208: Coaching and Mentoring Neurodivergent Adults with Dr. Kimberly Douglass

I found today’s guest in a most unusual place! It was on TikTok that I first noticed her work with gifted and twice-exceptional people, and I knew I had to get her on the show.

Dr. Kimberly Douglass is president and CEO of Remote Learning Solutions. She coaches neurodivergent PhDs/EdDs on the personal, social, and technical aspects of career and entrepreneurship. In addition to moving clients from deficit-based to strengths-based thinking, she helps PhDs/EdDs develop content across a range of subjects. She helps clients deliver content in the form of ebooks, online courses, workbooks, journals, workshops, and more. Dr. Douglass bases her coaching practice on five values: empathy, justice, love, neurodiversity, and purpose. She worked in higher education for over 17 years in various roles and earned a PhD in political science in 2009 and tenured in Information Sciences in 2016 at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Her teaching and scholarship have developed at the intersection of information science and political behavior.

Show Highlights:

• Why Kimberly is intensely passionate about coaching and mentoring neurodivergent adults
• How the same issues in our schools with kids are showing up for adults in the workplace
• Why people are taught to believe in a fake meritocracy
• How giftedness means different things for different people
• How Kimberly’s personal brand of intensity is thinking about things in different ways, deep thoughts and issues that can turn into depression, and loving information and data
• Growing up, Kimberly felt her intensity through acting goofy and humorous and always being presentable to white culture
• The distinction between management and leadership
• Cultural factors that affected Kimberly as she grew up in a black Baptist church, being told that she “shouldn’t speak up for herself,” and seeing Christianity as a tool of enslavement
• How Kimberly had to tune herself out and tone herself down when she worked at a university with mean, accusatory people
• Why she feels her intensity getting out of control when she feels dismissed or undervalued
• What made Kimberly take a different look at herself and her son regarding giftedness
• How she uses her fire for good in believing people
• Habits that help Kimberly harness the power of her intensity are tools that organize her thoughts and life
• How she helps others use their fire for good by trying to be neutral and helping people look for affirmation, values, principles, mission, and goals
• Kimberly’s advice: “Take the risk. Find someone who will help you take the risk. Realize that not moving and standing still is also risky; it’s just risky in a different way.”

Resources:

Website:  Dr. Kimberly Douglass 

Facebook: Kimberly Douglass

TikTok: Dr. Kimberly Douglass