DOTTYE BURT-MARKOWITZ
Advisory Board | Primary Trainer
is a racial justice trainer and consultant for nearly 30 years. She is a co-founder of Baltimore Racial Justice Action. As a white child growing up in East St. Louis, Illinois, she witnessed everyday blatant racism against Black people. Attending college at Texas Christian University in the 1960’s she learned how racism affects other people of color with different histories in the U.S. After working as a public aid caseworker in New York
City, earning a Ph.D. in physiological psychology at Southern Illinois University and doing postdoctoral work at the University of Florida, she met her future life and work partner while employed as an administrator at Essex Community College in Maryland. Working in the 1980’s with a national peace organization, she saw how predominantly white organizations acted against their own interests by failing to understand how habits of unrecognized white supremacist thinking kept them from achieving their own goals. Studying with Dr. Margo Okazawa-Rey in the 1990’s led her to the work she has done ever since. Her husband, son, and granddaughters, along with her friends and collaborators in the struggle for justice, enable her to grow in understanding and humility in the work.
M. BLAIR FRANKLIN
Advisory Board | Primary Trainer
(on temporary leave of absence)
was born and bred in Southwest Baltimore, identifies as a Black & Queer justice activist and radical healer, and works at the intersections of public health, youth organizing, LGBTQ/SGL equity, and racial justice. Blair is the Executive Director of the Youth Empowered Society, a drop-in center created by youth and young adults experiencing homelessness, and has been active in a number of coalitions and collectives throughout the city. In 2014 he received a BMe Community Award and was recognized as one of the 100 Black LGBTQ/SGL Emerging Leaders to Watch by the National Black Justice Coalition, and in 2016 he was selected as a Gardarev Center Fellow to produce work at the intersections of social justice activism and the creative arts. He engages in his own liberatory practice through movement, creative fiction, and building/connecting spaces for healing via alightbaltimore.com and bemorerooted.org.
ANTHONY NEWMAN
Advisory Board | Director of Public Services | Primary Trainer
Anthony Newman was first introduced to the non-profit world when he signed on to teach GED classes in Southeast Baltimore through AmeriCorps. In 2011, he joined the Alternative to Violence Project facilitating experiential conflict resolution workshops in Maryland prisons. He became the first BRJA staff person in 2017. Some of his favorite facilitation moments are with People of Color on the topics of colorism, assimilation, internalized oppression and anti-Blackness.
ERICA K. TAYLOR, PhD, MPH, MA
Advisory Board | Primary Trainer
is a data analyst at CMS’ Innovations Center where she serves as an expert on program evaluation and as the minority health lead for Million Hearts®, a national initiative to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes in five years. Currently Dr. Taylor serves on the executive board of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS) and on the Advisory Board of the Baltimore Racial Justice Action (BRJA). She is also a member of several other professional organizations including the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), the American Evaluation Association (AEA) and the Brown Club of Greater Baltimore. Dr. Taylor is an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) where she teaches a course entitled: The American Health Care System and the Black Community. She also performs with the Baltimore Flute Choir.
HARRIET SMITH
Advisory Board | Primary Trainer
first took BRJA's class for white people in 2007 after befriending one of the facilitators. She soon joined and has been serving in various roles since--currently, as facilitator and advisory board member. She has over fifteen years of experience with a number of Baltimore area racial justice, harm reduction, and equity focused organizations and projects. She received her master’s degree in gender studies with a focus on health and sexuality from Towson University in 2012. She is a life-long Marylander, growing up in Woodlawn and living in Baltimore City ever since.
A. ADAR AYIRA
Advisory Board | Director of Contract Services | Primary Trainer
has more than 25 years of management and organizational development, membership, and TA experience gained through her tenure in both locally-and nationally-focused nonprofit, community-based, social justice organizations. She is Principal Consultant of Ayira Core Concepts LLC (ACC-LLC), a boutique consulting firm that provides Anti-Racism/Anti-Oppression / Equity education and facilitation and skills development; strategic planning; technical assistance; organizational, board, and program development; executive coaching; and project management for nonprofit organizations and corporations.
As a co-founding member and Advisory Board Member of Baltimore Racial Justice Action (BRJA) -- a Baltimore-based organization of facilitators and trainers with a national client-base that has celebrated 17 years of action -- Adar was instrumental in developing its core curriculum for its introductory and Training of Trainer workshops; began its Baltimore Activists of Color Organized for Equity (BACOE) affinity group; and continues to work with the organization as Director of Contract Services.
