Financial empowerment, cultural storytelling, and behavioral science combine in a landmark collaboration bridging legacies of liberation and tolerance
NEW YORK CITY, NY, UNITED STATES, February 6, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — In a groundbreaking collaboration that merges finance, psychology, and culture, Abdul Tubman, Director of Operations at The Corners Community, and Natanya Wachtel, founder of the New Solutions Network (NSN), have joined forces to extend the legacy of liberation into the modern era. Together, they are creating new frameworks for financial sovereignty, cultural identity, and emotional well-being—for the 21st Century that honors their shared family histories of courage and bridge-building.
A Shared Mission of Empowerment
Abdul Tubman, a relative of American civil rights icon Harriet Tubman, continues her fight for liberty through initiatives that turn history into practical pathways toward economic independence. He is developing Legacy Fund and financial literacy programs with New York Life to equip college graduates and underserved families with tools to build generational wealth.
Natanya Wachtel, PhD, whose grandfather survived the Holocaust and later devoted his life to teaching racial and interfaith unity in predominantly Black schools, leads NSN’s efforts to restore identity and resilience through behavioral science, storytelling, and social-impact innovation.
Their partnership reflects a shared belief: that freedom today requires a combination of opportunity, identity, understanding, and access. “We are building a movement where financial literacy meets mental wellness, and culture becomes the bridge that carries both,” says. Wachtel.
The announcement follows Tubman’s recent role as a keynote speaker at the City University of New York’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, held at the CUNY Graduate Center on Fifth Avenue in New York City. His remarks focused on translating history into practical frameworks for leadership, financial confidence, and long-term opportunity.
Timed with Black History Month, the partnership is intentionally framed not as a symbolic moment, but as an operational one — advancing work already underway across campuses, community organizations, and media platforms.
Upcoming joint initiatives will include not only campus-based programs but public conversations and events.
Stories that Frame a Movement
At the heart of this collaboration is Abdul’s Book, and to a lesser degree, the foreword exchange that symbolizes their alignment. Wachtel will author the foreword for Abdul Tubman’s forthcoming publication, while Abdul will contribute the foreword to the upcoming New Solutions Network community toolkit, a field guide for integrating psychology and purpose into community empowerment based on their behavioral-science powered tools for human potential called TrueYOU. The dual release will be supported by a joint campaign across both networks, linking two distinct legacies into a unified narrative of liberation through education, empathy, and enterprise.
Natanya Wachtel’s commitment to cross-cultural understanding and tolerance is rooted in a multigenerational family legacy shaped by survival, testimony, and collective responsibility. Her grandfather, Holocaust survivor Joseph H. Wachtel, authored the memoir Escape from the Hounds of Hell, a firsthand account of persecution, resilience, and moral courage.
His work is cataloged in the collections of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., preserving his testimony as part of the historical record to ensure that the realities of the Holocaust continue to be taught with accuracy and humanity.
The memoir has also been used as an educational resource in Florida public schools, where Wachtel herself participated in classroom discussions—often in minority communities—focused on tolerance, shared humanity, and the dangers of dehumanization.
This history, however, is not carried by one voice alone. On Wachtel’s maternal side, her grandmother survived the concentration camps and bore the tattooed number on her arm for the rest of her life—a permanent mark of both unimaginable brutality and unyielding survival.
Much of Wachtel’s extended family endured similar persecution across Eastern Europe, and many are alive today only because of the courage of those who chose humanity over hatred.
One of her grandfather’s most important works was dedicated to Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish, non-Jewish diplomat credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews in Hungary, including members of Wachtel’s own family. Their survival stands as a testament not only to interfaith-aligned resilience but to the moral bravery of non-Jewish allies who refused to be bystanders.
These intertwined histories inform the values at the center of this partnership: remembrance without blame, truth without division, and a belief that honoring difference is inseparable from protecting our shared humanity.
At a time when the world is increasingly shaped by polarization, this legacy serves as a reminder that history is not meant to separate us, but to teach us how to live together—with dignity, responsibility, and respect across race, religion, belief, identity, and political difference.
Community and Campus Empowerment
One of the partnership’s first major initiatives, the CUNY BMI × Legacy Fund Pilot, provides graduating seniors, particularly first-generation students, with paid-up life insurance policies, financial-literacy education, and TrueYou coaching, NSN’s proprietary behavioral-science framework for building self-identity and decision-making skills.
Participants will receive important lessons on how to manage wealth, as well as how to define value, purpose, and personal agency. The pilot will track measurable outcomes, including savings rates, credit utilization, and improvements in self-confidence and communication skills.
In White Plains and Stamford, the collaboration is also launching TrueYOU-powered SuperYOU and SuperTEAM workshops and fatherhood/co-parenting labs designed to improve emotional regulation, family stability, and executive functioning among parents and youth. Developed with NSN’s behavioral experts, these labs emphasize practical communication tools, skill-building and intergenerational healing within and among various cultures and belief systems; core components of sustainable empowerment.
Culture as a Catalyst for Freedom
Beyond classrooms and coaching sessions, the partnership extends deeply into culture, fashion, and media. Abdul Tubman is also developing a fashion line rooted in ancestral wear, including pieces like the iconic slave-quilt hoodie and Kente-rooted fashion pieces. These will anchor a series of short films and pop-up activations. Each event will weave fashion, psychology, and history into immersive storytelling experiences that reclaim heritage as a form of power.
