Behrend Talks: A Penn State Podcast
Join Dr. Ralph Ford, Chancellor of Penn State Behrend, and guests for conversations about interesting things happening in the Erie community.
Behrend Talks: A Penn State Podcast
What COVID taught us about health care, with Dr. Ala Stanford
Dr. Ralph Ford, chancellor of Penn State Behrend, talks with Dr. Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon and Alumni Fellow, about her work with the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she served as a regional director.
I'm Dr. Ralph Ford, Chancellor of Penn State Behrend, and you are listening to Behrend Talks, where we connect with leaders, innovators, and thinkers who are shaping the world. Today we have a very, very special guest, and that is Dr. Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon and founder of the Black Doctors COVID-19 consortium. And first, I'm going to go through a lot of this, Ala, but welcome to the show.
Dr. Ala Stanford:Thank you for having me. It's nice to be back.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Well, you're here on a beautiful day in October, and uh, you know, you were a commencement speaker a few years ago. We always love having you on campus. Also, tell our audience you're you're speaking here on campus tonight, too, so a lot going on.
Dr. Ala Stanford:Yes, indeed. Excited to see everybody. Excited to be one of the speakers in your leadership series.
Dr. Ralph Ford:So thank you so much. Well, I'm gonna give our audience a little bit about your background. Uh, of course, you came uh to a lot of national attention actually during the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to provide testing. We're gonna talk all about this in later vaccinations to Philadelphia's most vulnerable residents uh during the height of the pandemic. You later went on to serve as the regional director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where you oversaw federal health programs in five states. And uh, you know, you started here at Behrend. Uh, you are a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania. That's relatively new. So uh another, you know, advance in your career. And recently you just announced that you're running for Congress. So a whole lot to talk about today. That is true, boys. Sounds like a whole lot when you say that. Well, there is, but let's start easy. Let's talk about, you know, it's uh you're you're here with your son today, who's actually visiting campus and thinking about coming here. But you came here many years ago from Philadelphia. Probably didn't know much about Behrnd. Tell us what your path was to Penn State Behrend.
Dr. Ala Stanford:First again, thank you for having me and welcoming me and my I my son. It's a little surreal as I stepped on campus at 17, and he is 17 and he's here. Wow.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Wow. That's that's a little history rings, they say, right?
Dr. Ala Stanford:So for me, Penn State was because I knew I wanted to be a doctor from the time I was about eight years old. And the only person I knew who had gone to Penn State was a cousin of mine. And I said, if that's what it takes to become a doctor, that's exactly what I'm going to do it. When I looked at a map, there were all the Penn State campuses, and Erie was the furthest from Philadelphia. So that's the one I picked. And honestly, that's why I picked it because I was ready to get out of the house. I was ready to be independent, to be on my own, and I didn't want to be super close to my family. I mean, this is true story. And so I don't think I had ever visited, but when my mom dropped me off, I said she was crying. I said, see you later. I'm exactly where I want to be. And uh, as they say, the rest is history.
Dr. Ralph Ford:It is, and you did a lot while you were here. We'll get into that. But uh, did you had you visited campus or did you just apply and showed up, you know, at the at the start? Do you remember that?
Dr. Ala Stanford:Really, I I don't believe I visited not Behrend or University Park. I think um it might have been too expensive. You had to get like a greyhound or like trailways, bus, you know, sort of to migrate up through Pennsylvania. And um I just, you know, I knew what was in the book, what was in the catalog, and I was ready to come and ready to start my journey to become a physician.
Dr. Ralph Ford:So you said when you were eight years old you knew you wanted to be a physician. Was there some experience, or you just, you know, you saw it on TV. What was it that you knew?
