Lauren welcomes her guest Megan Mindy, a recent public health graduate from the University of Iowa. Megan shares her journey blending her passions for disability advocacy, inclusive recreation, and entrepreneurship.

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the student hosts, guests, and contributors, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the University of Iowa or the College of Public Health.

Lauren Lavin:

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Plugged in to Public Health. Today, we’re diving into an episode that explores how personal passion, authentic community engagement, and public health education can come together to drive real world impact. We’re joined by spring 2025 graduate, Megan Mindy, a public health advocate, disability inclusion champion, and founder of an adaptive sports startup, Common Ground. Megan’s work sits at the intersection of public health, inclusive recreation, and entrepreneurship, and she offers powerful insight into how we can build more accessible and equitable spaces on and off sports fields.

I’m Lauren Lavin. And if it’s your first time with us, welcome. We’re a student-run podcast that talks about major issues in public health and how they’re relevant to anyone, both in and outside the field of public health. Now, let’s get plugged into public health. Plugged in to Public Health is produced and edited by the students of the University of Iowa College of Public Health, and the views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the student hosts, guests, and contributors. They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the University of Iowa or the College of Public Health.

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the podcast today. Today, I have Megan on with me today. Megan, do you want to just introduce yourself, a little bit of background?

Megan Mindy:

Yes. My name is Megan Mindy. I just graduated from the University of Iowa in the College of Public Health with a degree in public health, of course, and a minor in inclusive recreation. I have been working to develop my adaptive inclusive sports business throughout the summer and over the past couple of years, so been working on that a little bit. It’s called Common Ground. I’m really involved in the disability advocacy space and lots of things with adaptive sports and recreation.

Lauren Lavin:

Well, thank you so much for being here. Do you have a job lined up or are you just working on your business? and congrats on graduating.

Megan Mindy:

Thank you. Thank you. I actually do have a job lined up. I was really lucky that somebody from the Iowa LEND program named Kaleb Cook, they started an inclusive disability and career service provider in Colorado. They’re a LEND trainee graduate, so I had that connection kind of built up. I will be starting a job with them in the fall working as a transition educator, so helping students in high school with disabilities figure out their next step post-grad. Alongside that, I’ll continue to work on my company out in Colorado.

Lauren Lavin:

Have you already moved?

Megan Mindy:

I have not. I’m moving in a few weeks. It’s quite a quick timeline, so finishing up some summer stuff here with the Tippie College of Business and with my business stuff, and then I’ll be working remotely in my new job, finishing that up, and then moving out. It’s quite a quick timeline but-

Lauren Lavin:

It’s a busy summer.

Megan Mindy:

Yes.

Lauren Lavin:

Do you love Colorado or is it new to you?

Megan Mindy:

I’ve been there several times and I’ve always said since I was a kid like, “I’d love to live in the mountain.” I love it. I love to be outdoors and do anything out there, so it’s pretty crazy that I was able to find a job that aligns so well with what I’m doing and a place that I very really love.

Lauren Lavin:

Some things are just meant to be

Megan Mindy:

Right, that’s what I’m thinking. I’m very excited. It’s going to be a great adventure.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay. So you began at Iowa as a chemistry major-

Megan Mindy:

Yes.

Lauren Lavin:

… before switching to public health. What sparked that change and what did public health offer that some of the more traditional sciences didn’t?

Megan Mindy:

Yeah. In high school, I just really loved chemistry. I took all the AP chem and just was really interested in it. I still am. I really love the intense science classes, natural science classes, but I did chemistry for a while and then I was like, “Okay, not quite sure this is the perfect fit,” then I switched to biochemistry. I was like, “Maybe I need more science.” And then I was like, “Okay, this also isn’t quite right.” There’s just a piece missing and I wasn’t sure what it was. I’m not sure what I’m going to do next. I was like, “Public health, people have been telling me that seems cool.” I was like, “We’ll just give it a shot.” Immediately got into College of Public Health for… I think it was my sophomore year maybe. I’m not really sure of the timeline exactly. It’s kind of a blur, but I immediately loved it.

