Weaving Your Safety Net: A Black History Month Panel Event

Join us for a meaningful conversation with some of the most highly impactful and purposeful Black women in our community to hear their experience and wisdom about finding safety, belonging and security in the community. We will explore different forms/types of “safety nets” and support systems and how different “selves” show up in different spaces. Additionally, we will examine allyship and people who share similar experiences based on emotional and positional safety in life.

About the Panelists:

Jacquie Easley McGhee is Division Director, Health Equity, Diversity and inclusion Services for MercyOne Iowa. Her area of responsibilities include language access services and health equity initiatives for the organization. Jacquie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota and a certification in Human Resource Law from the Society of Human Resources.

Jacquie is Vice Chair of the United Way Board of Directors where she leads the Early Childhood cabinet. She also chairs the Directors Council/One Economy health strategic team and is the Iowa Nebraska NAACP Conference of Branches health chair. She has served as Chair of the Greater Des Moines partnership Diversity Council and Central Iowa Regional Workforce Investment Board, which oversees the planning and programming for workforce development for seven central Iowa counties.

Among her honors and awards include: the National NAACP 2024 William Montague Cobb Award for Health Equity, Remarkable Woman Central Iowa 2023, Nexstar Media; the Corporate Citizen of the Year, 2022 Des Moines NAACP, Inductee, Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame, Inductee, Iowa African American Hall of Fame; Inductee, Iowa Volunteer Hall of Fame; Inductee, Iowa Lifelong Learner Hall of Fame; and the Des Moines Human Rights Commission Mary Louise Smith Diversity and Inclusion Award.

Bobbretta Brewton is a creative, analytical problem solver who quickly gets to the core of a problem and finds a solution. With over 55 years of qualified and combined experiences in planning, implementing and evaluating education, human services, community health and housing initiatives, she is highly effective working in formal and informal settings ranging from public education and social to civic, religious, and grassroots advocacy.

Bobbretta is well-engaged in grant research, writing, awarding, developing, and evaluating. She believes that sharing her viable work and volunteer experiences; plus teaching what she knows ,are the reasons she was named one of Des Moines’ 2024 Sages Over Seventy Award Recipients.

Teresa Zilk is the visionary behind the award-winning storytelling platform, Stories to Tell My Daughter. Stories to Tell My Daughter is dedicated to highlighting the lived experiences of Black women and women of color in Des Moines and across the state.

She is also the owner of Teresa Zilk Creative Consulting LLC, a small business dedicated to helping organizations amplify their impact through storytelling. She provides consulting, facilitation, and workshops to foster empathy, understanding, and to drive results.

Teresa has been featured in the Des Moines Register, Business Record, Iowa Public Radio, and Iowa PubicTelevision for her work. In June of 2022, Zilk’s work with Stories to Tell My Daughter became a part of the national congressional record as she was recognized by Representative Cindy Axne as Iowan of the Week.

Teresa is a speaker, panelist, writer, poet, mental health advocate. She believes in the quote by poet Gwendolyn Brooks, “We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond."

More information about the panelists coming soon.

Host or Publisher Des Moines Civil and Human Rights Commission