Sep 2, 2026
Dr. Lynda Charles is a former UNICEF public health leader, a leadership development coach certified through John Maxwell, and the author of the memoir Not Just an IMMIGRANT. In this conversation, she traces her journey between Haiti and the United States across two distinct chapters of her life — the first as a young woman fleeing a death threat after returning from medical training in France, and the second, years later, moving her three young children out of Port-au-Prince after gang violence made daily life in Haiti unbearable.
Lynda speaks candidly about what it took to rebuild her identity in a new country, describing how her faith became the anchor that carried her through both immigration journeys and through earlier experiences of abuse. She reflects on her professional path from medical school and a UNICEF nutrition and emergency role in Haiti to becoming a leadership coach for women navigating identity and life transitions in the U.S. — a pivot her mother still doesn't fully understand, even as former clients now call her mother directly to tell her how much Lynda has helped them. The conversation also moves through the daily reality of gang violence and displacement in Haiti today, what it means to parent three children while her husband remains behind, and how becoming a mother herself changed the way she understands the sacrifices her own mother made.
This episode is for anyone rebuilding an identity across borders, for immigrant mothers holding a family together across distance, and for anyone who has ever had to explain — to family, to a new country, or to themselves — that they are not just an immigrant, but a full and complete person who arrived with everything they already were.
Dr. Charles's memoir, Not Just an IMMIGRANT, is available now — check her website or Amazon author page for purchase details. Connect with her on LinkedIn to follow her leadership coaching work.
#DecodingAmerica #ThriveAbroad #ImmigrantExperience #HaitianAmerican #Faith #Motherhood #DecodingAmericaFauxPas
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About Simone W. Johnson-Smith Simone is the founder of Thrive Abroad and The Bridge Concepts, LLC, a Jamaican-born American intercultural strategist, coach, and former U.S. diplomat. She is the International Impact Book Award-winning author of Decoding America & Coming Home to Yourself: The Immigrant Experience — available in print on Amazon, and as an audiobook (ElevenLabs-narrated) on Spotify, Barnes & Noble, Rakuten Kobo, and other major retailers via InAudio — and host of this podcast, reaching listeners in over 100 countries.
The Immigrant Experience in America
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