How it Started

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Founder and Community Visionary, Dynamite Hill-Smithfield Community Land Trust

I was born in the nation's capital on Groundhog's Day in the year 1967 during a blizzard. The ability to foresee, forecast, and creatively adapt to change has been with me always. The space and place of my birth as well as growing up in the Bay Area of Northern California gave me a rich sense of history--or herstory-- as a living breathing process, that life unfolds around us all the time, and we are all endowed with natural genius and creativity to transform and create our reality.  I got involved in regenerative community visioning early in my life by writing stories and making creative sacred spaces for plants and animals in my grandmother's beautiful and magical garden. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is one of the most profound books I read as a child, and I wanted to stay in that secret abundant place of imagination forever. Yet, I am also a child of the city, and improving the quality of life for urban dwellers is a long passion of mine. Growing up with ecological awareness as part of my education also informs and inspires me now. I combine a visionary and spiritual artist's lens to regenerative community building , with storytelling as a living art form as one of my favorite mediums. I have lived in the South since I was 18, and fully embrace my Southern roots. As the mother of nine, I am an Earth protector, human nurturer, community educator, and strong advocate for the seven generations that will follow my lived experience here on Earth.

I am a longtime Activist/Organizer, organizing or engaging systems of oppression for 30+ years of my life. I hail from Chicago and have engaged dynamics of social justice, and human rights work as diverse as anti-domestic violence work and the call for African American Reparations . I have experienced the precarity of housing and the struggle of hunger, as such I have a unique insight into what all communities need to thrive. I sincerely believe in the power of the people to define their own destinies.  I believe in the power of cooperative work, in sharing and Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)

 I am currently a Stand As One Community Organizer with Greater Birmingham Ministries and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. I serve along side the brilliant Susan Diane Mitchell as Community Engagement Director for Dynamite HIll-Smithfield Community Land Trust and on the Advisory Board of SWEET. 

As a cystic fibrosis patient I became involved in community service from a young age, including canvassing and fundraising for the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Foundation. After my father passed as a result of mental health issues while I was in high school, this expanded to other types of volunteer service. Around this time, growing up outside New York City, I slowly watched my friends' neighborhoods in Harlem become gentrified, and an entire neighborhood become displaced. I believe this moment in time is what led me to become passionate about community-based urban development as an adult. When I moved Birmingham and started attending UAB, I noticed a sharp decrease in my lung health. I soon came to find that Birmingham was ranked in the Top 15 for worst air particle pollution in the country. I became involved in environmental organizing while in college, and soon began to feel that to fix the issues affecting our communities we needed to address our issues systemically.
In 2013 I became the Executive Director of Magic City Agriculture Project (MCAP), anon-profit whose mission is to engage in value-based community organizing to reweave the threads of the community, develop sustainable urban agriculture as a solution to economic and food injustice, and to dismantle racism.
In 2017 I stepped down from MCAP and helped co-found SWEET Alabama. My first ever community organizing was around protecting clean drinking water, supporting clean energy, and supporting community based economies. I am proud to work for an organization that has made that their mission.

My passion for people and the planet began here in Alabama, where I grew up. As achild, I ran in the woods and enjoyed fresh food grown in my own back yard. I campedoutside, watching the stars and contemplating my own place in the universe. I learned to love the natural world with a wide-eyed wonder that compels me to action, to fight to preserve the goodness of our home. My own children were born in this state, and I want to leave a legacy that allows them to enjoy abundance and fulfillment without worry or harm. When I attended Alabama’s only public liberal arts’ college, the University of Montevallo, I was seeking a well-rounded understanding of the world that would give me the ability to continue to learn and grow throughout my life. By the time I graduated Cum Laude with degrees in English and History, I was beginning to integrate my own personalethics into a worldview that challenged the status quo. I envisioned a world of possibilities and interdependence rather than fear and exploitation. Today, I’m a freelance writer who works from my home in Irondale. I’m still in awe of the beauty of the world we share. I’m critically aware of the challenges and adaptation that are necessary to survive the damage we humans have inflicted on one another and on our beautiful planet. My passion has driven me to seek out the work required to be a part of that change. That’s why I’m proud to be a part of the inception of SWEET Alabama.

Hello, my name is Molly, and I am a D.C. metro native. Ten years ago, I moved to

Birmingham, AL. I attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham and earned my

Bachelor of Science of Accounting. While at UAB, I played an active role in the Collat

School of Business as the president of National Association of Black Accountants chapter and the administrative vice president of Alpha Kappa Psi, Omega Tau the professional business fraternity. As well, I worked with UnitedWay’s VITA Program (Volunteer Income Tax Assistant) for several years preparing taxes for families.

In the beginning of my senior year I was in a horrific car accident. I was in a coma for a

couple of weeks. I suffered a severe traumatic brain injury, along with a multitude of fractures all over my body. While most of that summer was fuzzy, I was concerned about the loss of my skills. I remember coming home and reading my business law and principles of accounting textbooks when I got home. My processing time had slowed

down, but I was still able to learn and progress. I went back to school, only half time, so as not to overload my mind. In addition, I had surgery for my clavicle, physical therapy for my body, vocational therapy, then more physical therapy for my vertigo. Rehabilitation is consistently a part of my life. Graduation was one of my biggest accomplishments, and I am so happy that my financial abilities came back. From my personal experience, I believe in service to others. If it had not been for the kindness and support I was given several times over, I would not be where I am today.