We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Donald is a founding member of Racial Equity Partners and a person in long term recovery. What that means is that he has been completely free from the use of all substances for over 22 years. Due to the disease of addiction he found himself trapped in the terrible realities of homelessness. In 1995, he completed a six-month treatment program. Since that time Whitehead has become one of the country’s leading advocates for recovery and homelessness. 

In addition to his work as a Founding Member of Racial Equity Partners, Donald is Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, and previously served as Executive Director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, Assistant Director at St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore, Program Director at Ohio Valley Goodwill, Grant Manager at Goodwill of Greater Washington and Director of Communications at Greenpeace Ohio. Donald served two terms as President of the board and currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the National Coalition for the Homeless, two terms on the Board of Directors for Faces and Voices of Recovery and two terms on the Georgetown Center for Cultural Competency.

Donald served two terms on the state Coalition on Housing and Homelessness in Ohio, State of Maryland Drug and Alcohol Policy Council, Baltimore Ten Year Planning Committee to End Homelessness, and the Cincinnati Continuum of Care Board. Donald was one of only 100 advocates nationally to be invited to the first National Symposium on Homeless Research. Donald testified before committees in the 107th and 108th Congress, and, along with members of the staff of the offices of Representatives John Conyers, Julie Carson, Barbara Lee and the staff of the National Coalition, directed the creation of the “Bringing America Home Act,” the most comprehensive legislation to date to address homelessness in America. Donald has served on advisory committees for Presidents Bush, Clinton, Bush II and Obama. In 2005, He received a distinguished service award for his work on homelessness from the Congressional Black Caucus and an award of Special Recognition from Congress in 2008. In 2011, Donald completed the prestigious American Express Leadership Academy.

The book Most Unlikely to Succeed chronicles Donald’s journey from the streets of Cincinnati to speaking before Congress, speaking at the United Nations and dinners with the former President. Donald is based in Laurel, MD. 

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Michelle Carter https://www.facebook.com/ShotPutDiva

You know what the three of us have in common? We all are women. We are black. We throw the shot put. And, we are the only Americans that have an Olympic medal in Women’s shot put. Earlene Brown 1960 Bronze. Michelle Carter 2016 Gold. Raven Saunders 2020 Silver. We have trained hard to represent our country. We have reached the top. We have represented the USA very well. When people think about us, they say that we were the first Black Americans to win medals. I have to correct them and say we are the only Americans that have Olympic medals in Women’s shot put. People assume that a white American did it first and then somebody black. But the reality is that we are Americans. The adjective of our skin color doesn’t make us less than or second. We are Americas best. We are the first Americans to win Olympic medals for Team USA. We too are America. Black History is American History. This Black History moment was bought to you by your favorite Olympian, Michelle Carter. #ShotDiva#BlackHistory#AmericanHistory#TeamUSA#TeamUSATF#Black#WomenAthletes#PlusSizeAthlete#BlackWomen

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Carlton Hall was the Communities That Care trainer for the Communities That Care Coalition of Franklin County/North Quabbin in 2003/2004!!!

Carlton Hall is the President and CEO of Carlton Hall Consulting LLC, a multi-faceted, full-service consulting firm designed to provide customized solutions and enable measurable change for communities, organizations, families and individuals. Carlton spent twelve years with the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) serving in several leadership positions and including most recently, Acting Vice President, Training Operations, and Acting Director for CADCA’s National Coalition Institute, responsible for the day to day operational oversight, design, and implementation of its premiere national training delivery system. Carlton also supported CADCA’s International Programs in partnership with the US State Department’s International Narcotics Law Enforcement division (INL), managing training programs in Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana. Carlton is one of the primary architects of CADCA’s National Coalition Academy. The Academy, a year-long coalition development program, is designed to increase the effectiveness of communities in drug demand reduction producing population level outcomes.

With more than 25 years experience in the fields of government relations, social services and prevention science, Carlton first gained national prominence as a Communities That Care® Project Manager, for the Channing Bete Company. He was a Communities That Care® trainer/senior consultant with Channing Bete Company for four years. He received his Master’s in Human Services from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He was appointed as the Project Director for the Communities That Care® process in Philadelphia as well as the Crime and Public Safety manager for the Philadelphia Empowerment Zone, a division of the Mayor’s Office of Community Services. During that time he managed a small planning grant to over three million dollars for science-based prevention programming in the neighborhoods of Philadelphia.

Carlton also was responsible for the design and implementation of the award-winning “Operation Makeover”, an effective community-wide intervention addressing blatant open-air drug trafficking and increasing levels of juvenile violence and substance abuse offences. Operation Makeover was recognized by Vice President Al Gore and featured in “Programs That Work” a publication by the Office of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). After years of volunteering with many youth organizations Carlton founded The STRONG Foundation in 1993, which created opportunities to reduce service duplication while increasing partnerships with existing youth organizations.

Carlton’s responsibilities, unique set of skills and experience has made him one of the most highly sought after instructors and guides for community problem solving in every state and territory in the nation as well as internationally, with successful achievements in South Africa, Ghana, Bermuda, Kenya and others. (http://carltonhallconsulting.com/about.html)

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Winter Olympian. Engineering Grad.

Erin Jackson is a speedskater and scholar from Ocala, Florida. She has been a roller skater for as long as she can remember, going on to pursue inline speedskating (2002), roller derby (2012), and long track speedskating (2017). Erin is a member of Team USA/U.S. National Team for all three sports.