Dr. Ala Stanford:Well, it's a couple things. So for one, in Philly, sort of when you're an impoverished kid, everyone goes to the health center. So we went to maybe health center number five, which I still think is so impersonal, but it's health center number eight, number nine, whatever. And there was a doctor there who was a black woman, and she seemed so relaxed, and she seemed happy and put together. She had on nice clothes, and I had never seen someone like her before who was a black woman, except my mom who was working hard and definitely did not look relaxed like this woman. And so that was part of it. And then the other part was in school in the Philadelphia Public School System, when you did well on your exams, it seemed like the teachers paid attention to you more and you wanted that. And then we had this academically talented AT or mentally gifted student. So if you tested into that, you one day a week got to do something outside of your neighborhood. And for me, it was to go to West Philly on Drexel's campus and spend a day shadowing a college student, which opened so many doors for me. And so it was a combination of seeing someone who looked like me, seemingly happy, being on a different part of Philadelphia where people seemed to be better off, and tying in that my mind and my education and my studying was how I could get to that. So I liked science, but I was tired of being poor. And it seemed like to me, if I invested that maybe I could get to some of these things I was seeing around me, like the doctor at the health center and like the college students at Drexel.
Dr. Ralph Ford:You know, seeing the role models super key. But also we find, you know, we we invest a lot of effort getting kids to campus when they're young, just so it's not this big intimidating place, so that they can see that there are people like them here and hear from students. And uh, so you got to Erie, it couldn't be further away from Philadelphia. You went from the East Coast to the West Coast. So, what was it like when you got here? What sort of environment did you find?
Dr. Ala Stanford:Well, I like that the campus was big enough, but not so big that I got lost. I found other kids who were also from Philly, so we had our our little click, if you will. I like that in my dorm, and I don't know if you could still do it, you were able to paint a mural on your wall. So I did that. What else? Obviously, the cafeteria.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Cafeteria looked a whole lot different. It was very institutional looking. I wasn't here, but I saw the remnant 10 years later.
Dr. Ala Stanford:Absolutely. But there were other things, like there was a Miss Penn State Behrend, which I was in. I did not win, but I still have pictures. I was like first or second runner-up.
Dr. Ralph Ford:We don't have that anymore.
Dr. Ala Stanford:Oh, okay. Well, I was part of that. There was a fashion show for Black History Month. I remember that, and there may have been a black student union here. What I really remember, and I'm gonna talk about this a bit tonight, were the speakers that came. And two speakers that stood out for me were Julian Bond, who was part of the Southern Christian Leaders Conference with the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. And I remember, you know, being a teenager, just excited to hear him speak. And the other person I remember coming to Behrend was Shirley Chisholm, who was one of the first or the only black, well, that's not true, because now Kamala Harris to run for president, and she was a congressional leader. And so those two speakers came to Behrend, and this is like 19 uh, you know, a 19 number. Um, and so I remember that I remember applying to be a lion ambassador, and that that was a very prestigious group to be a part of. I love the sweaters. I love the sweaters, and of course, track, and I know I'm like talking, but you asked me about Behrend.
Dr. Ralph Ford:But you know, I we have to talk about track and field.
Dr. Ala Stanford:Yeah, absolutely. And for me in high school, it was that place I could escape to, that I could find friends, and there wasn't a track team here. So I remember learning about how to establish a club, how to have an advisor, what were the surrounding teams we would compete against, and was part of that early development of a track club at Penn State. I remember being educated on which lion we could put on the jersey, which color it could be, and all those steps, and definitely competing in a meet or two. So those are some of my fond memories of Penn State.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Well, I'll tell you, you know, you are credited, and we'll make sure it goes down in the history books with the person who started the track and field club, which has now grown into a very significant track and field team uh here at Behrend that continues to thrive. And the other thing is I I did was not aware that Julian Bonn or you know, Chisholm spoke here, but that's also interesting to know. By the way, also Maya Angelou spoke at one of our commencements, and uh that preceded me as well, too. So we've really had some impactful people over the years.
Dr. Ala Stanford:And I have to say, in a time when it may not have been popular, do you know what I mean? Like 1988, 1989, and I'm sure in all the archives you can dig this up. But the reason why I know is I remember this is gonna be funny, how I was wearing my hair at the time. And so when I look at those pictures of me with Julian Bond or with Shirley Chisholm, it was right here. Yeah, it was right here.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Right here. And now you're back in that very same speaker series. So think about that. You would have never imagined that. Oh, so a lot of full circle moments here. Yeah, yeah, a lot of full circle moments. You then go from here to University Park, you get your degree at Penn State Med, and you become the first black female pediatric surgeon.
