Petra Foundation Fellows

Julian Aguon

Fellowship Date: 2011

Aguon, an indigenous Chamoru human rights activist from Guam, is using legal advocacy, critical scholarship and community organizing to protect the cultural integrity and environment of Pacific Islanders in the face of massive waves of development and militarization.

You can read more about Julian Aguon here.

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It’s become abundantly clear that global predatory capital which has brought us to this place cannot come up with an alternative. Indigenous people have a different imagination that may offer some solutions and thus they should be given maximum protection.

Nahar Alam

Fellowship Date: 1998

Founder of Workers’ Awaaz; courageous organizer of immigrant and domestic workers subjected to cruelty, abuse, and exploitation.

You can read more about Nahar Alam here.

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It is shameful in our country to talk about abuse–if you are a woman, you have to suffer. No one wants to hear about it.

Susana Almanza

Fellowship Date: 1998

Co-founder and Executive Director of People Organized in Defense of the Earth and her Resources (PODER); leader in the struggle to raise public awareness of environmental, community, and health effects of toxic waste.

You can read more about Susana Almanza here.

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People have learned that they may not be rich, they may not be politically connected, but that they do have a voice–and they can make things happen.

Robert Avant (d.2008)

Fellowship Date: 2000

Executive Director of the North Panola Community Resource Development Corp.; President of Panola County Board of Supervisors; organizer of cooperative ventures including affordable housing, banking services, water supply, and a federal enterprise on behalf of his underdeveloped community.

You can read more about Robert Avant here.

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It sounds wonderful to say that Mississippi has more black elected officials than any other state in the nation, but laws have been changed to make sure those officials don’t have power, so many are merely fixtures in a seat. Forty years later, we are still fighting the same fight for justice and equality.

Frank Bardacke

Fellowship Date: 1998

Driving force of the Watsonville Human Rights Committee; adult high school teacher; activist for labor rights, social justice, better housing, and improved access to education for the Mexican-American and Mexican communities.

You can read more about Frank Bardacke here.

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As our cities and towns, our land and our water, become nothing but inputs in a worldwide system of exploitation, loyalty to the home land, to local communities, becomes an act of resistance.

Grace Bauer

Fellowship Date: 2013

Co-Director of Justice for Families; a passionate leader working to transform families from victims of the prison epidemic to leaders of the movement for fairness and opportunity for all youth.

You can read more about Grace Bauer here.

Hava Beller

Fellowship Date: 1989

Documentary filmmaker; recognized for her depiction of political and personal courage in The Restless Conscience, a film about resistance to Hitler within Nazi Germany.

You can read more about Hava Beller here.

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Privately, the film was a way for me to thank the German resisters, on my knees, for standing up against injustice and for sacrificing their lives for people they didn’t even know.

Soccorro Hernandez Bernasconi

Fellowship Date: 1996

Advocate for cultural identity; community education activist; outpatient counselor for Centro de Anistad; recognized for her advocacy over 30 years for the cultural identity and autonomy of her Yaqui and Latino community.

You can read more about Soccorro Hernandez Bernasconi here.

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I tell the kids about transformation–that it is possible to change from someone who hits and kills to someone who brings light into the lives of others.

Anu Bhagwati

Fellowship Date: 2010

Former U .S. Marine Captain and founding director of the Service Women’s Action Network, Bhagwati speaks out about misogyny, racism and homophobia in the armed services, advocates for equal opportunity at the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs and works to heal women veterans and service members suffering from trauma, abuse and homelessness.

You can read more about Anu Bhagwati here.

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We have to redress healthcare disparities, unreasonable burdens of proof of disabilities, a culture that suppresses reports of sexual assault and harassment and the rising rate of homelessness among women veterans.

Lillie Branch-Kennedy

Fellowship Date: 2011

Founding director of Resources Information Help for the Disadvantaged and co-founder of the Community Restoration Campaign, Branch-Kennedy has taken on the full range of obstacles encountered by prisoners and their families and lobbies for restoration of parole and voting rights in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

You can read more about Lillie Branch-Kennedy here.

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I’m not a doctor, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t have credentials, but I do have common sense. And I know it’s time for common sense reform of our criminal justice system.

