Episodes

  • After the Storm Is When the Flowers Bloom

    After the Storm Is When the Flowers Bloom
    Apr 18 2026
    This episode stands as a living testament to what it means to survive, to rebuild, and to reclaim identity beyond what systems, statistics, and suffering attempted to define. In this deeply reflective and unfiltered conversation, I sit with Jennifer Tai, MSW, ASW, PPSC, whose life embodies both the weight of trauma and the discipline of healing.

    Jennifer does not offer a polished narrative. She offers truth. She walks us through her lived experience in foster care, the instability that shaped her early identity, and the internal battles that continued long after she exited the system. She names grief, abuse, loss, and the quiet realities that rarely make it into policy conversations but live in the bodies and minds of those impacted every single day.

    This conversation moves beyond storytelling into formation. Jennifer articulates how community, higher education, and intentional support systems became anchors in her healing journey. She challenges the deficit-based narratives placed on foster youth and confronts the harm embedded in low expectations, systemic gaps, and performative support structures.

    Her voice carries both clinical precision and lived authority. As a mental health therapist and foster care alum, she bridges two worlds that often remain disconnected. She brings clarity to trauma-informed care, identity development, and the long-term implications of aging out without sustained support. She speaks to the reality that resilience, while often celebrated, is frequently misunderstood and over-assigned to those who deserved protection, not pressure.

    The title of this episode is not symbolic. It is earned. After the storm is when the flowers bloom. Not because the storm was necessary, but because growth refused to be denied.

    This episode addresses:

    • The intersection of foster care experience and identity formation
    • The long-term impact of trauma, grief, and systemic instability
    • The truth about resilience versus survival
    • The role of higher education as both opportunity and burden for system-impacted youth
    • Mental health realities behind visible success
    • The necessity of chosen family, mentorship, and community
    • The ongoing nature of healing and the discipline it requires
    • The systemic failures surrounding aging out and lack of extended support Jennifer speaks directly to those still in the storm.

    She affirms that your current reality does not hold authority over your future trajectory. She grounds hope in lived evidence, not empty language.

    About the Guest:
    Jennifer Tai is a clinical social worker, mental health therapist, and former foster youth who integrates lived experience with clinical practice to support foster youth and alumni. Her work centers on trauma-informed care, identity development, and systemic advocacy within higher education and mental health systems. She currently serves at San José State University Counseling and Psychological Services and as a mental health liaison for the Guardian Scholars Program. She also provides trauma-focused therapy in private practice and contributes nationally through advocacy, public speaking, and authorship.

    Ways to Connect with Jennifer Tai:

    Instagram: @totallyjenni4ever
    LinkedIn: Jennifer Tai
    Facebook: Jennifer Tai
    Bio and Work: https://bio.site/JenniferTai

    This episode is not background noise. It is a mirror, a confrontation, and a call to rebuild what systems failed to sustain.

    If this conversation stirred something in you, sit with it. Reflect. Then move toward what healing requires.
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    51 mins
  • Healing while curating dreams and breaking generational trauma.

    Healing while curating dreams and breaking generational trauma.
    Feb 28 2026
    Resilient Voices and Beyond Podcast, Season Three, Episode 54. Healing while curating dreams and breaking generational trauma. Guest, Julissa Grozozski Torres, YPA, NYCPS, CRPA, Founder and CEO of Triumph OVA Struggles Advocacy and Consulting LLC.

    This episode holds space for healing centered conversations and storytelling inside my Foster Healing Fellowship capstone work, and it honors the truth that survival skills keep people alive, and healing skills set people free. Julissa walks listeners through a life shaped by early loss, foster care, adoption, religious control, abuse, psychiatric institutionalization, chronic illness, and the long fight to reclaim identity with intention. She names what it costs to grow up inside systems that label behaviors but ignore pain, and she names what it takes to rebuild a self when other people spent years defining it for you.

