Left to right, Alaka Wali; Brenda M. Palms (top); Cordia Pugh (bottom); Roz Owens.

Cordia Pugh is a Chicago-based community leader, nonprofit founder, and urban gardening advocate with more than 45 years of professional experience in philanthropy, community development, and executive leadership. She is the Founder and Director of Hermitage Community Gardens and the Englewood Veterans Garden, initiatives that promote environmental stewardship, community wellness, and neighborhood engagement through green space and education. Cordia currently serves as President of Community Service of Englewood and Veteran by Veteran Services, leading programs that support civic engagement and advocacy for underserved communities. Her work has earned multiple community and environmental awards, reflecting her passion for using collective action and community-driven solutions to create meaningful change.

Brenda M. Palms, a passionate social entrepreneur, has served as President and CEO of the North Lawndale Employment Network (NLEN), an urban workforce development agency since its founding in 1999. In 2004, she launched NLEN’s wholly owned subsidiary social enterprise Sweet Beginnings, LLC, a social enterprise that harnesses the power of honeybees to transform a community. Through Brenda Palms’ innovative approach, she advances equity for people of color, particularly those facing income constraints and returning from incarceration. Her mission at NLEN equips individuals with valuable skills, industry certifications, and restored self-worth, preparing them to successfully re-enter and thrive in today's competitive labor market. Brenda is a graduate of Harvard’s Strategic Perspectives in Non-Profit Management program and the Chicago Urban League’s Next One entrepreneurship program, which included classes at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. She holds a Master of Science in Nonprofit Management from the Spertus Institute in Chicago.

Roz Owens, The Bronzeville Neighborhood Farm began in 2017 to understand the need for healthy, whole foods in the Bronzeville Community. Many stores sold processed and unhealthy food, but no healthy, whole foods were available other than the one local supermarket. Johnnie Owens, the founder of the farm, campaigned to have the merchants, which were primarily liquor stores, provide healthy food choices at a minimum. From that, he was successful in starting the farm with the assistance of the Alderman, NeighborSpace, and his own tenacity to create a space that grows healthy organic vegetables, educates the residents on making healthy choices by demonstrating how to cook the vegetables to retain their nutrients, and hosts Spring, Summer, and Fall celebrations around food.

Alaka Wali is curator emerita of North American Anthropology in the Negaunee Integrated Research Center at the Field Museum. Alaka was born in India and came to the United States as a child. She received a BA from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University.

She was the founding director of the Center for Cultural Understanding and Change at The Field Museum from 1995 to 2010. During that time, she pioneered the development of participatory social science research and community engagement processes based in museum science. She curated the North American collection, one of the Museum's largest regional anthropology holdings. Since 2000, she has worked closely with ecologists and museum educators to develop innovative community engagement strategies for people living in and around biodiverse regions of the Western Amazon and urban Chicago. She participated in a University of Illinois at Chicago study of Chicago community gardens and ethno-pharmacies that focused on how people are using traditional knowledge to address nutritional and medicinal needs.

Her research focuses on the relationship between art and the capacity for social resilience. She has authored several books, published monographs, and over 50 articles. She has curated numerous exhibitions, pioneering co-curated exhibitions with Native American contemporary artists. She led the curation of the new exhibition—Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories, which opened in May 2022. A companion edited volume is available from BAR Publishing.

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