It was just a lot more people focused and focused on that community health and really that broader picture of health that I didn’t really get to experience within the chemistry, biochemistry stuff. Also, like I said, I’m a people person. That’s a really important part of my learning is to be able to do interactive things with the community and stuff. I wasn’t really ever going to get that with chemistry, so I think it was a very good switch for me.

Also with my interest in the disability community, I think there’s something… I was like, “Public health’s got to be more of a focus on that.” My mission was to have some intersection between healthcare and science and then working with the disability community. I didn’t know how to find that, but public health really indeed was that for me. It’s very good.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. Which kind of leads me to where I want to go. You have a BS in public health and a minor in inclusive recreation. How did those two fields intersect and what made them a powerful combination for you?

Megan Mindy:

Yeah. I mean, this is another thing that was just so crazy. I was in that time of transition from biochemistry and chemistry to public health and I had been working with Iowa City Parks and Rec. I had just gotten a job there because I really wanted to continue working with the disability community. I worked in the adaptive inclusive recreation space and then I met some people there. I was like, “Guys, here are my dreams. I want to work with people with disabilities but stay in the health area. What do I possibly do with this? Can I double major? Is it too late?”

And then just perfectly serendipitously, there was a new minor that came in fall of 2023, which was inclusive recreation, which is a taste of therapeutic recreation, which is what I’ve been doing at Iowa City Parks and Rec and I’ve done in the past in my several years prior working with the disability community. I was like, “Well, I mean, that’s got to be it. That’s the perfect combination for me.” That allowed me to continue getting really involved with the disability community through healthcare experiences, through recreation policy work. Really, all of it was from the intro into the inclusive recreation alongside with public health, so it was just a perfect match for me.

Lauren Lavin:

I had never heard of that as a minor. Is it a major too?

Megan Mindy:

Yeah. The major is therapeutic recreation and there’s a couple of different tracks you can go. There’s a certification you can get to practice as a therapeutic recreation specialist, which would be using play as therapy basically for people. Anyone, really. But inclusive recreation is kind of the less intense, not really in the certification track. That’s what I did to still be able to get my foot in the door there and then use it to my advantage to combine my interests, so yeah.

Lauren Lavin:

Clearly, disability is a passion of yours. How did you get started in that area?

Megan Mindy:

That’s also just a crazy thing that just turned out to be… Really, my passion is working with people with disabilities and in that community, but it started in middle school. I was just joining a bunch of clubs because I like to be highly involved in all different ways, all different things, so I was like, “Okay, I’ll try this.” It was called the Spirit Club or something and it was just connecting with special education classes and going to middle school sports games. I think I remember a volleyball game was my first one, and you just hang out in the student section with these students with disabilities. It was just so fun. I was like, “This is awesome.” Just good vibes, you know?

Everyone that was there participating, whether they were a student in the special ed classes or people just coming to help out, it was just so fun. So then from there, I was like, “Cool, I should keep doing this.” In high school I joined Best Buddies and my adaptive PE class, which is a similar model of just pairing up with people with disabilities to support them in their recreation and physical activity experiences. That’s kind of where the sports side of it started for me and the interest in that specific area. And then I ended up being the president of my Best Buddies chapter, learning more about the leadership and stuff that goes into that.

Then college where I started working at the Lincolnway Special Recreation Association, so still following in this like, “Hey, this is super fun. Let’s keep doing it.” I was a camp counselor and then I saw a camp counselor working one-on-one with a student or a camper with a disability and I kind of bothered her. I was like, “Hey, where do you work? Who’s your boss?” I bothered her so much that I finally got in contact with the boss of the special rec and then I got a job there. Worked there for three years, led the camp for youth with disabilities, and that was honestly one of the most important experiences I’ve had thus far, working with people with significant support needs and figuring out how to make summer camp for everybody. I think it was very fun, but it ended up teaching me so many things that have really caused me to stay in this and make it in my career, so yeah.

Lauren Lavin:

Wow. It feels like it’s been woven into your life for a really long time in many different ways.

Megan Mindy:

Yeah. Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. Yeah.

