Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home

Episode 34 Isaiah Lee - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Isaiah Lee, Owner of Leeson Real Estate Investment Firm, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:50 1. In June of this year you bought 513-519 Milam Street,, the former Rubenstein’s Department Store, for $50,000 and announced a major project to transform the space into The Rubenstein and Landlord Historical Apartments.
 
Tell me what we will eventually find a couple of years from now when we enter these buildings.
 
2:38 2. You are clearly a glass half full person. Twelve years ago you returned to live here and said,
 
“Instead of bashing Shreveport, I saw some great opportunities, and I put my skills to work here.”
 
No city is perfect. And every place, including Shreveport-Bossier, has tremendous room for improvement.
 
What do you attribute your optimism and positive outlook to? Or in other words how do you see opportunity when so many people only see problems and despair?
 
6:58 3. You are the founder and co-owner of Leeson Real Estate Investment Firm. Talk to me about your company and some of the projects you have been and are currently involved with.
 
9:00 4. You seem to be the perfect person for the Rubenstein’s project. From the 1940s to the mid 70s, Rubenstein’s was one of the stars of department stores downtown. But for more than 35 years, these two historic buildings have sat empty.
 
I read this quote of yours where you talk about your appreciation for history and the integrity of old buildings:
 
“I just love the way they’re built. I love the quality of material they’re built out of, how they were built, and the history that’s behind them. You look at them, and there’s some man that probably put six months of his life into really making that building look phenomenal. I just like restoring that.”
 
We live in a time where I feel like so many people just want to build new, forget the past and add to the future. How do you explain your appreciation and reverence for history?
 
15:52 5. As you look around our community, what concerns you the most?
 
23:00 6. What makes you prideful of Shreveport-Bossier?

Episode 33 Suyi Georgewill - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Suyi Georgewill, General Manager of Cintas Corporation, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:51 1. Suyi, let’s start here today. I believe you are originally from Nigeria then lived in Toronto and came to the south on an athletic scholarship to the University of Southern Mississippi.
 
How did you first come to live in Shreveport-Bossier?
 
2:57 2. I am always interested in how athletics prepare people for successful careers as adults. Can you talk a little about how and why your athletic background has helped you thrive as a business professional?
 
6:54 3. You are a General Manager of Cintas Corporation. I know at the Y we use and love Cintas.
 
For those out there who don’t really know what Cintas does, can you tell them a little about the company and your services?
 
13:20 4. You are greatly involved in our community. I’m going to try to name a few of the things that you do. You were chosen as 40 under 40 and were a member of the 2021 Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce Leadership Class. You are on the Executive Committee of the Independence Bowl, the United Way Board of Directors, the Strategic Action Council Board of Directors, a member of the Louisiana Economic Development Corporation and a member of the Committee of 100.
 
Clearly giving back to the community is important to you. Why is that and who taught you the importance of service?
 
17:54 5. I am always interested in hearing how people who did not grow up here view our community. What did you notice when you first arrived here? And how would you describe Shreveport-Bossier to your friends who had never been here?
 
21:18 6. What concerns you the most as you look at our community?
 
23:44 7. What makes you hopeful about our future?

Episode 32 Jim Malsch - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Entrepreneur Jim Malsch sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
0:59 1. Jim, let’s start with some background on you. In 1994 you founded Enterprise Computing Services, LLC which grew and prospered under your leadership. On December 31, 2018, you retired from ECS, after 24 years of building this great business.
 
I’ve known you for several years now and I remember that you were the first one to tell me about the expression moving from “success to significance”. How does this idea of moving from “success to significance” apply to your life?
 
2:21 2. You are incredibly involved in our community. You were previously the chairman of Cohab and have served, to name but a few things, on the advisory board for BPCC, Northwest Louisiana Technical College, the Caddo Career & Technology Center Scholarship Foundation and the Minority Supplier Institute and you recently became the new owner of Shreveport Music Company on Kings Highway across the street from Centenary College.
 
Let’s talk for a second about the entrepreneurial community here. Specifically, talk to me about how the following three organizations – EAP, Cohab and Startup Prize - collaborate and the different role each organization serves in building a stronger entrepreneurial culture in our community.
 
4:49 3. You once said, ““It doesn’t matter if it’s beer, if it’s IT or whatever. All successful businesses kinda have the same traits.”
 
Talk to me about what some of those traits are.
 
6:42 4. You have been a mentor to countless people in our community, including me. I’m curious, who are some of the people that mentored you or who have inspired and influenced your outlook on community?
 
