AmeriCorps Connections

Hosted by Nicki Fiocco

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114

Latest episode

Jun 2026

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EN-US

About the show

The AmeriCorps Connections Podcast is a space where alumni, members, and partners share how national service shapes careers, communities, and lives. Hosted by AmeriCorps alum Nicki Fiocco, each episode highlights stories of resilience, leadership, and purpose—showing that while service terms may end, the impact and connections continue. Tune in each week on your favorite podcast platform to listen, follow, subscribe, and share. Check it out and be part of the ongoing story of service. Watch the conversation on You Tube - https://www.youtube.com/@americorpsconnections Follow AmeriCorps Connections on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/americorpsconnections/

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June 29, 2026Episode 11548 min

Eps. 115 | From AmeriCorps VISTA to Congressional Candidate — Science, Sustainability, and Solving for What Matters

Michaela Barnett: From AmeriCorps VISTA to Congressional Candidate — Science, Sustainability, and Solving for What MattersWhat does it look like when a service year becomes a launchpad? Michaela Barnett's AmeriCorps VISTA year at University Tennessee (TU) Recycling in Knoxville wasn't something she planned — she stumbled into it while applying for a different job entirely. But that year handed her three community problems to solve, the freedom to figure them out, and a $100,000 grant for what's now UT's Grow Lab. That was just the beginning.Michaela went on to earn her PhD in civil engineering, where she sat at the intersection of behavioral science, engineering, and design. She wanted to understand not just what needed to change — but why people make the decisions they do, and how systems either support or undermine the change we need. That question led her to start KnoxFill, a sustainability-focused refillery that's now a community anchor in East Tennessee, stocking hundreds of bulk refillable products and shelving goods from 50 Tennessee-based makers and small businesses. And then it led her to DC, as a science policy fellow inside the House of Representatives.Now she's running for Congress in Tennessee's 2nd District — a seat that's been red since Reconstruction — because she believes the next layer of change happens at the policy level. And she's doing it the way she's done everything else: building local, investing in community, and treating the work itself as service.This conversation goes deep on systems thinking, what a service year actually gives you, why we need to expand national service right now, and what it means to carry AmeriCorps values all the way to the floor of Congress.Michaela is #StillGettingThingsDone.Links & Resources:🌿 Knox Fill🗳️ Michaela for Tennessee 📣 Campaign: MB4TN About AmeriCorps ConnectionsAmeriCorps Connections lifts up stories of AmeriCorps alums — 100+ featured! Honest, unfiltered truth about national service. These alums aren't just reflecting — they're still getting things done! We believe these voices deserve to be heard, and we're just getting started.If this episode moves you — don't let that feeling sit there! 💛Check out our featured partner Idealist for social-impact jobs, volunteer opportunities, and ways to give back right where you are.Link 👉 IDEALIST Social Impact Jobs Check out our first AC Connections Podcast guest blogger for the Idealist Career Advice blog Sarah Vagley Middleton 👩‍💻 🍿 Snack smart while you listen — PopzUp Popcorn is a clean, chemical-free microwave popcorn from Somersworth, NH. Use code NICKI10 for 10% 📺 You Tube📲 Follow us on Instagram - AmeriCorps Connections💼 Connect with Nicki on LinkedIn - Nicki Fiocco ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

June 20, 2026Episode 11443 min

Ep. 114 | Still Getting Things Done in New York City | Eric Ragone & Laura Rog

Eric Ragone & Laura Rog | AmeriCorps ConnectionsWhat does it look like when your service year doesn't just change your path — it catalyzes everything that comes after? That's the through line in this conversation.Today I am here with Eric Ragone, Major Gifts Officer for the 40 Forward Capital Campaign at God's Love We Deliver, and Laura Rog, Chief Service Officer for New York City and Director of NYC Service. We're recording from the Himan Brown Charitable Trust Media Room at God's Love We Deliver's Liberty Brooklyn location in Sunset Park — which, yes, is as cool as it sounds.Eric was recently recognized at Gracie Mansion by Mayor Mamdani with the 2026 AmeriCorps Alum Impact Award through NYC Service — an honor that recognized not just his own work, but the 20,000 volunteers and dedicated team behind God's Love We Deliver's mission. Two AmeriCorps alums who found their life's work through service — one who deferred a full-time job offer to serve and never looked back, and one who has built a career in national service from the ground upThe story of God's Love We Deliver: 40 years, 40 million meals, and a $40 million capital campaign expanding capacity to reach even more New Yorkers living with severe illness.What NYC Service is doing right now to keep New Yorkers engaged — and what both guests want anyone mid-service or finishing up to hearAbout AmeriCorps ConnectionsAmeriCorps Connections lifts up stories of AmeriCorps alums — 100+ featured! Honest, unfiltered truth about national service. These alums aren't just reflecting — they're still getting things done! We believe these voices deserve to be heard, and we're just getting started.If this episode moves you — don't let that feeling sit there! 💛 Check out our featured partner Idealist for social-impact jobs, volunteer opportunities, and ways to give back right where you are. Check out our first AC Connections Podcast guest blogger for the Idealist Career Advice blog Sarah Vagley Middleton 👩‍💻🍿 And snack smart while you listen — Pops Up Popcorn is a clean, chemical-free microwave popcorn from Somersworth, NH. Use code NICKI10 for 10% off at PopzUp.com 📺 You Tube 📲 Follow us on Instagram - AmeriCorps Connections💼 Connect with Nicki on LinkedIn - Nicki FioccoLinks & Resources:🏆 NYC Service — Mayoral Service Recognition Program (AmeriCorps Alum Impact Award) 🌐 NYC Service — Volunteer in New York City / Every Action Every New Yorker 🍽️ God's Love We Deliver 📦 God's Love We Deliver — 40 Forward Capital Campaign ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

