We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dr. Renee Maltinaa Ann Campbell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Dr. Renee Maltinaa Ann, you’ve got such an interesting story, but before we jump into that, let’s first talk about a topic near and dear to us – generosity. We think success, happiness and wellbeing depends on authentic generosity and empathy and so we’d love to hear about how you become such a generous person – where do you think your generosity comes from?
I say that my generosity came from my mother, Mrs. Mary S. Campbell, and great-aunt Mrs. Lottie Campbell. I grew up in the small western Kentucky city of Adairvlle, KY. My family came from humble beginnings. My mother had training in secretarial science, and because of racism, she was denied a job in her field. Her only option was to work at a hosiery mill factory. My great-aunt ran one of the first laundry services Adairville, Kentucky. Aunt Lottie told me she did laundry for “rich/well to do white folk.” My father was trained in shoe repair, and he was also denied a job in his field because of racism. Daddy took any job he could get, construction, shoe repair, and carpentry. He worked any job he could find to support his family. He often told me, “a man can always find something honest to make money.” As a member of the Campbell family, I came from very humble beginnings. My mother and great-aunt modeled their generosity by helping others. There were children in our community that had less than our family. No one knew that my father would go in a dumpster behind the local grocery and find meat, and they cut the blue off of the meat, so we could eat. Some children would come to our house and stay all day because their parents didn’t keep up with them, and they had no where else to go. My family allowed these children to stay at our house, eat and be safe for hours. My mother would press, curl and style women’s hair who lived in the community. When a woman died and there was no one to prepare her hair for the funeral, my mother would press(straighten)curl the person’s hair so the body would be presentable for the funeral. I’m guessing she received about one dollar for her services. I thought my family’s generosity was important because I always saw it modeled. My family modeled generosity without expecting anything in return. When I was a teenager, both of my parents experienced a medical emergency at the same time and were hospitalized. A friend traveled to help our family of five children by buying and preparing food for us. At that moment, I experienced knowing how it feels to be helped. I wanted to be generous, help others and give individuals the same feeling I had as a teenager, which is a feeling of being helped. As a social worker, educator and international humanitarian, I live my life to be generous and help others. I always want to give back to my fellow human beings.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
What I do: I am a semi- retired professional Black woman. At the present I am the director of programs for a social services organization that provides quality services to children families, and substance abuse survivors. The exciting thing about my work since being semi-retired is I have an opportunity to integrate what I learned during my over 40 plus years of administrative social work experience, teaching social work students, and program creation, into providing individual therapy to survivors of intimate partner violence and substance addiction. It’s using my skills to support and teach individuals, and I have an opportunity to learn from clients.
I also love spearheaded, along with Marlesha Woods, the” Mrs. Ada Doss Campbell movement. The movement brings attention to the documented professional medical neglect of my grandmother, Mrs. Ada Doss Campbell, who died at Lakeland Asylum, now Central State Hospital in 1941 of documented professional medical neglect. I am excited that public attention has resulted in: certificate of adjournment by the Kentucky State House of Representatives; recognition and signage at Central State Hospital including a plaque and picture that symbolize my grandmother; a memorial bench at Tom Sawyer Park symbolizing her unmarked grave in the colored section of the cometary; inclusion of the story during Women’s history month by the Human Rights Commission; panel presentation by Louisville Metro Office for Women; proclamation of Mrs. Ada Doss Campbell Day, the Mrs. Ada Doss Campbell Memorial Scholarship fund at the Community Foundation of Louisville; a Mrs. Ada Doss Campbell corner at the Kentucky State University School of Social Work library. My future with the movement is to present about medical neglect in at medical schools around the country, colleges, social services and governmental organizations. I believe that stories like my grandmother’s need to be told, and it gives students an opportunity to learn and make a difference in their communities.
Another goal is to raise additional revenue to fund the Mrs. Ada Doss Campbell memorial fund at the Community Foundation to support scholarships for individuals at Kentucky State University School of Social Work and Kent School of Social Work.
The most exciting thing in my life is I am a mother of three adult children, Phillip Benjamin and Tristan, and seven grandchildren, JaNice Baylen, Ezekiel, Josephine, Azaiah, Aria, and Ada. And our legacy continues as my youngest Ada, is named after my grandmother Mrs. Ada Doss Campbell. I feel so blessed to be able to enjoy a healthy and growing family.
Traveling to Hawaii is another dream that I see in my future.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The qualities, skills and knowledge that was most impactful in my journey was how to treat people with respect, the way I wanted to be treated, being non-judgmental and listening. This was learned by the examples that were modeled for me as a child by my mother and great-aunt. The most valuable lesson they taught me is about how to treat others with respect.
The theoretical training that I received, and the mentorship I got about how to see student’s gifts and revealed their gifts to them, came from examples that I received during Graduate School from pioneers and scholars who help me realize my potential, like Dr. Gale Goldberg, Dr. Ruth Middleman, Dr. Ethel McLendon, and Dr. Mary Weathers.
Advice I have for folks who are early in their journey about how they can develop and improve qualities, skills or areas of knowledge are: realize that you stand on the shoulders of those who came before you, so listen to the elders because elders possess a wealth of knowledge that you can learn from; in the face of challenges, it is important to have faith, and utilize a “faith file” an intangible file of memories that an individual uses to recall situations where it was difficult to understand how obstacles were overcome. The individual reflects on those situations and assesses how obstacles were defeated in the past in order to have faith that obstacles can be eradicated in the present situation. I believe it is important to access religious and spiritual training to achieve goals.
It is also important to recognize societal barriers and not focus on them and make them an excuse not to succeed. One must strategize about how they will overcome those barriers and then implement strategies. It is important to also remember that poverty does not mean failure and we must arm ourselves with examples, books documentaries, etc. about individuals that made it to success, in spite of perceived obstacles.
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
The most impactful book for me in my life is “Your Erroneous Zones”, by Dr Wayne Dyer. Dr. Dyer wrote his first book in 1976, when I became a single parent at the same time I was a junior in college. Many people told me that because I became a single parent, I had ruined my life, might as well stay home and draw Aid to Families With Dependent Children and Families, and that I would not be able to finish college. When people said those things to me,. I hit the delete button. That all haqppened at the same time Dr. Dyer released his first book, Your Erroneous Zones. During that period in my life, none of the peers I associated with were interested in my vision for my life, or college, and I had low self-esteem. Even though I had low self esteem, I had other ideas about how I wanted my life. I began to read “Your Erroneous Zones” and this book changed my life for the better.
Nuggets of the book that helped me were: your thoughts or your own uniquely to keep; no one can get inside your head that you don’t allow to do so; you do have control of your thoughts and your brain is your own to use as you determine; you cannot have a feeling without first having an experienced thought; a feeling is a reaction to a thought; your feelings come from your thoughts, then you are capable of controlling your own feelings; when you changed the way you look at things, the the things you look at change. His first book had such a profound positive impact on me, that I read every book that he wrote thereafter. I would suggest any of his books or audio.
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Dr. Renee Maltinaa Ann Campbell
John Nation
Marlesha Woods
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