right, but they haven't been said in stone at that point, so they're open to the idea of creativity.

- They're just open to that.

- Exactly.

And I think that's what I enjoy most about working with young people is that they're just, you know, at that age they're malleable, and they also bring their own authentic selves.

I guess this goes back to me wanting to ensure that whatever I work on that it's authentic.

And so that the youth bring their own authentic selves into the room, into the classroom, into the stage, into the theater.

- So Leslie, so much happening in our world these days.

Do you have a standby or favorite quote, or thought or saying that you kind of rely on to encourage yourself or others, even?

- Mm-hm.

I do.

I actually, I come across quotes, I don't always remember them, but this one my friend mentioned, and I said, "Oh, I'm gonna have to keep this one for myself."

And it's a Zora Neale Hurston quote, and I love Zora Neale Hurston, and it says "Sometimes I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry.

It merely astonishes me.

How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company?

It's beyond me."

(laughs) - (laughing) That's a good one.

- That's a good one.

You know?

And that's, in some ways, when I was talking about discrimination and sexism, it's like, "How could you do this?"

- Yeah.

You don't even know me.

- Why would you wanna do that?

- You don't know me.

You wanna get to know me, - You wanna get to know me.

then you won't feel that way.

- Right.

And when you think about it in a broader sense of Blackness and being a woman, it's like, how could you not wanna know who we are?

I don't understand that.

It's beyond me.

(laughs) - It's beyond me.

(chuckles) And you'll let it rest with that.

Leslie Fields-Cruz, thank you so much.

I very much enjoyed this conversation.

I wanna thank you so much for joining us today on "Powerful Women: Let's Talk?".

I also wanna thank all of you for joining us for another edition of "Powerful Women: Let's Talk?".

Do enjoy the day.

- Thank you, Jennifer.

Thank you.

Bye.

(gentle music) - Well, let's meet an enthusiastic and forward-thinking leader with a national reputation for effective philanthropy, and a passion for cultivating high-performing teams.

Kelly Dyer serves as the president of Spectrum Health Foundation, a 17-year fundraising career that includes strategic planning and change management.

Plus, she's talented on the court, and has embarked on a unique family quest.

So we welcome you, Kelly, to this addition of "Powerful Women: Let's Talk?".

Hi to you.

- Hi to you.

Thank you for having me.

- Were you offense or defense on the court?

- I was a better defender than I was an offensive player, but did both.

- All right.

Did you, I bet you, you got a little swishes with the shot?

- I did.

I was, I would say, I played a two or a three guard, so sort of a shooting guard, small forward, and, but really defense, rebounding.

That was really my specialty.

But it was a great, great career and really loved playing.

- Nice.

And we'll talk about that quest.

- [Kelly] Yep.

Great.

- In just a second.

Were you born a leader or were you made a leader, Kelly?

Let's start here.

- I think that's such an interesting question about leadership because I do think there are some traits, personality traits that help people with leadership.

I do think I was probably born with a few of those.

Empathy, I think, is an important characteristic for leaders.

So really being able to put yourself in the shoes of those that are in your care.

And I really see it as the people that working with you that are in your care.

So I think empathy is a trait that I had.

I think also leaders are sometimes born with the ability to kind of March to the beat of their own drum.

Yeah, and I do think I do that to a certain degree.

That's, that's not to say that it is absence of bringing other people along in that way, but having a little bit thicker skin, and being able to persevere when things are tough, and also, you know, being able to set directions.

So I think those are some things that maybe I was born with, but really worked on over time, too.

- Were you brought up in a family with thick skin that encouraged leadership?

And share a bit of that in your educational journey.

Yep.

- Yeah.

I would say one of the gifts from my parents and certainly from my mother is she raised three girls, raised us to be very independent.

And I think one of those gifts is that we never really thought we couldn't do anything.

And I recognize that as an adult where that has been such a gift for me, but really from our mom, she's just always encouraged us to do whatever it was that we were interested in, and really never thought we couldn't do anything.

