Ronnie joined Freedom Community Center in July of 2021, part-time, as a Power Builders Organizer where he canvasses and engages with the community, informing neighbors of FCC's mission while inviting them to the "We Keep Us Safe" Power Builders Meet Up. Today, he is a full-time, committed FCC team member expanding his role to include co-facilitating the Power Builders Meet Up, and mentoring people who have done violence towards becoming a healthy community member. Ronnie also leads our abolition work as a lead organizer with our campaign to defund SLMPD, Defund, Re-envision, Transform (DRT). Ronnie is training to be a Restorative Justice Facilitator who focuses on providing healing justice and support for community members that have experienced serious violence.

Before joining the FCC team, Ronnie was an organizer for E.X.P.O., the Housing Assistant for ‘Release To Rent,’ the transitional housing program coordinated by Criminal Justice Ministry, and a board member of Missouri C.U.R.E. Ronnie specializes in fighting male patriarchal violence against Black women, organizing against community gun violence.

Ronnie was incarcerated for 25 years in state prison, with approximately five of those years in solitary confinement. Ronnie is also a survivor of gun violence.

Mike is the Founder and Executive Director of Freedom Community Center. His aim is to build on the radical Black faith tradition of nonviolence and civil rights. Since 2013, Mike has spearheaded grassroots violence interruption efforts, facilitated nonviolence/peacemaking groups, and organized communities to expand Black political power among millennials. Organizing campaigns to elect progressive prosecutors, support mayoral elections, and ballot initiatives. Prior to his work at FCC, Mike has organized against mass and illegal evictions, neighborhood gentrification, and criminal justice efforts to end cash bail.

In 2018, Mike started The Bail Project’s inaugural site in St. Louis in which he eventually founded three more sites across the St. Louis metropolitan area. Resulting in posting bail for more than 4,000 people and supporting their return to court. As the Statewide Policy Manager of TBP, Mike fought off legislation that would have imposed biased risk assessment algorithms and increased use of electronic monitoring in the state of Missouri. He also supported grassroot Black-led orgs in founding their own bail funds. The Bail Project was one of the anchor organizations of The #CloseTheWorkhouse Campaign - an abolitionist campaign to close a local jail in St. Louis. In July 2020, The Board Alderman voted unanimously to defund and close the workhouse. Mike is the 2021 recipient of the JM Kaplan Social Innovation Award and a 2022 Galaxy Leaders Fellow. Mike currently serves on the St. Louis City Criminal Justice Coordinating Council's Alternative to Incarceration Committee. His focus is advancing an abolitionist framework to end the prison industrial complex. Mike is a trained Restorative Justice practitioner.

Patrick joined Freedom Community Center in March 2021 as the Operations Manager running FCC’s financial management and development, managing FCC’s Court Watch program and supporting communications and program design. Prior to FCC, Patrick worked as the Site Manager and Launch Coordinator at The Bail Project, managing TBP sites in San Diego, California and Spokane, Washington while leading the development of TBP “partnership” sites with organizations such as Mano Amiga (TX), Operation Restoration (LA), Texas Organizing Project (TX), and the Mississippi Bail Fund Collective (MS) totalling in 24 sites across the country. Patrick has advocated for individuals' freedom from the criminal punishment system since 2015. In 2016, he co-founded the Connecticut Bail Fund, the first bail fund in the state of Connecticut. Patrick graduated from Yale University in 2018 with a B.A. in American Studies. Patrick is training to be a Restorative Justice Facilitator.

In his own words – “I have survived being socialized and conditioned by patriarchy, white-supremacy, classism, and toxic masculinity which pervaded the spaces I was raised in. “

Tammy is our Director of Community Referral Pathway, “Intensive Track”. FCC’s Community Referral Pathway program assist individuals released from jail by offering therapy (to help process trauma), pod mapping (identifying social supports), ROAD tools (to assess participants needs), goal setting (to achieve self-determination), restorative justice circles (to hold accountability for the harm caused), and financial support (to help with long and short term needs). Tammy comes to us as a Licensed Professional Counselor, with extensive leadership experience working with individuals who have experienced trauma, ranging from physical and psychological abuse and neglect, domestic violence, community violence, and abuse to self and/or others.

Talib has been an active and devoted Qualified Mental Health Professional (QMHP) and family counselor for the past decade. Talib serves as FCC’s Therapeutic Specialist providing mental health services and support for the families and participants of the “Intensive” and “Free Us-Group” track programs. He enjoys being the “voice of the unheard” anytime the need arises to share his knowledge about mental health and community resources. “Lessons learned through lived experiences will always be the best teacher” is a saying close to his heart when it comes to serving his community. Talib holds a Masters of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and a daily advocate for mental health as it concerns the development of the Black community. In being an advocate, he seeks to obliterate the ubiquitous stigma associated with the need for quality mental health. Talib joined FCC in May of 2022, bringing with him the main accouterments of caring and compassion for all who crosses his path.

Michael has been facilitating talking circles since he was circle trained at Roca inc. in 2012. Since then, he has worked at Alternatives Youth where a case study was published on his 3-year Restorative Justice and Violence Reduction Project at Paul Robeson High School. Providing direct service and staff trainings on talking circles, peer conferencing, restorative conversations to address conflict, Michael spearheaded an RJ culture shift wherein level 3 & 4 misconduct decreased 67%, suspensions decreased 70% and police referrals decreased 93%. After these findings, Michael’s job was defunded and the school was closed. Michael then taught classes on Restorative Justice and Peacemaking circles with the Chicago Teachers Union Foundation Quest Center, co-hosted a conference on trauma and resilience, resumed training and coaching Restorative Justice Practices in schools, and helped enshrine Restorative Practices in the CPS-CTU contract by speaking from experience at collective bargaining. He joined Freedom Community Center in Summer 2022.

Shelby joined FCC to offer administrative and operational support as the Project Associate. With a long background in the food and beverage service industry, they’ve committed themselves to working in service to and in support of others in many ways. What calls them to this role in particular is the desire to utilize those supportive skills to create an impact; towards liberation, community healing and abolition. While Shelby is new to this work as a profession, they have been grounded in liberation movements since they were young, attending Indigenous Environmental Conferences up until their days protesting in the Ferguson Uprisings. The things that bring them joy in their day to day are music, food and dogs.