Verida, Inc.

02/17/2026

Jesse Jackson, originally Jesse Louis Burns, (born Oct. 8, 1941, Greenville, S.C., U.S.—died Feb. 17, 2026), U.S. civil rights leader. He became involved with the civil rights movement as a college student. In 1965 he went to Selma, Alabama., to march with Martin Luther King, Jr., and began working for King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In 1966 he helped found the Chicago branch of Operation Breadbasket, the SCLC’s economic arm; he was its national director from 1967 to 1971.

Ordained a Baptist minister in 1968, he founded Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) in 1971. From the late 1970s Jackson gained wide attention through his attempts to mediate in various international disputes, including in the Middle East.

In 1983 he led a voter-registration drive in Chicago that helped elect the city’s first African American mayor, Harold Washington. In 1984 and 1988 Jackson entered the Democratic presidential primary, becoming the first African American man to make a serious bid for the U.S. presidency; he received 6.7 million votes in 1988. In 1989 he moved to Washington, D.C. and was elected the city’s unpaid “statehood senator” to lobby Congress for statehood.

In 2017 Jackson revealed that he had Parkinson disease, and in 2025 he was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a neurodegenerative condition.

Today on February 17, 2026, the Reverend Jesse Jackson passed away.

For more info:
https://www.britannica.com/summary/Jesse-Jackson

02/17/2026

Happy Lunar Year 2026, Year of the Horse!

"2026 is the year of the Horse based on Chinese zodiac. This is a year of Fire Horse, starting from Feb. 17, 2026 to Feb.5, 2027. The Horse is the seventh in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac signs. Besides 2026, the Years of the Horse include 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014, 2038...

The horse was the most frequent transport means in ancient society and it is considered as No. 1 of the most important 6 animals in China. They are strong, powerful and elegant animals. In Chinese culture, horses are always the representative of heroes and talents. People born in the Year of the Horse will share some similarities with the horse and thus they are brave, strong, talented, and independent. The Five Elements of Horse is Fire (Huo), symbolizing enthusiasm and energy, which entitles the Horse people energetic and enthusiastic character.

Earthly Branch of Birth Year: Wu
Wu Xing (The Five Elements): Huo (Fire)
Yin Yang: Yang"

For more info:
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/social_customs/zodiac/horse.htm

02/13/2026

Wishing everyone a fun and safe Valentine's Day!

02/13/2026

Henrietta Lacks

"In 1951, a young mother of five named Henrietta Lacks visited The Johns Hopkins Hospital complaining of vaginal bleeding. Upon examination, renowned gynecologist Dr. Howard Jones discovered a large, malignant tumor on her cervix. At the time, The Johns Hopkins Hospital was one of only a few hospitals to treat poor African-Americans.

As medical records show, Mrs. Lacks began undergoing radium treatments for her cervical cancer. This was the best medical treatment available at the time for this terrible disease. A sample of her cancer cells retrieved during a biopsy were sent to Dr. George G*y's nearby tissue lab. For years, Dr. G*y, a prominent cancer and virus researcher, had been collecting cells from all patients - regardless of their race or socioeconomic status - who came to The Johns Hopkins Hospital with cervical cancer, but each sample quickly died in Dr. G*y’s lab. What Dr. G*y would soon discover was that Mrs. Lacks’ cells were unlike any of the others he had ever seen: where other cells would die, Mrs. Lacks' cells doubled every 20 to 24 hours.

Today, these incredible cells — nicknamed "HeLa" cells, from the first two letters of her first and last names — are used to study the effects of toxins, drugs, hormones and viruses on the growth of cancer cells without experimenting on humans. They have been used to test the effects of radiation and poisons, to study the human genome, to learn more about how viruses work, and played a crucial role in the development of the polio and COVID-19 vaccines."

For More Info:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/henrietta-lacks
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

02/04/2026

February is Black History Month!

"David Blackwell (born April 24, 1919, Centralia, Illinois, U.S.—died July 8, 2010, Berkeley, California) was an American statistician and mathematician who made significant contributions to game theory, probability theory, information theory, and Bayesian statistics and who broke racial barriers when he was named (1965) the first African American member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Blackwell, the son of a railroad worker, taught himself to read as a boy. He initially planned to become an elementary school teacher, and at age 16 he entered the University of Illinois, where his early aptitude for mathematics blossomed. He earned bachelor’s (1938), master’s (1939), and doctorate (1941) degrees, and, after a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, he briefly worked for the U.S. Office of Price Administration.

Blackwell sent applications to numerous African American colleges, and he worked as an instructor at Southern University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Clark College, Atlanta, before receiving an appointment in the mathematics department at Howard University, Washington, D.C., in 1944; he became head of the department in 1947. In 1954 Blackwell was invited to join the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, where he became that institution’s first African American tenured professor. He also served as chairman (1957–61) of the statistics department there. He was additionally appointed professor of mathematics in 1973, and he retired in 1988. While working (1948–50) as a consultant at the RAND Corporation, Blackwell applied game theory to military situations by analyzing the optimum timing of theoretical armed duelists."

In March 2024, NVIDIA unveiled its next-generation GPU architecture, Blackwell, named in honor of Dr. David Harold Blackwell (1919–2010), a groundbreaking African American mathematician and statistician. The Blackwell platform is designed to power a new era of computing and generative AI, with CEO Jensen Huang highlighting its role as the "world's most advanced GPU".

02/02/2026

Let’s take this opportunity to congratulate and welcome our newest CSRs to the Call Center. We’re incredibly excited to welcome you to our Verida Family and look forward to seeing what amazing things you will accomplish here. Your journey truly starts now and we’re all here to support you and your growth. Job Well Done!!

Pictured:
Trainers: Lynette Rouse (1st) and Tachanna Chism (Last);

Agents from left to right: Grace (Sid) Rivers, Ashlee LaPene, Candice Love, Blaise Scott, and Stanley McLaughlin II

Not pictured: Haley Baxter

01/27/2026

Thanks to All for bearing the winter storms and making your way to our offices! We enjoyed a nice warm bowl of soup and fixins and hope that everyone is staying safe.

❄️☃️

01/20/2026

Verida celebrated Nation Popcorn Day with the best snack for a great movie night!

Please enjoy!

01/19/2026

"Honor the Dream Through Action."

Today, we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—a man whose vision of justice, equality, and community continues to inspire the world. Let’s answer that call. Take this day not as a day off, but as a day on—to serve, to listen, to lift others up, and to make a tangible difference in your community. Volunteer, donate, mentor, clean up a neighborhood, or simply show kindness where it’s needed most; every act of service continues his mission. Together, we can keep Dr. King’s dream alive—by living it.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, in the United States, is a holiday (third Monday in January) honoring the achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King was a Baptist minister who advocated the use of nonviolent means to end racial segregation. He first came to national prominence during a bus boycott by African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. He founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957 and led the 1963 March on Washington. The most influential of African American civil rights leaders during the 1960s, he was instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination in public accommodations, facilities, and employment. He was also instrumental in establishing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1964. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

Resource:
https://www.britannica.com/event/American-civil-rights-movement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTwVbUJbQxk

12/31/2025

We wanted to wish you all a fun and safe Happy New Year, and hope you have an amazing year to come!

12/23/2025

12/23/2025

Feeling under the weather? Grab a Sweater to make it better! HQ held a Sweater holiday party to get ready for Christmas and the holiday season.

Please enjoy!