8:14 5. You recently completed an enormous project at 717 Crockett Street, where you took a building that had been abandoned for more than 30 years and massively rehabbed it into what is now the Andress Artist & Entrepreneur Center.
 
Talk to me about all that is happening at 717 Crockett.
 
10:59 6. As you look around, what makes you optimistic about the future of our community?

Episode 31 Mayor John Hussey - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Mayor John Hussey sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
0:50 1. Mayor Hussey, you were the Mayor of Shreveport from 1982-1990 and for the four years before that you served on the Shreveport City Council. For someone out there considering a career in politics, in your opinion what are some of the traits that make someone effective in politics?
 
3:10 2. One reason that we started this “Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home” initiative was because we felt our community had a self-esteem issue and we needed to spend more time highlighting the positive aspects of ourselves. Do you feel like Shreveport-Bossier has always had a negative self-image or what do you think led to this feeling that seems fairly rampant now in our community?
 
7:58 3. I would imagine one of the more difficult events you oversaw during your term in office were the riots that occurred in Cedar Grove in 1988. I came across a quote of yours that appeared in the Washington Post days after rioters looted and set fire to businesses in Cedar Grove where you said:
 
“We've got problems in our economy; we've got problems in our racism; we've got many other problems."
 
We’re now 34 years removed from the Cedar Grove event. Would you still say something similar about the state of our community now?
 
11:10 4. From your perspective, what are some of the areas of our community that may be struggling more than when you were in office?
 
14:10 5. What are some of the areas of our community where we seem to be doing better than when you were in office?
 
17:44 6. Lastly, as you look around, what makes you optimistic about the future of our community?

Episode 30 Danny Logan - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Danny Logan, a farmer from North Caddo Parish, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
0:34 1. Danny, you have lived in Gilliam, in North Caddo Parish, for most of your life where you have been a farmer, raising corn, soybeans and cotton.
 
Let’s start here today. When did farming first begin on your land?
 
3:14 2. For people like me that know very little about agriculture in our area, take me through some of the shifts and changes you have seen in terms of agriculture’s place and prominence in our community.
 
8:56 3. Talk to me about some of the commercial aspects of your farm. Who are your clients and how do you transport your product to them?
 
19:08 4. Your wife Karen and you both attended university at Southwestern at Memphis (now known as Rhodes) and since college you have been very active in giving back to this community and others.
 
For instance, I know that Karen and you were involved for many years installing clean water systems for people in Haiti impacted by poverty, poor government and storm damage.
 
Talk to me about this work in Haiti, how it came about and what all it entailed.
 
26:37 5. As you look around our community, what concerns you the most?
 
28:05 6. What makes you prideful of our community?

Episode 29 Kevin Nolten - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Kevin Nolten, Vice President of the Cyber Innovation Center, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana to answer the following questions:
 
0:50 1. All right, Kevin, you are the Vice President of the Cyber Innovation Center located in Bossier City.
 
If I do nothing else today, I want to clarify for the audience what cyber is, why people should care and what type of work is happening at this incredible campus on the eastern part of our community.
 
The campus is multi-faceted, housing I believe four buildings – the Cyber Innovation Center, General Dynamics Information Technology, the Bossier Parish Community College STEM/Louisiana Tech Academic Success Center and the Louisiana Tech Research Institute.
 
I’m not sure we will cover all four buildings but if we do our job today, people will at least have a much better handle on what all is happening at your 3,000 acre National Cyber Research Park.
 
Let’s start here. Please define in simple terms the word cyber for us lay people.
 
5:52 2. One of your missions at the Cyber Innovation Center is to educate and develop a knowledge-based workforce around STEM (science, technology, engineering and math)-related fields.
 
To that end, one of the divisions or arms of the Cyber Innovation Center is cyber.org.
 
In August of last year, cyber.org launched K-12 cybersecurity learning standards. It was the first national effort to align cybersecurity criteria and curriculum across all 50 states. Talk to me about how a K-12 school and K-12 educators connect with cyber.org and begin to utilize the curriculum you have developed.
 
14:01 3. I came across this quote of yours, “the U.S. is expected to face a shortage of 1.8 million skilled cybersecurity workers by 2022, making educating and empowering the next generation of cybersecurity professionals imperative to our future national and economic security.”
 
To date, cyber.org has influenced over 20,000 K-12 educators to teach and introduce cyber concepts to over three million students in all 50 states. But with over 52 million students in the country, we still have a lot of work to do.
 
How do we as a country speed up our efforts in cybersecurity education so that we properly meet the cybersecurity workforce demand in the future?
 
