EPISODE 082 | How To Be a Better Human with Nashville DEI Expert, Kia Jarmon
Watch Kia Jarmon's interview on Human Amplified with Brandi Fleck.
Listen to Kia Jarmon’s Insight
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082: How to Be a Better Human, amplifying Kia Jarmon
An Introduction to Kia Jarmon
Welcome back to the Human Amplified podcast. Today opens season 4, can you believe it?
Let me just start out by saying, I love today’s guest, Kia Jarmon. She’s a force in our community. She’s one of the most authentic and refreshing people I’ve ever met and she isn’t afraid to tell the truth, even when it’s hard. There are so many gems of wisdom when she’s speaking that as soon as I welcomed her to the show, her intentional and honest response elicited immediate conversation — we did get around to officially introducing her after a few minutes. But that goes to show you the amount of value that’s packed into this Human Amplified season 4 opening episode.
Kia Jarmon in a social media class she teaches at a local university.
In this episode, we talk about Kia’s focus on communications, community engagement, and philanthropy and how she supports and amplifies Black humanity. She teaches us the importance of knowing real history and uncovers why it may take a while to undo racism.
From this episode, you’ll understand why there’s a need to be better humans and take away actionable steps for how to be a better human. We dive deep into how fixing racism right-sizes other isms in our society too — in other words, how everyone is impacted by racism and benefits from fixing it — and how to be on the look out for the creation of new agents of harm.
We also explore the difference between charity and a new philanthropic model Kia envisions and is actively working toward.
As a self-described disruptor, Kia explains that comes with creating new ways of thinking, healing, and addressing collective trauma.
Among many other things, Kia is an award-winning director of her boutique communications and community engagement firm, MEPR Agency; founding director of the Nonprofit Equity Collaborative; and founder of the Black Philanthropy Initiative in Nashville, Tenn.
Scan the Highlights of Kia’s Interview on Human Amplified
Responding in truth
How the world expects Black women to be
The importance of peace
Introducing Kia Jarmon
How we can be better humans, laid out in actionable steps
Explore other cultures
Reimagine what freedom looks like
Be curious and not judgmental
Act on injustices
Why there’s a need to be better humans
The taxonomist, Carlous Linnaeus + Johan Butgenbach
The importance of real history
Policy and laws
Why we aren’t where we need to be yet as humans in our society
How fixing racism right-sizes other systems of oppression too for a more just society
How reinforcing narratives creates new agents of harm
Kia’s life story
Philanthropy
The Black Philanthropy Initiative — co-chairing Give Back, Give Black through the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
Defining philanthropy and charity
Kia’s new vision of a more just philanthropy
Why race/racism factors into philanthropy
The non-profit industrial complex
How to stop perpetuating systemic racism in philanthropy
Find the truth tellers
Hire Black leaders to help in decolonizing
Give directly to Black-led organizations for community impact
Kia’s vision to heal racism at the root of our society
Encouraging Black people to heal through rebellious joy
Encouraging white people to do the work
Trauma in the white collective
The result of sharing hard truths as a single Black woman with a Black son
What it’s like being Kia
Healing and the importance of joy
Kia Jarmon living in rebellious Black joy in her RV.
More About Kia Jarmon
Kia Jarmon works at the intersections of community, culture, crisis, and communication while guiding leaders, organizations, and systems to a pathway of improvement. Central to Jarmon’s work is how people are affected by decisions. She wears many hats, serving as the Agency Director for boutique communications and community engagement firm, MEPR Agency; as founder and visionary for the Nonprofit Equity Collaborative providing capacity building support and leadership development to nonprofits led by people of color; as the co-leader of the Black Philanthropy Initiative in Nashville, and a Collective Impact consultant.
As an agency leader, Jarmon partners with high capacity leaders – in nonprofit, government, and the C-suite - on mission-driven, high impact initiatives to drive organization, community, or system improvements, through the lens of inclusion and equity. Specifically, Kia has led design efforts to address affordable housing, water conservation, transportation, health access, youth violence, child abuse prevention, elder law, historic preservation, and green space, to list a few. Most notably, as a leader in community engagement, Kia has developed and implemented projects that enhance community resilience, established standards for place-keeping, and informed architecture and design teams on neighborhood development and community building.
In addition to her daily work, Jarmon is currently leading two pilot projects aimed at closing the awareness, resource, and access gap between philanthropists and minority-led nonprofits in an effort to design a more racially equitable process.
With a heart for philanthropy and mentorship, Jarmon believes her greatest calling is to serve other people. She mentors dozens of women informally, and also takes great joy in graduating more than 20 young women from a formal mentoring and internship program, the Mentorship Project, for aspiring public relations professionals. In addition to time she gives money to a variety of small, “on the ground” nonprofits, and to small businesses through an Innovation Fund her company launched.
As a result of Jarmon’s commitment to the community and communications industry, she has been recognized by the 100 Black Women of Nashville with the Susan Short Jones Emerging Leader award, the Minority Business Center as the Minority Business of the Year, the Middle Tennessee Diversity Forum as the “Woman to Watch”, and the Nashville Business Journal’s “Top Forty Under 40” and “Women of Influence”, among others.
In collaboration with her professional pursuits, Jarmon serves as the Vice-Chair of the Metropolitan Beer Permit board; is Co-Chair for Give Black, Give Black, an initiative with The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee; sits on the board of neighborhood leadership organization, Neighbor to Neighbor; serves on the Urban Housing Solutions Community Council, is a member of the Metro Human Relations Support Fund Advisory Board; and was recently appointed to the Mayor’s Affordable Housing Task Force where she is Chair of the Creation subcommittee. She also formerly served as the Communications Chair for the Mayor’s Council on the State of Women, and the Nashville Farmers’ Market board.
Kia Jarmon on the Parthenon steps in Nashville, Tenn.
Kia Jarmon’s Links
Note: This episode is timeless. However, in time, my promotions, offerings, and availability change. The same goes for guests. So, if the ads or offerings I mention in the episode are no longer available, you may not find them in the show notes at this time.
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CREDITS: INTRO AND OUTRO MUSIC BY RYAN SAULS. SOUND EFFECTS FROM ZAPSPLAT.COM. MID-EPISODE MUSIC IS “SAY YOU WILL” BY SHANE IVERS AT silverman sound studios. GRAPHICS BY BRANDI FLECK. BIO AND PHOTOS PROVIDED BY KIA JARMON.
About the Host
Brandi Fleck is a writer, artist, and a recognized communications and interviewing expert. She is also an avid student of human nature who’s overcome past trauma and founder of Human Amplified, where she helps people embrace being their true selves so they can expand more fully into their own humanity without fear of being seen and heard. Brandi hosts the top-rated Human Amplified podcast (formerly the On Being Human podcast). READ MORE