Lesley alumna and community activist Cheryl Clyburn Crawford '80 left no room for ambiguity last night with regard to the Nov. 3 United States election.
“Vote as if your life depends on it: because it does,” said Crawford, executive director of MassVOTE and vice president of the NAACP Boston Branch, speaking as part of the panel at the center of the 2020 LesleyVotes Talk, a virtual forum hosted by the university.
The nonpartisan forum was part of the LesleyVotes initiative, designed to spur student, staff and faculty involvement in the political and community organizing process, with particular attention to people of color, as a means of empowering themselves and supporting social justice.
In addition to Crawford, the panel included:
- Sumbul Siddiqui, mayor of Cambridge. Siddiqui’s city initiatives include the Mayor's Task Force on Displacement, increased funding to legal aid services, and the workforce development consortium. In 2018, she launched a Cambridge DEEP (Disruptive Equity Education Project) geared toward community dialogue on dismantling systemic racism and oppression.
- Danillo Sena, member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Sena hails from Brazil and is the first person of color elected state representative in the Worcester and Middlesex 37th district.
- Kim Janey, president of the Boston City Council. Janey represents District 7 and is the first female city councilor in that district. She is a leader in matters of equity, racial justice and community empowerment. Additionally, she is a founding board member of the voting rights group MassVOTE.
The panel moderator was Bwann Gwann, a student success coach for our Urban Scholars Initiative. Lesley live-streamed the forum on Facebook.