Podcast Interview with Penny Franklin

In this episode, Penny Franklin digs into her personal story and shares how she became engaged in her community. She shares her stories of starting to engage with the schools and then growing a broader movement that includes the Dialogue on Race. She goes on to encourage everyone to "show up, speak up and step up," look beyond stereotypes and speak truth to power.

Penny Franklin, a lift truck operator in Shipping Utility at Hubbell Lighting, serves on and is former chair of the Montgomery County Board of Education; member of the Virginia School Board Association Board of Directors; president of Local 82160 of the IUE/CWA; former board chair, now Area Chair of the Montgomery Count-Radford City-Floyd County NAACP; and member of the national Executive Council of the IUE. She is co-founder of the Community Group, an African American civil society organization in Montgomery County; founding member of the New Mountain Climbers, the first giving circle in southwest Virginia, the first African American philanthropy in southwest Virginia.

Interviewers: Eli Jamison, Ph.D. student in ASPECT; Eric Hodges, Ph.D. student in Public and International Affairs