When COVID-19 hit, many schools across the country were unprepared for remote learning. Wanda Stansbury worked to equip families in Trenton, New Jersey with the resources children needed to continue to reach their educational potential while learning from home. From the interfaith student protest movement in the sixties to remote learning inequities during the pandemic, Wanda shares her stewardship journey on many different levels: the street level, the scholarly level, the systems level, and the spiritual level.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many health systems did not prioritize Black and Brown communities. When faced with this reality in Pittsburgh, Fred Brown founded the Black COVID-19 Equity Coalition to increase COVID-19 testing and address the social determinants of health for his community. From a self-defined “street kid” to school teacher to probation officer, Brown’s range of life experiences shaped how he approaches systemic change.

When the city of Roanoke received federal HUD funds, Shauneequa Owusu, Chief Strategy Officer at ChangeLab Solutions, along with the NY Academy of Medicine, supported the city through a public deliberation process to empower residents to shape the investment decisions. As we look towards rehabbing sectors hit hard by the ongoing pandemic, Shauneequa’s experiences shed light on how we can ensure that the use of the American Rescue Plan Act funds could lead to equitable and community driven investments.