A successful advocate does not have to be a “perfect” advocate.
That was one of several takeaways from the 2025 Bonner and Bonner Lecture series, which featured Umbrella US founder and director AJ Locashio and Sarah Phelps, a longtime advocate for the LGBTQ community, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) and disabled residents. Among the various topics discussed by Locashio and Phelps was advocacy burnout and a new model that explains how individuals continuously move through advocacy throughout their lives.
Phelps explains that the uniqueness of the model is that it centers more on the person rather than the act of advocacy to promote more advocacy sustainability and reduce burnout. Phelps tells KVOE News that a major contributor to burnout is the pressure for perfection placed on advocates both internally and externally.
Locashio built off this point and stated that “self-advocacy needs to go and community care needs to be the priority.”
Phelps also explained Thursday that the act of advocacy and the title of advocate are far broader topics than many often think.
Thursday’s lecture comes at a time of great divisiveness within our society when it comes to opinions or stances on various topics. With this in mind, KVOE News asked if the current societal climate has made promoting advocacy, or the general message of the new model, more difficult.
Locashio responded by saying she believes it’s quite the opposite.
When it comes to differing opinions on major issues or forms of advocacy, Phelps says she doesn’t believe there are two opposing sides, rather, there is a single side with differing approaches to the same result.
For more information on Umbrella US, visit UmbrellaUS.org.
The annual Bonner and Bonner series honors Drs. Thomas and Mary Bonner, Emporia State’s first two African American faculty members.
