Meet Our Honorees

Commissioner Marleine Bastien was elected to serve as the District 2 Commissioner on the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners on November 8, 2022. District 2 encompasses portions of the City of Miami, North Miami, North Miami Beach, Opa-locka, City of Hialeah, and unincorporated areas of Liberty City, Biscayne Gardens, and North Dade Central. 

For over 40 years, Bastien has established a global reputation of tireless advocacy for equity, economic empowerment, comprehensive immigration reform, and climate justice. She has championed rights for women, children, families, workers, the elderly, and LGBTQ worldwide. 

Before joining the Board, she worked as a social worker. Then, she went on to found the Family Action Network Movement (FANM). Under her leadership, FANM has grown into a globally recognized model for providing life-enhancing services to low- and moderate-income families in health care, housing, literacy, technical training, after-school and summer programs, immigration reform, business enhancement, job creation, and career development. 

Bastien has received dozens of honorable awards and accolades throughout the years. In 1994, Bastien received the Miami-Dade County Volunteer of the Year Award, followed by the Miami-Dade County Social Worker of the Year Award in 2000 for her services. She has received Congressional recognition from Senator Bill Nelson (2005), Congresswoman Corrine Brown (2008), and Congresswoman Frederica Wilson (2012). She has also been recognized as “One of The 35 Most Remarkable Women in the World” by Essence Magazine. She was Ms. Foundation’s “Woman of the Year,” a City of North Miami Hall of FAME Inductee, and in 2015, she received the Stanley Milledge Life Achievement Award from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

She has also served as either a founding or board member of many organizations, such as the Miami Climate Alliance, North Miami Education Board, Health Foundation of South Florida, Catalyst Miami, Florida Immigrant Coalition, Haitian American Grassroots Coalition, Center for Haitian Studies, Sant La, Haitian Neighborhood Center, Kristi’s House, GAP (Girl Advocacy Power), Women We Will Rebuild, Miami Workers Center, and the American for Immigrants Justice, among others. 

Bastien obtained her master’s degree in social work from Florida International University in 1987.

Ruth Jeannoel is a Haitian American, cultural organizer, holistic healer and writer. She is also a mother and wife. Currently, Ruth serves as the founder and director of the growing non-profit, Fanm Saj, Inc with the mission to provide families across the African Diaspora with cultural and wellness tools as well as social and political resources to nourish themselves, families and communities. Ruth also serves as a Wellness consultant with Sweet Livity, LLC supporting with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Restorative Human Resources and a Coop Owner of Dandelion Medicine Liberation.Ruth Jeannoel has been practicing Restorative Justice Practices since 2010 and began her formal Restorative Justice training in 2015 with Sujatha Baliga of Impact Justice. Sujatha was trained by renowned restorative justice practitioner and trainer, Kay Pranis. Since Ruth was trained, she’s held circles for Power U Center for Social Change, Dream Defenders, NAACP-Miami Dade Chapter, Miami Workers Center, New Florida Majority, S.O.U.L Sisters Leadership Collective and conducted training for agencies and over 200 community members including teachers, students, and parents. 

She has over fifteen years of experience working in education justice as well as extensive experience in after-school programming, popular education, community organizing and advocacy in the youth development and the social/racial justice arenas, working for such organizations as local and national organizations, Power U Center for Social Change, Advancement Project, Miami Workers Center, Dream Defenders, Concerned African Women, Girl Power, Overtown Youth Center, Pridelines, FANM-Haitian Women of Miami, Alliance for Education Justice, Dignity in Schools Campaign, and National Institute for Reproductive Health. Ruth is also a writer with Echoing Ida, A program of Forward Together-A Black women’s writers collective. 

Recently, Ruth became a Yoni Steam Practitioner to add to her wellness toolbox that she will share in her cultural work for Self-care and community care work. Ruth is a Restorative Justice Practitioner Trainer, certified Usui Holy Fire Reiki Practitioner, Womb Reiki & Yoni Steam practitioner. As the creative director of the Sacred Ori Affirmation Card Deck, Ruth uses her personal creativity to shift a larger narrative of healing centered in African Spirituality. Ruth has also moved into priesthood by doing full initiation into the yoruba traditional practice of Ifa/Orisa. 

