BACK STORY ENCORE
Sholanna Lewis
Director, Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Kalamazoo I
Brian Powers
n 2016, the Kalamazoo Community Foundation was chosen as one of 14 national sites to implement the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) initiative, which aims to bring about community change by advancing racial healing and addressing the historic and contemporary effects of racism. Stepping up to lead this complex, important and daunting task was Sholanna Lewis, who was formerly part of the foundation’s grantmaking team. Lewis, 31, was born in Kalamazoo but grew up in Texas and attended college at the University of Southern California. She returned to Kalamazoo after college and began working for the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College, where she served as the center manager, but her interest in social justice began as a child. “My mom was really big on pushing that narrative of ‘question everything,’ teaching me critical thinking from a young age and to explore different cultures and to question rules and policies,” Lewis says. “Being biracial, I saw firsthand the things that my white family members did or got away with and what was normal to them. Then I moved to live with my sister in Houston, and it was eye-opening to go from being the only black person around for miles to living in one of the most diverse cities in the United States. It really shaped my perspective on the world we live in and stirred my interest in doing social change work.” (continued on page 29)
30 | ENCORE AUGUST 2020