Devin Burghart

Fellowship Date: 2007

Today, a dozen anti-immigrant organizations–with combined annual budgets of more than $15 million–maintain national profiles. Encouraged by their virulent rhetoric, between January 2005 and January 2007, new state and local anti-immigrant organizations increased in number by 600 percent.

You can read more about Devin Burghart here.

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Devin Burghart, director of the Center for New Community’s Building Democracy Initiative, tracks and unmasks white supremacists in all their disguises and counters messages of hate, bigotry, intimidation and violence through research, community organizing, education and training.

Mattie Butler

Fellowship Date: 1989

Chicago community organizer; founder and President of Woodlawn East Community & Neighbors; recognized for advocacy that has led to jobs, housing and education for thousands in southwest Chicago.

You can read more about Mattie Butler here.

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I’m about working with those people who can’t connect to the economic engine of this country.

James Callen

Fellowship Date: 2002

Recognizing that systematic corruption was poisoning the civic life of his community and obstructing economic revival, James Callen co-founded the Citizen’s League of Greater Youngstown and has waged a courageous 20-year battle to break the stranglehold of the mob on local politics and commerce.

You can read more about James Callen here.

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The rule of law is the cornerstone of our democracy. Organized crime and public corruption sap a community’s resources and self-esteem, corrupt its institutions and deprive its citizens of the opportunity to live, work and raise a family in a decent, democratic environment.

Sandra Campbell-Jackson

Fellowship Date: 1996

Founder and Director of Raising Others’ Children; recognized for her nurturing and development of a support system for inter-generational kinship care and empowerment.

You can read more about Sandra Campbell-Jackson here.

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Some people have maternal spirits and I believe mine is one of them… My mission is to help people create what they need for themselves by helping families give care to one another.

Robin Cannon

Fellowship Date: 1991

Co-founder and President of Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles; recognized for her contribution to social, economic, and environmental equity in Los Angeles minority and low-income neighborhoods.

You can read more about Robin Cannon here.

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I take environmental justice to heart the same way someone else might take housing to heart. I work on it for you and me, knowing others are working on issues I can’t get to.

Chhaya Chhoum

Fellowship Date: 2006

Staff director of CAAAV Youth Leadership Project since the age of 19, Chhoum harnesses the energy of her young peers to remedy urban poverty in a Southeast Asian immigrant community that lost much of its adult generation.

You can read more about Chhaya Chhoum here.

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We were dumped in the Bronx when the Bronx was burning. Now we must keep organizing and exposing inequality and fighting for respect until we change the balance of power.

Ron Chisom

Fellowship Date: 1994

Community organizer; co-founder and Director of the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond; recognized for his efforts to combat racism in America.

You can read more about Ron Chisom here.

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With all the crime and drugs and murder out there it’s not easy to keep people positive–to bring people hope. That’s what organizing is all about.

Samuel Cotton (d.2004)

Fellowship Date: 1997

Founder of Coalition Against Slavery in Mauritania and the Sudan; a courageous voice in the United States against contemporary human bondage.

You can read more about Samuel Cotton here.

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There is a charge that the African is the perfect slave because he doesn’t fight. I am fighting against that charge. That charge is not true.

Murphy Davis

Fellowship Date: 1991

Founder and Director of the Southern Prison Ministry; co-founder and partner of the Open Door Community; recognized for her service to the inhabitants of Georgia’s death row and the Atlanta homeless.

You can read more about Murphy Davis here.

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We have had to learn to savor the victories very deliberately because they have to last a long time–for every victory [on death row] there are at least 25 defeats.

Susana DeAnda

Fellowship Date: 2009

Founding co-director of the Community Water Center, DeAnda educates and organizes low-income residents of the San Joaquin Valley to become advocates for clean, affordable drinking water.

You can read more about Susana DeAnda here.

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Clean drinking water is not a privilege, it’s a human right.

Geraldine DeGraffenreidt

Fellowship Date: 2002

By the sheer power of her personality, Geraldine DeGraffenreidt, foster mother of many and maternal outreach worker for the Chatham County, NC, Public Health Department, has not only persuaded scores of unwed mothers to take advantage of county health services but has also encouraged the young men who fathered their children to become productive participants in their childrens’ lives.

You can read more about Geraldine DeGraffenreidt here.

