Description:
This is not a story of an easy transformation, but a more powerful realization. Healing is a gift you give to yourself.
Brief description: Dr. Joel Davis Brown is an author, keynote speaker, and entrepreneur working to decolonize leadership and foster growth, innovation, and equity. Joel serves as an executive coach and an "awareness agent," working at intersectional margins to help the world support dialogue, healing, and collective breakthroughs through bounded and courageous conversations.As an avid traveler, learner, and community-builder, Joel's work spans 6 continents across the fields of organizational development, transformational leadership, change management, and global inclusion. As a thought partner and gestalt practitioner, Joel is the Chief Visionary Officer of Pneumos LLC, an organizational development firm, and a professor at the IESEG Management School in France.
Review Quotes:
"Leaders carry inherited patterns just as families do, and this book asks the reader to see clearly what has shaped us, to take responsibility for what we pass on, and to let go of what is not ours to carry. This is exactly the work that separates leaders who unwittingly perpetuate harm from those who break the cycle. For anyone holding responsibility for others, this is not a book about healing as a private matter; it is a book about the conditions under which healthy communities become possible." - Antoine Delaitre; Head of School, International School of Paris
"This book is a powerful and necessary exploration of how unhealed pain shapes our lives, and how intentional healing can disrupt generational cycles. With honesty and depth, Joel Davis Brown weaves story and insight in a way that calls leaders and communities alike to take responsibility for their healing so that harm is not perpetuated. It is timely, transformative, and a vital contribution to the work of personal and collective liberation." - Bishop Vanessa M. Brown; East Coast Region, The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, Lead Pastor, Rivers of Living Water NY/NJ UCC
"As a prolific storyteller and an asset-based leader empowering voices from the margins, Dr. Joel Davis Brown's I Had to Become the Father models the commitment to self-reflection, honesty, and healing that his work encourages others to do. In bringing forward his own story through his relationship with his father, he teaches us how our respective journeys of leadership must occur from the inside out. It is by delving deep into the nuances of his own story, that we recognize the depth of inner-work that we all must do to heal and fulfill our own leadership potential." - Amer F. Ahmed, Ed.D.; Vice President for Intercultural Excellence, University of Vermont
"This book is a testament to pride, resourcefulness, intentionality and resilience ... Dr. Brown's honesty and strength are inspiring, and I believe his story will help others feel seen, hopeful, and empowered in their own healing journeys." - Carrie Neumann; Senior Director of Field Diversity & Inclusion; Northwestern Mutual
"This book resonated with me because of its fearless vulnerability and its deep understanding that healing is both personal and collective. Joel Davis Brown's storytelling is intimate, reflective, and profoundly human, offering readers not just a memoir, but an invitation to examine their own journeys toward reconciliation, self-love, and freedom." - Kelli McCloud-Schingen; Founding Artistic Director, World Stage Theater Company
"Tender ... courageous ... bold ... powerful. Dr. Joel Davis Brown's I Had to Become the Father is a moving and deeply human account of transformation, healing and self-reclamation. With remarkable honesty, Dr. Brown invites us into this journey of learning about himself, reconciling with his past and repairing what was wounded, and ultimately letting go of what no longer served his growth." - Rick Huntley, MSW; Organization Development Consultant, Co-Author, Journeys of Race, Color and Culture: From Racial Inequality to Equity and Inclusion
"In his new memoir, I Had to Become the Father, Joel Davis Brown offers two gateways to wisdom. For the individual, he advises, 'Don't put the responsibility of your healing in someone else's hands.' If you want an example of how to deftly take your healing into your own hands, read this book. For those seeking a way out of chaos, here is a path toward reunion with ourselves." - Carla R. Stephens, PhD (she/her); Director, Bard Queer Leadership Project