Children’s Services of Roxbury Presents ROXTalks Live:
FREEDOM TO THRIVE
Advancing Economic Mobility in Communities of Color
ROXTalks Live will feature two dynamic panel conversations exploring the intersection of healing, opportunity, and economic mobility in communities of color. Grounded in lived experience and community-informed solutions, the discussions will examine how access, support, leadership, and aligned investment can create sustainable pathways toward long-term stability, growth, and generational impact. Join us for a Juneteenth inspired community gathering with live entertainment, hors d’oeuvres, and meaningful dialogue.
Monday, June 16
6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for a juke joint inspired welcome experience featuring food, live entertainment, and community connection ahead of the evening’s conversation.
- 00Days
- 00Hours
- 00Minutes
- 00Seconds
ABCD Thelma D. Burns Building
575 Warren Street
Boston, MA 02121
On-site and street parking available.
Panel 1 | Pathways to Freedom: Intersection of Healing, Access, and Opportunity
A conversation exploring how healing, stability, and culturally responsive support are essential to unlocking opportunity and sustaining long-term economic mobility in communities of color. Grounded in lived experience and frontline practice, the discussion will examine how workforce development, behavioral health, and community-based care intersect to create pathways that truly work. Featuring special guest panelists: Liz Walker; Kim Janey; Connor Schoen; and an additional panelist to be announced.
Kim Janey
President & CEO of Econmic Mobility Pathways (EMPath)
Kim Michelle Janey is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath), a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping families experiencing poverty dramatically improve their economic mobility. EMPath offers a unique combination of direct services; legislative advocacy; a global learning network of human services organizations; and research for what actually works.
Prior to leading EMPath, Janey made history when she was sworn in as Boston’s first woman and first Black mayor, successfully leading the city through a multitude of unprecedented challenges, including the COVID-19 global pandemic. Janey began her tenure with a citywide agenda of recovery, reopening, and renewal to address systemic inequities exposed and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Janey re-opened Boston’s economy and its public schools by centering equity and prioritizing health and wellness. She invested millions to support small businesses, expanded protections for renters and homeowners, and launched fare-free public transit. Under Mayor Janey’s leadership, Boston experienced its safest summer in 5 years and became one of the most vaccinated big cities in America. Prior to leading her city as Mayor, she led the most diverse City Council in Boston’s history, where she authored groundbreaking legislation.
Devoting her life to public service, Janey has 30 years of experience in the non-profit sector. In her role at Massachusetts Advocates for Children, Janey championed systemic policy reforms to increase equity, excellence, access, and opportunity in Boston Public Schools. Prior to that, Janey worked as a Community Organizer, advocating for affordable, quality child care.
Janey was recently named as a 2023 Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow where she and her cohort are working to advance the prosperity and well-being of children and families all across the United States. Previously, Janey served as a Spring 2022 Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School where she designed and led a study group entitled Racial Justice and Recovery: Leading American Cities to a More Equitable Future. She also served as an Inaugural Fellow at the Berry Institute of Politics at Salem State University and as a Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Janey serves on a number of non-profit boards and has been recognized for her years of service with numerous awards, including the ARCKBoston Global Citizenship Award, the Mass Dems Eleanor Roosevelt Award, BAAF Champion Award, Boston NAACP Difference Maker Award, the Sapphire Award, and the Jewish Community Relations Legislative Leadership Award to name a few.
A proud fourth generation Roxbury resident, Janey comes from a long line of educators, entrepreneurs, artists, and advocates. Janey was raised with values that guide her to this day: the importance of education, the power of community organizing, and the fundamental principles of equity and justice.
Revervend Liz Walker
Pastor; Founding Director of the CAN WE TALK… Network
Liz Walker is the founding director of The CAN WE TALK… Network, a nationwide collective of spiritually inspired, community-based, clinically supported programs addressing America’s epidemic of post-traumatic stress and grief through the healing power of sharing personal stories.
Storytelling has always been Reverend Walker’s calling and most effective platform. As the first Black woman to anchor the Boston-area evening news, she found herself in an industry that defined the neighborhood of Roxbury largely by violence. When she became an ordained minister, called to lead Roxbury Presbyterian Church, she learned a different story, meeting scores of families marked not only by trauma but by courage–including the family of Cory Johnson, a young, murdered church member. In the wake of their worst nightmare, that family’s willingness to talk about their pain inspired Reverend Liz to create CAN WE TALK… weekly community gatherings where residents are encouraged to share traumatic experiences, increase their understanding of psychological trauma, and learn coping skills. CAN WE TALK… offers mental health support to many who otherwise might not receive it. Since it began in 2014, Can We Talk has been replicated in 18 different sites nationally.
A master’s graduate of Harvard Divinity School (’05), Liz Walker has long been actively involved in a healing ministry. In 1998, she helped found the Jane Doe Safety Fund, a multimillion-dollar anti-violence initiative in Massachusetts that continues to work on policy and supports domestic abuse shelters and safe houses around the commonwealth. In 2001, she began a 10-year humanitarian mission in South Sudan, one of Africa’s most troubled countries, and helped build a girls’ school there. In 2015, the US State Department invited her to Belgium to help coach a culturally diverse group of young women in self-empowerment and building cross-cultural relations.
In New England, Reverend Liz is still best known as one of the region’s most popular television news anchors, a position she held for 21 years. An icon in the Boston community, she has received numerous honorary academic degrees and her professional recognition includes two Emmy awards, representing the highest honor of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Considered one of the nation’s most healing voices, Reverend Liz recently launched her first book, No One Left Alone, based on a simple truth: the wounded heal best together. Reverend Liz’s life, like her book, has been described as “Inspiring, thoughtful, and beautiful”… “a tender reminder and spacious invitation”… to experience the grace and love in all of humanity.