    Julissa breaks down the moment she chose her own name at twelve, and she frames that decision as an act of self definition when life offered her few choices. She speaks with precision about how religious restriction narrowed her sense of self, and how adulthood demanded an intentional return to joy, interests, and personal agency. She also connects lived experience to leadership, and she draws a straight line from survival to service, including how peer work, advocacy, and consulting form a mission rather than a slogan.

    We confront the systems themselves, foster care, psychiatric institutions, and schools, and we talk plainly about what helped and what harmed. Julissa also speaks on diagnosis, misdiagnosis, neurodivergence, and the exhaustion of living inside an identity built around symptoms, then fighting for clarity that fits reality. She names cycle breaking motherhood as active work, not a slogan, and she describes the daily labor of building a home where children experience emotional safety, support, structure, and freedom to simply exist as kids.

    This conversation also tells the truth about boundaries, grief, and letting go. Julissa speaks on the hard decision to release relationships that kept her trapped in old harm patterns, and she names the difference between forgiveness and access. We close with a grounded charge for anyone who feels buried under labels, trauma, and fatigue, take ownership of your life in small steps, protect your healing, and refuse the lie that your past defines your ceiling.

    Connect with Julissa Grozozski Torres. Instagram, triumph_ova_struggles. LinkedIn, Julissa Grozozski Torres. Website, triumphovastruggles.org.
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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • It Can Be Done

    It Can Be Done
    Dec 6 2025
    🎙️ Episode 53 — “It Can Be Done”
    Guest: Hery “Eddie” Acosta | Author, Speaker, Youth Advocate
    Podcast: Resilient Voices & Beyond – A Healing-Centered Conversation
    Foster Healing Fellowship Capstone Series

    Episode Description:

    In this gripping and hope-filled episode titled “It Can Be Done,” host Michael D. Davis-Thomas sits down with author, speaker, and youth advocate Hery “Eddie” Acosta, whose life story is both testimony and blueprint. This is more than an interview—it’s a healing-centered conversation that exposes the cost of trauma, honors the grind of growth, and celebrates the sacred act of becoming whole.

    Eddie doesn’t sugarcoat survival. From being locked in a closet as a child to navigating cycles of generational pain, Eddie shares how he went from being misunderstood in classrooms to mentoring hundreds of teens every week through his groundbreaking work in Oregon. With 13+ years of hands-on experience in youth programs, Eddie is now the visionary behind Ohana Teen Night, where over 300 teens find refuge, belonging, and possibility every Friday night.

    Together, Michael and Eddie explore:
    • Childhood trauma, behavioral stigma, and how schools often punish pain
    • Mindset shifts from “why me?” to “watch me”
    • The messy, nonlinear process of healing—and what real breakthrough looks like
    • The burden of navigating trauma in Black and Brown communities
    • What it means to become a diamond in the rough—and why pressure doesn’t always break us
    • The spiritual, emotional, and cultural power of having a therapist of color
    • Building youth programming that feels more like family than a facility
    This episode is part of Michael’s Foster Healing Leadership Fellowship Capstone: Resilient Voices & Beyond: Healing-Centered Conversations and Storytelling, and it holds true to its mission—honoring lived experience as sacred knowledge and creating space for authentic, heart-to-heart reflection.

    Whether you’re a young person currently in the struggle, a professional seeking to serve better, or someone carrying unspoken wounds of your own—Eddie’s story will remind you: It can be done.

    📚 Grab Eddie’s Book:
    Eddie in the Rough – Becoming a Diamond

    🌐 Connect with Eddie:
    Website: speechesbyeddie.com
    Instagram: @speeches_by_eddie | @neweddieacosta
    Facebook: Eddie Acosta 🎧 Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, YouTube, and all major platforms.

