Reparations Commission Members Named

Members will represent the five impact focus areas of criminal justice, economic development, education, health care, and housing.

Brenda Mills, Director of Equity and Inclusion for the City of Asheville.
Brenda Mills, Director of Equity and Inclusion for the City of Asheville.

Asheville City Council on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, named five appointees to the Reparations Commission that was established under legislation sponsored by then-Councilman Keith Young in 2016.

The Commission will determine how to make whole minority communities that were impacted by Urban Renewal, redlining, and other forms of racial discrimination throughout the 20th century.

The City’s appointees, each with an area of expertise, are Joyce Harrison, retired Regional Director of Self-Help Credit Union (Housing); DeWana Little, Executive Director, YMI Cultural Center (Criminal Justice); Dwight B. Mullen, retired UNC Asheville professor of political science and Africana studies (Economic Development); Tamarie Macon, professor (based in Asheville) at UNC-CH Gillings School of Global Public Health (Healthcare); and CiCi Weston, Executive Director of the Christine Avery Learning Center (Education).

Additionally, City Council released the list of the 15 commissioners representing impacted neighborhoods:

  • Burton Street: DeWayne Barton, MZ Yehudah
  • East End/Valley Street: Glenda McDowell, Keith Young
  • Heart of Chestnut: Renata Conyers, Bernard V. Oliphant
  • Shiloh: Norma S. Baynes, Bobbette K. Mays
  • Southside: Mildred Nance Carson, Roy Harris
  • Stumptown: Kimberly Jones, Thomas Priester
  • Public Housing Communities: Aleesha Ballard, Shaunda Jackson, Angela Young
  • Alternate members: Shekiki Jiles-Baten, Darrin Owens.

At press time, Buncombe County Commissioners have not announced the names of the five members it will appoint.

The Reparations Office will be supervised by Asheville’s Equity and Inclusion department, led by Director Brenda Mills.