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.

Tracy is the Director of Movement Building and Storytelling and leads the development of FCC’s survivor membership base including our PowerBuilders bi-weekly meetup, our coalition work as part of The People’s Plan STL and the Defund. Reenvision. Transform. Campaign, and our CourtWatch Program. Prior to that, she worked as a Bail Disrupter at The Bail Project, posting bail and supporting over 900 people in the St. Louis region. an organizer with EXPO (Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing), and a program facilitator with the Institute for Peace and Justice. Tracy currently is a board member of the Center for Women In Transition, and a Spoken Word Artist.
Tracy is a certified well-being life coach - specializing in women and families impacted by substance use and community violence. Tracy is currently in training to be a Restorative Justice facilitator.

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. “

Kayla “KV” is a multifaceted professional from St. Louis, MO. She is an educator, creative artist, community builder, facilitator, and survivor. Kayla currently leads Freedom Community Center’s (FCC) Free Us - Sponsored Recognizance Group Track Program. “Free Us-Group Track” aims to fight against mass incarceration by sponsoring release for individuals who would otherwise be held in pretrial detention until their trial. Through this innovative community-based program, individuals receive group and individual therapy, one-on-one mentoring, engage in restorative justice circles, and learn strategies for nonviolence to begin their healing journey. Prior to her work at FCC, Kayla worked as a Manager of School Programs at Alive & Well Communities, where she trained local educators and community members on how to provide trauma-informed care. Kayla's work at Alive & Well focused on uncovering connections between current traumatic experiences, racial and historical trauma, and the consequences of adverse community environments. She has facilitated over 100 training sessions to more than 1000 participants in the Missouri area. Drawing on her experience as a program facilitator, Kayla teaches nonviolence classes to participants enrolled in the Group Track program. Kayla earned a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology and a certificate in Identity and Diversity in the United States from Webster University in 2013. She later received a Masters in Education from the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 2015. When Kayla is not teaching peace and advocating for freedom, she can be found writing and performing on stages around St. Louis under the moniker “KVtheWriter.”

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.

Ranita is the Crisis Intervention Specialist and Case Worker for the Freedom Community Center. She has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Sociology with a focus in law, justice, and society. Her educational background has given her the confidence to pursue a career geared towards the advancement of her community. It has also provided opportunities for networking and building relationships with those that have the capacity to make a change. Ranita is currently working as a Crisis Intervention Specialist for people who suffer from mental health issues, suicide, and other issues plaguing the community. As a Crisis Intervention Specialist her daily job requirements are for her to effectively communicate with her participants, as well as her colleagues, while utilizing problem solving methods and providing appropriate resources. Her background and family history of community building has given Ranita the skills and tools to help restore healing to her community. When she is not working, Ranita enjoys spending time with her daughter, cooking and traveling.

As FCC’s Pretrial Organizer, Sarah helps coordinate CourtWatch and leads bail organizing. She is eager to fight for people’s freedom, learn new transformative justice tools, and move St. Louis closer towards an abolitionist future. Sarah is from Addis Ababa, grew up in Fresno and moved to St. Louis in 2019. Before joining the team, she worked as the Programs Coordinator at The Luminary, the Fatal State Violence Response Program Manager, and a Campaign Organizer at Missouri Health Care For All. Outside of work, Sarah enjoys cooking, reading nonfiction, listening to podcasts, and doing the crossword.

Olajuwon is a passionate creative and servant of the People. He is a Violence Intervention Specialist (VIS) at FCC who mentors participants in our Free-Us Group Track program. With a long history of activism, service, and now healing resistance, Olajuwon aspires to empower those affected by the unjust federal, state, and local penal systems through the development of healthy relationships, holistic education, and restorative justice practices. Olajuwon was a leader and first responder during the 2014 Ferguson unrest, and consequently targeted by the FBI on a weapons sting that led to an 84-month federal prison sentence. Now free, he is committed to aiding others in freeing themselves, by sharing the wisdom gained from his experiences, and most importantly by being the change he wants to see. He is a Board Member of the Institute for Peace and Justice, a writer, actor, and a powerful voice in the St. Louis creative arts community.

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.