Lauren Lavin:

And then that’s continued in college because you… Did you have an internship at the Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities?

Megan Mindy:

Yeah.

Lauren Lavin:

And you participated in the LEND program, which I actually did two years ago, a year before you.

Megan Mindy:

No way. Oh, wow.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah, and I love my time there.

Megan Mindy:

That’s amazing.

Lauren Lavin:

Do you want to tell us about the internship and then we can talk a little bit about LEND?

Megan Mindy:

Yes, I love LEND. So glad that you’re a graduate. That’s awesome. Everyone that does LEND, I feel like, has the same experience of it being amazing.

Lauren Lavin:

Yes.

Megan Mindy:

The internship, this was something I always preach is to just tell… Maybe this is a bad thing, but I’ve been doing it forever and it’s worked out so far. But telling everyone your dreams and your hopes, even if it sounds crazy and ridiculous, if you tell people, people know people who know people who know people.

Lauren Lavin:

Exactly, you got to speak it.

Megan Mindy:

Yeah, exactly. I was doing exactly that. Right when I got into College of Public Health, I met with Sophie Switzer, who’s awesome, has been a mentor for me throughout the entire time. She’s the best. I was like, “Hey, my goal, my dream is to work in healthcare and disability. I don’t know what you can do with that information but I’m going to tell you and hope you can help me because I don’t know what to do.” Crazy enough, Sophie went to go pick up her kid from daycare and met the assistant director of the UCEDD, which is the University Center… What is it?

Lauren Lavin:

University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. There we go.

Megan Mindy:

Yes, I had it down. I think I lost it. It’s been a while. But she met the assistant director of UCEDD who was like, “Oh, you’re in public health. You’re in College of Public Health. We’re trying to get an intern in our office. We haven’t had one, but we think it’d be a great experience.” That was two days after I told Sophie my dream and then Sophie was like, “Reach out.” So I reached out and then I was an intern.

At the UCEDD, I worked as an intern. I worked in their sensory-friendly vaccine clinic, which helped people with sensory needs, disabilities of any kind, whether that’s mobility challenges or, like I said, sensory stuff or, really, people with needle phobias, anybody who has trouble getting shots or vaccines or scared of needles to get their shots.

They have a non-clinical room in the UCEDD called the Comfort Room that helps people to get those vaccines and make it a little less daunting. They have one person on staff that’s there just to distract and play with the patient and involve them in the process. They know what’s happening and it’s a little less scary. It was a very cool experience to be able to work directly in disability and healthcare like I had always said I wanted to.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay, what’s in the room? Is it couches, that kind of thing?

Megan Mindy:

Yeah. I don’t remember exactly what’s in the room, but they have these really cool LED lights. It’s blue and green, super cool and distracting and not like a doctor’s office at all. They have some couches, they have a ton of toys, they have bubbles. Really, you name it. They have video games. Whatever you need to get your healthcare, they’re going to figure it out so that you can get that procedure, get that shot.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah, what a cool idea. It’s very cool. Okay, so that was the internship?

Megan Mindy:

Yes.

Lauren Lavin:

Now, LEND, which if people don’t know about LEND, LEND stands for Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities. It’s a program in a lot of states across the US and it’s housed here at the University of Iowa in Iowa. Do you want to give more of a background on that?

Megan Mindy:

Yeah, I can do my best shot at the overview. LEND, like Lauren said, is the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities. It’s a training program. There’s 60 cohorts, I believe, across the United States and US territories. The one at Iowa partners with the Puerto Rico LEND, which is very cool. What we do is we focus on every area of disability that you can really think of. We start with just understanding disability in healthcare, disability in education. We have different experiences woven throughout the program to help to gain a better understanding of a really holistic view of what living with a disability can be like.

We have a parent as mentors program, so the members in the cohort would be paired with a parent of a person with a disability and then go to their house or go to outings with them to learn what their life looks like with having this complex healthcare need. And then we have self-advocates as mentors with the same model. You get paired up with a person with a disability and you can learn a little bit about their experience with the world as a person with a disability.

