Contributors

A passionate advocate for equity, Councilwoman Lisa Clancy’s path to the St. Louis County Council follows a lifetime of service to others. Born and raised in Webster Groves, Lisa left St. Louis after college graduation and relocated to post-Katrina New Orleans, where she served as a Teach For America corps member. In her special education classroom, Lisa saw firsthand how her low-income students and their families deserved strong advocates both in the classroom and in their communities. In the ensuing decade, Lisa has worked in the nonprofit sector, focusing on work that breaks through the status quo in order to improve the lives of children, families and communities most in need. She brings this priority to the St. Louis County Council, where she was elected in November 2018 to a 4-year term representing District 5. Lisa is active in several nonprofit organizations, including NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri and We Stories. She lives in Maplewood with her 2-year-old son and her husband.

After studying at the University of Arizona and the International Center of Photography, Lindy traveled for 3 years, winding up Latin America’s backbone to share people’s stories in the spirit of documentary photography. Upon returning to the U.S., she worked with Casa de Sueños in Phoenix to help care for unaccompanied undocumented minors and reunify them with their family in the states. Lindy graduated in May 2016 with a master’s in social work and public health from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. During her education, she co-founded Humans of St. Louis to have a creative break from classes, while sharing an intimate look into the lives and struggles of the people of St. Louis, one photo and story at a time. By engaging strangers in insightful personal interviews, she and the HOSTL team produce visual stories that represent part of the larger community conversations and regional development taking place in St. Louis. Lindy produces new stories for HOSTL’s online presence, presents at institutions about the art of storytelling, and manages the book project’s local creative content team.

Driven by a passion for systems change and equity, David Dwight IV serves as a founding team member and the lead strategy catalyst at Forward Through Ferguson, the organization created to carry on the work and vision of the Ferguson Commission. In this role, he leads the organization, develops strategic initiatives, and directs policy and systems advocacy.

David has taken root in St. Louis where he has lived for eight years. He earned his degree in biomedical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis in 2015. His experience co-founding Students in Solidarity — an organization that mobilized student activism after the killing of Michael Brown Jr. and lobbied university administrations to improve the experience of people of color on campus — led him to center equity, justice and advocacy in his career.

After graduation, he was the communications fellow for the Ferguson Commission where he worked closely with the Citizen-Law Enforcement Relations working group, helped build the final report, and aided the storytelling team to connect the everyday experiences and stories of St. Louisans to the policy recommendations of the report. He is dedicated to supporting the region as we forge a path toward a transformed St. Louis where racial equity is the status quo.

During the Ferguson Uprising following the murder of 18-year-old Michael Brown in August 2014, Brittany co-founded Millennial Activists United (MAU) – Black and queer women-led organization that facilitated intentional civic engagement and strategic political action during the Ferguson Uprising. Brittany devoted an incredible number of hours, days and nights of her life to the Ferguson Uprising of 2014, which is well chronicled in the documentary Whose Streets.

Brittany began her career as a registered nurse in 2015 working in the high-risk labor and delivery unit of a local St. Louis hospital before returning to graduate school at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. Today, she is an Olin Fellow pursuing her master’s in public health with a concentration on maternal and reproductive health, public policy, and the intersection of race, class and health. Brittany is on the board of St. Louis’ first and only black-owned and operated equal access midwifery clinic, she is a prison abolition organizer with the city’s Close the Workhouse campaign, and she works on staff with the Black Futures Lab.

Karishma Furtado is a the Research and Data Catalyst at Forward Through Ferguson and a doctoral candidate in Public Health Sciences at Washington University. She works at the intersection of race, racism, health, and policy and systems change. She completed her Masters in Public Health also at Washington University and received Bachelors degrees in Biology and Public Policy at the University of Chicago.

With almost 20 years of community organizing and organizational leadership, Lara Granich has helped lead successful campaigns to increase the minimum wage, defend affirmative action, support workers organizing unions and bargaining for better lives at work. Her collaborative reach has grown from local to statewide to now a national force for bridging the work of Missouri to powerful efforts and resources throughout the U.S. As director of the Shared Donor Alliance and Missouri Wins Investor Network, Lara works with investors committed to a research-driven, multiyear strategy to transform the political environment and create long term policy change through independent, grassroots organizations.

Erica has more than 17 years of experience building strategic alliances for progressive change in disinvested communities and promoting inclusive growth in the St. Louis Region to minimize social and economic challenges. As executive director, St. Louis Promise Zone and vice president of community investment and real estate at the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, she has forged and cultivated strong relationships in North St. Louis City and North St. Louis County.  Her leadership has built credibility amongst residents, corporate leaders, community organizers, educational institutions, nonprofits and civic leaders through a variety of engagement. She has led numerous projects and initiatives that have built regional capacity for achieving equitable and sustainable development at both the programmatic and public policy level. She currently manages more than $100 million in real estate assets and has overseen an influx of $80 million in federal funding into the St. Louis Promise Zone.

Erica has graduate degrees in public policy and business administration with an emphasis in finance and is a lifelong learner and avid reader. She serves on a variety of executive boards, community advisory boards and commissions to further promote social justice and equitable economic opportunity both locally and nationally. Erica’s mantra comes from believing everyone in a community has a responsibility to serve in some capacity to achieve true transformation.

Laura has more than a decade of experience designing, implementing and evaluating social justice programs. Most recently, she launched the organizational learning function at American Friends Service Committee, an international nonprofit organization with programs in the U.S. and abroad addressing a wide range of peace and justice issues. Previously, Laura worked at The Pew Charitable Trusts, where she was part of a team that provided strategic planning recommendations to nearly 400 program staff, working on policy issues ranging from consumer protection to environmental conservation. She is the author of several research reports on topics such as the impact of the recession on city budgets, parents’ views of school choices, and the rising costs of healthcare and pension benefits. Her strengths include leadership development, curriculum design and group facilitation. Laura earned her BA from Tufts University and her MA in organizational psychology from Columbia University.

Christie Huck is executive director of City Garden Montessori Charter School in St. Louis, Missouri. With a background in community organizing and social activism, Christie entered the education reform movement as a parent and community member concerned about racial equity and integration in schools.

She worked with City Garden’s founder and parents to develop an anti-biased, anti-racist neighborhood Montessori school that serves children from preschool through eighth grade. City Garden opened as a charter school in 2008 and provides children with a rigorous, individualized education with a focus on social justice. Christie and her three children live in the Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis.

Sean Joe is a nationally recognized authority on suicidal behavior among African Americans. His research focuses on black adolescents’ mental health service use patterns, the role of religion in black suicidal behavior, salivary biomarkers for suicidal behavior, and development of father-focused, family-based interventions to prevent urban African American adolescent males from engaging in multiple forms of self-destructive behaviors.

Working within the Center for Social Development, Joe has launched the Race and Opportunity Lab, which examines race, opportunity and social mobility in the St. Louis region, working to reduce inequality in adolescents’ transition into adulthood.