Podcast, Woman of the Month

LBW 058: Meet Fatmata Barrie, Lawyer, Immigration Activist and Ladybrille Woman of the Month November 2017


Fatmata Barrie is a proud District 20 (Silver Spring/Takoma, Maryland) resident who wants to make the district strong and prosperous for all residents. Her family migrated to the United States from Sierra Leone, West Africa, at the age of 11, and settled in Florida.  She received her B.S. in Psychology from the Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University and her Juris Doctorate (J.D.) from the University of Florida, Levin College of Law. For the past fifteen years, she has lived in White Oak, Maryland and has dedicated her life to the service of her community and spent most of her adult life as an activist and advocate for the educational rights of children, including those with special needs.

During her 15 years in District 20, she has advocated for immigrant rights and protections, affordable housing, affordable and practical transportation options, economic development that benefits everyone in the community, access to quality education, health benefits and public safety by working with the local police department, the county and the community to hold meetings to promote proper dialogue. She is vying to represent the wonderful community in Annapolis and to also make sure that the voiceless are heard and to ensure that those who are under-served have a voice and are represented.

She is also an attorney who has litigated many special education cases representing students with special needs against the D.C. Public School system to ensure that the students receive their legally mandated Free and Appropriate Public Education; this includes the provision of needed educational and related services. As a special education advocate, she advocates for appropriate testing and services for students. As an immigration attorney, she works diligently to ensure that immigrants receive their immigration benefits and helps immigrants navigate the U.S. immigration system.

PODCAST PREVIEW

  • The three awesome things that have happened to her in 2017
  • Her personal background
  • Importance of a good support system
  • The need for women to support each other
  • Becoming a lawyer
  • Community grassroots advocacy
  • Running for office 
  • Muslim Faith and impact on decision to run
  • Fighting for immigrant rights
  • DACA Children
  • Leadership philosophy

WHERE TO FIND FATMATA BARRIE

Website: https://www.fatmatabarrie.com

ABOUT THE LADYBRILLE WOMAN OF THE MONTH FEATURE

The ‘Ladybrille Woman of the Month’ is a feature on Ladybrillemag.com that celebrates women who empower themselves and others through their contributions and actions in their local and international communities. These women are intelligent, courageous, confident, and innovative. They strive for balance in their personal lives (whether emotionally, mentally, and spiritually), are persistent, and when they fall, they get right back up. These women honor and stand in their truths. They are business and community leaders, visionaries, trailblazers and game changers. They are our sisters, aunties, mothers, friends and so much more. They are “Ladybrille” (brilliant) women.

WHERE TO FIND HOST MS. UDUAK

Website: www.msuduak.com

CONTACT & LINKS

Subscribe links: Stitcher, iTunes.
Follow links: Twitter, Facebook, Google+,You Tube.

Feedback options: Please leave comments on this post or send to ([email protected]).

Sponsorship: ([email protected] or [email protected])

Podcast, Woman of the Month

LBW 057: Meet Funmilola Fagbamila, Rising Global Leader and Ladybrille Woman of the Month October 2017

Funmilola Fagbamila is a Nigerian American scholar, activist, playwright and artist. While her artistry is multifaceted, including spoken word and hip hop, her current project, entitled The Intersection, is a stage play on the complexities of black identity and what she has coined the “black liberation ego”. Having recently completed her graduate program at UCLA in Black Studies, Funmilola now serves as a professor of Pan African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. As an original member of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, she has been organizing with BLM since its inception in 2013. In 2015, Funmilola was honored by the United States Congress and the Black Community, Clergy and Labor Alliance for her commendable activist scholarship, service and struggle. She frequently sits on community panels regarding police brutality, criminal justice and overall wellness in black communities; most recently presenting at a conference held by the UCLA School of Law.

PODCAST PREVIEW

  • Personal background.
  • Life philosophy.
  • Bridging the Black-American and African communities through her work.
  • Juggling her career as a professor, activist, playwright and artist.
  • Dealing with self doubt.
  • Her self-care routine.
  • Dealing with public scrutiny and criticism.
  • What’s next for Funmilola (career and personal).

WHERE TO FIND FUNMILOLA FAGBAMILA

Website: https://www.funmilola.com

ABOUT THE LADYBRILLE WOMAN OF THE MONTH FEATURE

The ‘Ladybrille Woman of the Month’ is a feature on Ladybrille.com that celebrates women who empower themselves and others through their contributions and actions in their local and international communities. These women are intelligent, courageous, confident, and innovative. They strive for balance in their personal lives (whether emotionally, mentally, and spiritually), are persistent, and when they fall, they get right back up. These women honor and stand in their truths. They are business and community leaders, visionaries, trailblazers and game changers. They are our sisters, aunties, mothers, friends and so much more. They are “Ladybrille” (brilliant) women.

WHERE TO FIND HOST MS. UDUAK

Website: www.msuduak.com

CONTACT & LINKS

Subscribe links: Stitcher, iTunes.
Follow links: Twitter, Facebook, Google+,You Tube.

