Who We Are & What We Do

Victim advocacy - to simplify, define, and disseminate your civil right to require due process accountability, compassionately, in the event of discrimination, harassment, and/or retaliation towards remedy.

Mission & Purpose

Mission: MyTurn AntiDiscrimination Advocacy is dedicated to educating and supporting individuals who have experienced discrimination in employment, housing, and other areas. Our goal is to help individuals recognize, report, and address racial discrimination effectively.

Vision

MyTurn is unique in proactively trying to educate constituents how to reduce and/or remove the oppressive nature of apparent/implied discrimination to heal and thrive without the lasting disparate impacts of discrimination.

Meet the Team

Institutionalized racism has been known to shown one hand to retroactively send aid/show “some” concern while the other hand holds barriers against proactive measures that will keep disparaging acts from existing. TaShonda is dedicated to disseminating said proactive measures to those mainly impacted by societal disparities.

TaShonda Williamson

Visionary & Executive Director

To coordinate and work with human resources department to create job descriptions to hire competent personnel and independent contractors. Manage and arrange office space, a self-starter with a positive attitude who enjoys working through people to achieve tremendous results.

LaJoya Whitson

Operations

To help develop and execute new growth directives by liaising financial plans to ensure operational compliance. Keeping abreast of the financial broadcast budget for appropriate utilization of financials. Which would include procurement and resource allocation.

Vanessa Gilbert

Finance

MyTurn Board of Directors

David O'Fallon, PhD

Honorary Board Advisor

David's life themes are education and education reform, arts and cultural work, creating community, and imagining and creating the future. He has followed these themes through senior positions at the National Endowment for the Art's, the

John F. Kennedy Center, and the University of Minnesota. He has led three state agencies in Minnesota as president or Chief Executive Officer (CEO); The Perpich Center for Arts Education, MacPhail Center for Music, and recently the Minnesota Humanities Center. He has consulted widely, nationally and internationally, with small and large organizations on these themes. This is a moment of fundamental change in this nation and the world. Old narratives and the organizations they formed are failing; some are becoming destructive as they fall. David is committed to working with organizations to create the new relationships and new narratives needed to connect us all, to take us forward. To work with those who are creating the organisms (rather than organizations) needed to thrive and sustain and create. He is passionate about working with people and organizations who want to make this transition and to walk into the future.

Cassandra Finley, BSA

Board Director

Cassandra R Finley is a systemic thinker, analytical problem solver and abolitionist from America's segregated South. Her experiences growing up in Birmingham, Alabama during the fight to end the Jim Crow Era and her personal fights for equity, as a leader in global Project Management, inform her work in discrimination advocacy. Cassandra graduated from Tennessee State University with a Bachelor in Science in Architectural Engineering. Her strong business acumen was developed delivering complex global business initiatives for the Procter & Gamble Company; and through coaching C-Suite executives in Canada, Europe, and South America.

Crystal Fairchild, MBA

Board Vice-Chair

Crystal has been a public servant for the State of Minnesota for over six years. Crystal has worked across agencies focusing on strategic initiatives and equity mechanisms to support the values of diversity, compassion, integrity, fairness and inclusion in state systems. Crystal has over fifteen years of experience in improving human resource, business and social service functions acting as a leader, trainer, and practitioner in nonprofit sectors. Crystal is a graduate from the University of Delaware with a master's degree in Human Services Administration and an emphasis in Public Relations. When she is not maximizing her skills to serve the State of Minnesota, Crystal enjoys spending time with her family, traveling and relaxing whenever possible.

