106: I’m Here to Teach What I Learned in Life Not What I Learned in the Classroom

Dr. Thomas Easley also known as the ‘Hip Hop Forester’ is an educator, musician, and entrepreneur. Thomas serves as the Assistant Dean of Community Inclusion at the Yale school of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Prior to this, Thomas was the Director of Community Diversity at NC State University, where he also earned his doctorate. On today’s show, Thomas discusses how he inspires his students to achieve, how he got into forestry, and brings up ways we as a profession can get better at inclusion and diversity.

 

Key Takeaways:

[:55] A message from Leadership Nature.

[1:40] A quick intro to Thomas’s background.

[3:25] How did Thomas get into forestry and natural resources?

[11:30] It took someone who shared the same identity (race, gender, religion) as Thomas to show him how to treat people outside of his ethnic/social group.

[15:15] Thomas shares his journey on how he ended up getting his Masters degree in Forest Genetics.

[21:55] Thomas credits his teaching ability to his mom, who was also a teacher.

[25:20] What did Thomas teach prior to teaching at Yale?

[33:00] What is Thomas teaching currently?

[38:05] If you try to make changes too quickly or too aggressively, you’re going to be driving people away instead of getting supporters.

[41:05] Thomas believes Yale wants him to help them get to a more diverse place.

[46:45] What advice does Thomas have for young professionals?

[50:20] You gotta look inward sometimes to see where you can improve and be better. It’s important to take initiative and not rely solely on others to lift you up.

[51:30] What does the profession need to do better to increase more diversity in the profession?

[53:30] You can not change and grow while still staying the same. As an industry, we need to be open to growing.

 

Mentioned in This Episode:

Rashadeas.com

Thomas on LinkedIn

 

Tweetables:

“If you can’t teach children, then you can’t teach. I watched my mom teach young kids who were brilliant but had a lot of family problems.”

 

“We all have voices and we’re using our voices.”

 

“When you really invest in diversity, equality, and inclusion, you’re going to be speaking multiple languages at one time.”