Walking into the small room that serves as our idea hub, the walls are full (as they always were) with ideas for the future. My attention is instantly drawn to the oval table in the center of the room and the lively discussion that my peers are engaging in.
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Are you frustrated with the constant negative impacts city and state decisions, policies and laws have in Roxbury? The administration’s commitment to build new housing and “increase the overall housing stock” forces most of our communities to move to wherever they can afford.
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It’s astounding what the power of two people can do to change a world. Two people traveled to our fair Commonwealth from Europe to attend a conference and a silent outbreak began.
They then went to parties, traveled about the region and boarded planes to other states and countries, unintentionally spreading the covert CoVid 19 virus.
Pamela Bush Miles is a nationally recognized climate and environmental justice activist and organizer with over 20 years of experience building organizations, programs and movements that achieve climate and transit equity wins for low-income communities and communities of color. Initially inspired by her children’s battles for air and for life against debilitating asthma, Mela has worked tirelessly to eliminate pollutants in the low-income communities where she lived and worked. As the regional expert in public transit equity Mela organized communities in a 20 mile area to advocate for and eventually achieve commuter rail stops in low-income communities. These stops became vital for building economic empowerment in formerly blighted communities.
Hajar Logan is a 24 year chief officer and operations executive with formal experience in several for-profit industries. Ms. Logan also has 19 years of experience as a business and organizational development consultant with experience building brands, operations and revenues across a variety of industries, working with professionals from diverse backgrounds. Ms. Logan specializes in maximizing work outputs in small teams and managing large contractor and subcontractor expert teams, as well as working with businesses whose operations are funded without loans. Ms. Logan’s work was deeply rooted in building justice and economic empowerment across diverse communities.
Ms. Logan’s career has always been guided by a deep understanding of political, economic and public safety and security realities at a neighborhood, local, regional and national level. As global and local economies are disrupted and there is a transition in personal and neighborhood based opportunity, Ms. Logan sought to pursue professional experience and leadership that prepares for this disruption.
In 2017, Ms. Logan took on a role as a community organizer at the premier organization for training organizers and community leaders in Boston. In a 2 year period, Ms. Logan became a national representative of one of its alliances, and a core community leader of a broadly recognized movement. Ms. Logan’s work focused on real estate development and civic design that is transforming neighborhoods and displacing families.
In 2019 Ms. Logan was hired as the Climate and Transit-Oriented Development Director at Alternatives for Community and Environment. In this role Ms. Logan is asked to organize the local community to build programs that demand just impacts from neighborhood redesign and transit-oriented development. Ms. Logan is also asked to seek and to build intersections with Climate and Environmental Justice that enforce better public health and safety as well as responsible development whose outcomes deliver just impacts for local neighborhoods and the resident families that shape them.
David Noiles is a 38 year-old father from Roxbury. He started off his organizing journey being trained by REEP when he was about 15. Then, he was fortunate enough to be a REEPer and become peers with the rest of the youth there and the wonderful staff of ACE. Now he gets to return the favor and give young people the same opportunity that this program gave him as the director of REEP.
Sofía is ACE’s Staff Attorney. She works with ACE staff to ensure that the legal rights of people of color and low income residents are protected. She also provides systematic legislative and regulatory advocacy on behalf of environmental justice communities at the municipal and state level. Sofia comes to ACE from Toxics Action Center, where she provided organizing assistance to community groups in Eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island and built power to address environmental racism, settler colonialism, and other systemic barriers that disproportionately affect communities on the front lines of pollution. Previously, Sofia worked as a Trial Attorney for the Committee for Public Counsel Services. She has a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law, a Masters in Environmental Law and Policy from Vermont Law School, and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. When not at work, Sofia organizes with the Deeper Than Water coalition and volunteers with the Boston chapter of Black & Pink. She enjoys practicing yoga and watching soccer, particularly the US Women’s National Team and the Uruguayan national teams.
Dwaign has over twenty-five years of professional experience in economic development, community and neighborhood development, youth development and workforce development. Throughout his professional experience, Dwaign has effectively led capable and diverse teams and has also been able to communicate complex public policies to various stakeholders to show how community-based partnerships can build stronger communities and empower residents and businesses to take active roles in their neighborhoods.