Swan Dive

Income inequality and generational poverty have decimated the American Dream. How does one claw their way out of a deep hole if the walls are too steep and slippery to climb. David Garfunkel has dedicated his life to solving this systemic problem. As President & CEO of the non-profit LIFT JAX, David brings business and community leaders together to eradicate generational poverty in Jacksonville, FL. And it’s not just lofty talk and abstraction. LIFT JAX has created meaningful and measurable community revitalization initiatives in Jacksonville’s Eastside, located less than a mile from downtown. "OutEast" is widely considered to be one of Jacksonville’s most important historically African-American neighborhoods, home to many noteworthy sites in African-American culture dating back to the mid-1800s. LIFT JAX focuses on culturally rich, generationally inclusive, and economically diverse neighborhoods for children and families, where social connections across socioeconomic and racial demographics are commonplace. Legacy residents feel valued and are part of the fabric of the growing community with newer residents. The built environment and investments in physical infrastructure support the ability for the community to thrive. And, all residents feel welcomed, valued, and integral to the composition of their neighborhood. Using the Purpose Built Communities model, grounded in the foundational beliefs that race and place matter, makes it possible for residents to experience greater racial equity, improved health outcomes, and increased upward mobility in their neighborhoods. For example, LIFT JAX has reopened the beloved Debs Store as a community wellness anchor that provides easy access to healthy food. The store was a neighborhood staple for more than 90 years and left the Eastside a food desert after closing. In addition, they're working to activate parks and green spaces by improving the infrastructure to better support activities for families. These basic lifestyle improvements make a house a home and a neighborhood a village. His journey toward social justice began straight out of college, where he received a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. David joined the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic, where he served for three years in the area of community economic development. Following the 2010 earthquake that struck Haiti, he moved to Port-au-Prince, where he led a rural loan and education program for Fonkoze, Haiti’s largest microfinance institution.Have a Swan Dive to share? Text us!We are always looking for Swan Dive Stories to share so hit us up, send an e mail to Ron: Ron@artbikesjax.com or Stu: Stuart@stuartsheldon.com

Nate Monroe writes a column about Florida for USA Today, exploring how power works in the gilded, strange human heart of the modern Republican Party. His intrepid  irony and rapier wit have made him a reader favorite but have also ruffled some significant feathers. Previously an investigative reporter for Jacksonville's Florida Times-Union, Nate focused on covering Jacksonville City Hall, the largest municipal government in Florida. His most notable deep-dive exposed a massive, nefarious scheme to sell Jacksonville's city-owned power company to Florida Power & Light ... and led to an indictment and jail time for the local CEO, an enormous win for justice and transparency. For this excellent work, he was surveilled and threatened. Nate says, “It was obviously surreal to open a batch of records that I had some sense was about the controversy and to actually discover that there was stuff about me in there” - his full Social Security number, driver’s license and a list of friends dating back to childhood — information not readily available as a public record. Nate's lived experience as a target of attack on the media and honest reporting is emblematic of the challenges facing democracy today. Still, Nate loves his job; he's built for it. An old school journalist who came up through the ranks, Nate remains undaunted about speaking truth to power. Prior to arriving in Jacksonville in 2013, he was a small town beat reporter for newspapers in the Deep South, where he wrote about hurricanes, small-town corruption, oil spills, Army Corps screw-ups, Mardi Gras, and bingo nights at the senior citizens center. Nate's work is absolutely critical to keeping our democracy healthy and alive. Have a Swan Dive to share? Text us!We are always looking for Swan Dive Stories to share so hit us up, send an e mail to Ron: Ron@artbikesjax.com or Stu: Stuart@stuartsheldon.com

The Stanford Arts Review described Samantha Rose Williams as a “Mezzo-Soprano with ‘jaw-dropping vocal power.” This opera singer and arts activist is committed to creating space for critical discussion about art, culture, and social change. Her latest project is American Patriots, an opera she created that seeks to examine patriotism from four vastly different perspectives: African-American, Native American,  New American and white Working-Class American. For this piece, Samantha asked 50 Americans from diverse racial, socio economic, political, cultural and gender backgrounds to answer the question, “What is a patriot?” Their verbatim answers became the lyrics for her newest opera, which she sings magnificently. She hopes that through sharing nuanced stories of people of all backgrounds and beliefs, she can be a part of breaking down the walls of “us and other” and help to create a more sympathetic and equitable world.Have a Swan Dive to share? Text us!We are always looking for Swan Dive Stories to share so hit us up, send an e mail to Ron: Ron@artbikesjax.com or Stu: Stuart@stuartsheldon.com

