Who We Are

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As a cystic fibrosis patient, I became involved in community service from a young age,

starting with canvassing and fundraising for the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Foundation. After

watching my father die in high school, this continued to other types of volunteer service. Around this time, growing up outside New York City, I slowly started watching my friends' neighborhoods in Harlem become gentrified. I watched 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), a

non-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.

I am a person who engages in strategic techniques for community organizing, project

management, brokering of resources; a conduit for building healthy communities. 

I am a resident of Birmingham, Alabama where I do work in hunger advocacy for Alabama Arise. I have two amazing sons,

Christian who is 15 and Justin who is 13. I live in the Bush Hills community and

currently facilitate two coalitions in Bessemer and Fountain Heights, which were

designed to unite communal resources for structuring healthier communities. I have

significant experience with movement work in Birmingham, and have participated in

movements related to economic injustice, women’s rights, food sovereignty, public

safety, and criminal justice reform. 

I truly believe that we can use hard skills and soft skills to develop radical ways of thriving. I have often translated my long and diverse

work experience related to jobs from child and family welfare to mortgage lending to

growing up as Jersey girl speaking Spanish first, to contribute to the popular education

needed as we grow, connect, and build in Alabama in any language that speaks to

connectivity.

I am a wife, mother, and graphic designer. Originally from Wisconsin, I grew up  all over the Midwest. I moved to my husband's home state of Alabama in 2010, and I am proud to call this beautiful state my home.

After graduating with a B.F.A. from Miami University, I spent six years as a single parent, which made me a fierce advocate for my daughter, and alerted me to the realization that we are ruining the planet that my child will inherit. Now I have two more children, and the call to action is even stronger, as the human impact on climate continues to worsen.

Addressing climate change, and the disproportionate way it affects humanity, is one of the most important endeavors we can tackle. The US is historically the world’s largest contributor to greenhouse gasses, and Alabama is home to the #1 greenhouse gas emitter in the US. In 2018 I ran for Alabama’s Public Service Commission on the platform of lower bills and cleaner energy. I lost the election, but remain involved in politically to affect climate policy. Political activism is crucial, but doing this work in small communities close to home can be even more impactful, as the movement grows.

I am honored to be on the board of

SWEET Alabama, which is addressing the heart of the issue by reducing energy

consumption, beginning with those experiencing poverty, who are most impacted by the effects of climate change. I look forward to seeing how SWEET Alabama grows.

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. 

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.