Lutricia “Pat” Callair thought racism would be defeated in her lifetime. She’s still holding on to that dream of coming together to confront and end racism as a unified human race.

Pat has been an educator and counselor working hands-on with people of all types and ages struggling to overcome addiction and poverty. Working collaboratively with corrections institutions and trained in hostage negotiations, she is an expert in helping youthful offenders. She also founded Camp Pegasus, a therapeutic model for working with children and their families designed to help reduce violence and abuse within the family setting, while enhancing relatedness and connection.

But at the heart of all Pat’s work has been an unwavering commitment to helping individuals, organizations and companies come together and talk about racism. Pat was trained in an experiential model of community building refined since the mid-1980s by the Foundation for Community Encouragement (FCE). Singly and working with others, Pat has facilitated hundreds of workshops employing this hands-on model as part of her racial justice work.

Building community is characterized by a profound and all-too-rare sense of extraordinary respect and safety. Creating this safe container throughout the workshop allows participants to drop their automatic, unconscious defenses and relate with authenticity and deep vulnerability. By doing so, participants become keenly aware of the racial, cultural, political and religious differences that prevent us from embracing our common humanity - and discover how to move forward together.

Earl Callair

Earl Callair has worked as a Sr. Program Director for the YMCA in the area of diversity and inclusion for 7 years. He is a YMCA national trainer in Cultural Lenses and Leading Successful Teams, and serves as the Chair of the African American Employee resource group.

Earl is also an Associate and Youth Pastor at Covenant Life Fellowship church. He is a licensed minister, certified in cognitive behavioral therapy and trained in trauma-informed care for youth. An educator, mentor, and counselor for youth and adults, Earl works with community partners to understand their place in the kingdom and the community.

Kathryn Pepper Miller

Kathryn is a former agency CEO with Ogilvy and a former corporate CMO. She is currently the co-founder of Set of 1 , a firm that helps organizations tell stories and create meaningful customer connections.

Kathryn was born in the Appalachian mountains of southeast KY and southwest WV and was the first generation in her family not born into deep poverty. She studied social psychology and developed expertise in consumer behavior and social research. She has a passion for using creative expression and story to drive social justice and equality.

Lisa Jones

Lisa A. “L.A.” Jones retired after a 30-year career as a corrections administrator, becoming one of the highest ranking African-American women in the federal prison system.

At the height of her career, she began to focus on holistic re-entry programs and practices which create systemic change for justice-involved individuals, their families, and the communities in which they live. Her passion lies at the intersection of Criminal and Social Justice, where she works hard to bridge the two. All her work is done through a spiritually holistic lens.

Lisa is a poet, genealogist, and member of the William C Friday Fellowship for Human Relations.

J. Michael Schmidt, PhD

Michael is a community builder, neuroscientist, and data scientist. His diverse experience is grounded in his capacity to help people with different backgrounds communicate effectively and his ability to recognize and describe patterns in data, behavior, groups, and systems.

As a community builder and trainer with The Foundation for Community Encouragement, Michael has devoted over 35 years of his life to helping people build trust, authentic connection, and bridge their differences with integrity and respect.

Emily Cox

Emily is a lifelong community organizer from a family rooted in activism. As a retired licensed psychotherapist, Emily connects her training and community work as an antiracist, feminist artist, therapist and writer to build community across multiple cultures, facilitating conversations and increased collaboration and awareness to combat fragmentation, competition, small-mindedness, oppression and burnout in all who strive to promote democratic principles.

Emily and her daughter Marie are co-founders of SISTERScene, a Simplysupportive community for CreativeJustice, women and girls, LGBTQ+ to build social bonds for increased, shared engagement in civic, social justice events and to demonstrate the benefit of antiracist, multicultural relationships.

Lea Endres

Lea Endres is a CEO, entrepreneur, educator and human rights advocate. A renowned facilitator, she has spent most of her life working to make the tools of leadership available to everyone.