Marian Edmonds Allen

Fellowship Date: 2015

In a conservative religious environment, Marian creates strategic partnerships to transform the hostile culture toward LGBT youth who face family rejection, homelessness and high suicide rates.

You can read more about Marian Edmonds Allen here. Click here to email her and here for Linkedin.

Dolores Farr

Fellowship Date: 1999

Founder and Executive Director of the Healthy Babies Project; nurse and provider of health education and clinical services for pregnant women and teens, especially those struggling with substance abuse.

You can read more about Dolores Farr here.

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Funding is still not adequate to meet the demands and too many babies continue to die. When we do not help women bring healthy babies into this world, we are losing our next generation.

Rey Faustino

Fellowship Date: 2013

CEO of One Degree; fervent, innovative advocate to ensure all families have access to services they need to overcome poverty.

You can read more about Rey Faustino here.

Earnest Gates

Fellowship Date: 1992

Businessman and community activist; recognized for his leadership in creating partnerships among the community, the private sector, and the city government to preserve and revitalize Chicago’s West Side neighborhoods.

You can read more about Earnest Gates here.

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We knew the community was changing when you took a cab, gave your address, and the driver didn’t flinch. We used to have a joke that when Giadanoe’s Pizza would deliver to us, then you know you’ve arrived.

James Gilmore

Fellowship Date: 1998

Police officer, community organizer, and co-founder of 100 Black in Law Enforcement; activist on behalf of his precinct’s neighborhood residents and outspoken critic of police brutality and police racism.

You can read more about James Gilmore here.

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Unfortunately, the police department’s idea of enforcing law and order is often in direct conflict with working for social justice.

Ana Guajardo Carrillo

Fellowship Date: 2012

Founder of Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, Guajardo has enabled low-wage Latino workers in Chicago to gain passage of the strongest state wage-protection legislation in the country and to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars in owed wages.

You can read more about Ana Guajardo Carrillo here.

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When I first encountered racism, my mother told me to hold my head high. ‘We only crossed a river,’ she said. ‘They crossed an ocean.’

Clayton Guyton

Fellowship Date: 2003

Calyton Guyton, founder of the Rose Street Community Center, put his life on the line to reclaim his East Baltimore neighborhood from the degradation of drugs, violence, despair and neglect.

You can read more about Clayton Guyton here.

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Ex-prisoners, drug addicts and dealers are not nobodies. We treat them with respect. They are capable of contributing.

Graylan Scott Hagler

Fellowship Date: 1990

Community organizer; Minister of Plymouth Congregational Church; recognized for his efforts on behalf of minority neighborhoods, including advocacy for law enforcement consistent with constitutional safeguards.

You can read more about Graylan Scott Hagler here.

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People need to remember historically what the struggle has been about and therefore what it is about. It has never been about peer assimilation–it has been about having a place in society to be yourself–to control your own future.

Juan Haro

Fellowship Date: 2013

Director, Movement for Justice in El Barrio; an organizer who empowers and fosters leadership in NYC’s low-income communities to fight oppression.

You can read more about Juan Haro here.

Haleemah Henderson

Fellowship Date: 2005

Ingenious organizer for Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, Haleemah Henderson has brought affordable banking services and financial literacy to welfare recipients and others victimized by loan sharks, pawnshops and unscrupulous check-cashing businesses.

You can read more about Haleemah Henderson here.

Michael Hurwitz & Ian Marvy

Fellowship Date: 2004

Founding co-director of Added Value, an inner-city farm and market project that fosters the leadership and business skills of at-risk teenagers and provides safe space, opportunity and fresh foods to the isolated and underserved neighborhood of Red Hook, Brooklyn.

You can read more about Michael Hurwitz and Ian Marvy here.

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At Added Value we promote ‘food security,’ the idea that all people should have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet dietary needs for an active and healthy life.

— Michael Hurwitz

Some folks say that youth are the future. We say that youth are here today and they can make a difference.

— Ian Marvy

Rahim Jenkins

Fellowship Date: 1997

Founder of Righteous Men’s Commission; a leader of Anacostia’s ongoing struggle for civic participation, mutual respect and unified action on issues of common concern.

You can read more about Rahim Jenkins here.

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Who’s killed 120 black women in Washington D.C.? What are we doing about it? This illness of violence is not just in inner city America, but everywhere.