One of my favorite parts was clinic shadowing. We got to shadow a bunch of different unique clinics around the state of Iowa and in the University of Iowa hospitals and clinics about related to disability that are specialty clinics, which is really cool. And then we did policy in the spring semester, which was very cool, one of my favorite parts also. Honestly, all of it was my favorite part. For policy, we went to Des Moines a couple times to talk with legislators about important issues related to disability like Medicaid. Really, that was one of our biggest focus was Medicaid and how that’s critical people with disabilities and just educating about what that means and what it looks like.

A lot of people don’t know that Medicaid covers things like activities of daily living, people with significant disabilities. For example, if somebody has mobility challenges, maybe they need help getting out of bed in the morning. Medicaid can cover that service, whereas without that, there’s huge parts of their income that would have to be taken to get them out of bed in the morning like many people just can do on their own. It’s a really big barrier for people. Talking about that and sharing that with people, we learned about waivers, which are another way that people get healthcare services covered if they have disabilities. Is that a broad enough overview?

Lauren Lavin:

That was a great overview. Nice work.

Megan Mindy:

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Lauren Lavin:

Obviously, you enjoyed your time in the program. How did these experiences shape your understanding of disability and advocacy?

Megan Mindy:

Yeah. I met with Sophie a few weeks ago when we were talking a little bit about stuff like this and advocacy and what that looks like in times when things are changing a lot. I think the biggest thing I learned is how important it is to be curious. We would say in lunch, “Get curious, not furious.” Sitting there and maybe somebody has a different opinion than you, but we need to do better to try and understand where people are coming from. Their lived experience gets them to these understandings of the world. Maybe you have different understandings, but how did they get there and how can we find a compromise on things like this?

Also, understanding that you’re never going to fully understand someone’s experience, but how can we work together to find something that works for the majority of people? I think just honestly being more quiet and being willing to listen more to everyone’s lived experience and how critical that really is to finding solutions. Just listening to people was the biggest thing I learned about advocacy and being willing to be a voice when you can, but making sure to spend the majority of your time learning from others.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. We’re usually more alike than we are different. Sometimes, we just get caught up on those differences and we forget to look at all the things that we do have in common.

Megan Mindy:

Exactly. That was a very big thing in LEND, too, like, “Hey, they’re all pretty similar. Let’s figure this out.”

Lauren Lavin:

Exactly. Okay. I keep just more things that you did that make you so unique. You studied abroad in Cape Town?

Megan Mindy:

Yes.

Lauren Lavin:

Learning about disability culture and therapeutic group?

Megan Mindy:

Yeah.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay. So what insights did you gain from this experience? What was that like? How long were you there and how do you see that translate back to Iowa very far away?

Megan Mindy:

No, it does, though. It really does. That was another crazy thing that just when you speak your dreams into existence, things just happen. Again, I was meeting with Sophie, probably giving her gray hair. I was like, “Hey, Sophie, I want to study abroad and I only have a year left. I know I have to take public health classes. What can I do here?” It was the most last-minute thing of all time and we started looking up where I could go. We were like, “All right. It’s probably going to have to be summer.” We were looking up summer stuff, and then she was like, “Okay, there’s two programs. There’s one in Spain, there’s one in Cape Town. The Cape Town one, it seems like it might be disability. I think you should check both of them out, but definitely that one too.” She looked at the deadlines and they were the next day and I was like, “Perfect, that sounds good.”

Lauren Lavin:

Hey, at least the next day and not yesterday.

Megan Mindy:

Exactly. That’s why it was perfect. I was like, “Let’s go.” So then I started filling out this application. I’m like, “Man, I’m probably not going to get accepted to either of these because this is so last minute,” and I get accepted to both. I was like, “Oh, my gosh. I’m going to either Spain or Cape Town. This is awesome.” I don’t know what led me to decide, but I just ended up deciding on Cape Town. I think it was because it was a more unique experience of something that I felt like would be more difficult to access, and also just something so different from… I had never been out of the country and I was like, “May as well go as far as I possibly can, I guess. Just may as well.”

