Building Economic and Climate Justice
Sunday, July 20-Sunday, July 27
Join us for a dynamic conference and hear from leaders who are shifting the flow of capital and power to support communities that face the worst of the climate crisis and the racial wealth gap.
Speakers
Mateo Nube co-founded the Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project. He is national co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance, co-chair of the Justice Funders’ Board of Directors, and a board member of Grassroots International. Mateo was born and grew up in La Paz, Bolivia. Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, he has worked in the labor, environmental justice and international solidarity movements. Mateo works to usher in a just and equitable transition towards the economies that meet our needs, collaborating with communities on the frontlines of ecological disruption. He teaches communities the Just Transition framework, a unifying set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy. His areas of expertise include: political education & strategy development in service of democratizing capital, organizing private & community capital to effect positive change, and cross-class organizing. Mateo is the son of Barbara, fortunate father of Hayden and Nilo, and blessed to be partnered with Effie. He is a member of the Latin rock band Los Nadies.
Jasmine Rashid has always believed in people power. She is a writer, impact investing professional, and author of The Financial Activist Playbook: 8 Strategies for Everyday People to Reclaim Wealth & Collective Well-Being. Growing up in Long Island, New York as the only child of a Bangladeshi immigrant father working in finance and a Czech Italian American mother working in eldercare, Jasmine was intimately attuned to manmade inequalities under capitalism. She organized the largest known protest for racial justice in her hometown’s history and worked with grassroots partners on #FamiliesBelongTogether, a campaign that put public pressure on big banks financing private prison facilities where migrants were held under inhumane conditions. The campaign helped cut $2 billion in financial ties to the industry. Now living in Oakland, California and serving as Director of Impact for Candide Group, Jasmine helps investors flow their money to women- and BIPOC-led social justice-focused organizations building the next economy. She is a Congressman John Lewis fellow, Just Economy Institute alum, Trauma of Money Method certified practitioner, and a nationally recognized speaker and financial activist. Her work has been featured in Forbes, KQED, San Francisco Chronicle, Inc. and other national media outlets.
Ed Dugger is the founder and Managing Partner of Reinventure Capital and has over 30 years of experience as a trailblazer in impact investing. Ed has played a pivotal role in launching some of the nation’s most successful African American-led companies, both private and public. His efforts helped these enterprises secure over $2 billion in capital, while creating more than 7,000 family-supporting jobs. In response to the ongoing racial, social, and economic inequities facing the nation, Ed launched Reinventure Capital in 2020 to focus on the vast, untapped reservoir of entrepreneurial talent among people of color and women who are often overlooked by mainstream investors. Ed has used his success in investing to build bridges between diverse local business communities. As an early advocate and practitioner of DEI, he served as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, where he co-convened several business leadership forums promoting inclusive business practices. Ed also partnered with the CEO of State Street Corporation to create The Business Collaborative (TBC), an innovative initiative that significantly increased sales between major corporations and businesses of color in the greater Boston area. Ed is a graduate of Harvard College and Princeton University (MPA-UP, School of Public and International Affairs). He is also a fitness enthusiast, photographer, family genealogist, and practicing Buddhist. For more on Ed’s journey as a lifelong advocate for racial equity, we encourage you to read: https://reinventurecapital.com/welcome-to-the-third-reconstruction.
Minister of the Week
Rev. Viola Abbitt is the minister at Coastal Virginia Unitarian Universalists in Virginia Beach, VA. Before that she served as the minister for two Unitarian Universalist congregations in New York State, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Poughkeepsie and the First Unitarian Society of Westchester. Rev. Viola was a contributor to the liturgical materials for the UUA’s Promise and the Practice of Our Faith Campaign and is one of the founding members of the Interfaith Coalition in Support of Human Rights. She served on the UUA’s Journey Toward Wholeness Transformation Committee; the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association Committee on Anti-Racism, Anti-Oppression and Multiculturalism; the board of Camp Unirondack in New York; and the board of UU Wellspring, Inc. Prior to ministry, Rev. Viola was the Director of the Office of the Ombudsman in New York State where she managed a program responsible for advocating for the rights of incarcerated youth in the juvenile justice system. Rev. Viola received an MDiv from Meadville Lombard Theological School, a JD from Fordham University School of Law, an MSLS from Long Island University and a BA from Binghamton University. In her spare time, Rev. Viola likes to be in nature and finds renewal being in proximity to just about any body of water. Rev. Viola lives in the Hampton Roads Area of Virginia and is an amateur photographer, a lover of games, autobiographical books, science fiction movies and all forms of dance and music. She has one adult son who also shares her love of music and has made a career of it.