Dr. Ala Stanford:I'll let you explain it. Yeah, yeah. So it's you know, let me correct. So, first black woman pediatric surgeon entirely trained in the United States. You never think about that when you're in school. But that's I think one of my mentors said that to me once and said, yes, there was Dr. Andrea Hayes-Dixon who finished in Canada. But when I finished in 06, we were the only two for years, you know. And she's Andrea, and I'm Ala. And so it was always the well, which, you know, which one is it? It's both our names begin and end in A. But I was very proud of that. Uh, to be board certified in both adult general surgery and pediatric surgery is no small feat. Um, and to be able to have the privilege of someone entrusting their child to you is something I I don't take for granted.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Yeah. So huge responsibility. And so then you start your practice in the Philadelphia area?
Dr. Ala Stanford:Yes. So originally when I finished, I went back to Philly. I worked at Temple University School of Medicine. I was at Abington Hospital, part of Jefferson. I worked at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. So in Philly, there's like five medical schools, so you just go back and forth between them. But somewhere in there, when my children were old enough to talk, they would say to me, my youngest said, Mom, are you gonna be here when I wake up in the morning? And that came because I would always leave in the middle of the night to go in and operate and things like that. And after you operated and the child was in the neonatal intensive care unit or the ICU, you had to make sure they were stable. So my kids would wake up and come to my room and I wasn't there. It was with that that I left working for the hospital and started my own private practice. And the reason I did it was so I could control my schedule. And so I could say, I'm gonna be on call this time to this time. I'm gonna start operating at nine in the morning instead of six or seven in the morning, so I could at least wake up, make breakfast, get my kids ready for school, then go to work, and then come home and be home when they got off the bus. And it's not as lucrative when you do it that way. But what my young child was telling me at five was that he missed me and he wanted to see me more. And that's how I went into private practice. Wow.
Dr. Ralph Ford:And what you I'm sure you learned a lot. There were probably a lot of challenges with starting your own private practice at that time.
Dr. Ala Stanford:Oh my goodness. Well, the first thing I can tell the entrepreneur is for whatever field, you usually make no money in the first year or two, and you really need to save up because your overhead is so much and you're not bringing in money. So that was the first part. But I was in network with all the insurance companies and all the pediatricians knew me from around the city. So they would refer patients to me, and I was doing fairly well, just learning how to have multiple revenue streams so my family could continue to live the life they were accustomed to living, with me getting consistently paid every two weeks through the hospital system. But it was the freedom and independence I got back from doing that was worth it completely.
Dr. Ralph Ford:And then it's only a few years later, really, in the arc of history, your his personal history, that the COVID-19 pandemic hits in 2020. None of none of us see that coming. And then your life takes a huge change because you you see that there's a problem happening that uh the rest of the world, maybe even though they see it, they're not doing anything about it.
Dr. Ala Stanford:Right. And I so March 2020, I'm sure we all remember where we were March 10th, March 13th, when everything shut down. Happened to be my twin's birthday, March 10th.
Dr. Ralph Ford:It was March Friday the 13th. I remember you remember, yeah, sure.
Dr. Ala Stanford:So, and being from Philly, as you heard, um, and everyone knowing how to reach me, like I was the doc people could reach, they were calling saying, Ala, I think I have COVID and I'm going to the hospital. They're sending me home saying I'm not sick enough, or I went somewhere, and because I walked up, they were only taking people drive up in cars, or I had a prescription, but my doc wasn't on staff at this hospital, so they wouldn't take me, and all these reasons. And because I had worked at all the hospitals, I called folks and said, Are you really turning people away? And they said, The volume's too great. And if they're not in our network, we can't be responsible for taking care of them and getting their results back. We're just too swamped and too overwhelmed. And because I had my own private practice and a surgeon, I had gowns and gloves and masks, and I had an account with LabCore and Quest so I could get the testing supplies. Although I had to fight when you're a surgeon, they're like, What are you doing with COVID tests? Like you belong in an OR. And I said, just trust me. And so because I had that and I finally got someone to agree to send me a box, that's how we got started. And in the beginning, I went door to door to door with folks that I just went online and said, if you need a COVID test, email me at my pediatric surgery practice. And folks emailed me and we figured out how to drive from one part of the city to the other. People would come out on their porch, I would do the COVID test, put it in ice, and then we would go to the next house. We only did 12 tests and we were out for like eight hours. I'm like, okay, this is not gonna work. Yeah, yeah, too slow. And then I, you know, started thinking, just with my physician scientist background, well, where is the disease the highest? And I went to the dashboard for the city website and I could see the zip codes where the positivity rate was the highest, and asked my pastor, could you find me a church in each one of these zip codes? And we basically triaged from where the positivity rate was like one in two, one in four. And those were the churches we reached out to first to say, can we have your parking lot, electricity, and restrooms for the staff? And I literally built a triage hospital in the parking lot, and people went on social media. I reached out to my doctor colleagues and said, You just need to be a licensed nurse or doctor. Like I can't take any students, anyone in training, and that's how we started. So we went from 12 the first day, 150 the second, and by the third day, it was 400 people.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Wow. And were people skeptical? I mean, were they afraid to come out and even get the tests, or was there resistance to that?
