This week we commemorate Africa Day across the African Diaspora. Reflecting on the journeys of liberation that Black people have endured in trial and triumph, I am ever reminded that those that laid the groundwork will never in my heart, mind or acts have done so in vain. As the pillars of imperialism are finally weakening--though, not without reverting to its tried and tested battle techniques--the new next is taking shape in all manner of action and practice across the globe. So today, as I do in some way every day, I salute us all for staying the course and redirecting the path as necessary on the #PanAfricanProgress mission that is imparative to human evolution and a sustainable existence here on earth.

Speaking of existence here on earth and the ways that we inhabit it, I came across my guest this week via a connection that I made last year at the Charter Cities Summit in Nairobi. Remi Adeleke, a former U.S. Navy SEAL and entrepreneur, serves as Chairman and Co-Founder of the Small Farm Cities Africa Resilience Fund, a for-profit venture developing sustainable, agricultural communities to combat poverty and human trafficking. He is actively scaling this model across Africa, including projects in Malawi, Zambia, and other regions, focusing on economic empowerment through infrastructure and land ownership for local farmers.

Following a successful career as a Navy SEAL, in 2016 he found himself pursuing a careers in writing, speaking, and acting, including the 2017 franchise film Transformers: The Last Knight, SEAL Team CBS, and the 2022 Universal thriller Ambulance. He served as a consultant on Netflix’s 6 Underground and Apple+ TV series Invasion.

As an educator he co-founded Muskegon Michigan’s OPS Academy which opened to inner city students K-8th grade in Fall of 2022. His story is captured in his HarperCollins bestselling autobiography, Transformed: A Navy SEALs Unlikely Journey From The Throne Of Africa, To The Streets Of The Bronx, To Defying All Odds.

As you’ll hear in our conversation, Remi is also the founder of Kejo Wear a brand changing negativity to positivity one shirt at a time and where he is marrying this social entrepreneurial enterprises with activism; a portion of proceeds go toward supporting efforts to end human trafficking.

Where to find Remi?
Small Farm Cities
Civil Watch Technologies
On LinkedIn
On IMDB
On Instagram
On YouTube
On the Down Range Podcast

What’s Remi watching?
Bad Boys
The Rock
The Unexpected Short Film

Other topics of interest:
The Story of Banana Island and the late Chief Adebayo Adeleke
Victoria Island, Lagos
About San Diego, California
About the making or the Small Farm Cities Resilience Fund
What are Critical Minerals?
About the game of Monopoly

Special Guest: Remi Adeleke.

As the season of academic studies begins in many institutions across parts of the world, including New York City where I have spent many years working with charter schools to open their doors to children and families, it’s a flashback moment for my guest and me to the days when she was first granted a charter to begin her social enterpreneurship journey as a school leader and founder. Dr. Elaine Ruiz Lopez is the Founder and the Chief Executive Officer of the International Leadership Charter High School, a rigorous college prep charter high school in the Bronx, New York where over 95% of its scholars graduate within four years enrolling in the college of their choice. In 2024, she expanded her vision opening a middle school in 2024.

Having worked in the field of education since 1980, over ths course of her career she has held various leadership positions in public schools and universities. In 2017, she was one of the recipients of the Distinguished Women Award (Mujeres Destacadas) presented by El Diario, the largest Spanish daily newspaper organization in the country. In 2022 as one of 100 Bronx Power Women. In 2023 she received the Educator of Excellence Award from the Black Latinx Asian Charter Coalition (BLACC). She is a founding member of the Latino Charter Leaders Roundtable and its current Chair.
Her first book, The Fight for Equity in the Bronx: Changing Lives and Transforming Communities One Scholar at a Time was published last summer and stands as a testament to years of focusing her vision as a servant leader as well as the manifestation of generations of purpose driven living and adaptating to new shores, creating home in other lands.

Where to find Dr. Ruiz Lopez and the International Leadership Charter High School?
Buy her book @ here!
Saturday (and weekends), September 13th - October 12th, 2025 at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition as part of “the art of Nuyorican Soul: A Love Letter from the Diaspora to the Island” exhibition.
International Leadership Charter Schools
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Elaine reading, watching and listening to?
Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
My Grandmother’s Hands by Dr. Resmaa Menakem
Lupin on Netflix
CeCe Winans
Yolanda Adams

Other topics of interest:
About Historical Puerto Rico
On Immigrants and Migrants
The Bronx is Burning and other stories about struggle and settlement in The Bronx
What is the Jones Act?
Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on PBS
Find our more about charter schoos via the New York City Charter School Center

Special Guest: Elaine Ruiz Lopez.