May 26, 2026Episode 11331 min

Ep. 113 Shayna Canty: Pennsylvania's Youth Commissioner is Still Getting Things Done

Shayna Canty didn't find AmeriCorps — AmeriCorps found her. 🙌 From a dermatologist who saw something in her she couldn't yet see in herself, to a service year in Scranton that changed everything, Shayna's story is one of those "just say yes" journeys that reminds you why national service matters. 💥 Now she's Pennsylvania's first youth commissioner in over seven years, a Service Year Alliance Alums Amplify member, and still finding new ways to show up for her community. She is STILL GETTING THINGS DONE! 🔥If this episode moves you — don't let that feeling sit there! 💛 Check out our featured partner Idealist for social-impact jobs, volunteer opportunities, and ways to give back right where you are. Link 👉IDEALIST LINK🍿 And snack smart while you listen — Popzup popcorn is a clean, chemical-free microwave popcorn from Somersworth, NH. Use code NICKI10 for 10% off at popzup.com.🎙️ Subscribe, share, and leave a review — it makes a real difference!#AmeriCorpsConnections #StillGettingThingsDone #NationalService #AmeriCorps #ServiceYear #CommunityImpact ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

May 16, 2026Episode 1121 hr 7 min

Tisha Vonique: The Third Pillar | AmeriCorps Connections

What happens when your AmeriCorps service doesn't just change your career — it unlocks the final piece of who you are? For Tisha Vonique, two terms of national service revealed the third pillar of her identity: health equity. And she hasn't stopped building since. About This EpisodeTisha Vonique describes herself as a "catalyzer of curiosity" — and that phrase alone tells you everything you need to know about how she moves through the world. A strategist, coach, and community organizer based in Central Texas, Tisha has built a life around three interlocking pillars: education, community, and health equity. And she'll tell you directly: AmeriCorps gave her the third one. "When you made a conscious choice to do AmeriCorps, you made a conscious choice to say and to feel that things can be better. Your experience as an AmeriCorps member was, and is, an expression of resistance." — Tisha Vonique #StillGettingThingsDone Ready to Turn Intention Into Action?If this conversation activated something in you — don't just let that feeling sit there. Find social-impact jobs, volunteer opportunities, and community initiatives at Idealist — connecting 40 million+ people across 180 countries with opportunities to do good. Find your next opportunity here: 👉 IDEALIST And check out Idealist Days — monthly dates of local, positive action! Connect With Tisha VoniqueAustin AmeriCorps Alumni Chapter:@AustinAmeriCorpsAlums | @ATXAmeriCorpsAlums on LinkedIn Interested in joining the chapter leadership or showing up to events? Find them on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Linktree. Whether you served in Austin or just call it home now — you belong here. About AmeriCorps ConnectionsAmeriCorps Connections lifts up real stories of AmeriCorps alumni — 100+ featured! Honest, unfiltered truth about national service. These alums aren't just reflecting — they're still getting things done! We believe these voices deserve to be heard, and we're just getting started! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