That trip was unbelievable. It was three weeks in the summer. We traveled to a ton of different site locations and service providers for people with disabilities in the Western Cape of South Africa. We went to the hospital that showed us some of their OT programs, PT programs, ChildSafe, is a place that helped with… It was a very much public health initiative, working on preventing accidents and injuries in children. And then we went to so many different schools.

There was hospital schools for people with disabilities that lived inpatient in the hospitals and then worked with therapeutic recreation specialists to get some enrichment into their day. And then one of the most profound experiences I think I had there was we went to this place called the Association for Persons with Disabilities, I believe, and it was extremely rural. It was in a renovated prison, which I thought was really interesting. It was like a dayhab program for people with disabilities, which if you don’t know what DAHAB is, it’s like a daytime program for people with disabilities to learn work skills, maybe do some therapeutic recreation programming, learn some socialization, life skills, provides a broad base of services.

We went there and I just was really moved by the fact that it was in a place that was so rural and it used to be a prison. I thought that was an interesting statement to perhaps the way that disability might be perceived in different nations other than the United States, because I know that in the United States, there’s still a lot of barriers and access and visibility of people with disabilities but then seeing it in a different scale in a different way in another country was interesting. The hospital schools, students with disabilities are separated from their peers without disabilities. And then this dayhab program being so far away and so difficult people to get to is really interesting.

When I came back to Iowa, it opened my eyes to how much more accessible things are here because there’s a lot more services. It gave me that perspective of, yes, we have challenges in the United States and in Iowa. Of course there’s challenges everywhere with everything, but it really was like, “Hey, we’ve done a really good job so far, so how can we improve?” And also realizing, hey, South Africa’s situation is different, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad either.

I think learning that maybe something that’s different, maybe a little shocking to you because you’ve never seen something like that does not necessarily mean it’s bad. It just means this is a different way that things are handled and dealt with. So what can I learn from this? What can I take from them as knowledge and what can I give to them as knowledge? It’s a back and forth. I think that’s a big connotation that sometimes study abroad gets is like, “I’m coming to you to teach you about how we do things here.” That’s not how it should be at all. I think it’s got to be a give and take.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah, it’s an exchange of ideas.

Megan Mindy:

Yeah, for sure.

Lauren Lavin:

Well, it sounds like that was a really transformative experience. And was that last summer?

Megan Mindy:

Yeah. Wow. Yeah, it was last summer. Yeah.

Lauren Lavin:

Were you there all summer?

Megan Mindy:

Just three weeks. Yeah, it was three weeks, but it felt like forever because every day was so packed with a different site visit. We also collaborated with two universities when we were there, so it was very cool.

Lauren Lavin:

Wow. Yeah, you guys really did pack it in then.

Megan Mindy:

Yeah. Yeah, we did. It was awesome.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay. And then you’ve also launched your own business and it’s called Commonground to support athletes with disabilities. What inspired you to start this venture and what problem are you working to solve?

Megan Mindy:

Yeah. Well, this one’s another crazy one. Like I said, I’ve been telling everyone everywhere about what I’m… I love working with people with disabilities. I love sports. How can I do both? My sister, actually, she works with the Iowa Flyers Swim Club and they were having some chatter about opening a para-adaptive group. This was probably two years ago now, two and a half. I don’t really know the timeline, but a little while ago. I had told my sister like, “Hey, this is what I want to do.” She had said, “Hey, my sister would be someone that you could totally reach out to coach for this.” And I was like, “That would be awesome.” Then they brought me on as one of their lead coaches and I was like, “This is so perfect and so awesome.”

I started doing that really slow start, just finding our footing because I was working alongside another coach named Coach Towels who was from Stanford. She was taken over most of the coaching. I was just learning the ropes a little bit because I had never coached a competitive sport ever. I don’t know. I’ve never done that. I was like, “I really want to do it. I have sports, but I don’t know how to do it and I’ve never done it.” I don’t really know where that came from, but, anyway, I was doing that and I was learning about it, and then I went away for the summer.

