ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Attendees to this year’s Rosa Parks Scholarship Banquet Feb. 21 will be in for a treat with this year’s speaker, LaShonda Porter.
As Porter tells it, her career has put her in multiple places and in multiple roles.
“I am originally from Chicago, and I have been living in Wichita probably for the last 20 years. I started my career in banking, worked in that industry for 10 years in the Chicago area before moving to Wichita, and then I transitioned into the public sector and worked for government for 13 years. I worked with the City of Wichita in a variety of roles, from Community Development to managing and leading the Public Works and Utilities Operations Division. I left the City of Wichita as a senior executive and went to Wichita State University to do community development across the state of Kansas in the lens of helping communities and organizations make impact on those issues critical to them. We did a lot of capacity building, strategic planning and facilitation of difficult and hard conversations with community and constituencies across the board.”
A few years ago, Porter made another change.
“In 2021, I left the university and went to my current employer, Fidelity Bank, and I lead their inclusive engagement strategies division, which is a division that was launched upon my joining the team,” Porter said. “We've launched this department, and we are hitting our five-year mark of really making sure we have created a culture and a workplace where everyone has the ability to thrive, have access to opportunities, and making sure there is equity across all things we do when we think about those we support and serve in our communities, how we build products as well as how we engage with our employees and customer base. I've been doing that for the last five years, and I also own my own boutique consulting firm. We are a consulting firm that helps individuals, communities and organizations make progress on those issues that are important to them. We do project management, strategic development, facilitation and coaching, and we do some training in leadership and strategic engagement activities. I'm currently a doctoral student at Wichita State University, gaining my Ed.D. in educational leadership, looking at the lived experiences of women of color that have advanced in senior leadership in the banking industry.”
Porter was recommended for the event by fellow colleague Sheyvette Dinkens, and she was excited to say yes.
“We both went through Leadership Kansas together, and we had an opportunity to build a relationship there. She reached out and said 'There's an opportunity in Liberal and they are looking for a speaker, and I think you would serve well in this role.' So she connected me to Christine Hammond, and kind of the rest of it just kind of wrote its own story,” Porter said. “Anytime a colleague reaches out, it's easy to connect, and it's not a cold call. Sheyvette has done an amazing job in really building out what I believe is great representation of what black history really stands for. With her great reputation, it was an easy yes, and then I really started understanding the goal of this particular activity is to honor the students who have received scholarships, while also continuing the legacy and conversation around the importance of black history and how integral those efforts have been in preserving history. These young folks are moving that mark and matriculating through the system and getting to that place where they have the ability to stand on the shoulders of our ancestors to continue to make progress. While we call it black history, history is always continuing to continuing to be made, and so the ones we honor today will be part of the story we tell tomorrow.”
Porter said she is excited to be making her way to Liberal for the first time.
“This will be my first time coming to Liberal, and that in itself is exciting because I'm going to a new community and I don't know what I'm going to run into. I am bringing my sister and my niece along with me, so we'll get to spend a little bit of time in Liberal that Saturday and then a little bit of time that Sunday,” Porter said. “I'm excited to be able to connect with all the different people connect all the different stories. So often, there is this idea our stories are so different, but there are so many similarities we share we don't always get to talk about, so I am encouraged when I have the opportunity to be in space with young people and young adults who are paving the way or trying to figure their way out so they can understand our stories are similar. I always say just because we are in two different sizes of community does not mean that our impact can't be just as great.”
Porter said she is looking forward to giving her presentation.
“A lot of my presentation will really be wrapped around encouragement and then really understanding we have all been designed with a purpose regardless of where we come from,” Porter said. “Whether we come from big cities like Chicago or smaller towns like Liberal, we have all been designed with purpose, and we have been placed in the spaces we occupy intentionally, so I really want to make sure we encourage them to believe in the gift of what they're receiving today, the investment they're receiving and then connect it to the continuing growth of our history. We can talk about the past and the shoulders of all the giants we stand on, but at some point, these young folks we're honoring will be the giants our future generations will be standing on in order to continue to build out what our history looks like. I also want to make sure they connect to part of that history by honoring the past and recognizing the future is in their hands.”
Porter added she hopes attendees learn a lot from her presentation.
“If for no other reason, they should come out and support our future – this banquet really isn't about me, it is about those who are being honored. It is about paying homage to the heritage and the history that has been created, historically as a nation. There are a lot of great leaders around Liberal, and it is great to see the continued legacy of what these people had the ability to do, how the black community has stood up and continue to persevere and what they contribute to Liberal,” Porter said. “We all have a desire to impact a life, and so one thing I hope everyone will take away is how they have the ability to impact one life at a time. Everyone has the ability to show up for someone outside of themselves, everyone has the ability to be a part of what we are calling black history. Black history is not only just for us, it is also U.S. history, so being able to capture this question of 'How can I be a part of the story?' Here's the opportunity to do that. Be present, be curious and lean into what's next and what's becoming. As we look at what's happening around us in this country, this is the time for us to come together and unify. This is a time for us to come together and really understand the importance of a village. If they take nothing else away, I hope everyone realizes the work we have to do as a country requires us to go back to that concept of community support and village support being so critical to progress. It is my hope everyone will walk away with that clear call to action and how we must wrap our arms around one another. We must lean in to do the hard work, and we must continue to lift up those that are our next generation, our future generation, to carry us forward.”