May 2, 2026Episode 11156 min

20 Years Later, His Mural Was Still on the Wall — Rok Locksley's Life in Service

What happens when an artist, a restless servant-leader, and a lifelong learner become the same person? You get Rok Locksley — AmeriCorps NCCC alum (2003), AmeriCorps State & National alum (2023), and two-time Peace Corps volunteer who spent decades painting murals in small-town Texas, building youth centers in Eastern Europe, gamifying parks in Illinois, and learning — over and over again — that the work is never really about you.In this episode, Rok takes us through a life shaped by national and international service: from rebuilding a flood-damaged park in Castroville, TX and painting the pool mural that's still standing 20 years later, to opening a youth center in the Moldovan village that literally translates to "Rok's Place." (Yes, really.) He even painted the resurrection scene on the ceiling of the local Orthodox church. Just another Tuesday in the Peace Corps.But the moment that stopped us both in our tracks? When his Moldovan counterpart Vadim looked at him after the newly-built, perfectly frumos youth center was already full of kids, computers already broken, and said quietly: "Rok. This youth center is not for you. It's for them."That's the line. That's the whole podcast.Rok is currently a Training Designer for the Peace Corps, where he brings his art, his gamification obsession, and his deep community development roots into designing learning experiences that actually stick. He's also living proof that serving once is just the beginning.🎙️ These alums aren't just reflecting — they're #StillGettingThingsDone🔗 Subscribe for new episodes every week featuring real, unfiltered stories from AmeriCorps alumni who are still getting things done.AmeriCorps Connections lifts up real stories of AmeriCorps alumni — 100+ featured! Honest, unfiltered truth about national service. These alums aren't just reflecting — they're still getting things done! We believe these voices deserve to be heard, and we're just getting started! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

April 25, 2026Episode 10916 min

250 & Beyond | Breaking Stigma Is Hard. But It's Worth It | Catherine Hicks

Catherine Hicks came into her AmeriCorps year with 30 years of tech behind her, a master's in public health ahead of her, and a personal connection to the work that made everything matter more.A fresh alum at the time of recording, Catherine served with the National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse in the Bay Area — a harm reduction organization doing life-saving work distributing Naloxone and fentanyl test strips to communities facing the overdose crisis. She brought her tech background to modernize the organization's website and expand its reach, translating it into multiple languages so more people could access resources.But the moment that defined her year? Hearing back that a friend used the Naloxone training she provided — and someone came home because of it.Catherine's story is about showing up even when you keep hearing "no." It's about finding out that your lived experience isn't a liability — it's your greatest asset. And it's about the quiet, radical act of seeing every person as human."We need to find the humanity in all people — not just people like us." — Catherine Hicks#StillGettingThingsDone_______________________________________ 🤝 This episode is part of a special series produced in partnership with 250&Beyond: Our American Story and our partners: The National Museum and Center for Service — A national organization developing a truly national museum and center dedicated to honoring and inspiring service in ALL its forms. Independent Sector — The only national membership organization that brings together a diverse community of changemakers, nonprofits, foundations, and corporations working to strengthen civil society and ensure all people in the United States thrive. WETA — Founded in 1961, WETA is the leading public broadcasting station in the nation's capital, serving their community with educational, cultural, news, and public affairs programs and services. ________________________________________ AmeriCorps Connections lifts up real stories of AmeriCorps alumni — 100+ featured! Honest, unfiltered truth about national service. These alums aren't just reflecting — they're still getting things done! We believe these voices deserve to be heard, and we're just getting started! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

April 25, 2026Episode 10820 min

250 & Beyond | The Best Way to See Your Community Is Through Someone Else's Eyes"

She survived a tropical storm, was at AmeriCorps headquarters on 9/11, and once made sure volunteers were fed during the anthrax scare outside a shuttered DC hospital. And she credits all of it to her NCCC service year.Laura Swier Kotelman served in AmeriCorps NCCC in 2001 — a year that turned out to be unlike any other. From mold remediation in Louisiana to the Special Olympics World Games in Alaska, Laura's service year opened doors she never expected and built skills she still uses every day.Now based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota — the only state without a service commission, a fact she's working to change — Laura volunteers by hosting international teaching interns in her home through her kids' Spanish immersion school. Her insight is quietly profound: you see your own community differently when you share it with someone experiencing it for the first time.Community isn't always a formal event. Sometimes it's gathering people around a table — wherever that table happens to be.#StillGettingThingsDone_______________________________________ 🤝 This episode is part of a special series produced in partnership with 250&Beyond: Our American Story and our partners: The National Museum and Center for Service — A national organization developing a truly national museum and center dedicated to honoring and inspiring service in ALL its forms. Independent Sector — The only national membership organization that brings together a diverse community of changemakers, nonprofits, foundations, and corporations working to strengthen civil society and ensure all people in the United States thrive. WETA — Founded in 1961, WETA is the leading public broadcasting station in the nation's capital, serving their community with educational, cultural, news, and public affairs programs and services. ________________________________________ AmeriCorps Connections lifts up real stories of AmeriCorps alumni — 100+ featured! Honest, unfiltered truth about national service. These alums aren't just reflecting — they're still getting things done! We believe these voices deserve to be heard, and we're just getting started! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

