Taneum Fotheringill joins the Rural Assembly as the Associate Director of Community. Taneum takes pride in being a connector and looks forward to developing positive relationships with Rural Assembly communities across the country. Her work is informed by a lifelong interest in civics and the belief that everyone’s voice matters.
Shonterria Charleston brings to her work both a military sense of duty to get the job done and dedication to serve those in need. Charleston has relied on both instincts during her 21 year career at the Housing Assistance Council, a national organization that helps build homes and communities across rural America. Charleston and her colleagues work with organizations in rural communities across the United States to help ensure that they have the funding, technical knowledge, training and information they need. Charleston arrived at HAC fresh from the U.S. Army. She and her husband, both in the military at the time, decided to leave the service after having their daughter. Her military experience has given her insight into housing issues facing veterans as she works on HAC’s Affordable Housing for Rural Veterans initiative. Charleston was raised in Atlanta. Growing up, she experienced the stress of housing and food insecurities. Her mother worked hard cleaning at a hospital and hotel,
Midwife Lodz Joseph-Lemon talks about the need to “keep doing the work” toward a more just and equal society.
For decades, Oleta Garrett Fitzgerald has championed access to quality education and other vital resources for children and struggling families throughout the rural south.
The Rural Assembly is committed to amplifying voices of rural agents of change, who are working to build a more equitable, inclusive, and thriving rural America. Now more than ever, we need to listen to the voices of people of color, women, immigrants, young people, and the LGBTQ community for truth and guidance. about how to heal and repair what is broken. We are grateful to Anita Earles, Ruby Sales, Diana Oestreich, Jackie Shelton Green, Prairie Rose Seminole, Magaly Licolli, for sharing their voices at the 2018 Rural Assembly and the 2019 Rural Women’s Summit.
This article appeared in the Daily Post-Athenian on April 10, 2020 The blooming of dogwoods triggers an intense longing for my grandparents, George and Mary Ellen Naff. As a child, I spent many hours climbing the white dogwood in their front yard, often in church dresses and patent-leather shoes. Granddaddy would hold my hand as I climbed higher and higher and then he’d turn quick enough to catch me when I jumped down. In my memory he is there by the tree dressed up, too. He wears a grey suit and tie or a button up shirt and slacks, probably just home from visiting parishioners in the hospital or from one of the rural churches he served after retiring from the college. My grandparents lived directly across the street from us until I was about 8 years old. Their house and yard were like a revolving door for our family. I’d run up the driveway and into their house