    📢 Support this Healing-Centered Work:
    Venmo: @MDDTSpeaks | CashApp: $MDDTSpeaksInc | PayPal: MDDT1
    Email: mddtspeaks@gmail.com for donations, sponsorships, or collaboration.
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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • " She believed she could, so she did ”

    " She believed she could, so she did ”
    Sep 11 2025
    🎙️ Episode 52 — “She Believed She Could, So She Did”

    Guest: Faith M. Keen | DHHS Intern • FSM Contractor • LEx Policy Advocate • TLE Member • BSW
    Candidate • Future MSW
    Podcast: Resilient Voices & Beyond Podcast — Season 3
    Host: Michael D. Davis-Thomas Episode Description:

    In this powerful and soul-baring conversation, host Michael D. Davis-Thomas is joined by rising advocate, policy shaper, and lived experience leader Faith M. Keen, for an episode that feels more like a mirror than a mic. Titled “She Believed She Could, So She Did,” this dialogue is a tender, tenacious, and truth-filled journey through the harsh realities of childhood adversity—and the radical self-determination it takes to rise from it.

    Faith doesn't just speak her truth—she lives it. From a chaotic upbringing marked by instability, addiction, and displacement, to finding belonging through advocacy, higher education, and a fierce belief in the power of lived experience, Faith’s journey is a living testimony of what resilience looks like when nurtured in community and courage.

    Together, Michael and Faith dive into:
    • The emotional toll of caring for others when no one cared for you
    • Reframing trauma as purpose without glamorizing the pain
    • The role of policy advocacy in restoring dignity to foster youth
    • The nuance of self-care in a space that demands our pain for progress
    • Navigating healing while still showing up as “the strong one”
    • The balance between being a voice for the voiceless and being heard yourself

    As she shares deeply personal stories—from driving her mother while under the influence to being adopted by extended family who didn’t always understand her worth—Faith unpacks the layers of survival and silence, of grief and grit, that so many foster youth carry but rarely have safe space to process. She and Michael explore how systems often force youth to perform wellness while still bleeding, and how real change must include not just policies—but peace.

    Faith’s work with Fostering Success Michigan, Michigan’s Team with Lived Expertise (TLE), and her continued advocacy through public speaking and youth engagement is helping reshape how the state and nation see system-impacted youth—not as broken, but as brilliant. Her upcoming pursuit of an MSW at the University of Michigan is yet another step in becoming the change she needed as a child.

    This episode isn’t about triumphalism. It’s about truth. It’s about community. And it’s about choosing healing—even when no one taught you how.

    📣 Because believing in yourself isn’t cliché when you’ve survived systems designed to make you forget how.

    🔗 Connect with Faith M. Keen
    📸 Instagram: @keen.faith.210
    📘 Facebook / 🔗 LinkedIn: Faith Keen

    🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, YouTube, and all major streaming platforms.

    📢 Support the Podcast
    Venmo: @MDDTSpeaks | CashApp: $MDDTSpeaksInc | PayPal: MDDT1
    Email: mddtspeaks@gmail.com for sponsorships, collaborations, and donor inquiries.
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • "Still waters run deep"

    "Still waters run deep"
    Aug 1 2025
    🎙️ Episode 51 — “Still Waters Run Deep”

    Guest: Sylvia Monica Parrott | National Foster Care Advocate, Public Speaker, Lived Experience Leader

    Podcast: Resilient Voices & Beyond Podcast — Season 3

    Episode Description:

    Still waters don’t mean still souls. In this soul-stirring episode of Resilient Voices & Beyond, host Michael D. Davis-Thomas sits down with the quiet force that is Sylvia Monica Parrott—a woman whose strength is not in how loudly she speaks, but in how deeply she feels, how faithfully she leads, and how consistently she shows up for a system she survived. "Still Waters Run Deep" isn’t just the title of this conversation—it’s a prophetic description of the life Sylvia has lived and the legacy she’s building.