Lea co-founded NationBuilder, a leadership software company that works with organizations, movements and campaigns, and has served as the company's CEO since 2017. She also sits on the board of the Dream Corps, a social justice accelerator that houses projects including #LoveArmy, #yeswecode, #cut50 and Green for All.

Eric Handford Miller

Eric is a creative thinker, message strategist, writer and community builder. He co-founded Set of 1 in 2014 with his professional and life partner, Kathryn Pepper Miller.

Eric is an experienced facilitator in the community-building model developed by Scott Peck and the Foundation for Community Encouragement. He has spent many years involved in men’s work centered on the redefinition of authentic masculinity and the recognition of the innate sovereignty of women, LGBTQ people, and BIPOC and Black people.

Valoree Hanson

Valoree Hanson integrates her passion for conflict transformation working with educators, organizations, and communities to learn about and utilize Restorative Practices. Through her work with Dispute Settlement Center (DSC), Val facilitates and trains across North Carolina, has taught Restorative Justice at Guilford College, and especially enjoys collaborating with folks who are curious about discovering interconnectedness across differences.

Val attended NCCU School of Law to earn her J.D. and Certificate in Dispute Resolution. Since 2012, she has been practicing Alternative Dispute Resolution with a focus on the restorative practice of circle-keeping. Val has been awarded the NC Dispute Resolution award for Achievement in Mediation and the NC Bar Association for Commitment to Public Service.

Race vs. Racism

In the 21st century, we know beyond a doubt that there’s no biological basis for race, or for our centuries-old practice of dividing humans into hierarchies based on their ancestry, skin color, physical features or ethnicity.

But racism remains devastatingly real and deeply entrenched across our governments, economies and cultures. False racist ideas are still deliberately fostered to obscure or justify past and present acts of cruelty, brutality and violence, and to unfairly expand or protect the wealth and privileges of powerful elites.

Racism & Police Violence.

There were only 23 days in 2018 where police in the U.S. did not kill anyone. In 2017, police killed more Americans than terrorists, airplanes, mass shooters and even Chicago’s “top gang thugs”. More people died at the hands of police in both years than the number of black people who were lynched in the worst year of Jim Crow (161 in 1892 ).

While anyone can be a victim of police violence, blacks are more than three times likely to be killed by police than whites. In 2015, police killed at least 104 unarmed black people, nearly two each week.

The Myth Of Being Non-Racist.

As Ibram Kendi writes in How To Be An Anti-Racist, describing someone (say a police officer or our current president) as a racist has become pejorative rather than merely descriptive, eliciting knee-jerk outcries of “I am not a racist” and fake posturing of neutrality (there are good people on both sides, right?). But it’s not possible to have a neutral position on racism. You are either a racist (accepting of racist ideas, actions and policies) or you are an anti-racist (opposed to racist ideas, actions and policies). There is no middle ground.

This Is Everyone’s Fight.

Some victims of racism are easier to see — unarmed people of color killed by police with impunity. Indigenous tribes struggling at the margins of poverty. Women of color and their babies dying during childbirth at rates double that of white women. African-Americans incarcerated at rates five times that of whites. Immigrants of color banned and terrorized at our borders.

But racism ultimately harms all it touches, including those who wield it as a weapon out of greed, fear, ignorance or hate. Including those who think they’re just “doing their job”. Including those who sadly witness its destructive impact from a distance, convinced it’s not their fight.

We all have a personal stake in this.

Coming Together.

Too many of us have been separated and taught to fear each other by arbitrary and systemic racist and cultural attitudes, beliefs and practices. We have lost touch with those human qualities that enable us to connect and relate to one another with care, compassion and empathy and deep respect. But there are ways in which we can come back together and remember who we are to one another.

We can interrupt racism and other oppression by creating kinship in which we see ourselves in each other. We can create a shared anti-racist identity that shapes our way of being as well as what we do to end racism.

What can I do?