Dr. Ala Stanford:You know, some were afraid, and that's where I came up with, and a lot of folks say to me, Well, why did you call it the Black Doctor's COVID-19 consortium? And I did that because I was trying to connote trust in the name, because at the time, black folks in Philly were dying at a rate four times greater than white. And so I needed to be able to say, because a lot of the mistrust that exists in the healthcare system with black American folks stems from the non-concordance or doctors not having a shared living experience. So I thought if I could put that in the name, then people might at least be curious. Black doctors, are there really going to be black doctors there? Like what exactly are they doing kind of thing? And so, yes, they were skeptical, but word spread like wildfire. And ABC News, not regular, you're local, but national ABC News had drones over, they could see the lines and the cars wrapped around, and national news took note of what we were doing. And one church was 400, the next church was 300, the next, and it just went on and on. We were doing over a thousand tests per week.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Picking the church as well. That was a smart move.
Dr. Ala Stanford:Yeah. I mean, when you when you're focused on a group of people, and during COVID, the folks that were being disproportionately impacted were black. And so you had to think about where do they trust? So it wasn't just churches, but we were also mosques because there's a large Muslim population in Philadelphia. We were at union locations, we were at parks and recreation centers, we were on street corners sometimes, we were wherever people trusted was where we went. And I think with any public health strategy, regardless of the group that you're serving, you need to understand what they need and what they trust. And I don't believe, and I've said this before, that people just showed up because I was a black woman doctor. Like they didn't know who I was, right? But they knew that church and they knew the pastor. And because the pastor said it's okay, that's why. And that gave me an opportunity to earn their trust.
Dr. Ralph Ford:And then you transitioned because testing need was great. We all remember that you couldn't get a test to save your life, right? And then after a while you could, but you know, it like you say, it wasn't equitable. But then you switched to vaccination.
Dr. Ala Stanford:Yeah.
Dr. Ralph Ford:So talk about how that changed completely. So that's where you I think you even had a larger impact with vaccination.
Dr. Ala Stanford:So I just have to pause and say, this is awesome, by the way. I'm like totally enjoying this.
Dr. Ralph Ford:And I know someone sent me a bunch of notes, but this is just really flowing. Okay. This is my by the way, since we're off the this is my next job. I'm gonna, you know, I'm just gonna be a kind of a radio interviewer. Well, Dr. Ford, you are very good at this.
Dr. Ala Stanford:This is like, I'm enjoying it.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Well, when it's a fun conversation, so back to it.