Daniel K. Forkkio is CEO of Represent Justice, building a critical mass of “system-impacted storytellers” using film and media to mobilize audiences to take action and transform the legal system. Because, those closest to the problem are closest to the solution. About this transformational approach to filmmaking, Daniel says, “What I started to learn about these (grassroots) films is that the films themselves were part of the reconciliation process for the person that had gone through a (traumatic) experience. And so, the act of writing down what had happened, thinking about their audience, the different characters ... and what were the myths around those characters. And what did they want the audience to do and think and feel concerned about, allowed for a reconciliation of all of the different frames that they had been told about their story … and allowed for a different level of control and empowerment around their story. And then, with the film screening, they could go to their local community, their local council members, their local community partners and they could just gather people differently. When you learn together, and when you learn someone’s story and see how it connects to yours, it just creates this inspiration and this understanding that allows you to tell your story more effectively.” In the 5 years since inception, RJ now has people in 20 different states producing films & campaigns about their own lived experience, learning and growing from one another in ways that are completely transformative. RJ provides training, support, compensation and mental health resources ... all of which culminates in folks being able to produce a campaign about their unique personal experience rather than relying on whatever Hollywood has produced most recently. For this exceptional work Daniel was recently named a 2024 Elevate Prize winner, chosen alongside 9 other nonprofit leaders from across the globe for leading some of the most impactful missions to change our world for the better. RJ began as part of the impact campaign for the highly acclaimed Hollywood film, Just Mercy, starring Jamie Foxx and Michael Jordan, about the life of acclaimed public interest lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, and the civil rights work he does helping the incarcerated and the condemned. A policy expert conversant in the film's core issues, Daniel witnessed something remarkable at the screening and advocacy events he organized for Just Mercy - the unexpected impact of the people present connecting with each other through their own real life stories of similar lived experience. Says Daniel, "It got me thinking … what about this power of firsthand storytelling should extend beyond a campaign? What if we we were constantly working with folks who were impacted by this issue and, in fact, what if they were the ones producing the film? What if it wasn’t a matter of a Hollywood actor? What if it wasn’t as much a matter of a studio release? What if impacted folks, in their communities, had these skills of convening and using film as a medium? And, that became really the blueprint for Represent Justice." Learn more and watch some of these magnificent films at RepresentJustice.org@danielforkkio@werepjusHave a Swan Dive to share? Text us!We are always looking for Swan Dive Stories to share so hit us up, send an e mail to Ron: Ron@artbikesjax.com or Stu: Stuart@stuartsheldon.com

Matt Hartley is an Interfaith expert and "DEI Criminal." He's an educator and ordained minister, a dad, a cellist, a high school running coach .... In other words, one of the good guys. Yet, after 5 years leading the University of North Florida Interfaith Center, Matt’s job was eliminated last year by draconian anti-DEI (Diversity Equity and Inclusion) laws initiated by Gov Ron DeSantis. To keep his interfaith work alive, Matt joined OneJax, a local diversity organization supporting Interfaith work on multiple campuses. In a 2023 New York Times article titled, What It Is Like To Teach In The Crosshairs of Ron DeSantis, Matt said, “When people think about diversity and inclusion, they generally think of race, not faith. That is by design. The G.O.P. branding gurus intentionally turned “woke” into a racist dog whistle.” Matt now works independently. His website, Faith in Diversity, features a weekly subscription newsletter and explores the landscape of DEI, religious diversity, war and human rights. Have a Swan Dive to share? Text us!We are always looking for Swan Dive Stories to share so hit us up, send an e mail to Ron: Ron@artbikesjax.com or Stu: Stuart@stuartsheldon.com

Trained as an anthropologist, Suz Howard spent 20 yrs as a partner at IDEO, one of the world's leading design and innovation companies, playing a critical role in growing IDEO from 200 employees to 1000 in 9 locations around the globe. Focused on building creative leadership within organizations, she founded IDEO U, a digital learning platform that has served over 80,000 students through various forms of cohort-based learning since 2014. In effect, Suz has dedicated her life’s work to building out-of-the-box thinkers and enhancing the future of work itself. Now, out on her own, Suz continues her work with individuals and organizations, bringing human-centered design to develop strategy, deploy rapid prototypes, and align multiple stakeholders around a common vision for a brave new future. In addition, she teaches entrepreneurs at the Aspen Institute and advises startups on climate tech. Her writing has been published in Inc Magazine, Fast Company and many other places over her illustrious career.SuzHoward.comHave a Swan Dive to share? Text us!We are always looking for Swan Dive Stories to share so hit us up, send an e mail to Ron: Ron@artbikesjax.com or Stu: Stuart@stuartsheldon.com

