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Spotlight with Laurie Hardie

Each week host Laurie Hardie brings you the issues affecting the Pacific Northwest and the people making a difference in our community and sometimes beyond. Expect compelling conversations with local leaders and influencers. Spotlight is dedicated to presenting you with issues that matter - including education, health, mental health, and the environment.

Latest Episodes

Enough About the Unexpected Gift of Trauma Dr. Edith Shiro

Dr. Edith Shiro’s connection with trauma began in her childhood and is deeply personal. As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and Syrian refugees, she grew up as a Jewish woman in Venezuela and lived as a Latina immigrant studying and working in the United States. These life experiences along with her deep research and practice with survivors of torture, school shootings, domestic violence, and discrimination, with a particular focus on work with immigrants, has led to her understanding of trauma in many ways: individual, intergenerational, cultural, and systemic. It’s from these experiences that another foundational question arose: How is it possible that in the face of adversity, some people stay stuck while others thrive and grow?
The Unexpected Gift of Trauma

Spotlighting WA 529 College Savings Plan

Luke Minor with WA 529 College Savings plan is here to help families get set for when their kids are ready for college. There are two plans for saving and you can go to WA529 get all the details on how to enroll and get your child’s college tuition locked in.
GET and DreamAhead are administered by the Washington Student Achievement Council with oversight from the Committee on Advanced Tuition Payment and College Savings (WA529 Committee), which meets quarterly to review policies, pricing and investments. The Washington Student Achievement Council supports both programs, based on the Committee’s direction. The Washington State Investment Board manages the GET fund, which is currently valued at $1.4 billion. GET is a self-sustaining program which has become one of the fastest growing prepaid tuition plans in the country.
WA529 Mission and Vision
WA529 helps Washington families save for educational expenses, with a vision of fostering a well-educated community by helping students and families overcome financial barriers to education and avoid future debt.
WA529 College Savings Plan

Spotlighting Street Smart Safety for Women

Former Deputy Sheriff, Joy Farrow and Domestic Violence Survivor, Laura Frombach are the co-authors of Street Smart Safety for Women: Your Guide to Defensive Living. Joy and Laura talk dating, dating apps, college, and airport safety. They give tips on how to help someone involved in domestic violence and encourage friends and family to help in ways that will not only keep them safe but the victim as well. 
Street Smart Safety

Spotlighting Rally To Read

Jodi Rubin is the Senior Vice President, Marketing & Partnerships for Reading Is Fundamental. She tells us how to join Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) for its third year of Rally to Read 100 to foster a joy of reading among children across the country. With six months of exciting themes, read-alouds from your favorite authors and illustrators, and lots of engaging reading activities, together we can inspire a love of reading. Be sure to take the pledge to read 100 books (a class, family, student, or anyone can take the pledge) and then enter the book giveaway sweepstakes for a chance to win 100 books for your school or organization. There is no better time to rally to read! Download your classroom poster and bookmarks to start tracking your reading to 100 books today.
Reading is Fundamental
Rally to Read

Spotlighting I Am On Watch

Jake Neeley, Executive Director of Malouf Foundation and Julie Whitehead, Survivor Leader and Advisory Board Member of the Malouf Foundation join us to talk about the I’m On Watch Training.
Sex trafficking is happening right under our noses and if we know what to look for we might be able to save a life. The National Sex Trafficking Hotline is 1 888 373 7888
I’m On Watch Training
PODCAST: HERE

Spotlighting It’s Not Your Fault with Laura K Connell

It’s Not Your Fault: The Subconscious Reasons We Self-Sabotage and How to Stop. Author Laura K. Connell talks about the root cause of self-sabotage and how we can overcome it. She also talks about dealing with toxic people and ways self sabotage tries to keep us safe. Good news, there is an antidote and once you recognize self-sabotage you can kick it to the curb and live your best life.
Laura K Connell

Spotlighting “My Grief is not Like Yours” with Theo Boyd

Writer, Speaker, Teacher, and Farmgirl Theo Boyd shares the Story of Her Parents—Their Inspiring Lives and Their Tragic Deaths—and
Her Difficult Path to Acceptance, Purpose, Comfort, and Hope in Her New Book.
My Grief is not Like Yours: Learning to Live After Unimaginable Loss, A Daughter’s Journey
Theo talks about a domino of losses in a very short amount of time that caused her to lose her faith for a while. With the help of her “Fairy Blonde Mother’s” she was able to walk through the grief and use her story to help others. 
Theo’s Book and Website
September is Suicide Prevention Month
Suicide Hotline is 988

Spotlighting Reboot Recovery

Everybody has trauma, we can heal together. Carin Weier Regional Operations and Trauma Programs Coordinator of Reboot Recovery, talks about her own experience of recovering from Trauma after her son was present at a school shooting.
At REBOOT Recovery, They help people overcome trauma. Their faith-based trauma healing courses, training, and online community are open to anyone looking to move forward from trauma and tragedy into a better future. If the same old therapies or medications have left you feeling hopeless, you’ve come to the right place. Here are three easy ways to get involved right now.
Reboot Recovery

Spotlighting Connecting with Grandkids Long Distance

Jim Marggraff is a serial inventor, entrepreneur, philanthropist, author, speaker, and an energized dad and husband. Jim founded and co-founded six Silicon Valley technology companies, and has now founded his seventh, Kinoo.com. His goal is to help grand parents connect with their grandkids even if there are many miles between them. KINOO.COM

Spotlighting Free Your Joy with Lisa McCourt

Learning about joy is one thing, but it’s the doing that actually shifts your energy.
Joy is not an elusive fantasy to be chased; it is simply a skill to be learned, practiced, and mastered.
In her new book, Free Your Joy: The 12 Keys to Sustainable Happiness,
Lisa McCourt, host of the Do Joy! podcast and founder of Joy School,
offers a unique approach to joy and emotional wellness. McCourt takes
readers, month by month, through the life-altering principles of vibration elevation that
she has taught for 20 years through her Joy School.
is ever mysteriously unfolding, just the way she likes it
Lisa McCourt.com
SPOTLIGHT: HERE