McCarthy Center’s spring resident helps to create positive change

The world needs more people like LaToya Green.

She started an organization on her desire to motivate people to invest in themselves and create positive change in the world. She believes that “inspired people, inspire people.” And, her ultimate passion is to empower leaders and social entrepreneurs to chase the goals they set with a refreshed, refined perspective.

Green will be sharing some of those views while in residency March 26-30 for the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement at Saint John’s University.

She will present “Understanding Activism: Voices of a Generation” at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 28, at Brother Willie’s Pub, Sexton Commons, SJU, as part of the “Politics and a Pint” series. That event, which will be moderated by Aric Putnam, professor of communication at CSB and SJU, is free and open to the public.

While in residency at the College of Saint Benedict and SJU, Green will visit a First-Year Seminar class; present a seminar on “How to Create a Personal Brand” with students from the Donald McNeely Center for Entrepreneurship; tour the SJU Pottery Studio; and present a student roundtable on activism with Whitney Court, assistant professor of political science at CSB and SJU.

Green is a professor in human communications studies at California State University, Fullerton, where she has taught since August 2015.

She is also the director of debate at Fullerton. In 2017, she received the Galentine Award, which recognizes an outstanding female debate coach. She received the Weber State University Coach of the Year Award in 2015, and the Cross Examination Debate Association’s Mid-America Critic of the Year Award in 2015.

She started Higher Definition Leadership and Empowerment Coaching to inspire greatness in others in November 2016.

“My desire with all of this is to share with people hope and principles that go hand-in-hand,” Green told writer Ryan Williams of the Women’s Debate Institute in January 2017. “There are people that believe positive change can happen and approaching that from a principled perspective allows for good things to happen. I hope to provide the marriage of both of those things.”

Green told Williams her interest in life coaching “came from reflections on myself. I didn’t see myself as the premier point person on how to be happy, but I did find myself in various situations where I learned how to become empowered.”

She has spoken to groups at Columbia University, Morgan State University, the University of Kansas, Emporia State University, the University of Texas at Austin and Southern California University.