Inspiration, Zoom Calls, & Leadership
Meet Patrice Palmer (they/them/theirs), Director of Social and Cultural Inclusion at Colorado State University, DEI Specialist for New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as the CEO at eROOT Consulting, LLC.
Patrice is a voice for Trans, Queer, and Black voices predominantly, but is also a diverse and transformative force of nature — from speaking at TEDxCSU, co-writing a chapter of “Debunking the Myth of Job Fit in Higher Education and Student Affairs,” to having the inherent confidence to STAND UP and SPEAK OUT against the systemic issues we encounter every day.
Patrice calls themselves a storyteller, but maybe “the narrator of justice” sums up their work more aptly.
They are accomplished, incredibly present in whatever real or virtual situation they exist in, and are clearly busy with all of their duties, trials, and positions in life.
Yet…Patrice is also my instructor for IU-270, an Interdisciplinary Leadership Styles course at Colorado State University.
It’s incredibly challenging to keep our attention-span anymore. The various social media studies within the past decade have indicated that our attention to detail and time spent viewing a given post has dropped monumentally — from 2000, our span has dropped from 12 seconds to nearly 6–7 seconds now.
Marketers have fabricated for years now that, depressingly, Goldfish have a higher attention span than we do. (This is false, but goes a long way in showing how little we focus on anything anymore.)
Additionally, now that we exist in the essence of virtual existence due to the worldwide pandemic’s isolative-induced measures, how many of us can truly say we’re really paying attention to that Zoom call with your team, that Microsoft Teams call with your school class, or even that “check-up” call with your parents?
Again, meet Patrice Palmer.
All of the aforementioned notes and mentions of a lower attention-span — they shatter. All of the mentions of not being present — they destroy.
Every semester within my studies as a Journalism & Public Relations major have shown me new faces that have inspired me. However, none of those previous mentors could have ever envisioned being ushered into this world of virtual flux that we now find ourselves in.
Patrice’s personality, character…the way they exist…it’s as if Patrice viewed the pandemic, understood what needed to be integrated to continue to educate and vocalize their efforts, and said, “All right, COVID-19. I got you figured out. Next?”
This is not a “suck-up-to-the-teacher” post, nor is it solely for the purpose of highlighting Patrice’s achievements. No, this is to educate and socialize a new norm; the norm that, even with all of the adversity we’ve faced this year and in years past, we all can do this. We can collectively move forward. This article is to make myself, you, and everyone else realize that we can move forward — we must, whether we like it or not. We must be more present, we must practice good intentions and understand our intersectionality, and we must respect our peers.
Patrice is one of the rare individuals that has adapted their livelihood to our new normal and has triumphantly emerged as a leader. They’ve inspired me to be as present as possible in all aspects of my life — whether it’s a Zoom call with the Colorado State University Department of Liberal Arts Dean or a phone call to my grandmother. Being present is more than beating the attention span of the goddamn goldfish — being present is knowing whom we are, knowing how we show up in life, and moving forward with aspirations of how we want to show up.
If you haven’t watched Patrice’s Ted Talk yet, please do so. It’s just ten minutes — that’s all. That’s literally a blink in the relative timespan of your life — will you remember watching a video that changes your perspective on who you are, or will you remember ten minutes of scrolling on social media? Instagram can wait.
Because, once you watch the video, you’ll realize the person Patrice is. The person who has been bashed, thrown around, and spit out by life — yet broke through the veil as a revolutionary storyteller, an inherent leader, and a dynamic world walker. Then, maybe you’ll realize that we all can do this. Take away the adversity, take away your accomplishments, and strip yourself to the most minuscule roots of your humanity, and you’ll find who you are.
This semester, Patrice has been my most profound inspiration, even through just Zoom calls. They’ve shown me much about the role leadership has in our world moving forward, and how I can best invest my time now to lead more confidently in life. I hope everyone can find their Patrice; whether that’s another individual that can inspire them, or if that person lies within your inner self.
There will be no return to normal; we need inspirational leadership to help steer the world toward our next frontiers. If someone that has faced as much as Patrice has is not only able to prosper, but continue moving forward for social change, then, yes, we all can do this.
