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The North Star

The North Star

By: JeffriAnne Wilder Ph.D.
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About this listen

Welcome to The North Star—a podcast produced by the Oberlin Center for DEI Innovation and Leadership, and a space for candid conversations on leadership, legacy, and navigating complexity.

In each episode, we’ll talk with changemakers, scholars, and disruptors who are asking bold questions and reimagining what leadership looks like—in education, in community, and in the world we’re building next.

Whether you’re leading a team, building a movement, or just trying to make sense of today’s challenges, The North Star is your companion for reflection, insight, and action.

© 2025 The North Star
Episodes
  • Rooted in Oberlin: Dr. Johnnetta Cole on Building a Lifelong Legacy
    Dec 19 2025

    In the season finale of The North Star, JeffriAnne Wilder, Ph.D. sits down with legendary educator, anthropologist, and social justice activist Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Ph.D., Oberlin alumna, former president of Spelman and Bennett Colleges, and past director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art—for a powerful conversation about a life shaped by Oberlin, sisterhood, and an unwavering commitment to equity. Dr. Cole shares intimate stories of intergenerational Black excellence, from her great-grandfather A. L. Lewis, Florida’s first Black millionaire, to her own path from Fisk to Oberlin, where she discovered anthropology and learned to follow passion over prescription. She offers candid wisdom for today’s students and emerging leaders about being “intellectually naked,” embracing purpose, and treating self-care as political—noting, in conversation with Audre Lorde’s famous words, that neglecting her own health had lifelong consequences even as she helped transform institutions and movements around the world, making her presence as the closing guest of this season all the more profound.

    🔗 Find out more about Dr. JeffriAnne Wilder.
    🔗 Follow the Center for DEI Innovation and Leadership on LinkedIn.
    🌎Visit Oberlin College's website.
    Podcast Produced by: Paradigm Media Group

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    29 mins
  • Four Pillars and a Future: JeffriAnne Wilder, PhD on Reimagining DEI, Innovation, and Leadership
    Dec 5 2025

    This special episode of The North Star turns the spotlight on Executive Director JeffriAnne Wilder, Ph.D., in a candid conversation with colleague Letisha Bereola about her journey, her identity, and leading Oberlin’s Center for DEI Innovation and Leadership amid a nationwide rollback of DEI. JeffriAnne reflects on leading in “quicksand” while programs around her were cut, the four pillars guiding the center’s vision—communication and thought leadership, research, education and training, and community—and how Oberlin’s long legacy of access and opportunity shapes her commitment to equity, leadership, and innovation. She also shares candid insights on redefining success, choosing rest over relentless achievement, navigating life as a Black woman leader and mother, and why amplifying all forms of human difference, not pitting groups against each other, is the heart of DEI in 2025 and beyond.

    🔗 Find out more about Dr. JeffriAnne Wilder.
    🔗 Follow the Center for DEI Innovation and Leadership on LinkedIn.
    🌎Visit Oberlin College's website.
    Podcast Produced by: Paradigm Media Group

    Show More Show Less
    41 mins
  • Beyond Beauty: A Conversation on Colorism and Redefining Social Capital with Dr. Margaret Hunter
    Nov 21 2025

    In this episode, JeffriAnne Wilder, PhD welcomes Margaret Hunter, PhD, professor of sociology and strategic advisor for faculty DEI initiatives at Santa Clara University, for a candid conversation about nearly three decades of research and advocacy surrounding colorism, racial justice, and institutional transformation. Dr. Hunter’s pioneering work illuminates how skin tone, beauty cues, and social capital operate within communities of color, and why colorism remains a multidimensional force shaping opportunity, belonging, and self-image. Together, they dissect the complexities of racism and colorism, the impact of pop culture and social media, and the challenges and hope presented by Gen Z’s unapologetic approach to equity, boundaries, and self-worth.

    Find out more: Color Stories: Black Women and Colorism in the 21st Century by JeffriAnne Wilder, PhD

    🔗 Find out more about Dr. JeffriAnne Wilder.
    🔗 Follow the Center for DEI Innovation and Leadership on LinkedIn.
    🌎Visit Oberlin College's website.
    Podcast Produced by: Paradigm Media Group

    Show More Show Less
    42 mins
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