20:14 4. You once said, “a student can leave high school, attend BPCC for a 2-year degree, walk across a parking lot to the Academic Success Center to continue their education for a 4-year degree, and then literally walk across the street for a full time job at GDIT.”
 
What can I do as a parent if I want to ensure that my kid is properly prepared to have a career in STEM and/or cybersecurity?
 
27:28 5. What kind of careers exist locally for someone with a proper STEM and cybersecurity education?
 
31:28 6. Lastly, what can we do as a community to help you leverage the incredible asset you have built at the National Cyber Research Park? Specifically, how can we bolster your efforts to recruit and retain the nation’s best and brightest?

Episode 28 Dr. Ruby Scroggins - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Dr. Scroggins, Former Principal of JS Clark and Supervisor of Special Education Compliance, Complaint Management, and Parent-Community Involvement for Caddo Parish, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:37 1. Dr. Scroggins, you served as the Principal of Joseph Samuel Clark from 2013-2018 and are now the Supervisor of Special Education Compliance, Complaint Management, and Parent-Community Involvement for Caddo Parish.
 
Let’s start today with this quote of yours where you said in speaking about JS Clark the following:
 
“We are a very impoverished area, and I say that because I grew up in this area. I went to the same school. I graduated from the high school two blocks away. I’ve lived the lives that these students live every day in poverty.”
 
For the moneyed community of Shreveport-Bossier that may not understand what life looks like in the Lakeside neighborhood, can you describe it for us?
 
7:28 2. In 2016, you were one of ten Louisianians to receive the Angel Award presented by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation. In speaking about you, one of your supporters said the following:
 
“Ruby is an angel. What she’s doing here is what no other high school or elementary school or any school person is doing in this parish and that is helping their children at this school and their entire families by having a school pantry.”
 
Talk to me about the school pantry that you started with the Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana. How did it work and is it still in operation at JS Clark today?
 
15:58 3. In speaking about the Angel Award, another one of your supporters said the following:
 
“Principal Scroggins’ drive comes from her compassion to help people. She is always willing to go above and beyond to meet the need for a student and their family. It’s an unbelievable amount of time that she spends and will do whatever she can to help these families to achieve what they need.”
 
How do you explain your overwhelming compassion to help people? Or, in other words, how do you think you came to feel such a sense of service to others?
 
19:15 4. While you were the Principal at JS Clark, you started a school-based health clinic. Talk to me about why this was important and is it still in operation today?
 
24:43 5. As you look around at our community, what concerns you the most?
 
27:08 6. As you look around at our community, what makes you hopeful about the future?

Episode 27 John Tuggle -”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

John Tuggle, Executive Director of Shreve Memorial Library, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:36 1. John, since 2015 you have been the Executive Director of Shreve Memorial Library, a 21-branch public library system serving the City of Shreveport and the surrounding Caddo Parish.
 
I would like to begin with the longest question I have ever asked a guest. This is an excerpt from an article in the Shreveport Times from February 9, 1920:
 
Speaking of the supreme needs of Shreveport at the First Baptist Church Sunday night, Dr. Dodd, M.D., said:
 
“There are three outstanding needs for Shreveport at the present time: First of all we need the public library. It is a necessity just as much as banks and business houses. Second, we need new school buildings, with auditorium facilities in which school spirit can be created and where public lecturers and moving picture machines can supplement the routine of mere book learning. And, third, we need a great Y.M.C.A. building. The Shreveport spirit is nobly progressive and aggressive along every line, but it must be admitted that we are backward on these three things mentioned. Many other towns of much less importance and with much less wealth than Shreveport, enjoys the privileges of libraries and Y.M.C.A. buildings."
 
All this to say, why is Shreve Memorial Library so important to our community. Or, in other words, what would our community be without Shreve Memorial Library?
 
10:16 2. I read some about it but am unsure of the current status. Talk to me if you could about the possible partnership between Southern University Law Center and the downtown Shreve Memorial Library.
 
14:45 3. I read that in the last year or so, the Shreve Memorial Library has taken on yet another role for the community, that of an entrepreneurial support engine. Tell me about this new initiative and some of the services and resources the library now provides to small business owners and entrepreneurs.
 
20:46 4. You grew up in the small town of Hot Coffee, MS and came to Shreveport from Savannah after working with their library system for nearly nine years. You are extremely involved in our community.
 
To name but a few things that I know, you serve on the board of the Gingerbread House and United Way, the Advisory Committee for the NWLA La-STEM Innovation Center, are an active Rotarian, and you try to live by Rotary’s credo “Service above Self.”
 
I recently asked one of my previous guests this same question. A couple of weeks ago, I was in a meeting at the Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau and one of the people there made the statement that we need to work on moving our community from “a me community” to “a we community”.
 
