WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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On today’s edition of Bring It On!, hosts, Clarence Boone and Liz Mitchell speak with Maqubè Reese, who is the Associate Director of Diversity Initiatives Kelley School of Business at Indiana University – Bloomington. Maqubè Reese is the founder and CEO of TRIBE Consulting. TRIBE stands for ‘Together, we are choosing to make room for Reconciliation focused on Intersectionality while Building a sustainable Ecosystem of care and responsibility.” Maqubè seeks to provide culturally sensitive, educational and healing-informed services to individuals, groups, and organizations. In 2021 she served on the City of Bloomington’s Commission on the Status of Women and chaired the City’s Black History Month Committee. She also serves on the City’s Board of Public Safety. Currently she is president of the Monroe County Branch of the NAACP.
She is also a committee member for the Women of IU Conference. Her multiple honors include the inaugural IU DEI Luminary Awardee from the IU Bloomington Diversity Equity Multi-Cultural Affairs; the 2022 IU Woman of the Year award from the Delta Sigma Theta Gamma Nu chapter; the 2020 Black Woman Leader Award from the City of Bloomington Black History Month; the Alpha Kappa Alpha Kappa Tau Chapter Black Girls Rock Woman of the Year award, the 2018 Zeta Phi Beta Alumna Community Award., and is involved with Count Us In Indiana, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging diverse voter turnout.
Maqubè Reese was raised on the south side of Fort Wayne, Indiana and is the youngest of 13 children. She is a “proud first- generation college graduate,” she says. Her parents, who Reese refers to as loving and supportive, both died of health complications earlier in her life. “I’ve benefited from going to therapy to get some help through that trauma—not only with grief but trauma as a Black woman,” she says. “Being a Black woman in America is just hard—being Black in America is hard. I don’t understand why it’s so difficult. I just want to live, right? There is definitely deep-rooted, complex, structural, systemic racism that still affects and plagues us today.
“I think about my mom, and the fact that she had 13 beautiful Black kids and brought them into this world. She advocated for us every day, and I can only imagine what that felt like. When I’m advocating for just me sometimes, I’m exhausted.”
Reese came to Indiana University on scholarships through the Group Scholars and 21st Century Scholars programs. She studied human development and family studies, graduating in 2015. She also has a nonprofit management certificate, and an Eli Lilly Philanthropic certificate.
For five years, she worked as an advisor for the Groups Scholars Program. Reese focuses on what she is able to observe, engage, heal, and create. She completed her master’s in social work last year, applying her understanding of mental health to the community work she does and her career, and she works part-time as a therapist for adolescents at Bloomington Meadows Hospital.
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, she started a Facebook group called Humanity for the Win, which is a growing, international “space to highlight how humanity succeeds against all odds,” according to its published description. Group members post stories about “how humans are peacefully helping humans financially, spiritually, mentally, and physically… It’s part of my passion to build interconnected community,” Reese says.
Sources: 5 Questions with …Maqubè Reese (Office of the Provost & Executive Vice President, Indiana University Bloomington) and Bloom Magazine.
Credits:
Today’s hosts are Clarence Boone and Liz Mitchell.
Bring It On!’s Executive Producer is Clarence Boone.
Tonight’s Assistant Producer is Liz Mitchell.
Show Consultant and WFHB News Department Director is Kade Young.
Program Engineer is Chantalle LaFontant.
The original theme music was created by Jamyl Efiom, with additional background tracks by David Baker.