Ruth also believes strongly that the political struggle is personal. She has a strong commitment to providing communities and individuals with tools to shift the narrative. Recreating our own stories and future for the sake of Black Liberation.

Makani Themba is Chief Strategist at Higher Ground Change Strategies based in Jackson, MS. A social justice innovator and pioneer in the field of change communications and narrative strategy, she has spent more than 20 years supporting organizations, coalitions and philanthropic institutions in developing high impact change initiatives. Higher Ground Change Strategies is her newest project, which she describes as “a place where change makers can get the support they need to take their work to the next level.” Higher Ground helps partners integrate authentic engagement, systems analysis, change communications and more for powerful, vision-based change.

Previously, Makani served as the founder and executive director of The Praxis Project, a nonprofit organization helping communities use media and policy advocacy to advance health justice. Under her leadership, The Praxis Project raised more than $20 million for advocacy organizations working in communities of color and provided training and technical assistance to hundreds of organization and public agencies nationwide. These initiatives include Communities Creating Healthy Environments (C-CHE), an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to support policy advocacy to advance healthy food outlets and safe places to play in communities of color and Building Capacity Building Power, a partnership with Ford Foundation to support grassroots civic engagement and Policy Advocacy on Tobacco and Health (PATH)

Makani is a highly sought-after public speaker, capacity builder, and ethnographer. Her publications have helped set the standard for policy advocacy work and contributed significantly to the field of public health’s current emphasis on media and policy advocacy to address root causes of health problems.

Makani has published numerous articles and case studies on race, class, media, policy advocacy and public health. She is co-author of Media Advocacy and Public Health: Power for Prevention, a contributor to the volumes We the Media, State of the Race: Creating Our 21st Century, along with many other edited book projects. Makani was chosen as one of “Ten Black Thinkers” asked to comment on Black conditions as part of the NAACP Crisis magazine’s 60th anniversary commemoration of the landmark article What the Negro Wants. She is author of Making Policy, Making Change, and she has also co-authored with Hunter Cutting Talking the Walk: Communications Guide for Racial Justice. Her latest book, a collaboration under The Praxis Project is Fair Game: A Strategy Guide for Racial Justice Communications in the Obama Era.

Quanita is the Executive Director of Groundswell Action Fund, a first-of-its-kind 501(c)(4) public foundation founded in 2017 resourcing electoral organizing efforts led by women of color, transgender and gender expansive people of color in reproductive and social justice. We had the luxury of building on 15 years of wisdom and power from our work on the c3 side, Groundswell Fund, which is one of the largest funders of the Reproductive Justice (RJ) movement in the U.S.. Quanita has helped to raise $100M for grassroots social justice organizations advancing democracy and reproductive justice.

Prior to this role, Quanita led Groundswell’s 501(c)(3) Integrated Voter Engagement (IVE) program, which equipped 20 Reproductive Justice (RJ) groups with cutting-edge voter engagement skills and technology. Quanita began organizing for social and racial justice alongside her parents in her native South Africa during the transition from apartheid to democracy. She joined her parents as they voted, for the first time in their lives, for Nelson Mandela in 1994. It was this moment that sparked a lifelong passion for electoral organizing.

Quanita and her family immigrated to Miami, Florida in 1997. She found her political home at the Miami Workers Center and was involved in MWC’s first non-partisan civic engagement campaign in 2008. In 2009, she built electoral organizing infrastructure at the New Florida Majority and led the creation of statewide, data-driven electoral campaigns to advance social justice in the state of Florida. Passionate about advancing multi-entity organizing for reproductive and social justice, she currently serves on the 501(c)(4) boards of Proteus Action League, Tides Advocacy and National AAPI Power Fund.

James McKinney (lovingly referred to as the other James) has spent the last seven years working remotely with Power U, serving as their bookkeeper and playing a crucial role in ensuring resources support the mission of dismantling systems of white supremacy, capitalism, and heteropatriarchy. Their work aligns with Power U’s values of self-determination, economic justice, and solidarity across communities of color.