I came back and then Coach Towels had left. She had relocated, so then I am the lead coach. I was like, “Oh, man, now it’s time.” I was like, “Okay, we’re going to figure it out.” This was before my senior year. This whole year, it’s been just me and I was like, “All right, I guess we’re going to have a team now and we’re going to really be doing adaptive sports like I always said.” So I started coaching and I was like, “Okay, we have one athlete.” That’s awesome, but that’s not really a team in my eyes. I think we got to expand that a little bit.

Part of the team atmosphere that’s really important for para-adaptive, I think, is the socialization piece. I think that’s the best part about being on a team. I was like, “How do we expand a team?” Then I led tryouts and I had started doing that and I was like, “Okay, I’m learning how to run a team, be in charge of it.” And then I had a bunch more athletes. I had communication with the parents and then I had hired three more coaches at the end of the spring. I was like, “Okay, now I can hire people? Wow, I’m really running this. This is cool.” And then I started to thinking, I was like, “Okay, I’m actually leaving. I am graduating, so what am I going to do?” Because I’ve been doing all this and I don’t want… The last thing I wanted was to have this access point for people with disabilities to participate in sports to disappear.

I started creating this massive guidebook of like, “Okay, here’s how you do tryouts. Here’s how you make a set. Here’s how you consider this disability. Here’s how you consider this disability. Here’s how you meet with parents, discuss with parents. Here’s how you have these conversations with coaches.” Literally, everything. I was like, “Okay, this is awesome, but I think I could do more with this.” Because my whole point and the goal and the problem to me that I’ve seen and as I’ve worked in the disability community witness is people with disabilities have significantly less access to sport opportunities. So how can I increase the access on all?

There’s 85,000-plus club sports teams alone in the United States. Pretty much… Not none of them, but very few have a group like a para-adaptive group with specialized coaching and the knowledge they need to support athletes with disabilities. I was like, “Okay, I’m going to take this giant manual that I’ve been creating and I’m going to create a full curriculum that I can sell to recreation centers, I can sell to club teams like iFLY.” Really, anyone that’s interested in hosting athletes with disabilities and create that access points everywhere.

Right now, it’s just swimming, but I’ve been… It’s going to stay swimming for a while because that’s what I’ve been working on. The goal right now is to sell this curriculum to different teams and organizations and community groups so that there can be more access everywhere if people with disabilities and coaches can be equipped with the information and the support that they need through learning to help athletes with disabilities.

Lauren Lavin:

That’s incredible. Holy cow. I can’t imagine the amount of work. With it, is it just a training manual or do you do in-person training for people? What does that look like?

Megan Mindy:

Right now, I have experiences with my beta testing at iFLY. I’ve done the in-person training. I have these new coaches that I hired and then I sat them down. I did our trainings. I have them watch our practice and then slowly start leading practice. That’s been the consulting piece that I hope to eventually add to this. Right now, as I’m transitioning to my new job, I’m going to have it be a little bit of a back burner thing as I get settled. It’s going to be that curriculum-based learning service with maybe some consulting available virtually. And then in the future, I hope to have it scaled to the point where I have people I can send to sites to help them implement these things, build those community partnerships, find sponsor, whatever they need to be a robust team that stands and stays.

Lauren Lavin:

I love it. Speak it into existence, right?

Megan Mindy:

That’s exactly what I’m doing. It seems crazy right now. One day I’ll be on another podcast-

Lauren Lavin:

It doesn’t sound crazy. It sounds amazing.

Megan Mindy:

Good. Thank you.

Lauren Lavin:

What have the athletes that you’ve been able to enroll as a result of this program, what does that look like?

Megan Mindy:

Oh, it’s so fun. I love it so much. It’s still a pretty small team because one of the important parts of this curriculum and this team base that I’ve created is to have a very low ratio. Right now, we have five athletes. It’s like adolescent to young adults. 13 to 25 is my range right now. They’re all just fantastic. They all have cognitive disabilities, so it’s a little bit more of that slower pace of learning, working with sensory stuff that comes up. Just meeting people where they’re at is the premise of the whole thing, so that’s not been too difficult at all to get them assimilated into the swim practice like the way we do things.