Dr. Ala Stanford:So you're right, vaccinations was a whole different ball game. By now, I was on the Philadelphia Department of Health board for COVID recovery and response. And I was at the table where decisions were being made. And it was cold and flu season in fall of October 2020, and we knew a vaccine was coming. So, and people were already saying, you know, black people don't trust it, they're not gonna take it. And in my mind, I was thinking, well, I'm, I mean, I might take it, you know, I don't want COVID. So when people came to get a COVID test from us in October, we started a psychometric tool, fancy word for a survey. When they were coming for their test and their flu shot to ask their attitudes and perceptions about a COVID vaccine. And it was just maybe 10 questions. If a COVID vaccine were available, would you take it? Why or why not? And we asked a series of questions. We had about 600 respondents in one day, which is research at its highest. And from that, we were able to glean what would make someone feel more comfortable about the COVID vaccine. So December 2020, it comes out, we get vaccinated publicly, we meaning all the staff members at the Black Doctor's COVID-19 consortium, so they see us getting it. I think that made a big difference. But then I went to the health department and I said, listen, we are ready. We're used to taking care of 500 people a day, we're ready. And the health commissioner said, We can't afford to give it to that community first because we can't waste it. And we already know they don't want it. And I said, That's not true. It depends on who is giving it and where. And I had I had researched to back it up because I had, you know, surveyed at least 600 people. And I kept getting no, no, no. So subsequently, the health department gave the contract to do the mass vaccines to a young group of students at Drexel who came up with an innovative idea to mass vaccinate the city of Philadelphia, but they were doing it at the convention center, which I knew most people in the community were not going to go to the convention center. It's like hard to navigate, there's nowhere to park, you can get lost in there and all of that. And it came out and they started, but the rooms were empty. They weren't full, and a lot of people were not going there. Then it came out that they were vaccinating elected officials in their homes, that they were taking the vaccine home, that the records were shoddy and all of this. And then it became a front page story in the Washington Post, front page story in the New York Times about how the health department had invested in this group and they failed miserably. So they had to shut them down. And then they came to us and said, Can you lead the mass vaccination? And I say that to say that sometimes there is still bias in health and that we were not the first choice. We were the second choice when the choice that they chose the first time didn't work out. But with that, we and Bloomberg News reported we vaccinated more Black residents than any other city, major city in the United States, because we were intentional, because we went to the people, we asked them what they needed, and we earned their trust with the testing first that the vaccines just came naturally. And so you're right, it was not a small thing.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Um I remember watching some of the videos with people who were hesitant and how you had to meet with them to overcome the vaccine hesitancy.
Dr. Ala Stanford:Yeah, absolutely. Some folks came day after day. No, not today, doc, but it's a good thing what you're doing here, but not me. You know, not me. And then some of the parents were interesting, like they may not get vaccinated, but they allowed their children to get vaccinated because the kids wanted to play in sports, because they wanted to go to the prom. Uh, they wanted to get a summer job, and it was requiring them to be vaccinated and show that card. Remember the card? Um, and so they didn't do it.
Dr. Ralph Ford:You had to show it to get into someplace.
Dr. Ala Stanford:You had to show it to get in. And so, you know, it's interesting as we go down memory lane on this, but we really did earn the trust of the people and with that save lives.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Yeah, absolutely. And for this, I will go to a recognition. You get named a what CNN top 10 hero. And uh by that time you were well on, you know, well known here at Behrend. And I think we were all rooting and voting for you. You you were in the top 10, you didn't make top one, which that's but I also think what didn't Dr. Tony Fauci introduce you there? What was so tell us about this experience? It was crazy, first of all. You know, when Anderson Cooper is telling you good job, and Kelly Repa, it's like, what is this my life right now? You know, and there's like all this makeup and bright lights, and you're going to commercial break and everything.
Dr. Ala Stanford:It was it was surreal. Um, and it really highlighted the work we had done and just led to more and more opportunities for me and for a community that typically you would not hear about or from.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Yeah, because then you transitioned to something called the Dr. Ela Stanford Center for Health Equity.
Dr. Ala Stanford:Health Equity. So, or ASHE as we finally call it. Folks started coming even after they had gotten their vaccine. And this time they wanted us to look at their medication list, or they wanted us to look at a lump on their neck. And they said, Well, you're doctors, right? Can you help me figure this out? And I realized that the community had come to rely on us. And I was already like, okay, I've done my part in history, I'm going back to the OR, but they had really come to rely on us. And interesting from a business perspective, which I did not know this would happen, because I had my own practice, I was able to run that entire operation with my own infrastructure. And so all the people for testing that had previously been turned away because they their doc wasn't on staff, because they didn't have insurance or whatever, I was able to submit claims for that work. And I turned a profit of over a million dollars by doing that. And I took that money and reinvested it and built the Dr. A. Last Stanford Center for Health Equity. So that's how we built that 10,000 square foot with eight exam rooms and with pediatrics through geriatrics and everything in between, and also psychiatry and behavioral health. We're about to open an imaging center with CT scan and ultrasound and mammography and all of that. But I took the money that I wasn't expecting to make. I mean, honestly, I was living a comfortable life as a surgeon. So this was bonus. And I took that and reinvested it in that community. And we're now going on five years. We have our second location. Um, we've taken care of thousands of people. We are a school-based health center for the school district of Philadelphia, which means that kids can come during the day at any time to get any care that they need. And it's one of those examples of triumph over tragedy that came from COVID. And yeah, so I'm very proud of that.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Well, that that impact will last a long time. Another example of you being an entrepreneur as well, taking the initiative and taking the risk that you didn't have to do. And uh, what if people want to donate?