Feedback options: Please leave comments on this post or send to ([email protected]).

Sponsorship: ([email protected] or [email protected])

Podcast, Woman of the Month

LBW 056: Meet Nkemdilim Begho, Tech Powerhouse Entrepreneur and Ladybrille Woman of the Month September 2017

Nkemdilim Begho (nee Uwaje) is Ladybrille Magazine’s Woman of the Month for September 2017! A seasoned professional in the IT Service Industry, Begho has served as the Managing Director of Future Software Resources Nigeria Ltd (Futuresoft) since 2008. Under her leadership, thecompany has been strategically re-branded and re-focused on three core areas; Online Solution Development, E-Learning & IT Security, thus establishing it as one of the top IT solution providers in Nigeria. As a change catalyst, Begho recognized that the African technology space is in it’s infancy an requires significant innovations in order to leap-frog and compete in global spheres, this spurred her desire to design initiatives and solutions that ensure Futuresoft provides tailored-made IT solutions for African businesses that are delivered in accordance with global standards.

Driven by her passion for delivering quality education to African children the award winning i-Connect Project an ICT4D initiative focused on education and ICT was borne. The project is the Winner of the 2012 Etisalat Prize for innovation and the 2013 AR-CSR Sustainable Solutions Showcase. As one of a few Nigerian women in the industry, Mrs Begho’s successes are founded on a passion for driving innovative thinking, building a globally recognized technology brand and setting trends in the Nigerian Technology space. She believes that innovation and change requires adequate support from the public sector and has thus been involved in various public sector initiatives and projects like the Wazobia Linux initiative, the E-Government Interoperability Framework Project and The NITDA Open Standards Framework Project.

Respected and recognized as a leader in her industry, Begho is regularly featured in a myriad of
newspaper and magazine publications and is frequently invited to speak about the future of ICT in Africa, the challenges of African entrepreneurs as well as the role of Information Technology for development and change. She was featured in Forbes Africa as one of the Top 10 Female Tech
Founders to watch in Africa, as well as listed on the African Women Power Network Top 40 African
Leading Women’s list and named one of the top 100 most innovative in the Nigerian Tech Space by
YTech 3 years in a row. She is also featured as one of 100 Lionesses of Africa and was recently
featured on the Ventures Africa 42 most innovative Africans list.

She is also a director and co-founder in 3 thriving tech driven startups, Anne Li Unique Ideas
(www.alwaysme.ng – Manufacturing & Fashion), Compare Insurance Nigeria (www.compareinsurance.com.ng – Insurance) and Fucaire Lifestyle Ltd, publishers of ASPIRE Luxury
Magazine (www.aspireluxurymag.com – Luxury Brand Consultancy).

She served as an advisory board member for Social Media Week Lagos in 2017 and is also part of the advisory board for the 2018 edition.Furthermore she is an active board member of the World Summit Youth Award, a global online econtent contest focused on the implementation of the SDGs through ICT. She regularly volunteers for mentoring and empowerment programmes like the PIN Ajegunle.org Initiative, the W.TEC Initiative, IMPACT, The Visiola Foundation and the Educate The State Initiative (www.educatethestate.com) where she shares her ICT knowledge, as well as her business and life experience with young Nigerians and less privileged children. She is also the co-founder of The Bake for Change Development Foundation (www.facebook.com/bakeforchange), an NGO focused on empowering street children through skill acquisition, vocational training and educational scholarships.

Begho is a firm believer in mentorship and is an active Mara Mentor and SME Boutique Women’s
Exclusive Club (SWEC) Mentor. Begho embarked on her professional career in Germany at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Psychiatric Research in the department for Statistical Genetics and Proteomics and later worked at Affectis Pharmaceuticals AG, Germany before returning to Nigeria. She is a graduate of Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) & Technical University Munich (TUM), Germany, where she received a BSc. Hons in Bioinformatics.

PODCAST PREVIEW

  • How Nkem built her company FutureSoft
  • Nkem’s forray into IT
  • Nkem’s fashion tech business Anne Li Unique 
  • Studying the market, marketing and promotions
  • Operating in the Nigerian business climate
  • Passion for working with girls in IT
  • Doing the personal , family, and business juggle
  • Biggest challenges in business
  • Advice to young business owners

WHERE TO FIND NKEMDILIM BEGHO

Website: http://www.futuresoft-ng.com

Social media: https://www.instagram.com/miss_uwaje/

ABOUT THE LADYBRILLE WOMAN OF THE MONTH FEATURE

The ‘Ladybrille Woman of the Month’ is a feature on Ladybrillemag.com that celebrates women who empower themselves and others through their contributions and actions in their local and international communities. These women are intelligent, courageous, confident, and innovative. They strive for balance in their personal lives (whether emotionally, mentally, and spiritually), are persistent, and when they fall, they get right back up. These women honor and stand in their truths. They are business and community leaders, visionaries, trailblazers and game changers. They are our sisters, aunties, mothers, friends and so much more. They are “Ladybrille” (brilliant) women.