    From entering Rhode Island’s foster care system at the age of five to navigating abusive placements, isolation, and reentry at 17, Sylvia’s story is anything but surface-level. She shares with unwavering clarity the silent storms of trauma, abandonment, sexual violence, and mental health struggles—alongside the quiet rebellions of mentorship, faith, advocacy, and healing that helped her rise. This episode is not a tale of pity or performative triumph; it is a sacred reckoning with the reality that not every survivor roars—but every survivor matters.

    Together, Michael and Sylvia explore:
    • The emotional toll of being system-impacted from early childhood
    • The invisibility of introverted advocates in noisy advocacy spaces
    • The crisis of mental health in group homes and transitional housing
    • The trauma of institutionalization and the weight of being “too strong for too long”
    • The spiritual grounding and self-forgiveness it takes to lead from a wounded place
    • How Sylvia is quietly, persistently, disrupting the status quo without needing to shout
    From testifying before legislators to co-authoring op-eds, from guiding youth at Foster Forward’s Drop-In Center to speaking on national stages, Sylvia is redefining what leadership looks like for foster alumni. Her work is not driven by ego—but by empathy. Not polished performance—but prophetic presence.

    Michael, moved by Sylvia’s radical vulnerability, speaks candidly about the podcast’s journey, the cost of advocacy, and the urgent need for community-funded sustainability. As they close the episode, Sylvia offers words of truth to anyone feeling broken, burned out, or silenced in their struggle: “Don’t doubt yourself. You have so much to offer the world.”

    This episode is a mirror for those who’ve learned to lead while still healing—and a mandate to make space for the still waters among us.

    🕊️ Listen deeply. Share widely. Honor the stillness that runs deep.

    🔗 Connect with Sylvia Monica Parrott
    Instagram: @sylviamonica_
    LinkedIn: Sylvia M. Parrott

    🎧 Available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, YouTube, and all major platforms.

    📣 Support the Podcast
    Your donations help keep the mic on for truth-tellers like Sylvia.
    Venmo: @MDDTSpeaks | CashApp: $MDDTSpeaksInc | PayPal: MDDT1
    Email: mddtspeaks@gmail.com for sponsorship and partnership inquiries.
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    57 mins
  • Your story is the message. Your story is your legacy

    Your story is the message. Your story is your legacy
    Jul 30 2025
    🎙️ Episode 50 — “Your Story Is the Message. Your Story Is Your Legacy”

    Featuring: Tamara L. Dillard | Author, Clinical Social Worker, Therapist, Foster Care Advocate, Foster Alumni

    Podcast: Resilient Voices & Beyond Podcast — Season 3
    Host: Michael D. Davis-Thomas

    In this milestone 50th episode and the Season 3 of the Resilient Voices & Beyond Podcast, host Michael D. Davis-Thomas sits down once more with powerhouse advocate and returning guest, Tamara L. Dillard, to discuss her emotionally searing and transformative debut memoir, “Letters to the Village.” This isn’t just a conversation—it’s a reckoning.

    With honesty that cuts and compassion that heals, Tamara invites us into the sacred corridors of her lived experience in Kentucky’s foster care system—where pain and policy intersect, where community was both absent and found, and where healing arrived not as a gift but as a decision. Her memoir, structured as a series of unfiltered letters to the helpers, hurters, and bystanders in her life, challenges us to consider: What kind of villager have you been? What kind will you choose to become?

    Together, Tamara and Michael explore what it means to write from wounds, not for pity but for purpose. They unpack the emotional labor of storytelling while managing PTSD, and they speak to the burden—and blessing—of advocacy as foster care survivors. Michael reflects on the bystander effect within systems and communities, while Tamara calls for intentional, systemic, and personal accountability. It’s a bold, layered conversation about trauma, memory, forgiveness, authorship, and the audacity of telling your truth when silence would be easier.

    Tamara’s voice is prophetic, measured, and fierce. Her writing process wasn’t linear—it was sacred warfare. She shares how “Letters to the Village” nearly broke her but ultimately rebuilt her—chapter by chapter, truth by truth.