As someone who clearly sees this as a “we community”, how do we get more people to live by “Service above Self?”
 
28:34 5. As I mentioned before, you grew up in Hot Coffee, MS and have lived in a number of other cities. To name but a few, I know you have spent time in Hattiesburg, Houston and Savannah.
 
I am always fascinated by the way that people who did not grew up here view our community. Where do you feel we struggle the most compared to other places you have lived?
 
33:22 6. Lastly, what do we do as well or better than the other cities where you have lived?

Episode 26 Clay Walker - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Clay Walker, Director of Juvenile Services for Caddo Parish since 2011, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development with the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
 
0:37 1. Clay, since 2011 you have been the Director of Juvenile Services for Caddo Parish.
 
I want to spend today talking about the issue of juvenile crime in our community - a multi-faceted, complex problem that we have been struggling with for decades.
 
Let’s start with this quote of yours:
 
“It cost 10x more to lock them up than it does to prevent it. Louisiana can’t afford it. We’re gonna continue to see brain drain and companies leave and nobody moving in.”
 
Talk to me about the economics of incarceration versus prevention.
 
3:55 2. Let’s move on to another quote of yours:
 
“For my adult life, Caddo Parish has led the world in incarceration per capita and yet here we are.”
 
7:14 3. You have said that we are not getting upstream at solving the problem. I came across another quote of yours:
 
“You’re dealing with poverty, parenting issues and with reasons kids are susceptible to gangs.”
 
And I would add trauma to the above quote.
 
What can we do better for children to help them take a healthier path rather than a gang path?
 
12:34 4. Only 304 children in a parish of 60,000 children came to the detention center last year. Of those 304, only 66 were repeat offenders and returned to the detention center after serving their time.
 
The number one factor for the 66 kids that are repeat offenders in detention is that they do not have a single pro-social adult in their life. Not a parent, not a grandparent, not an aunt, not an uncle, not a principal, not a teacher, not a coach, not a pastor, not a mentor.
 
Talk to me about all of this if you could.
 
22:50 5. You said, “When we’re dealing with things like truancy we need the school system, the parish commission, the juvenile court. We need all of those bodies together.”
 
You are in the process of creating an intergovernmental committee to address juvenile crime. Talk to me about this effort and the important role the committee will serve.
 
35:30 6. I have read that Washington State and some other states around the country are addressing the issue of crime in far different ways than we do. Can you talk to me about one or two of these other models and their level of success?
 
55:02 7. You’ve said that when 14 year olds come to see you you’re too late. That of the 66 repeat offenders mentioned above, you might turn around three. That you’re too late.
 
I know that between Kristi Gustavson and the Community Foundation’s work with the Parish and the recent passage of the City’s Shreveport Early Start Initiative that there is great work happening in the community around Early Childhood Education for 0-5 year olds.
 
What do we need to do for our 6-13 year olds to help reduce juvenile crime in the future?
 
1:05:31 8. For people out there who are listening, just the lay person who says, “I love my community. I’ve had enough of the crime. I’m convinced I need to do my part.”
 
What do you have to say to those people? Or what can they do? Or how can they get involved and play as small of a role as it may be in helping this in the future?

Episode 25 Madison Poche - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Madison Poche, Executive Director of the Highland Center, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
0:50 1. Madison, you’ve been a force in the community – writer for Heliopolis, former Director of Admin at SRAC, former Project Director of the GDIT/LED program at BPCC, involved in the Bikeway Pilot Program, a member of the Royal Court of Highland, Highland Restoration Association President. And that’s just scratching the surface of all of the things you’ve been involved in.
 
I believe you grew up in New Orleans, received your undergraduate degree from Emory and a Masters in Nonprofit Administration from LSUS.
 
When and how did you come to live in Shreveport?
 
6:42 2. You are now the Executive Director of the Highland Center - a community center in the heart of Shreveport's historic, diverse, and artistic Highland neighborhood. There are a number of different ways in which the Highland Center serves the community. When I look on your website, it breaks your programs and services into three major headings.
 
Talk to me first if you could about Highland Center Ministries.
 
9:55 3. The Highland Center also offers Financial Support Services. What are some of the things that these Support Services entail?
 
12:20 4. Lastly, on the Highland Center’s website, it mentions a number of different ways in which you are a Community Resource Center. Talk to me about this if you could.
 
20:57 5. You have your ear to the ground and have been greatly involved since being in this community, what are some of the things that are holding us back?
 
29:55 6. Lastly, what makes you hopeful that we are headed in the right direction?