Michelle Duberry
Advisory Board | Primary Trainer
was an army brat growing up. She moved all over, including living in Germany. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Africana Studies from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2001. Following graduation, she spent a year serving in AmeriCorps as a School/Community Coordinator through Greater Homewood. Michelle then became a middle school teacher, teaching Social Studies to 7th graders in Prince Georges County. Soon after the Baltimore uprising following the murder of Freddie Grey, she felt compelled to take BRJA’s workshop for peoples of color. Also during this time, she started a platform called Show Your Luv. The primary goal of this platform is to promote Black-owned businesses. Michelle has continued in her training with BRJA. Today, she proudly serves as a Primary Trainer, Coordinator of “13th of the Month” events, and a member of the Advisory Board.
CRISTINA MENESES
Advisory Board | Primary Trainer
is civil staff attorney with The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. Throughout her 20 year career, both as an attorney and advocate, Cristina has worked in social justice in various forms: through litigation, legislation, developing trainings for health care providers and other community providers, and providing technical assistance on using a race equity and intersectionality lens in legal and community advocacy. Cristina is a member of Baltimore Racial Justice Action Advisory Board and a facilitator. She’s committed to “anti-oppression” work and meeting people where they are at.
JULIA SCOTT
Advisory Board | Primary Trainer
was born and raised in Northeast Baltimore. After graduating from Morgan State University, she signed on to complete an AmeriCorps apprenticeship with Public Allies Maryland, where she was able to work in local non-profit organizations and learn leadership skills. After two years, she worked in various local non-profits before coming back to work at Public Allies Maryland as a Senior Program Manager for Community Engagement and lastly Interim Director. After completing BRJA’s POC Workshops, she became interested in using a racial equity lens to approach her interest in community leadership, and social justice work. Currently, she is the Program Manager at Next Generation Scholars and the 13th of the Month Event Co-Coordinator with BRJA.
MAGGIE POTAPCHUK
Emeritus Advisory Board
is founder of MP Associates, Inc., a national consulting practice that works in partnership with individuals, organizations, and communities to align, deepen, and sustain their work to advance racial equity and address privilege issues. She co-created the website, www.racialequitytools.org. Before launching MP Associates in 2004, she served as Senior Program Associate with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies co-developing the national Network of Alliances Bridging Race and Ethnicity and was Director of Dismantling Racism program at NCCJ-St.Louis. She served on the Leadership Council of Within Our Lifetime national network for five years.
CINDY PLAVIER TRUITT
Emeritus Advisory Board
has been instrumental in expanding BRJA’s reach since becoming a member in 2011. She is also the Chief Business Officer of Humanim, Inc. a not for profit organization which provides workforce development & human services to over 4,500 individuals a year throughout Maryland. Prior to this position Cindy served as Vice President of Clinical Services at Humanim. In her current role, she oversees Baltimore Region operations as well as a $7 million dollar social enterprise division employing individuals in poverty & with barriers to employment.
REBECCA POBEE
Staff Consultant | Primary Trainer
grew up in a predominantly white college town in central Pennsylvania. Rebecca moved to Baltimore in 2004, where she taught in the Baltimore City Schools and worked as a freelance Social Studies curriculum developer. In 2016, Rebecca attended BRJA’s workshop for white people, hoping to deepen her understanding of structural racism and racial equity work. She began facilitating with BRJA in 2018 and joined BRJA’s staff as a Racial Equity Consultant in 2019. Rebecca is especially interested in ways parents can talk to children about racial justice. She is also interested in ways that majority white Christian congregations can undertake racial justice work.
DANA POLSON, PHD
Staff Consultant | Primary Trainer
spent 20 years with Baltimore City Public Schools, teaching history, serving as a school leader, co-founding ConneXions: A Community Based Arts School, and working in the Office of New Initiatives. Over time, collaborative, teacher-led work at ConneXions taught her to investigate racism and white supremacy as root causes for educational inequities. She earned her PhD in 2012 from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County from the Language, Literacy, and Culture Program. Her dissertation Longing for Theory focused on Black Baltimore students’ anti-racist interventions in policy debate, a forensics event that prior to the work of mostly Black students and coaches nationally had been a largely white space. This practical and theoretical anti-racist work culminated in her joining the BRJA staff as a contract manager, consultant, and coach in 2019, after several years as a volunteer and facilitator.She serves on the board of DewMore Baltimore, a spoken word and civic engagement organization for youth. She is a violinist, baker, and tender of cats, chickens, and plants.
