Charm City Dreamers

Zach Snitzer is the Corporate Director of Marketing at Maryland Addiction Recovery Center (MARC) and is responsible for the business development, marketing, branding, public relations, communications, and social media strategies of the organization.Due to his own personal journey of recovery, Zach had a vision of bringing world class long-term treatment to his home state that viewed addiction as a chronic illness and offered a continuum that truly aided in healing patients and families with a path of sustainable recovery.

Kerry Graves serves as the Executive Director of NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore. In her role, she provides leadership for NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore’s mission of improving the lives of individuals and families affected by mental illness. NAMI Metro Baltimore is one of the largest and most active local affiliates of NAMI, the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization. Tevis Simon is a Baltimore Maryland native and loving mother of one adult daughter and grandson. She received her call to mental health advocacy in 2015 as she battled with the acceptance of her mental health diagnosis. Deciding to become educated rather than afraid of her mental illness, she became a public speaker, mental health mentor, peer recovery specialist and support group facilitator.  Tevis is dedicated to her ministry, Walk By Faith Consulting, which supports mental wellness, assisting with recovery in mental health and substance abuse, and overcoming barriers to employment in addition to providing mental health presentation

Torrey Smith, former NFL Raven wide receiver and 2x Superbowl Champion, is the founder Level 82. In this episode we explore the importance of mental health and how Level82 is helping leverage the power of community collaboration to enable all Baltimore families to reach their full potential .

Dr. Letitia Dzirasa joined Baltimore City government as the Commissioner of Health in March 2019. Dr. Dzirasa, a Hopkins trained pediatrician, believes that equitable care is basic right for all and will tirelessly advocate for programs that support the overall health and wellbeing of all Baltimore city residents.  Dr. Dzirasa’s special interests include obesity management and prevention, trauma informed care in children and adolescents, and expanded use of technology to improve health outcomes. 

Project HEAL (Health through Early Awareness and Learning) is a University of Maryland Public Health Initiative to focused on cancer related disparities across different communities. They practice evidence-based intervention that uses a Community Health Advisor approach to increase cancer awareness early detection. Maisha is a graduate research assistant for the lab and Shay Sharpe is a community partner, founder of Shay Sharpe's Pink Wishes and 2x breast cancer survivor.

Regina Reed, MPH is an advocate and organizer for health care justice. Regina is the Policy Manager at the National Health Care for the Homeless Council where she lobbies for national policy change to increase access to health care for vulnerable people. She is also a Board Member with the Baltimore Abortion Fund (BAF). BAF provides financial assistance to people who live in or travel to Maryland for abortion care and uses an intersectional reproductive justice lens to dismantle white supremacy and remove systemic barriers to accessing care.      

Enjoy our latest episode with Marissa Jachman, the Executive Director of the Erin Levitas Foundation. Erin Levitas (Marissa's cousin) died from cancer at age 22. A senior in college, Levitas was about to head to law school when she learned of her terminal diagnosis. The family created the Erin Levitas Foundation to honor her memory and to make sure the work she wanted to see in the world could happen: working with teens and young adults to prevent sexual assault.

Ana Rodney is the founder of MOMCares. MOMCares is a postpartum doula program designed to support mothers of color in the NICU who identify themselves as under supported and facing financial stressors. MOMCares provides packaged meals, transportation, bedside support, self care opportunities and child care for older siblings to mothers in need. 

Eric Jackson is an organizer, educator, and filmmaker, humbly serving as the visionary and a co-founder of Black Yield Institute, committed to building a movement toward Black Land and Food Sovereignty in Baltimore. Currently, he and his team are committed to a 1.25 acre urban agriculture operation and building a cooperatively-owned grocery store in South Baltimore, while also conducting Black-led research, facilitating political education, and organizing an action network.   

Wendy Jeffries is the founding Executive Director of TasteWise Kids. TasteWise Kids empowers kids to think about food in new ways, to explore their own sense of taste, and to build healthy eating habits. Learning directly from farmers, chefs and other food professionals kids learn food comes from and how to prepare their own healthy food options. 

