Giving Heart Beat

Episode 29 - Radioactive - Mental Health Matters - Host Donna Valente details her long absence from the airwaves, recounting physical illness that brought her thrice to the hospital emergency room in six months, and the last time landed her in the hospital for over a week. The deeply profound experience forced her to realize the importance of mental health and self-care. 

With the global pandemic, climate change, and extreme social unrest on many fronts compounding the already high stress levels of living in this world, it makes sense that our collective and personal mental health are affected, e...

Episode 28 - Interview with Amy Rivera - Founder of Ninjas Fighting Lymphedema Foundation, Advocate, Entrepreneur, Mom, Wife, soon-to-be-published Author. Amy was born with primary lymphedema that affected one side of her body, but doctors failed to identify the correct diagnosis until she was 31 years old and required surgery.

Despite being the target of relentless bullying, as a teen Amy entered and won a beauty contest, and went from being "the girl with the big leg" to "the beauty queen with the big leg." Not wanting her big leg to be the focus of her identity, for years...

Episode 27 - Interview with Priti Mehta - Managing Director Foundation Operations, Investors Bank. Priti talks about growing up the daughter of parents that immigrated to the United States from India, and learning the practice of SEVA - giving back, from their example. Priti lends her experience to a number of philanthropic endeavors, including the boards of the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers and Girls On The Run, and as a grants reviewer for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Quality of Life Grants Program. 

Shout out to County College of Morris (CCM) in Randolph, New Jersey for being t...

Episode 26 - Interview with Lee Woodruff, Co-Founder of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, Author of 3 NY TIMES bestselling books, Speaker, Journalist, Communications Consultant, Advocate. The Bob Woodruff Foundation's mission is to assist injured service members and their families heal from the wounds of war. 

In 2006, Lee's husband Bob Woodruff, television journalist with ABC News, was imbedded with troops in Iraq when the tank they were driving in hit an IED - improvised explosive device - and Bob suffered a severe traumatic brain injury. While Bob was in a medically-induced coma for 38 days, Lee witnessed many severely injured soldiers t...

Episode 25 - Interview With Jane Elliott - Internationally Known Teacher, Lecturer, Diversity Trainer, and Recipient of the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence in Education. Ms. Elliott recalls the origins of the "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise" that she conducted on April 5, 1968, the day after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This exercise cast her in the national spotlight for educating her all-white students in Iowa about how it feels to be treated on the basis of a physical characteristic one is born with that can't be changed, and it also caused her to become an...

Episode 24 - Interview with David Jacobsen, Psy.D. - Chief Executive Officer of Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Capital Region (RMHC-CR), Albany, NY - The House That Love Built. Dr. Jacobsen is an experienced, mission-driven nonprofit leader. He focuses on implementing best-practice standards to develop self-sustaining, value-evident programs that serve communities one person and one family at a time. 

Ronald McDonald House Charities is an organization that draws on the compassion of the community to deliver and support programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children and families. Prior to joining RMCH-CR, Dr. Jacobsen p...

Episode 23 - Interview with Hector Del Valle & Willis Washington: Co-Hosts of Living The Balanced Life, a video talk show that brings in experts from key areas of life to share their knowledge with the community. Hector and Willis are both disability advocates, having met at a national conference on independent living in Washington, DC over ten years ago. Living The Balanced Life is a program of L.I.F.T.  - Legacy Impact Foundation Team - which advocates for affordable accessible housing and provides information on community resources, particularly for people with disabilities.

Living The Balanced Life w...

Episode 22 - Interview with Heather Ehle, RN - Founder and CEO of Project Sanctuary. Project Sanctuary serves military and veteran families across the USA through therapeutic recreation and education at in-person family retreats, along with a holistic spectrum of services before, during and after. Project Sanctuary is one of the few organizations that addresses mental health for the entire military and veteran family, particularly the children.

Ehle first learned of the unmet needs of military families 14 years ago when she volunteered as a registered nurse at a free clinic in Colorado. After 9/11, she tried to find the...

Episode 21 features an interview with Michael Bethune, Author, Speaker, Minister and Educator with over 25 years of leading and serving some of the most vulnerable populations through the nonprofit sector. He himself is a once-homeless military veteran, whose life's calling and purpose emerged from his own pain. [Trigger warning]

Michael Bethune's book Unto The Least of These - 12 Stages of Genuine Compassion, For Churches That Are Serious About Helping the Less Fortunate breaks down the true meaning of compassion that is so crucial in serving the most vulnerable in our communities who may be homeless and/or addicted...

Episode 20 - Caregiver Confidential - Solo provides a glimpse behind the Giving Heart Beat podcast microphone into the life of a caregiver entrepreneur, with a cautionary tale for caregivers. 

Host Donna Valente shares the journey of finding her way forward into an uncertain future, and describes a bit about caregiving for someone with late onset type one diabetes. 

The cautionary tale for caregivers is a heartfelt plea to take care of yourself. The safety instructions on airplanes are true: put your own mask on first and then assist others. 

Turn around the saying "Tre...