Rebekah Bailey, JD

Board Secretary

Rebekah is a partner at Nichols Kaster, PLLP in Minneapolis where she focuses on plaintiff-side class action and qui tam litigation. Rebekah is a founding member of the firm's civil rights and impact litigation team and consumer class action group, and she has served as a member of the firm's national wage and hour team. Rebekah has served as a practical instructor for the University of Minnesota's Law and Practice class. Rebekah is a member of the U.S. District Court of Minnesota's Federal Practice Committee, a Vice-Chair on the American Bar Association Association's Labor & Employment Law Treatise Committee, and a co-chair for the ABA-LEL FLSL's Equal Pay Act subcommittee. Rebekah has spoken at national conferences on various topics, including equal pay, class action litigation, discovery, and various wage and hour issues.

Jeff Hanson, MD

Board Treasurer

Retired Family Medicine Physician, who practiced in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Dr. Hanson has worked for many years helping to establish multiple community clinics in becoming full service primary clinics. These include: Southside, Green Central, and Cedar Riverside Peoples Center Community Clinics. Dr. Hanson has taught as an Associate Professor in Family Medicine at the University of Minnesota Family Residency programs. Dr. Hanson continues to be involved with the Guatemala Surgery organization, which sends medical teams to Guatemala yearly- bringing services to those who do not have access to healthcare.

Ellena Schoop, CDMP

Board Chair

Ellena (Tina) Schoop, east coast native, IT Professional by day, is a founding member of Uhuru Dancers, 1989. She is a West African dancer, choreographer, poet, and playwright who writes dramatic works of social, economic and historical subjects. Visionary and Co-founder of Givens Black Writers Collaborative Retreat Program (2008), in Minnesota. Raised by parents who were members of the Black Panther Party, she believes in not only sharing these stories through dance and writing, but through fighting for equity. She has performed, written and shared stories throughout the Twin Cities for the past 2 decades. As a state employee, systems/data architect and former union board member, she is Founder and Chair of Women IT ChangeMakes Employee Resource Group (ERG); along with Equity and Justice Black Caucus Statewide ERG. She works to change policies, processes and practices that don’t serve black and brown employees. She also works to increase participation and access to IT programs for black and brown girls. One way she does this is as an active board member of CodeSavvy, part of TechnovationMN. The sisterhood of Uhuru Dancers, her work with former Givens Foundation Collaborative Retreat program, and the many friendships made along the way continues to ground her in her life endeavors. For more info go to: www.ellenaplaywright.com

SONYA ANDREW, Ph.D

Board Director

Ready to serve! Her dissertation study 'The Jim Crow Scratch in The Record of U.S. Public Administration' -which explores the impacts of Jim Crow-Neoliberalism, media and rhetoric on equitable delivery of public administration to Black communities. She has a Master's in public administration and Ed.D in organizational change and administration where she has experience with non-profit administration and real estate banking. She has a certificate in project management and human resource management. Lastly, she has strong experience with problem-solving, service, collaboration, starting and managing offices with successfully implementing procedures and technology towards functionality.

MyTurn AntiDiscrimination Advocacy

Mission: MyTurn Anti-Discrimination Advocacy is dedicated to educating and supporting individuals who have experienced discrimination in employment, housing, and other areas. Our goal is to help individuals recognize, report, and address racial discrimination effectively.

Services:

Educational Forums: We offer both in-person and virtual forums that provide resources and knowledge on identifying racial discrimination. These forums also educate individuals on the necessary evidence to gather when discrimination occurs.
Resource Advocacy: We offer advocacy services to individuals who have faced discrimination, including a 24-hour crisis hotline for urgent support.
Report Guidance: We provide resources on how to report discrimination and seek remedies.
Data Collection and Research: We aim to expand our impact nationally, gather more data, and support research on discrimination.

Funding and Goals:

Donations: We seek donations to enhance our hotline and provide resources and referrals for individuals affected by discrimination.
Expansion: We plan to hire additional staff and expand our services throughout Minnesota, with the vision to increase our national presence.

Nonprofit Status: MyTurn is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization.

Founder and Executive Director: Our organization is led by a BIPOC founder and executive director committed to advocating to survivor victims of discrimination , harassment, and retaliation. We empower individuals to use their voices to require justice and remedy.