Connor Schoen
CO-Founder & Executive Director of Breaktime
Connor Schoen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Breaktime, a Boston-based nonprofit working to end young adult homelessness through an innovative, three-stage economic mobility model. Connor co-founded Breaktime in 2018 while attending Harvard University, where he earned an honors degree in Applied Mathematics and Economics. Under his leadership, Breaktime has grown from a student-led startup into a nationally recognized, multi-million-dollar nonprofit employing and empowering 500+ young adults annually across Massachusetts.
In December 2024, Connor and his team purchased a 34,000-square-foot building in the heart of Downtown Crossing to create a Hub for Solving Young Adult Homelessness. Connor was named one of 2026’s 150 Most Influential Bostonians by Boston Magazine, and his bold leadership also landed him a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
Connor is known for his collaborative, entrepreneurial style and his commitment to building scalable solutions that drive economic mobility for youth facing the highest barriers to success. In his spare time, Connor loves to run marathons, play pickleball, and paint his nails.
Additional panelist to be announced!
Panel 2 | Investing for Impact: Ownership, Access, and Economic Possibility
A conversation examining how public, private, and philanthropic leaders can better align investment, decision-making, and community-informed solutions to advance sustainable economic mobility. Centering voices closest to the work, the panel will explore practical approaches that support long-term impact and opportunity in communities of color. Featuring special guest panelists: Turahn Dorsey; Nicole Obi; and an additional panelist to be announced.
Turahn Dorsey
President & CEO of Eastern Bank Foundation
Rahn is a researcher, policymaker, and strategist whose career has focused on systems change and civic innovation. At the Foundation, he plays a key leadership role advancing approaches to economic mobility and inclusion, as well as guiding efforts on measurement, evaluation, and learning. As a strategic grantmaker, he is helping the team make meaningful investments across all our strategy areas.
Prior to joining Eastern, Rahn served as the Chief of Education for the City of Boston, having worked as part of Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s cabinet from September 2014 to November 2018. He spent the first half of his career at Abt Associates as a senior researcher and at the Barr Foundation serving as its first Evaluation Director and a Senior Program Officer in Education. Rahn is also the current board chair at the Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology.
Dr. Nicole Obi
President & CEO of Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA)
Nicole Obi is the President & CEO of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA) whose mission is to drive economic equity and prosperity for Massachusetts t0 achieve inclusive growth through advocacy, programming, and strategic partnerships that enable Black-owned businesses and Black communities to thrive. She joined BECMA in 2020 as the Vice President of Member Experience & Engagement. She previously spent 12 years at Fidelity Investments, parting ways with the firm as Vice President of Customer Strategy & Engagement in 2018. She was also CEO of her own strategic consulting firm, Enterprise Advisors, after co-founding two venture-backed startup firms.
She earned two master’s degrees from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and the Department of Urban Studies Planning.
Ms. Obi currently serves on several nonprofit boards and committees, including the Northeast Clean Energy Council, the Environment League of Massachusetts, the Intensive Community
Program of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, Browning the Green Space, the Women’s Foundation of Boston, the Governor’s Advisory Council on Black Empowerment, the Boston Local Development Corporation (BLDC), the Massachusetts Supplier Diversity Office as well as Longfellow Investment Management’s Board of Advisors. She is also a member of the Boston Chapter of the Links, Inc.
Additional panelist to be announced!
Additional panelist to be announced!
OUR PANEL Moderator
PARIS ALSTON
Boston-based multimedia journalist, host, storyteller, and educator; owner of Pariscope Productions; Host of GBH Rooted.
Paris Alston is a Boston-based multimedia journalist, host, storyteller, and educator. She is the owner of Pariscope Productions, through which she also provides voice and storytelling coaching and workshops.
Paris is currently the host of GBH News Rooted. She was previously co-host of Morning Edition and The Wake Up podcast at GBH News. She has done live coverage of Massachusetts’ elections, the unveiling of the Embrace monument to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, the 2023 national NAACP convention, where she interviewed Vice President Kamala Harris, and the 2024 Celtics Championship Parade. She also created and does community-based reporting for the award-winning original series “A Walk Down the Block,” and created the original mental health series “Wake Up Well.” Her content has gone viral multiple times across multiple platforms.
Before joining Morning Edition, Paris was a host of the NPR podcast Consider This, produced in conjunction with GBH and WBUR. She also served as the host of GBH’s digital series Keep it Social about social media trends, targeted at millennial and Gen Z audiences. Prior to that, she broke into the industry as an intern at UNC-TV in North Carolina and NBC10-Philadelphia and a producer at GBH and WBUR. She has reported on stories from Southeast Asia, Morocco, Panama and Brazil.
A North Carolina native, Paris is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied media and journalism and global studies. She earned a Social Impact MBA from Boston University, and currently teaches the basics of multimedia production at Boston College. She is a member of the Boston and National Associations of Black Journalists and has worked extensively with print, digital, video, audio and social media.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for a vibrant, juke joint–inspired welcome experience featuring soulful cuisine, live blues entertainment, and meaningful community connection ahead of the evening’s transformative conversation.
Experience the spirit of a modern-day juke joint with a special performance by Misty Blues Band , featuring a Queens of the Blues curated set honoring the music and legacy of iconic African American blues artists.
Enjoy a soulful culinary experience featuring a spread of elevated heavy soul food hors d’oeuvres by Family Affair Boston and Juneteenth-inspired desserts from LUXX Karts by Naee B, centering two Black-owned small businesses bringing culture, flavor, and community to the table.
Join the conversation live from wherever you are. To watch the Facebook livestream, log into your Facebook account, search for Children’s Services of Roxbury at @CSRoxbury, and tune in live. Leave comments, ask questions, and engage with the conversation in real time alongside our broader community.