Dr. Ala Stanford:Oh, so bdccares.com. So it's Black Doctors Consortium Cares. It's because doctors care cares. There's so many things, but the website is bdccares.com, and then there's something on there about support.
Dr. Ralph Ford:And even if people didn't get that, easy enough to find with uh Google search. But it is important for people to know that uh that they can donate to that good cause and continue the work that you're doing. Then you go on to become you get nominated by uh President Biden for an important post.
Dr. Ala Stanford:It is, it's been a busy five years. So when we were doing that work, one day people were lined up around the building, and young people keep doing what you're doing, but a young person videoed it, and I posted it on X. It was still Twitter then, but I posted it and I said just as a caption, White House COVID response team, where are you? That's what I wrote. And I got a call from the White House that night. I was like, oh my gosh, right? And they asked a Twitter post dude, you so be careful what you post, okay? But it was a good thing, and they said, What do you need? You know, we see the great work you're doing, and I said, My people are burnt out, we need more. Support, we need more resources. There are communities we just can't get to. My folks are getting sick. Like, and with that, they connected me and I with the city health department, and we were able to uh lead a FEMA mission. And with that came personnel, and we went to the public schools of Philadelphia, and we were able to go in and vaccinate the children because by now the kids were starting to get COVID, and we did have deaths from COVID in Philadelphia for folks under the age of 18. And by doing that, we doubled the vaccination rates in a lot of the schools and saved more children. And so, you know, you never know when what you're doing, you're actually being interviewed for a job. So after I led the FEMA mission, I got called from a high-ranking uh elected to ask, was I okay with them nominating me? And then I was appointed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Regional Director for, as you mentioned, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, DC, and Maryland.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Biggest thing you learned there? What was the biggest thing you learned in that position?
Dr. Ala Stanford:I would say the processes to get things done in a bureaucracy and how to be effective, you really have to work with sometimes people you don't like and find the common thread and goal so that you both achieve the desired mission or opportunity. The other thing I would say I learned is how intertwined local, state, and federal government is, but people don't often see that. They see the mayor, they see their city council, and they don't see how their congressperson or their senator is really advocating on their behalf, but they are. So in order for the governor to have money, that comes from the federal government. In order for the city to have money, that money comes from the governor. And it all starts in DC. And just being able to connect the dots and realize sometimes when I was frustrated, I might have been frustrated at the wrong person and recognizing that it's all a continuum.
Dr. Ralph Ford:You know, I preach here in Penn State, patience and persistence will win the day, and uh just takes time. But if you if you have those, if you do that, uh you'll you can be successful. Well, I want to make sure we hit two more items before we finish. And one is that along the way you won another award, and I was there when you got it in New York City, which is the Pennsylvania Society, which is uh, and you won something called the uh the gold medal award that's given out at their annual event, a great event in New York City. And uh that was a first as well. And uh I'll let you tell the story, but I will say I've been going for well over a decade, by far the best acceptance speech I've ever seen there. And I say that everyone else in the room thought the same thing, too.
Dr. Ala Stanford:Thank you. Wow. That was a special night. That was a special night to really be recognized by my peers, people who I didn't know who knew me from across the entire Commonwealth. So urban, suburban, uh rural, honestly, Republican, Democrat, you know, independent, everyone that basically recognized that in a time of need, I had stepped up and led a movement, if you will. And it meant a lot and to share that with my children and my husband, and to know that I was the first black woman to receive that in over 112 years to be alongside astronauts and civic leaders was very special um for me, and how I got reacquainted with my Erie family and my Behrend family, which I appreciate so much. And most of what I said that night was not written because the speech was supposed to be 10 minutes. I think I was like 17 minutes in. But I just felt so moved, and it was everything was still raw, you know, everything was still raw, then. Um, but I enjoy it, and I'm a uh lifelong member, and I'm sure I'll see you in New York in soon.