    In closing, Michael reflects on the growth of Resilient Voices & Beyond through its third season, emphasizing the continued need for listener support, community sponsorship, and sustainability as he carries this labor of love forward. This Episode isn’t the ending—it’s an altar call for justice, truth-telling, and restorative storytelling.

    Because your story is the message. And your story—yes, yours—is your legacy.
    📚 Read “Letters to the Village” — Available now.
    📢 Support this podcast through donations, sharing, and ongoing engagement.

    Ways to Support

    • Venmo: @MDDTSpeaks
    • Cash App: $MDDTSpeaks
    • PayPal: MDDT
    • Book: Resilient Faith (available on Amazon)
    • Podcast: Resilient Voices & Beyond (available on all platforms)

    🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, YouTube, and all major streaming platforms.

    🔗 Connect with Tamara Dillard:
    📘 Facebook: Tamara LeeAnn Dillard
    📸 Instagram: @missdillardsroom
    🎵 TikTok: @missdillardsroom
    💼 LinkedIn: Tamara (Vest) Dillard
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    53 mins
  • “Broken Systems, Funded Silence: Deconstructing the Nonprofit-Gov Pipeline” – Part 2

    “Broken Systems, Funded Silence: Deconstructing the Nonprofit-Gov Pipeline” – Part 2
    Jul 12 2025
    🎙️ Episode 49 – Season 3
    Title: "Broken Systems, Funded Silence: Deconstructing the Nonprofit-Gov Pipeline” (Part 2)
    Guests: Bobbi Taylor (Founder & CEO, Proximate Solution) & Tamara Dillard, MSW, CSW (Clinical Social Worker, Advocate, Foster Care Alumni)
    Host: Michael D. Davis-Thomas | Founder & CEO, MDDTSpeaks

    💥 Episode Description:

    In Part 2 of our ground-shifting series "Broken Systems, Funded Silence," we continue the courageous conversation that most platforms avoid—dissecting the dangerous comfort between nonprofits and government systems. This episode isn’t just a discussion. It’s an exposé.

    Host and systems reformer Michael D. Davis-Thomas sits down with two national powerhouses: Bobbi Taylor, a cross-sector systems leader and Founder/CEO of Proximate Solution, and Tamara Dillard, a licensed clinical social worker, policy influencer, and fierce advocate. Together, they deconstruct the nonprofit-industrial complex—unpacking how funding stipulations, performance-based contracts, and “collaborative” partnerships often dilute community-centered missions into digestible, data-driven deliverables for the very systems they’re supposed to challenge.

    From the trauma of tokenization to the manipulation of “lived experience,” this episode brings the raw truth: nonprofits cannot claim proximity to community while dancing to the tune of governmental preservation.

    We ask hard questions:
    • What happens when organizations built to fight systems start protecting them instead?
    • Can you really center community if you're still begging for permission to speak?
    • What does ethical inclusion look like when your invitation comes with a muzzle?
    Michael, Bobbi, and Tamara also reflect on deeply personal stakes—sharing their own sacrifices, burnout, and battles with survival in a world that capitalizes on their pain but rarely funds their power. They address the emotional tax of being the bridge, the weight of being “brought in but not brought under,” and the exhausting cycle of being visible yet voiceless.

    Tamara reminds us: being showcased is not the same as being centered. Bobbi adds: transparency without accountability is just theater. And Michael? He gives voice to the silent screams of so many: we are tired of being sold as data and discarded as people. This episode is both an indictment and an invitation—to reimagine, rebuild, and reclaim nonprofit work as sacred, not systemic.

    🔊 Listen in as we honor truth, challenge power, and amplify the unapologetic voices of those who have not only survived the system—but are actively rewriting it.

    🎧 Now streaming everywhere podcasts are available.
    🧾 Support the podcast, share this episode, and let the world hear what funded silence can no longer bury.