As Executive Director of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis, TN, Jeff Kollath oversees the world’s only museum dedicated to preserving and promoting the legacy of Stax Records and American soul music. Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, John Lee Hooke, Booker T & the MGs and the endless Stax roster of musical icons produced  songs that stirred our souls and shared our collective story, a story born of pain and glory, rags and riches, love and lust. Stax liberated our hearts and freed our hips to move like nobody was watching. Kollath, brandishing a BA and Masters in History, shares the complex STAX story everday, highlighting the granular details of each artist and the revolution they created. And overseeing magnificent installations that capture the moments when musical and cultural magic happened in a beaten up corner of Memphis. Kollath has researched and written extensively about soul music and Black culture during the Civil Rights and Black Power eras. Prior to arriving in Memphis in 2015, Kollath created dynamic public programming and exhibitions for the UW-Madison Center for the Humanities, the Milwaukee County Historical Society, and the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. Memphis Magazine Interview Photo Max Gersh / The Commercial AppealHave a Swan Dive to share? Text us!We are always looking for Swan Dive Stories to share so hit us up, send an e mail to Ron: Ron@artbikesjax.com or Stu: Stuart@stuartsheldon.com

Clark Butcher will be the first to tell you he is addicted to endurance athletics. He started running age 7, completed his first half marathon at 11 and discovered triathlons at 14, where he naturally excelled in cycling. By 16, Clark was competing in the Junior World Cup in Canada, National Championships and pro-caliber events throughout the US. This culminated in 2002, when Butcher spent a summer racing throughout Europe with the German National Team. Clark founded Victory Bicycle Studio in Memphis in 2010 and has grown it from a part-time project to a national industry leader in bicycle retail. Victory is to bike shops what the Apple Store is to electronics. And his "Couch to 50" program has changed the way a community finds both fitness and friendship on a bicycle. One of his many satisfied customers said it best, "No matter what you do, every time he gives some information, something sticks that didn’t stick before.”Couch to 50 video!Have a Swan Dive to share? Text us!We are always looking for Swan Dive Stories to share so hit us up, send an e mail to Ron: Ron@artbikesjax.com or Stu: Stuart@stuartsheldon.com

As a teenager, Dr. Scott Morris became deeply interested in two things: his religion and the practice of medicine. He's spent his entire life creating a way to connect the two to serve humanity. Now 70, Morris is the founder and chief executive officer of Church Health in Memphis, TN. A leading voice in the field of faith and health and a passionate advocate for the poor in U.S. society, Morris opened Church health in 1987 to provide quality, affordable health care for working, uninsured people and their families. It has now grown to become the largest faith-based, privately funded primary care clinic in the country w over 60,000 patient visits per yr. Morris holds a Masters in Divinity from Yale Divinity School and an MD from Emory. The current issue of Fortune Magazine did a stunning  feature on his incredible journey. And, Stuart had the privilege to join Morris on his inspiring Mystic Podcast episode on a recent visit to the Church Health facility in Memphis. We are honored to welcome this righteous champion of "doing well by doing good" to Swan Dive."Fine & Blessed" - Short video clip from Swan Dive interview with Dr. MorrisHave a Swan Dive to share? Text us!We are always looking for Swan Dive Stories to share so hit us up, send an e mail to Ron: Ron@artbikesjax.com or Stu: Stuart@stuartsheldon.com

Chris Jenkins is Head of Production in University of California, Santa Barbara’s Film & Media Studies Department. He has been behind the lens of many notable and award-winning documentaries. His work has aired on Netflix, PBS, Discovery, The History Channel, Sundance Channel and on and on. Prior to receiving his Masters in Documentary Film & Video from Stanford, Chris was in East Africa as a United Nations Volunteer working with and capturing on film tribal cultures, animals, the plight of refugees and much more. Before that he bicycled to southern Chile on assignment for National Geographic en route to a year as an Ambassadorial Scholar. His harrowing adventures and riveting stories are endless!http://cjpictures.comCheck out “Vera Cruz” from CJ on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/121515049Photo by Steve GlassHave a Swan Dive to share? Text us!We are always looking for Swan Dive Stories to share so hit us up, send an e mail to Ron: Ron@artbikesjax.com or Stu: Stuart@stuartsheldon.com