WEPOWER, Author at WEPOWER

Just Released—More Black than Blue: Politics and Power in the 2019 Black Census

By WEPOWER | May 29, 2019

collage of black people with yellow tint over photos

Black Futures Lab just released the results of the largest survey of Black people in the United States since Reconstruction.

Krysta Grangeno: “Expanding quality access is imperative.”

By WEPOWER | May 29, 2019

photo of video and camera equipment interviewing young woman

Reporters with the Higher Education Channel interviewed a number of the Tomorrow Builders earlier this month to learn more about their efforts to reimagine and redesign our region’s early childhood education system to be more equitable.

Nominate an education advocate & your favorite teacher!

By WEPOWER | May 13, 2019

Take a moment to reflect and celebrate community members by nominating someone special to apply this spring’s Power-Building Academy.

Joey Saunders

By WEPOWER | May 3, 2019

Director of Policy & Systems Change

Joey leads the Tomorrow Builders Fellowship. He is an award-winning writer, filmmaker, educator, and policy wonk committed to creating meaningful, equitable change in his home state, Missouri. He has written for the Kansas City Star, is a winner of Shark Tank:Teacher Edition, and served as a policy fellow to Kansas City Mayor Sly James. Known to his former students as “Mr. Joey,” he served as a Teach For America corps member in one of Missouri’s communities most harmed by poverty and racism. He obtained his bachelor degree at Arizona State University and his master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Charli Cooksey

By WEPOWER | May 1, 2019

Founder & CEO

Charli is a St. Louis native who returned home in 2009 to serve as a middle school English educator through Teach For America after completing her undergraduate studies at Prairie View A&M University. In 2011, Charli co-founded an educational access venture called inspireSTL. During Charli’s tenure, each senior class of inspireSTL Scholars celebrated 100% high school graduation and four-year college acceptance rates. inspireSTL has inducted seven classes of scholars, and it is on track to serve approximately 400 scholars annually. Charli went on to serve as an Executive-in-Residence at the United Way with a focus on education innovation. Prior to WEPOWER, she served as the Interim Executive Director/Lead Catalyst of Forward Through Ferguson.

We celebrated our one-year anniversary last week!

By WEPOWER | April 29, 2019

Over these past twelve months, we have trained and supported 44 community members with developing new solutions and advocating for policy change for children in East St. Louis and St. Louis City.