In 2015, Erin graduated cum laude from the University of Florida Honors Program with a BS in Materials Science & Engineering. Two years later she made the transition from inline skating to speedskating on ice, where she quickly qualified for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Erin currently lives in Salt Lake City, UT where she is training for the next Olympic Games. Erin also earned an AS in Computer Science from Salt Lake Community College in 2020 and is working toward an AS in Exercise Science/Kinesiology. (https://erin-jackson.net/)

Erin won gold in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in the 500m Long Track Speedskating event.

See her skate here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTM3qtGvOjg

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Ava Marie DuVernay (/ˌdjuːvərˈneɪ/;^[1] born August 24, 1972) is an American filmmaker. She won the directing award in the U.S. dramatic competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for her second feature film Middle of Nowhere,^[2] becoming the first black woman to win the award.^[3] For her work on Selma (2014), DuVernay became the first black woman to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director, and also the first black female director to have her film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.^[4][5] In 2017, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for her film 13th (2016).

DuVernay’s 2018 Disney children’s fantasy film A Wrinkle in Time made her the first black woman to direct a live-action film earning $100 million at U.S. box office but had losses of up to $131 million.^[6][7][8] The film received mixed reviews, with critics taking issue with the film’s heavy use of CGI.^[9] The following year, she created, co-wrote, produced and directed the Netflix drama limited series When They See Us, based on the 1989 Central Park jogger case, which has earned critical acclaim.^{[10][11][12][13][14]} The series was nominated for 16 Emmy Awards including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series and won the Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Limited Series. In 2021, she co-created an autobiographical miniseries with former NFL player Colin Kaepernick titled Colin in Black & White.

In 2017, DuVernay was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.^[15]

In 2020, DuVernay was elected to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences board of governors as part of the directors branch.^[16][17] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ava_DuVernay)

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

An infectious disease physician with a strong commitment to racial equity in medicine, Simone Wildes, MD, has been much in demand in recent months, including appointments to two high-profile state committees: Governor Charlie Baker’s COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Group and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health COVID-19 Health Equity Advisory Group.

These volunteer commitments are in addition to her duties as an infectious disease physician at South Shore Hospital in South Weymouth and clinical assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Wildes was one of the panelists on our Racial Justice Workgroup’s COVID 19 Vaccine Community Conversation for Black, Indigenous, and person of color communities in April 2021.

Photo credit: https://commonwealthinstitute.org/dr-simone-wildes/

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

Ronn Johnson (1959-2022) was a pillar of the Springfield, MA community. He was born in Hartford, CT on January 7, 1959, to Clara Johnson (nee Brown) and Fletcher Johnson, originally of Lumpkin and Cuthbert, Georgia, respectively. The Johnsons came to Springfield, MA shortly following Ronn’s birth and settled in their family home on Willard Avenue.

Ronn attended Homer Street School, White Street Elementary School, M. Marcus Kiley Jr. High, and graduated from Classical High School in 1977. He went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree from Western New England University (then Western New England College) and a Master’s in Counseling Psychology from Cambridge College.

Ronn would spend the next 40-plus years working to make the city of Springfield, especially the community surrounding Mason Square, a better place. He worked at W. W. Johnson Life Center and Dunbar Community Center before working for the Center for Human Development for 13 years. While he was working at CHD, Ronn founded the City-wide Violence Prevention Task Force, aimed at reducing gun violence and making the streets of Springfield a safer place for youth. Following his tenure at CHD, Ronn was named Director for Community Responsibility at MassMutual where he worked to bring resources into the Springfield community.

In 2012, after years of service as a member of the board and later as a consultant, Ronn became President/CEO of Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services. During his tenure, Ronn led the organization to raise millions of dollars in funding and expanded programming for school-age children, college-bound youth, and adult learners. There was a special place in his heart for the work of MLK’s food pantry, which provides a selection of safe and healthy food choices for over 300 families per week.
In 1998, Ronn, along with his wife Donna and friends founded The Brianna Fund for Children with Physical Disabilities – named after their daughter Brianna who was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta. When an outpouring of support from the community resulted in an overflow of donations, Ronn made it his mission to continue the work of the fund to address the mobility and access needs of other families with children with disabilities in Western Massachusetts. In the last 24 years, The Brianna Fund has received over $750,000 in donations and provided assistance to 50 families.

Ronn was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Inc. He was a member of St. John’s Congregational Church, including previously having served as church Moderator. Ronn served on countless boards including Community Music School of Springfield, MassHire Springfield (formerly FutureWorks Career Center), Providers’ Council, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA), and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield’s Independent Task Force on the Response to Sexual Abuse.

Ronn leaves to cherish his legacy: the great love of his life, his wife Donna, son Ronald, and daughter Brianna; along with his “daughter-in-love” Clinesha and his grandchildren Jade and Jonas. His mother, Clara Johnson-Bunn, sisters Jo-Ann Miller, Regina Jackson, and Charlotte Payne, and brothers-in-law Marvin Miller, Philip Jackson, and Todd Payne. He also leaves his deeply loved aunt, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins. He is predeceased by his father, Fletcher L. Johnson, and stepfather Billy E. Bunn. Ronn also leaves countless friends, colleagues, fraternity brothers, and mentees throughout the country and in Springfield MA, which he referred to as his “Beloved Community”.

Photo credit: https://www.stcc.edu/about-stcc/news/stcc-remembers-community-leader-ronn-johnson-on-mlk-jr-day.html

We are highlighting examples of Black excellence every day this February….and beyond! Feel free to send us suggestions!

André Leon Talley was an American fashion journalist, stylist, creative director, and editor-at-large of Vogue magazine. He was the magazine’s fashion news director from 1983 to 1987, its first African-American male creative director from 1988 to 1995, and then its editor-at-large from 1998 to 2013.

Photo credit: https://www.vogue.com/article/andre-leon-talley-interview-vogue-may-2018