April 24, 2026Episode 10714 min

250 & Beyond | The Work Doesn't Stop" | Libby McClayton

What happens when your AmeriCorps service year never really ends?Libby McClayton did two years as an AmeriCorps VISTA with the Office of the Mayor in Baltimore, then a third year as a State National member with Children's Hunger Alliance in Dayton, Ohio. The through line? Food. And she's still at it.Now on the board of the AmeriCorps Alum DC Chapter — one of the only 501(c)(3) alumni chapters in the country — Libby helps galvanize service-minded folks across the DMV. From packing thousands of Thanksgiving food boxes at the University of the District of Columbia to leading career fairs for the next generation of public servants, she's proof that the skills you build in service — rolling with chaos, pivoting, getting it done — travel with you for life.Libby also shares her philosophy on working alongside communities rather than swooping in to fix them. Active listening, curiosity, humility — and ditching the superhero cape. 🦸#StillGettingThingsDone_______________________________________ 🤝 This episode is part of a special series produced in partnership with 250&Beyond: Our American Story and our partners: The National Museum and Center for Service — A national organization developing a truly national museum and center dedicated to honoring and inspiring service in ALL its forms. Independent Sector — The only national membership organization that brings together a diverse community of changemakers, nonprofits, foundations, and corporations working to strengthen civil society and ensure all people in the United States thrive. WETA — Founded in 1961, WETA is the leading public broadcasting station in the nation's capital, serving their community with educational, cultural, news, and public affairs programs and services. ________________________________________ AmeriCorps Connections lifts up real stories of AmeriCorps alumni — 100+ featured! Honest, unfiltered truth about national service. These alums aren't just reflecting — they're still getting things done! We believe these voices deserve to be heard, and we're just getting started! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

April 23, 2026Episode 10612 min

250 & Beyond It's Okay Not to Be Okay" | David Konkler

What does it look like when a veteran heals — and then turns around to help the next one?David Konkler served in the AmeriCorps VETCO program in Tacoma, Washington, supporting veterans transitioning out of military life. But his service didn't stop there. He co-founded Nine Line Veteran Services, an outdoor nature-based peer support program that brings veterans together through hiking, camping, and yes — a beloved event called "Suns Out, Guns Out."David shares what happens when a group of guarded, "snarky veterans" spend a day on a private gun range together. By the end? They're swapping stories, laughing, competing — and opening up in ways they haven't in years. It's mental health support that doesn't feel like mental health support.The most powerful moment: watching a veteran "graduate" from the program and say I want to give back now too. The ripple effect is real."It's okay not to be okay. But we have to make sure we're doing things to guide us toward the lighter side." — David Konkler#StillGettingThingsDone_______________________________________ 🤝 This episode is part of a special series produced in partnership with 250&Beyond: Our American Story and our partners: The National Museum and Center for Service — A national organization developing a truly national museum and center dedicated to honoring and inspiring service in ALL its forms. Independent Sector — The only national membership organization that brings together a diverse community of changemakers, nonprofits, foundations, and corporations working to strengthen civil society and ensure all people in the United States thrive. WETA — Founded in 1961, WETA is the leading public broadcasting station in the nation's capital, serving their community with educational, cultural, news, and public affairs programs and services. ________________________________________ AmeriCorps Connections lifts up real stories of AmeriCorps alumni — 100+ featured! Honest, unfiltered truth about national service. These alums aren't just reflecting — they're still getting things done! We believe these voices deserve to be heard, and we're just getting started! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

April 23, 2026Episode 10523 min

250 & Beyond | An Important Stitch in the Fabric of Who We Are" | Najla Munshower

What happens when you spend your life moving — and you bring your commitment to service with you every single time?Najla Munshower served in the AmeriCorps Veteran Leader Corps in 2012-2013 as the spouse of an active duty service member in Washington State. What she built there — coordination programs for veterans in transition — became part of the framework for the USO Pathfinder Transitions Program, which is still running today.Since then, she's moved through Europe, North Carolina, and now Indiana. And everywhere she goes, she finds people who need what she knows: how to navigate VA benefits, how to support military families, how to help someone who doesn't know help is available ask for it.One story stands out: a volunteer food bank run she helped organize that eventually led to an on-base food pantry for lower-enlisted families who couldn't always afford groceries. The quiet, invisible needs that nobody talks about — that's where Najla shows up."AmeriCorps afforded me the ability to not just enter into community with intent — but to grow the community." — Najla Munshower#StillGettingThingsDone_______________________________________ 🤝 This episode is part of a special series produced in partnership with 250&Beyond: Our American Story and our partners: The National Museum and Center for Service — A national organization developing a truly national museum and center dedicated to honoring and inspiring service in ALL its forms. Independent Sector — The only national membership organization that brings together a diverse community of changemakers, nonprofits, foundations, and corporations working to strengthen civil society and ensure all people in the United States thrive. WETA — Founded in 1961, WETA is the leading public broadcasting station in the nation's capital, serving their community with educational, cultural, news, and public affairs programs and services. ________________________________________ AmeriCorps Connections lifts up real stories of AmeriCorps alumni — 100+ featured! Honest, unfiltered truth about national service. These alums aren't just reflecting — they're still getting things done! We believe these voices deserve to be heard, and we're just getting started! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★