Every Friday, we meet. I have two assistant coaches right now, which is super helpful and awesome. We do the same warmup every day so that we have building in some routine into our schedule so they know what to expect, and then we kind of build up really slowly on new skills. Really, the main difference from a traditional swim practice for athletes that maybe don’t have disabilities would just be a little bit slower pace of practice, more patience, to be honest. It’s just like, “What’s going on today? You seem a little cranky. Let’s deal with it instead of trying to push through it so we don’t have those behaviors.”

And then just maybe a little bit slower of a learning pace, too. Maybe we know that my 25-year-old swimmer maybe has some stress some days about things that are going on in their college classes. So we’re going to chat about that, we’re going to build time in for that, and then maybe take our other learning things a little bit slower and a little bit lower so that we can make it a fun outlet still to learn about exercise and have that team feeling and atmosphere but still also working towards the goal of whatever their goal is for joining the team.

Lauren Lavin:

That sounds like a great holistic way to approach that. One thing that always struck me about… We use the word supports or accommodations that we make for people with disabilities is that they’d be beneficial for people without disabilities just as much and they would be just as helpful. Having more patience and building time in for real life, we could probably all use a little bit more of that.

Megan Mindy:

Absolutely. Yep. Yep. That’s that universal design thinking. Universal design is what benefits or what’s required for one benefits all, so the same [inaudible 00:28:54] applies to everything in life everywhere. To me, building my swim curriculum is… It feels like a no-brainer to me. I’m like, “Well, of course we’re going to build an extra five minutes to stretch for practice and talk about what’s going on in life, because that helps everybody.” It helps me get to know where they’re at, helps them get to know where I’m at. Sometimes I come in, I’m totally frazzled, and they’re like, “What’s wrong with you?” And I’m like, “Guys, I’m going to tell you what’s wrong and then we’re going to get in the pool and it’s going to be great.” It just helps everybody to understand each other a little bit better and it’s great. I love it.

Lauren Lavin:

You’ve also mentioned a lot about mentors making Iowa feel at home and some of these experiences. How important is community in the work that you’ve done so far and what suggestions do you have for students here at Iowa in building community?

Megan Mindy:

That’s the most important thing out of all of this, for sure. Like I mentioned about my new job, the reason I got that job is because of my professor, Bri Swope, who took the group to Cape Town. She connected me with Kaleb Cook who had created Cook Inclusive, which is where I’m going to work. It’s all connected. It’s, I think, really giving people the time of day to learn about what they’re interested in and then give them your trust and tell them what you’re interested in, what you want to do, and be really open-minded to everything. Be open-minded if someone invites you to a coffee with some professor. You’re going to go. You’re going to go. I don’t know if maybe you’re busy, you’re going to find time to go, because you never know what those connections can create. I think just being really genuinely curious about people and not going in there to meet people for an objective, but going in there truly curious and willing to cultivate those relationships, because it will lead to something fantastic if you keep them up. I think just being really open to saying yes to everything.

Lauren Lavin:

In that same vein, what’s one piece of advice you’d give to incoming freshmen?

Megan Mindy:

Oh, wow. Yes, that feels so far away now. I think really, like I said, just saying yes to everything. I mean, being, obviously, smart, but being willing to go to a new club. I did the triathlon club my first year and that was just… I did triathlons as a kid, but that was so random and funny for me for a while to be on that. I met cool people there and I see them on campus still. Doing that and trying out dance marathon and trying out really any club or anything that you can find on campus, I think, is huge because you never know who you’re going to meet ever. I think that’s the best way to get involved and truly find people that align with you. Also, showing up as authentically as you can everywhere is huge, because if you don’t, you’re going to meet people that don’t align with you, which nothing wrong with them, but maybe you’re not going to feel like you fit in as much. That’ll make it harder to feel at home, so being authentic everywhere.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. Being authentic and, I think, showing up. Those are two great pieces of advice if you’re coming to college and looking to make the best of it. We talked about what your next steps after graduation are, but where do you hope Commonground goes? And if people want to connect with you or are interested in your mission, where can they find you?