    📚 Featured Book: Letters to the Village by Tamara Dillard – Available now on Amazon. 📌 Take Action:
    • Support this work through donations, reviews, and reposts.
    • Book these guests for your next training, panel, or consulting engagement.
    • Demand better from the nonprofits in your region—follow the funding, follow the harm.
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    1 hr and 31 mins
  • “Broken Systems, Funded Silence: Deconstructing the Nonprofit-Gov Pipeline” – Part 1

    “Broken Systems, Funded Silence: Deconstructing the Nonprofit-Gov Pipeline” – Part 1
    May 31 2025
    Season 3, Episode 48
    🎙️ Resilient Voices & Beyond Podcast
    Title: “Broken Systems, Funded Silence: Deconstructing the Nonprofit-Gov Pipeline” – Part 1

    In this explosive Part 1 of a two-part special, Resilient Voices & Beyond dives into one of the most underexamined yet critical realities in system reform: the nonprofit-to-government pipeline. Host Michael D. Davis-Thomas, nationally recognized advocate and Founder of MDDTSpeaks, sits down with two powerhouse changemakers—Bobbi Taylor, Founder & CEO of Proximate Solution, and Tamara Dillard, MSW, CSW, clinical therapist, policy influencer, and child welfare advocate—for an unfiltered, intellectually rigorous, and emotionally grounded conversation about how broken systems are not only funded but protected by silence.

    We confront the sacred cows.
    We name what’s often hushed.
    We question whether systems are “broken”—or simply functioning as they were always designed to.

    These leaders don’t speak from theory. They speak from trenches. From lived experience as alumni of foster care and juvenile justice. From boardrooms where reform is discussed but rarely lived. From advocacy tables where funding decisions eclipse impact. This is a conversation about ethics, power, complicity, and survival in professional spaces that demand proximity—but punish truth-telling.

    Together, we dissect how nonprofits, while often well-intentioned, can become complicit in systemic harm by prioritizing contracts over community, grants over grassroots, and optics over outcomes. We explore how lived experience is sometimes tokenized rather than empowered—and what it looks like to reclaim that narrative.

    Featured Guests:

    Bobbi Taylor – Founder & CEO, Proximate Solution
    National systems-change strategist | Child welfare + juvenile justice advocate | Lived experience leader | Thriving Families Safer Children Executive Committee | Researcher, author, policy contributor

    Tamara Dillard, MSW, CSW – Clinical Therapist & Child Welfare Advocate
    Foster care alumni | Mental health professional | State & national policy influencer | Public speaker | Systems disruptor | University of Kentucky graduate

    Key Themes Explored:
    • GROUNDING TRUTH: What it means to live through systems before analyzing them
    • TOKENIZATION VS. TRANSFORMATION: The risk of nonprofits centering funding over lived wisdom
    • FUNDED SILENCE: The invisible cost of staying quiet in systems built on compliance
    • VALUES VS. PAYCHECK: Holding onto truth in institutions that reward forgetting
    • BAND-AID POLICIES: When intention isn’t enough, and how surface-level reforms deepen wounds
    • THE COST OF TELLING THE TRUTH: Retaliation, blackballing, and standing in integrity despite it all
    • HISTORICAL ROOTS: The evolution of foster care as a profit-generating system, from orphan trains to federal incentives
    This episode is for you if:
    • You’ve worked in or alongside nonprofits and wondered why real change feels so far away
    • You’ve ever questioned whether advocacy is being bought and sold
    • You’ve been silenced, sidelined, or tokenized—and want language for what happened
    • You believe truth-tellers deserve platforms, not punishment
    🎧 Listen in as truth meets strategy, advocacy meets accountability, and silence is shattered—one story, one truth, one system at a time.

    Produced by: MDDTSpeaks Media
    This podcast is recorded, edited, and released independently to protect the integrity of truth-tellers and lived experts. Support our work through reviews, donations, and by sharing these stories that systems too often suppress.

    Because silence is comfort for systems—but truth is freedom for people.
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    1 hr and 9 mins