Embedded Files
Presenter Bios
Presenter Bios
Vicki Meath, Executive Director, Just Economics
Vicki comes to Just Economics with a background in community organizing. She has worked on environmental, social and economic justice issues ranging from responsible oil and gas drilling to protecting health and human services in the Ohio state budget. In 2006, Vicki worked with Let Justice Roll and Cleveland Jobs with Justice on the successful campaign to raise the state minimum wage and continued to work with Jobs with Justice on the Cuyahoga County Living Wage Campaign and other worker justice issues. Vicki has a strong commitment to and passion for economic justice work. Vicki has a teenage daughter and has lived in the Asheville area since 2007. Vicki has been involved in a variety of community activities and lives in West Asheville.
John Boyle
David Bartholomew is a native of Waynesville, NC and is the Homeless Prevention Program Director at Pisgah Legal Services. David serves on HIAC and AHAC advisory committees and his work focuses on housing law, administrative law, and community economic development. David oversees eviction and homelessness prevention related services at Pisgah Legal Services, including facilitating staff training, providing regular case oversight, and conducting outreach to community partners to build pipelines of referrals and resources for clients. David has been instrumental in crafting expansion efforts including strategic staff expansion and a courthouse project where advocates meet tenants outside the courtroom to divert evictions. Before returning home to WNC in 2018, he practiced with the Georgia Legal Services Program and Atlanta Legal Aid. 3.
Francina Edmonds
Kate Pett is the Executive Director of Thrive Asheville. In this role, Kate has catalyzed community support for collaborative leadership on community priorities that steer growth for the benefit of all of Asheville's residents. Kate has worked at the intersection of community development, education, and equity throughout her career. Kate led the Asheville City Schools Foundation for eleven years, during which time she greatly expanded the financial, human, and programmatic resources available to teachers and students in the Asheville City Schools. Kate utilized a collective-impact approach to align more than 50 after-school providers and vastly increased the number of middle school students actively engaged in healthy, educational activities after school. Ten years later, nearly 300 students per year participate in this collaborative network each year. Kate was also the Educational Director of a wilderness program for adjudicated youth, and a classroom teacher in inner-city Detroit and the Asheville City Schools. Kate was a community organizer in Seattle, Washington where she developed a school-based resource center for vulnerable children and families. Kate served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines and Mali, supporting community education projects related to natural resources and public health. Much of what Kate knows about how to build community she learned from the villagers who generously hosted her.
Kate earned a B.A. in International Relations, with a focus on African Studies, at American University, in Washintgon, D.C. She also completed a Masters in Education, with a concentration in Urban Issues at the University of Michigan, where she was a Fellow. Kate laughs often with her funny, musical husband Vince, who is a teacher and former Peace Corps Volunteer. Her children, Gabe and Juliana, are her greatest joys.
Rob Thomas - Click here for bio
Ponkho Bermejo, Co-Director, BeLoved Asheville
Ponkho is a strong indigenous/Latinx community organizer who is brilliant at innovation and is also BeLoved’s media expert. He loves supporting the community in expressing cultural pride, honoring ancestors, and teaching our youth their cultural roots. He loves photography, art, music, and creativity and he uses these gifts to celebrate culture and work for racial equity and social justice. He has been given awards for his work by the Asheville Area Arts Council and Co-Thinnk. He is passionate about creating equity and access for BIPOC and low wealth communities.
Amy Cantrell, Co-Director, BeLoved Asheville
Amy brings her passion for people power in making the community better. She founded BeLoved Asheville to be a place where people of all walks of life could come together to create powerful solutions to common struggles and a WNC where everyone thrives. She has spent three decades working on the ground building intersectional community, creating mutual aid networks and working for social, economic, and racial justice. She holds a Masters degree from Columbia Theological Seminary and is ordained clergy in the Presbyterian Church, USA. Prior to founding BeLoved Asheville, she was the Director of United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County’s Volunteer Center and adjunct faculty at AB Tech.
Ways to Get Involved
Ways to Get Involved
WNC Social Justice Advocacy Guide
Join a build with Habitat for Humanity
Sign up for newsletters from panel organizations
Volunteer with OnTrack
OnTrack is looking for volunteers for its VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) program. Volunteer tax preparers support low- and moderate-income families to maximize tax refunds and credits. No tax or accounting experience is needed; OnTrack provides training and extensive support to all volunteers. Tax preparation fees are an expensive barrier for many people because they eat into their much-needed refund or add to an already difficult burden. VITA eliminates this barrier by preparing tax returns for free for those who need it most.
For many families, accessing a tax refund can mean replenishing an emergency fund, buying new clothes for the kids, or repairing the family car. That’s why VITA volunteers find the program so rewarding; many have been returning for years. The volunteers are a great bunch of fun, team-oriented people who love to support their clients.
To learn more, please contact the VITA Coordinator, Rebecca Strimer, at rebeccas@ontrackwnc.org.
Reading & Resources
Reading & Resources
This Divided Land (Asheville Area Habit for Humanity)
https://www.ashevillehabitat.org/thisdividedland/
Thrive Asheville Information on Housing
https://www.thriveavl.org/affordable-housing-stats
https://www.thriveavl.org/housing-policy-agenda
https://www.thriveavl.org/finding-home-panel-discussion
"Nonprofits Strive to Meet Affordable Housing Demand", Mountain Xpress
NC 211 - An information and referral service helping people find community health and human resources among the almost 30,000 nonprofits in North Carolina.
Book: Medical Apartheid
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