Wahleah Johns

Fellowship Date: 2010

Co-founder of the Black Mesa Water Coalition and member of the Navajo Green Economy Commission, Johns is working to replace the royalties and environmental degradation of fossil fuel industries on Native American land with sustainable initiatives based on traditional indigenous values and practices.

You can read more about Wahleah Johns here.

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We are modeling green technologies in line with traditional indigenous values and practices to create opportunities for our young people to stay on the reservation and to promote a healthy, sustainable lifestyle for future generations.

Tina Johnstone

Fellowship Date: 1997

Founder of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence; leader of The Silent March, a memorial to gun victims; leader of grassroots activism on behalf of gun control.

You can read more about Tina Johnstone here.

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The greatest legacy I can give my kids is a safer country in which to raise their own children.

Juanita Kirschke

Fellowship Date: 2000

Co-founder and Director of the Detention Resource Project; friend of isolated immigrants, including children and asylum seekers detained under severe prison conditions; organizer of volunteer legal assistance and social services.

You can read more about Juanita Kirschke here.

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Holding immigrant children and families incommunicado, denying them adequate clothing, exercise, showers or even toothbrushes, says more about those who detain than those who are detained.

Olin Lagon

Fellowship Date: 2005

A former high school dropout, Lagon left a promising corporate career to provide digital training and jobs for Native Hawaiians and to form an alliance among Native Hawaiian, Alaskan Native and American Indian companies that is generating opportunity in some of the nation’s most economically depressed communities.

You can read more about Olin Lagon here.

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We envisioned digital technology centers owned and operated by indigenous communities in primarily rural areas with no commercial jobs or business infrastructure, much less Internet access. There’s an abundance of talent that can be tapped when people are made real partners.

Nikki Lewis

Fellowship Date: 2011

Co-coordinator of Restaurant Opportunities Center-DC, Lewis uses her first-hand experience of occupational segregation and labor abuses in the restaurant industry to lead a rapidly growing workers center and to play a lead role in the national movement for workplace justice.

You can read more about Nikki Lewis here.

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You are the consumer: If you dine at a restaurant where workers are treated fairly, you will be rewarded with an experience that does not consume the suffering of those who prepare and serve your food.

Carrie Ann Lucas

Fellowship Date: 2010

Director of the Center for the Rights of Parents with Disabilities at the Colorado Cross Disability Coalition, Lucas protects the rights of parents with disabilities, and children who are often unnecessarily caught up the child protection system, and works to expand access to the support and resources families need to effectively parent their children.

You can read more about Carrie Ann Lucas here.

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We should not be social-engineering families on the basis of things like poverty or disabilities.

Kamau Marcharia

Fellowship Date: 1991

Community organizer; recognized for his efforts to empower African-American citizens in rural South Carolina.

You can read more about Kamau Marcharia here.

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I organize because I believe in revolution. Why can’t I say ‘Give me liberty or give me death?’ Why can’t I go to war to guarantee freedom for me, my people and my children? I organize because I don’t want to be a slave.

Emily Maw

Fellowship Date: 2006

Director of The Innocence Project – New Orleans, Maw focuses on exonerating the wrongly convicted who are serving life sentences in Louisiana and Mississippi, the states with the highest incarceration rates in the world.

You can read more about Emily Maw here.

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I focus solely on wrongful convictions in cases of life without parole in Louisiana and Mississippi, the two states with the highest incarceration rates in the country–and the world.

Benita Miller

Fellowship Date: 2011

Founding director of Brooklyn Young Mothers Collective, Miller enables disadvantaged young mothers not only to make transformational changes in their own lives but also to become skilled advocates who are reframing the public response to pregnant and parenting teens.

You can read more about Benita Miller here.

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Being the daughter of teen parents, I knew the story of these teenage mothers did not have to be one of another generation living in poverty if we could make sure they had access to education.

Audrey Morrissey

Fellowship Date: 2008

Director of Survivor Services at the My Life/My Choice Project; leader in the effort to reshape the response of law enforcement and social service-providers to victims of prostitution.

You can read more about Audrey Morrissey here.

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Prostituted girls are victims, not criminals. They deserve a compassionate response to their trauma.

