What: Deborah Levine's talk on leadership and diversity
When: Sunday, March 10, 3:30-6:30 p.m.
Where: 1428 Jenkins Road
How much: Free
What can one generation offer another? What can one woman offer her gender?
For Deborah Levine, the answer is simple: the lessons of a past to navigate the challenges of the future.
Levine, who is, among other things, the president of the American Diversity Report and a regular blogger for The Huffington Post, speaks this Sunday at the Heritage House Arts and Civic Center as part of the Women’s History Month celebrations.
The program, Love, Leadership and History: A Gift to Generations, will feature a reading from her book, “Inspire Your Inner Global Leader,” and discussions abounding from the book’s lessons on diversity, adaptation and cultural awareness.
There will also be a special presentation of beautifully preserved letters between Levine’s father and mother during his time as a WWII military intelligence officer.
Levine explained that her father had meticulously organized and filed the collection with the precision of a military man, presumably with the intent of writing his own memoirs.
“I’m the only one left alive, though,” she said. Levine has survived her mother, father and two brothers. “It’s left to me to do.”
The charge of continuing her father’s legacy isn’t limited to retelling the priceless stories and recounting the keen observations, but more broadly helping define what a leader is and, even more, how to work and live in an ever-evolving society and culture whose shifts are more and more visible along the fault lines of diversity.
“Deborah can make a point so gently that [her audience gets] it,” said Chris Holley, director of the Heritage House. “It’s done so wonderfully that you aren’t put off. She can tap into taboo subjects and still bring people together.”
“Inspire Your Inner Global Leader” emerged from a friend’s request for Levine to tailor the work she does with adult professionals for school-aged children. The format is based on offering practical tips that can be applied immediately and stories from her own journey, which started in Bermuda and has thus far brought her to Tennessee.
Levine’s next project, the book “Going Southern,” which is a similarly practical guide for non-Southerners living in the South interwoven with rich personal stories, will be published this spring.