Nichole Mooney is the Executive Director and Founder of Black Girls Cook (BGC). BGC is a non-profit organization with a mission to teach adolescent girls of color self-actualization techniques and life-skills through the use of culinary arts and edible gardening. Hands-on cooking classes are not taught in schools and businesses that teach cooking classes for kids are very expensive. Therefore, girls living in households with limited incomes and don’t have access to healthy food options tend to eat convenience foods which over time impacts their health in a negative way. Food equity and access to cooking classes is a serious issue in inner-city communities and Black Girls Cook aims to alleviate the problem one girl at a time.

In this episode we interview executive director of Moveable Feast Sue Elias. Moveable Feast strives to foster a community that cares for men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other life-threatening illnesses by preparing and delivering nutritious meals and groceries and providing nutritional counseling and other services. This is a continuation of our series on Food Resiliency and specifically explores food as medicine and healthcare.

Matt Burke is the executive director of Food Rescue Baltimore. In this episode we discuss how access to food is a basic human right, and should not be dependent on class or economic interests. Food Rescue Baltimore is dedicated to food justice: ensuring equal access to nutritious food, and providing for those in need in Baltimore's communities.

Farmer Nell is the founder and owner of City Weeds, an innovative urban agricultural business in Baltimore, that is striving to make healthy food options available in the city’s food deserts. He also founded Be More Green which promotes youth empowerment. In this episode we discuss how he reimagines the corner store to become place to promote healthy living.

Ms. Freishtat is Baltimore City’s first Food Policy Director and is the Chief of Food Policy & Planning Division in the Department of Planning. She created and oversees the Baltimore Food Policy Initiative (BFPI) with the goal to address food system policy and to build an equitable and resilient urban food system. She works city-wide with many government departments to align priorities and projects around improving the Baltimore City food environment. Recognizing that government can’t address food access alone, she uses a multi-sector perspective and engages with many agencies, nonprofits, community groups and stakeholders to dismantle policy barriers, facilitate new partnerships and leverage funding to implement innovative solutions to address food access and urban agriculture issues in Baltimore. 

In this episode we interview Stephen Garten the founder of Charity Charge which is a B corporation focused on social change. Charity charge is empowering consumers to help non-profits and helping non-profits receive access to financial products. We also discuss what is social entrepreneurship and how we measure social impact & change. This episode was a Mcdonogh Alumni conversation webinar that we have converted into a Charm City Dreamer episode. Enjoy!

In this episode we interviewed Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos a pulmonary critical care doctor at Johns Hopkins, researcher for NIH, vaccine consultant for Astrazeneca and founder of the community non-profit social health organization Medicine For The Greater Good. We explore the current facts around the vaccine, steps to prevent spread, and equip our listeners on how to best stay informed & up to date on COVID 19.

Sam is the founder of Baltimore Votes and the Director of Full Participation Program at the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC). He leads NCoC’s efforts to cultivate the country’s largest network of local leaders committed to ensuring their communities achieve full participation in elections. Locally, Baltimore Votes is committed to working towards a future where every person, in every precinct votes in every election, and that work doesn’t stop just because our city is in the middle of a health crisis. Your support in this unprecedented time means so much to us.

Valeria Fuentes is the founder of Roots and Raíces, which is a platform for artists, musicians, and activists to highlight, support, and celebrate immigrants in Baltimore through the arts and civic engagement. In this episode we focus on civic engagement and voting initiatives within the hispanic community. She is also on the advisory board of Baltimore Votes.

In this episode we discuss voting rights for people who have been affected by the criminal justice system. Out for Justice, Inc. (OFJ) is a grassroots nonprofit organization that was founded in 2006 in Baltimore, Maryland by a group of formerly incarcerated individuals who were ready and willing to work but repeatedly denied employment due to their criminal record. With the support of justice-impacted individuals, their friends, and their family members, OFJ strives to bring about policy reform that ends employment barriers and perpetual punishment that adversely affects citizens impacted by the criminal justice system.