Megan Mindy:

Yes. I’ve had this amazing opportunity this summer. Like I said, again, speaking things into existence and telling everyone everything is the best way. This all started from participating in IdeaStorm, which is something through Tippie and the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center. I think it’s what it’s called, JPEC. I emailed them, was like, “Hey, I have this business idea. Can you help?” I did that competition. I placed second and then someone there was like, “Hey, reach out. I’d love to help.” I met with this person named Tom and Tom was like, “Hey, what are you doing today?” And I was like, “What are you talking about?”

Tom invited me to join Venture School, which was a program for faculty grad students and typically people out of college to continue to develop that business idea. I did that, and then at the end of that, I ended up placing and getting some seed money, and then someone there was like, “Hey, have you heard about the summer program?” I was like, “What are you talking about? No way there’s another thing.” I was so lucky to be able to join the student incubator in the summer, which has given me the ability to work on my business full-time this summer.

I’ve been really working on my projections for what I want things to look like and I am really hoping to get my full curriculum or parts of my curriculum launched on my website, which is all in progress right now. Having that launched online so that people can purchase that preliminary version and start implementing in their community right when it’s done, so hopefully early fall. Following that, I will just continue building that up, getting feedback from users, figuring out what we need to add and remove, and then eventually adding consulting services and then making it generalized for all sports and any sport that has interest in this.

Also, not even sports. Maybe it’s a Girl Scout troop. Teaching those troop leaders how they can incorporate girls with disabilities in their troop and make them feel really at home. Really making it broad and wide for anyone and everyone so that there’s just more access everywhere is really the goal. And hopefully bringing on a team of people because it’s fun doing it alone, but I would love to have some help at some point.

Lauren Lavin:

Girl, you’re going to change the world. I can’t wait to see.

Megan Mindy:

Thank you.

Lauren Lavin:

You’re just going to keep growing. You’ve got so many great ideas.

Megan Mindy:

Thank you. That means a lot. It’s been lovely and fun and I feel so lucky about all the things that I’ve been able to take advantage of at Iowa. It’s just been great.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. I feel like you’ve alluded to right time, right place, but I also think clearly people see something in you and I think that’s part of it, too.

Megan Mindy:

Thank you. But it’s just, like I said, showing up authentically. There’s nothing to hide when I’m meeting people. I just am who I am, so it’s not like I have to… If I’m meeting with maybe an investor that could be scary, it doesn’t matter because I’m going to show up how I am. And if they don’t like what I’m doing, that’s fine. I think that’s been huge, too, is being willing to take the yeses and also take the nos. That’s redirection.

Lauren Lavin:

Absolutely. Well, Megan, thank you so much for chatting with me today. I loved talking with you and I hope that everyone who listens got something out of this and enjoyed the episode as well.

Megan Mindy:

Thanks so much. Also, I forgot to add how you can find me.

Lauren Lavin:

Oh, yeah.

Megan Mindy:

My email right now is just meganmindy7@gmail.com, but eventually I have business emails and stuff. But my social media, I have an Instagram handle that’s @commongroundteam. That’s on Instagram. That’s just getting started, but if you’d like to just follow along because it’ll start growing more.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah, absolutely. Great. Well, thank you so much.

Megan Mindy:

Thank you so much. This was so great.

Lauren Lavin:

That’s it for episode this week. A big thank you to Megan Mindy for joining us and for sharing her journey through public health, inclusive rec, and disability advocacy. From her experience with the LEND program to launching Commonground, Megan reminds us that saying yes, showing up authentically, and leaning into community can open doors you never imagined.

Today’s takeaways, lead with curiosity, build community intentionally, and remember that public health is not just policy, it’s personal. This episode was hosted and written by Lauren Lavin and edited and produced by Lauren Lavin. You can learn more about the University of Iowa College of Public Health on Facebook.

Our podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcast and SoundCloud. If you enjoyed this episode and would like to help support the podcast, please share it with your colleagues, friends, or anyone interested in public health. Have a suggestion for our team? You can reach us at cph-gradinvestor@uiowa.edu. This episode is brought to you by the University of Iowa College of Public Health. Until next week, stay healthy, stay curious, and take care.