And I just so value that, that those lessons that we learned from her.

- Great.

Tell me about your education and what got you here.

- Yeah.

I was a college basketball player, and was recruited, was not heavily recruited, but ended up playing on a team that had some good success as a high school senior, and then ended up getting a scholarship to play basketball at Wayne State in Detroit.

And that was such a gift from an educational standpoint.

Certainly, it was wonderful to have a scholarship.

But at the same time, the real education for me was being with people from very different backgrounds.

Lots of diversity in the city of Detroit.

My college roommates were from totally different backgrounds than I was from.

And so, some of those skills that I learned there while in school, I'm still using today.

And being able to engage with people, and listen to different points of view.

And then certainly the rigor that comes with having to organize your time to accommodate for, you know, basketball schedule and finish school work, and all those things.

But I really learned so much from that experience.

And most of it were, you know, things about really understanding people, and how to work with people that are from totally different places and perspectives than I am.

It was very valuable.

- And was it a college of fine, performing, and communication arts that prepared you?

- Yeah, that's right.

That was my degree.

The performing piece of that is not part of my work, but the communication certainly was.

And Wayne State at the time had a lot of really great faculty members who were also working at the Detroit Free Press, or the Detroit News.

And so the communications skills that I learned, I was on the communications side, public relations and then had a minor in journalism, and really learned about effective communication, and how to craft messages, and how to communicate with people in a way that is impactful and helps with decision making.

So I use a lot of that still today.

And I had a great faculty member who was a news editing class that I took.

And he said, "This is gonna be one of the hardest classes that you'll take because we're gonna train you to edit like a newspaper editor does."

And so what he meant by that is to really have very concise messaging.

And I think about that all the time when I'm, you know, writing emails, or we're trying to craft messaging for people to learn about what we're working on.

But it really, really helpful in terms of my training, and how to communicate with people.

So it was a great, great training ground.

- Nice.

What was your first job?

- My first job was working, it was actually the result of an internship I had in college.

It was working for a company just north of Detroit in, in Rochester, Michigan, which I think, you know, well.

And it was a company that did essentially sponsorship contracting for a lot of the big Detroit-based sports teams.

And I worked on the event side, so we worked for a couple of nonprofits, and did nonprofit fundraising events for them.

And so that was my first start in the, sort of, world of philanthropy where we would do these fundraising events to raise money for very specific causes.

So that was my first start.

- Yes.

And yet look where it got you 17 years later.

- [Kelly] That's right.

- Right here in west Michigan.

What are your responsibilities with your, and expand on this, president of Spectrum Health Foundation, and- - The Helen DeVos Children's Hospital Foundation.

Yes.

So the foundations at Spectrum Health, we are the fundraising arm for Spectrum Health.

And that includes The Helen DeVos Children's Hospital.

So we are in charge of, really, all the philanthropic activity that's in the hospitals.

That's everything from grant writing, so writing big grants to partners, individual annual gifts, all the way to in-kind donations.

So people that say, "We'll do a backpack drive, benefiting kids that are in the hospital, and donate, you know, crayons and toys for kids."

Our office manages all of that.

So it's a big body of work.

We have about 10,000 people annually that are involved with philanthropy with our system, which is really heartwarming.

I mean, that's the best part of the job is being able to work with people to impact the care that we provide, and the patients and families that we have in the hospital.

So, it's a great job.

- And I'll lead the next question.

Is the secret to success in philanthropy the relationship?

- Oh, absolutely.

And I think it's so interesting, the relationship piece of it is, you know, why I like this work is I really think people are doing one of two things.

they're trying to make the world a better place, or they're trying to help somebody on a journey that maybe they've experienced themselves, and try to solve, you know, solve a problem that they see.

And what I mean by that is I use the example of, if you're a parent who had a child treated for cancer, and you were in our hospital, at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, and you do a fundraiser that benefits the foundation, what you're really trying to do is solve the problem that is childhood cancer.

And so we give people an outlet to be able to work on what they see as problems, or ways to help somebody on a journey, which sometimes is a very difficult journey.

