Let’s shine together!

Our Event Speaker

Dr. Anne R. Gearity has a community mental health practice in Minneapolis, working with children, adults and families. Dr. Gearity’s research and teaching focus has always been on the development of very young children, recognizing that the more we support their early striving, the better they will be able to manage risks and build resilience.  After teaching for almost three decades at the U of MN School of Social Work, Dr. Gearity shifted to the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, U of MN Medical School. There, she supports the education of new physicians and provides consultation for challenged families. Dr. Gearity also consults with community agencies — Hennepin Health MotherBaby program and Washburn Center for Children— and authored “Developmental Repair”, a manual for working with very young children experiencing significant stressors.

Dr. Gearity remains deeply committed to supporting young children and their families and supporting community agencies like Way to Grow who are so committed to this work.

Our Event Speaker

Dr. Yohuru Williams is Distinguished University Chair and Professor of History and Founding Director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas. He received his Ph.D. from Howard University in 1998. Dr. Williams is the author of:

• Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights Black Power and Black Panthers in New Haven (Blackwell, 2006)
• Rethinking the Black Freedom Movement (Routledge, 2015)
• Teaching beyond the Textbook: Six Investigative Strategies (Corwin Press, 2008)

He is also the editor of several books, and has served as an advisor on the popular civil rights reader Putting the Movement Back into teaching Civil Rights.

Dr. Williams has appeared on a variety of local and national radio and television programs most notably ABC, CNN, MSNBC, Aljazeera America, BET, CSPAN, EBRU Today, Fox Business News, Fresh Outlook, Huff Post Live, and NPR. He was featured in the Ken Burns PBS Documentary “Jackie Robinson” and the Stanley Nelson PBS Documentary “The Black Panthers.” He is also one of the hosts of the History Channel’s Web show “Sound Smart.” A regular political commentator on the Cliff Kelly Show on WVON, Chicago, Dr. Williams also blogs regularly for the Huffington Post and is a contributor to the Progressive Magazine.

Dr. Williams’ scholarly articles have appeared in the American Bar Association’s Insights on Law and Society, The Organization of American Historians Magazine of History, The Black Scholar, The Journal of Black Studies, Pennsylvania History, Delaware History, the Journal of Civil and Human Rights and the Black History Bulletin. Dr. Williams is also presently finishing a new book entitled In the Shadow of the Whipping Post: Lynching, Capital Punishment, and Jim Crow Justice in Delaware 1865-1965 under contract with Cambridge University Press.

Our Master of Ceremonies

T. Mychael Rambo is a Regional Emmy Award winning actor, vocalist, arts educator and public speaker; who has made an indelible mark here in the Twin Cities. Nationally and internationally his stage credits include Carnegie Hall and performances abroad in Africa, Europe, and South America. He has appeared in local and national television commercials, feature films, HBO mini-series and other television programming.

T. Mychael is an accomplished residency artist and affiliate professor in the College of ‪Liberal Arts, Theatre Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota. One of his greatest honors has been singing the National Anthem for both President Barack Obama and former President Jimmy Carter.