Vivian Nixon

Fellowship Date: 2008

Director of the College and Community Fellowship Program, Nixon helps former prisoners earn higher education degrees and is an outspoken advocate for restoring and expanding educational opportunities behind and beyond prison bars.

You can read more about Vivian Nixon here.

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Every prison sentence ultimately becomes a life sentence because of the collateral damage.

Parisa Norouzi

Fellowship Date: 2015

Parisa has had unique success forging partnerships across Washington, DC’s Black and Latino communities to fight the gentrification and school closings that are devastating neighborhood residents.

You can read more about Parisa Norouzi here.

Gerald One Feather

Fellowship Date: 1995

Oglala Sioux rights advocate and founder of Oglala Lakota College; recognized for his work in spearheading education reform, upholding Sioux treaty rights, and helping his people to seek traditional solutions to contemporary problems.

You can read more about Gerald One Feather here.

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We have to learn to live in two worlds, the white man’s world and the Lakota world… to learn each of their values, which are totally different, in order to survive.

Ken Paff

Fellowship Date: 1996

Co-founder and National Organizer of Teamsters for a Democratic Union; recognized for his work to restore democracy, accountability and honesty to one of America’s largest labor unions.

You can read more about Ken Paff here.

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Being union-minded opens the door to casting off racism and prejudice because in a union everybody needs each other–you’ll see truck drivers from Nashville supporting the case of Mexican meat packers in Pasco, Washington.

Tyrone Parker

Fellowship Date: 2007

Tyrone Parker, co-founder and executive director of the Alliance of Concerned Men, mediates disputes among young people at risk in high-crime areas of greater Washington, DC, and works to expand opportunities for them and their families.

You can read more about Tyrone Parker here.

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I always say, if somebody started (the street violence), then somebody can end it.

Darby Penney

Fellowship Date: 2005

Founder of the Community Consortium and the International Network of Treatment Alternatives for Recovery and co-creator of The Suitcase Project, an exhibition recovering the past of forgotten institutionalized patients, Penney is an outspoken advocate for the rights of those with psychiatric disabilities.

You can read more about Darby Penney here.

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The entire public mental health system in America rests on the threat of force and coercion. For the first time a national group recognizes that those of us fighting for the rights of mental patients are part of the broader social justice movement.

Rhonda Perry

Fellowship Date: 2001

Program director of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, Rhonda helps thousands of independent farmers and the rural poor to combat the social, economic and environmental degradation of their communities by big agribusiness.

You can read more about Rhonda Perry here.

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If agricultural subsidies are not replaced by mechanisms that enable farmers to get a fair price from the marketplace, the family farm system of agriculture in this country is going to be destroyed.

Ron Podlaski

Fellowship Date: 1993

Founder and Director of the P.K. Sethi Prosthetics Clinic and Training Center; recognized for providing health care and economic opportunities for amputee victims of land mines.

You can read more about Ron Podlaski here.

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I often feel as if I’m alone in this work. Americans have turned their backs on the legacy of problems in Southeast Asia. And then I have to remember that leaders are the ones at the grass roots level, the first ones to stick their feet into the pond to see if it’s safe for everyone else to go ahead. I’m not afraid to go into that pond first.

Lucy Poulin

Fellowship Date: 1993

Member and leader of Homeworkers Organized for More Employment; recognized for fighting unemployment, illiteracy, and despair among the rural poor in northern Maine.

You can read more about Lucy Poulin here.

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It’s a privilege to work with good people and to do good work. There is nothing to prevent me from living my conscience other than myself.

Ninaj Raoul

Fellowship Date: 2000

Co-founder and Executive Director of Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees; supporter of Haitian refugees; community organizer, and outspoken opponent of insensitive immigration laws, police brutality, and unfair working conditions.

You can read more about Ninaj Raoul here.

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It is past time to correct the U.S.’s indefensible discriminatory policy toward Haitian refugees.

Danalynn Recer

Fellowship Date: 2004

Founding Director of the Gulf Region Advocacy Center, Recer overcame steep obstacles to become a respected scholar and attorney and works tirelessly, pro bono, to improve the quality of trial-level defense in Harris County, Texas, America’s “Capital of capital punishment.”

You can read more about Danalynn Recer here.

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Every defendant fighting for their life deserves for the jury making that decision to know about the life they are being asked to take.