Simultaneously, two new co-produced podcast series from NSN will showcase more human stories behind these movements:
Baby Mama Drama — Hosted by former veteran and licensed therapist Dr. Dimas Castro, the show explores relationships, co-parenting, and identity through pre-show TrueYou segments, blending celebrity and community voices in candid, constructive dialogue.
Legacy Moves — A docu-series following first-generation graduates who receive Legacy Fund support and coaching, with follow-up interviews six and twelve months later to capture real-world transformation.
These media properties underscore both organizations’ commitment to using storytelling as a tool for healing and progress.
Distribution discussions are underway with Essence Magazine, Livid Magazine, and BET, along with educational partners such as Tolerance.org and Learning for Justice (SPLC), to bring these stories into national media and classroom environments alike.
A Coalition of Legacy and Science
The collaboration between Abdul Tubman and New Solutions Network represents a new kind of alliance where historical legacy meets evidence-based behavioral change.
Tubman’s programs translate financial empowerment into measurable freedom, while Wachtel’s SuperYOU and SuperTEAMS frameworks bring psychological insight and emotional intelligence to the same mission. Together, they blend heritage with science to reach individuals who have long been underserved by both financial institutions and traditional mental-health systems.
“True liberation is multi-dimensional,” Abdul explains. “It’s economic, psychological, cultural, and spiritual. We’re taking the tools that worked for us—our ancestors’ resilience, our modern disciplines—and making them accessible to everyone.”
Stories of Resilience
The alignment between their family histories and friendship gives this partnership profound emotional resonance. Abdul’s lineage traces to Harriet Tubman, whose Underground Railroad became a symbol of courage and human dignity. In Africa, where he was born, his great-grandfather was President Tubman of Liberia, and his maternal great-grandfather was Sir Sheikh Mbarak Hinawy, who were both great African leaders. Natanya’s grandfather, a Holocaust survivor and sculptor, used art and testimony to foster cross-cultural understanding.
Their descendants now collaborate not only as leaders but as stewards of those values. Each brings a legacy shaped by suffering, survival, and service, to refocus on a shared modern mission: to build a world where tolerance, agency, and equity thrive together.
Measurable Change and Broader Reach
Together, NSN and the Legacy Fund are building infrastructure for measurable social impact.
Financial Outcomes: Policies gifted, whole-life conversions, credit improvements, and emergency-fund attainment.
Behavioral & Mental-Wellness Gains: Improvements in communication, conflict reduction, and identity confidence measured through pre-/post-coaching data.
Cultural Reach: Event attendance, digital engagement, and audience growth across media ecosystems, student and school data, and social media analytics.
Planned partners for activation and sponsorship include Essence, Livid, BET, CUNY BMI, FUBU, FAITH (Fathers Alive in the Hood), Tolerance.org, and New York Life Westchester.
A Modern Freedom Agenda
This collaboration is a movement of aligned values. By blending the rigor of behavioral science with the heart of cultural storytelling, Abdul Tubman and New Solutions Network are reframing what liberation means in today’s society. Their work transforms freedom from an abstract ideal into a tangible, teachable system that builds wealth, resilience, and empathy across generations.
“This is not about charity, it’s about infrastructure for self-determination,” says Wachtel. “Our families fought for freedom in different ways. Now we’re building the next evolution: a system where knowledge, access, and identity are available to all.”
About Abdul Tubman
Abdul Tubman is a civic leader, financial professional, and creative entrepreneur carrying forward the spirits of his ancestors, Harriet Tubman, President Tubman, and Sir Sheikh Mbarak Hinawy. Through his Legacy Fund, work with New York Life, and collaborations with cultural institutions such as Essence, Livid Magazine, and BET, he bridges art, finance, and storytelling to empower graduates from underserved families. His projects—ranging from children’s literature to fashion design—embody the principle of freedom through financial sovereignty.
About New Solutions Network (NSN)
The New Solutions Network (NSN) is a multidisciplinary ecosystem built at the collision point of behavioral science, storytelling, and soul.
Founded by life science brand launcher Natanya Wachtel—National Science Foundation industry mentor, angel investor, and behavioral science alchemist—NSN reimagines how we heal, learn, and build systems that serve humanity. New Solutions Network (NSN) is a multi-division ecosystem where behavioral science, storytelling, and business design become infrastructure for human and enterprise transformation. NSN operates as a company made of companies, with coordinated divisions that turn insight into systems, content into commerce, and lived experience into measurable outcomes.
NSN operates through four living divisions: Wellness, Enterprise, Media, and Advocacy in Action—each designed to transform pain into power and data into collective healing.
Our Why
Because the world doesn’t need more content—it needs connection.
Because resilience is not a buzzword—it’s a biological imperative.
And because science without soul is just data, and soul without structure is just noise.
The New Solutions Network exists to merge the two—building a future where healing scales, stories liberate, and every human being has the tools to remember who they are and what they’re capable of becoming.
David Rubin
New Solutions Network
+1 908-418-6656
email us here
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