WHERE TO FIND HOST MS. UDUAK

Website: www.msuduak.com

CONTACT & LINKS

Subscribe links: Stitcher, iTunes.
Follow links: Twitter, Facebook, Google+,You Tube.

Feedback options: Please leave comments on this post or send to ([email protected]).

Sponsorship: ([email protected] or [email protected])

Podcast, Woman of the Month

LBW 055: Meet S. Jeanine Conley, Employment Lawyer and Ladybrille Woman of the Month August 2017


Jeanine Conley, an experienced trial lawyer, has represented Fortune 500 and many of the nation’s leading companies in employment-related disputes and internal investigations. Jeanine regularly counsels clients and conducts internal investigations on a wide-range of employment, compliance and regulatory issues, including, for instance, whistleblower, retaliation, discrimination and wrongful termination claims, and federal and state wage and hour matters as well as off-label marketing, accounting fraud, insider trading, and kickback violations. Jeanine’s clients have called on her to defend them before numerous government agencies, counsel them on all aspects of employment law from hiring to termination, and efficiently and effectively resolve disputes by obtaining favorable settlements, summary judgment, or achieving victory at trial.

Jeanine also loves to mediate and arbitrate cases in her free time, is a foodie, dancer and lover of all kinds of music, and is a huge admirer of all those that have come before her and opened doors in the legal field, like Constance Baker Motley, Ruth Whitehead Whaley and Jane Bolin at a time when access to the legal arena was even more difficult than it is today.

Jeanine is Ladybrille Magazine’s Woman of the Month for August 2017!

PODCAST PREVIEW

  • Jeanine’s personal background
  • Her interest in law
  • Breaking into the legal field
  • Her work as a legal advocate
  • Her leadership roles in her local community
  • Mentoring young people
  • Advice for young lawyers

WHERE TO FIND S. JEANINE CONLEY

Website: Little Mendelson, P.C.

Email: [email protected]

ABOUT THE LADYBRILLE WOMAN OF THE MONTH FEATURE

The ‘Ladybrille Woman of the Month’ is a feature on Ladybrillemag.com that celebrates women who empower themselves and others through their contributions and actions in their local and international communities. These women are intelligent, courageous, confident, and innovative. They strive for balance in their personal lives (whether emotionally, mentally, and spiritually), are persistent, and when they fall, they get right back up. These women honor and stand in their truths. They are business and community leaders, visionaries, trailblazers and game changers. They are our sisters, aunties, mothers, friends and so much more. They are “Ladybrille” (brilliant) women.

WHERE TO FIND HOST MS. UDUAK

Website: www.msuduak.com

CONTACT & LINKS

Subscribe links: Stitcher, iTunes.
Follow links: Twitter, Facebook, Google+,You Tube.

Feedback options: Please leave comments on this post or send to ([email protected]).

Sponsorship: ([email protected] or [email protected])

Podcast, Woman of the Month

LBW 054: Meet Karen Johnson, Author and Ladybrille Woman of the Month July 2017


Karen Johnson’s world was finally looking stable. After some challenging years in her marriage, it seemed like there was a light at the end of the tunnel. But little did she know what lay ahead. In 2006, she and her husband went on a dinner date. She picked the restaurant. What happened after they got to the restaurant, ate, and attempted to leave the parking lot, was the beginning of one of the darkest moments in her life.

In her book Covered & Kept, Johnson takes us through her personal background, meeting and marrying her husband, the challenges in their relationship, the turning point, and the darkest moment that took everything in her and a strong faith and belief in God to make it through. It’s a story about trauma (murder), grief, forgiveness, and hope and gives those who have experienced any form of trauma permission to simply live again. Johnson is also a Certified Personal Fitness Trainer and Founder of Try 7 Fitness for Heaven. She is an avid health professional with over 25 years of experience and holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Radio, Television, and Film from Long Beach State University.

WHERE TO FIND KAREN JOHNSON

http://try7fitness.com

WHERE TO BUY KAREN JOHNSON’S BOOK

http://coveredandkept.com

http://www.xulonpress.com/

ABOUT THE LADYBRILLE WOMAN OF THE MONTH FEATURE

The ‘Ladybrille Woman of the Month’ is a feature on Ladybrillemag.com that celebrates women who empower themselves and others through their contributions and actions in their local and international communities. These women are intelligent, courageous, confident, and innovative. They strive for balance in their personal lives (whether emotionally, mentally, and spiritually), are persistent, and when they fall, they get right back up. These women honor and stand in their truths. They are business and community leaders, visionaries, trailblazers and game changers. They are our sisters, aunties, mothers, friends and so much more. They are “Ladybrille” (brilliant) women.

 

WHERE TO FIND HOST MS. UDUAK

Website: www.msuduak.com

CONTACT & LINKS

Subscribe links: Stitcher, iTunes.

Follow links: Twitter, Facebook, Google+,You Tube.

Feedback options: Please leave comments on this post or send to ([email protected]).

Sponsorship: ([email protected] or [email protected])