So those relationships, I take none of those gifts for granted.

They are so special to me, and all of our team at the foundation.

So it really is about those relationships.

- Speaking of team, what is change management?

You're skilled in change management.

- I know it's a funny term, isn't it?

- Yeah.

- But I think if I had to say, other people will say, I'm good with change management.

I think change management is in organizations setting a vision for where the organization could go, or what the organization could be.

And a lot of times that is also change management with the people that are part of the team.

So if you've been doing something the same way, and even had success doing it for a very long time, the change management piece of that is, "Is there a way that we could be doing this better?"

And I think, you know, that's part of my leadership is always asking, "Are there ways that we could be doing more?

Are there things that we could be doing that impact our community, our patients and families, in way that maybe we hadn't thought about doing before.

And so the change is really, the change management piece of that, is really setting the vision for where we wanna be, and how everybody on the team helps us get there, 'cause everybody has a role.

So, I think change management is a lot about the processes, but also really about motivating the people to help us get to where that ultimate goal, what that ultimate vision is for the organization.

- You're you're sharing balance seems to be working in your life.

We've talked about your family.

- [Kelly] Yeah.

- Your work, obviously important, but yet you know how to have fun.

Where do we go with that answer to that question?

Why the importance of balance?

- I think balance is so critically important.

I think I'm better at my work.

I had a great mentor of mine.

His name's Jerry Mays from west Michigan.

And he said, "You know, actually working in fundraising, interesting people make good fundraisers."

And it's so true.

And I think having outside interests, and taking that time for yourself to recharge and have some fun is so critically important.

Actually makes me a better professional.

And certainly I tell people that, you know, make no mistake about it, my number-one job is being a mother to my children, and a spouse to my husband.

So I'm pretty good at trying to figure out if there are times that the balance gets a little outta whack.

I try to focus on bringing it back to center, but I think overall being strong in all those three areas, professional, and family, and having a little bit of fun makes you better in those areas.

So I really do try to balance it.

- And how will your girls, how do young women find their passion?

What's the path to this?

- I think, experimentation is part of that, so trying things.

And one of the areas that I think are so critically important is, you know, you really can learn anything if you commit to spending some time to do it, most anything.

And I think for them, you know, really testing and experimenting and trying things to see if they like it or not.

You know, sometimes they'll say, "Well, mom I don't wanna play softball 'cause I don't like softball."

Well how do you know until you try?

So at least try it for a season, and then low and behold, they like softball, right?

So I think encouraging kids to try things.

We're an athletic family, but I think, we encourage them to try drama, and we encourage them to be great artists.

And so anything that they wanna try we're...

Piano is an example of another thing.

We say, "Well, let's just try piano, see how you like it."

So I think trying and experimentation is such an important skill to encourage in kids, and I actually think for adults, too.

- Hmm.

Looks like mom goes first and then (indistinct).

Do you have a recommended book for me?

- Gosh.

I love, there's a book called "My Day".

It's an old book, and it's actually a series of columns that Eleanor Roosevelt wrote.

Some when she was First Lady, and then some after.

It's really interesting, it was published into a book.

I really like anything by Adam Grant.

Adam Grant's a great author, and he's written some wonderful books.

I think "The Warmth of Other Suns" by Isabelle Wilkerson is a really, if you like history, and you are interested in learning more about, sort of, the Black experience in America, that's a really great book for people to read.

So those are three that I just love.

- Foundation strong under your presidency?

- I hope so, and I can say that I'm committed certainly to trying to improve it every day, and really care deeply about the people in this community and how we're helping patients and families during what can be really challenging times.

So I'm super enthusiastic about where we're headed, and know that we have a really fabulous team too, that is aligned in getting us there.

- Let's get you back to the office.

Kelly Dyer, thank you for this edition of "Powerful Women: Let's Talk".

- Thank you so much.

Yes.

- Thank you, Shelley.

- Appreciate being here.

- Of course.

(gentle music)