Dr. Ralph Ford:I will see you there this year. So yeah. You're you're a convert to the PA Society, and it really is a neat place for the leaders of Pennsylvania, you know, and there's a history behind that, and people scratch their head why. But yeah, a lot of leaders from PA show up in New York City.
Dr. Ala Stanford:Why not leave PA? We're here all the time. That's right.
Dr. Ralph Ford:We have a little fun and it's a great time.
Dr. Ala Stanford:We have a great time.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Well, I'll tell the you know, a few weeks ago you send me a text and you said, uh, Ralph, I think I'm gonna run for Congress. And uh you called me actually. True story. True story, and I think I was a little bit like, wow. And uh you since have announced, but I I within a day I recovered and called you back and told you I think you'd be perfect for that. You did because I think you were stunned. It's uh, you know, politics are so difficult. That's the reason why. Like, you know, like yeah you want to really want to step into that arena, but congratulations, you have. And I think you're in a primary race, I believe. But uh, do you want to talk about that? What's moved you to do that? And no, okay, truly public service is is noble, of course. And uh, you know, we're happy to have you talk about that.
Dr. Ala Stanford:So, well, my default is to serve. That has been my entire life, and gosh, the more I have given, the more I get back. People know me locally and nationally from service. Do you know what I mean? Not from like bright lights and the special title, like any title I have has come from the people. And now that I have this platform and when I talk, people listen and I can advocate, to me, it seems like this is just the next path at a higher level to have the most impact for my community. And so for it to be in Philadelphia, which is the district where I was born, where I still work, is that much more special. And it's a competitive seat. The uh incumbent at least five people right now. Oh my gosh, it might be up to eight now. Okay, but but I would say not my summation, but what the news has mentioned that the main four people are myself, State Senator uh Sharif Street, uh, and two House reps, Chris Robb and Morgan Seafis. But I'm proud to say that the incumbent who said he's retiring and not running endorsed me.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Wow, congratulations.
Dr. Ala Stanford:Endorsed me uh for the seat and said that I've demonstrated leadership in the most trying and challenging times, and that that's what we need now, not more of the same. And so I'm excited. It's been exactly eight days, and my life is forever different.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Is that because of what news media is calling?
Dr. Ala Stanford:And lots of that. Lots of folks want to talk about support or where I stand. And I've got a lot of work to do. You know, the primary is May 19th. I've got 37 wards I've got to meet with in different communities that knew me from COVID but need to see not just what I think about health, but about economic uh stability and viability in communities, about feeling safer where you live and work, about putting resources into education in our public school system, and of course, health, which everyone is talking about.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Sure.
Dr. Ala Stanford:Hopefully, by the time this airs, the shutdown will be over. But for them to really hear how I will advocate and push for what we need in Philadelphia, PA District 3.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Well, congratulations and good luck to you.
Dr. Ala Stanford:Thank you.
Dr. Ralph Ford:All right, we're, you know, I'll give you the last word, but what would your message be? What's your message going to be to our students this evening?
Dr. Ala Stanford:Oh my goodness. The message to the students, and maybe even what I may have said to myself when I was in college, is everyone doesn't see your vision. Everyone may not see what you're trying to achieve. But you be true and honest with yourself about where your strengths are, where your challenges may lay, and work hard to overcome the things that you're not great at, but not to have your dreams be deferred. And maybe if they're deferred, don't allow them to be denied. If you choose not to go after it, let it be because that's what you want it, not because someone discouraged you. And, you know, I don't have much fear these days, except of God, and my faith is strong. And surround yourself with people who are about uplifting you, honest with you, but about uplifting you to be your best self, to find joy in every day, and know that you are uniquely made, and there's no one else like you, and there will never be. And so make the most of the life you've been given.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Outstanding advice and wisdom. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. This was fun. You've been listening to Behrend Talks. I'm Chancellor Ralph Ford. My guest today is the extraordinary Dr. Ala Stanford, a Behrend grad, done so many wonderful things. Thank you for being here today.
Dr. Ala Stanford:Thank you for having me.