MOLLY AMSTER
Primary Trainer
is the founding director of Baltimore's branch of Jews United for Justice, organizing Jews to help win local racial and economic justice campaigns. Prior to this role she worked at CHAI: Comprehensive Housing Assistance, Incorporated in Northwest Baltimore City. While at CHAI, Molly served on the Baltimore Education Coalition, ran volunteer services, older adult engagement, and Community Conversations, a program focused on the Black and Jewish communities of Northern Park Heights. Molly was also involved in environmental education and grass-based farming for several years. She is a graduate of Clark University and has been a member of BRJA since 2012 co-facilitating BRJA’s seasonal workshops for white people.
KATE FIGIEL-MILLER
Primary Trainer
was born and raised in Baltimore County in a “white flight” family where both sets of grandparents raised their children in Baltimore, but nearly all of their children moved outside the city. Kate attended mostly white Catholic schools through high school, which emphasized charity but also taught about social justice through system change; still, issues of race were rarely considered explicitly. Kate began increasing her understanding of systemic racism and injustice in the US by working in literacy education, juvenile justice advocacy, and out of school time programs, including two years as an Americorps and Jesuit Volunteer Corps member. She is now an administrator at Loyola University Maryland, where she helps train faculty and students to engage in the Baltimore community using a racial equity lens that centers community-led, asset-based change. She began facilitating with BRJA in fall 2018. She holds a Bachelor’s in Psychology and a Master’s in Education in Prevention Science and Practice.
RAJANI GUDLAVALLETI
Primary Trainer
is an Asian Indian queer woman and first U.S.-born person in her family. She grew up in Santa Clara, California and moved to Baltimore in 2009. For over a decade, Rajani has worked at the intersections of social justice, public health, and the legal system. In 2011, she received an MPP focusing on gender-specific, racially equitable approaches to social policy. While a primary trainer with BRJA, she is also community organizer for Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition, co-founder of Baltimore Asian Resistance in Solidarity, and board member of Foundation Beyond Belief. Her writing can be found at charmingly-hyphenated.com.
J. LITTLE
Primary Trainer
is from a predominantly white suburban community outside of Washington, D.C. They have worked as an Early Childhood Educator and a Summer Camp Director for more than ten years. White and genderqeer, Julie is currently working to end the appropriation of education by white cultural assumptions, norms, and practices in public education, as well as advocating for community control in the public school system using a racial equity lens. BRJA has provided opportunity, learning, and elder mentoring for the past four years that furthers Julie’s commitment to working with self and others to understand our roles, risks, and abilities in interrupting the power of white supremacy culture.
CYNTHIA J. NEWCOMER
Primary Trainer
has done anti-racism work for over 20 years, first with DCLARE (DC White Lesbians & Bi Women Against Racism Everywhere). She has designed & conducted anti-racism training for white lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender people & organized for racial equity as an employee in a number of state & national social justice organizations. Cynthia is grateful for the anti-racism/anti-oppression education training she received from Dr. Margo Okazawa-Rey & the ongoing education and support she receives from her BRJA colleagues. She organizes for racial justice in her current hometown of Greenbelt, MD.
EBONY NICHOLSON
Primary Trainer
identifies as a black, first-generation US born, cis-gender woman. She joined BRJA in fall 2017 for the “Workshop for Peoples of Color”. Ebony is a macro social worker focused on the intersection of socio-economic status; racial, ethnic, & cultural identity; and professional identity. Ebony is an identity & intersectionality educator in higher education, with the goal of creating more affirming spaces for historically marginalized populations. Over the past 10 years Ebony has worked internationally and domestically in community engagement and health education. She is passionate about dismantling systems of oppression.
SARAH TOOLEY
Primary Trainer
holds a BA in Visual Communications from American University and an MA in Community Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art. She was the recipient of a 2010 Open Society Institute Baltimore Community Fellowship for the project 901 Arts. Through a growing awareness of people’s movements by way of involvement in anti-globalization and anti-war organizing in the early 2000s and in moving from a predominately white suburb to a predominately African American city she started to formally engage in her journey of unlearning white supremacy by attending workshops by Challenging White Supremacy, Catalyst Project, Project South, and Baltimore Racial Justice Action and participate in anti-racism peer education/action groups in DC and Baltimore including BRJA’s White Anti-Racism Network, the Reparations Reading Group. She co-founded and served on the leadership team for 2 years of Baltimore’s chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice. She attended a week long institute for SURJ leaders at the Highlander Center.
