First hour: Shaun Nelms and Marlene Blocker on East High's past, present, and future
Second hour: The podcast, "Scamanda," and how fraud cases impact nonprofit organizations
There will be a change in leadership at the Rochester school most often touted for its turnaround success. East High Superintendent Shaun Nelms is taking a leadership position at the University of Rochester. Nelms arrived at East nearly a decade ago to help lead a new partnership with the university. The result has been higher graduation rates, fewer suspensions, and improved academic performance. Nelms has pushed back against critics who say that the additional resources make the East model unsustainable. We talk to Nelms and his successor, current East Upper School Principal Marlene Blocker, about what has happened at East, and how that success can spread. Our guests:
- Shaun Nelms, outgoing East High School Superintendent
- Marlene Blocker, current East High Upper School Principal, and incoming East High School Superintendent
Then in our second hour, one of the most talked about podcasts in the current moment is about a woman who faked having cancer. “Scamanda” tells the story of a California woman who lied for seven years about having Hodgkin’s lymphoma. From 2012 to 2019, Amanda C. Riley collected more than $105,000 in online donations – not to mention cash gifts, free services, trips, and more. Riley was investigated by the FBI and was sentenced to five years in prison in 2022. Hers the latest in a number of high profile cases in which someone has feigned an illness for attention or support. According to the Atlantic, the condition has a name: “Munchausen by internet,” or MBI. What do these kinds of incidents mean for friends, family, donors, and organizations that raise money and provide resources for people who actually are struggling with an illness? The leaders of local cancer support organizations say stories like Riley’s can have lasting effects their work and on would-be supporters. We discuss it all with our guests:
- Holly Anderson, executive director of the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester, and cancer survivor
- Lauren Spiker, executive director of 13thirty Cancer Connect, who lost her daughter, Melissa, to cancer
