From Evidence to Power: Community Partnerships and Systems Change

From Evidence to Power:

Community Partnerships and Systems Change

Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET

Check-in and lunch begin at 12:00 p.m.

Reception to follow

Hybrid Event

Attend in person or virtually

George Washington University

The State Room on the 7th Floor

1957 E Street NW

Washington, DC 20052

What becomes possible when communities don’t just inform research but shape it?

This convening—hosted by the Urban Institute, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Policies for Action (P4A) program, the Institute for Socioeconomic Opportunity at The George Washington University (GW) and the Center for Community Resilience at GW’s Milken Institute School of Public Health—brings together national leaders and practitioners, community and research partners, policymakers, funders, journalists, and storytellers to explore that question.

Drawing on P4A projects that center community partnerships, the program examines what it takes—structurally and relationally—to move evidence toward power. The focus is practical: how communities set research priorities, guide methods, interpret findings, and determine how evidence moves into policy and practice. Creative work will be integrated throughout the program, drawing directly from the communities and projects featured in the panels. This may include oral histories, visual art, zines, film, and other creative work. Community voices will be present in every session as framers and knowledge producers, not as guests.

The program will feature four panels, each exploring a different dimension of community-driven research and systems change:

Keynote:

• Dayna Bowen Matthew, Dean, George Washington University School of Law; Founder, Institute for Socioeconomic Opportunity, George Washington University

Panel 1: Reparations: Memory, Harm, and the Politics of Evidence

How have communities defined harms, articulated remedies, and attempted to influence institutional design in reparative policy processes? This panel examines how community-led research has shaped—or sought to shape—reparations policy and what it means for public testimony to function as planning data.

Speakers:

• Chasity Leake, CEO, Authentic Healing
• Marisa Raya, Researcher, PhD Candidate, and Teaching Assistant, University of California, Davis
• Ronnie Webb Jr., Community Engagement Manager, Center for Community Resilience, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University (moderator)

Panel 2: Land: Ownership, Justice, and Community-Defined Remedy

Land is a site of power—materially, historically, and symbolically. This panel brings Indigenous sovereignty and Black land loss into the same frame, asking what community-led evidence reveals about structural disparities and what remedies communities themselves propose.

Speakers:

• Lisa Bates, Professor, Portland State University
• Darlene Franco (Wukchumni ancestral homelands/Tulare County), Member, California Land Equity Task Force
• Purva Trivedi, Policy Analyst, Institute for Socioeconomic Opportunity
• Emily Wright (Cherokee), Senior Research Fellow, Urban Institute (moderator)

Panel 3: Community: Participation, Power, and Policy Change

What does it take for community participation to move beyond symbolic inclusion toward durable influence? This panel explores the gap between policy intent and lived experience and asks how community-led research and evaluation can shift accountability.

Speakers:

• Misty Flowers (Isanti Dakota/Tlingit), Senior Child Welfare Fellow, National Indian Child Welfare Association
• Lorraine Lathen, President and Founder, Jump at the Sun Consultants LLC
• Xavier Morales, Executive Director, The Praxis Project
• Bishop Ennis Tait, Site Director, Healing Cities; Senior Pastor, New Beginnings Church of the Living God (moderator)

Panel 4: Reality Check: Constraints, Frictions, and the Work of Doing This Well

This panel creates space for candor, an honest reckoning with what makes this work hard and what it takes to sustain it. It will speak directly to the current moment: the rollback of equity-oriented initiatives, the undermining of communities and institutions that have championed justice, and what it means to continue this work with integrity and courage.

Speakers:

• Scotty Johnson, Councilmember, Cincinnati, Ohio
• Erin Saul, Executive Director, GreenLight Cincinnati
• Robert Thomas, Cofounder, Outspoken Undaunted Revolutionaries of Asheville
• Laura Huerta Migus, Director, Fellowship Alumni Engagement and National Activation and Impact, Ascend at the Aspen Institute (moderator)

Closing remarks:

• Wendy Ellis, Inaugural Director, Institute for Socioeconomic Opportunity, Assistant Professor, School of Public Health, and Founding Director, Center for Community Resilience, George Washington University

We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals to engage fully. Please email [email protected] if you require any accommodations or have any questions about this event.

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Host or Publisher Equity Institute at George Washington University