We are pleased to welcome Christian Bell to our board of directors.
Christian’s roots run deep in the Central District. As a fourth generation congregant member of a local church a few blocks away from Byrd Barr Place, she has watched this neighborhood change around her since her time as a young girl. In the face of witnessing decades of displacement and gentrification, Christian is glad to see Byrd Barr Place solidifying its rightful roots in the Central District and investing $12M in our historic home and placemaking for the Black community.
Christian was recently reintroduced to us through a past board member, Dorian Waller, and was drawn in by the story and life of our namesake Roberta Byrd Barr. She learned of Roberta’s early connection to the organization as writer for our newspaper, Trumpet, and her decades of civil rights advocacy across Seattle as both an educator and a journalist. “I was immediately impressed by Roberta when I learned about her efforts building out the African American Collection of Literature and History at the nearby Douglass Truth Library,” shared Christian.
Joining as a board member in the fall of 2021, Christian has already pounded the pavement for Byrd Barr Place. She played an instrumental role in disseminating and promoting the Black Well-Being survey, which will be an update of the data that we first collected in 2015 for Byrd Barr Place’s inaugural report Creating an Equitable Future in Washington State: Black Well-being & Beyond. The community input gathered, combined with qualitative research will go into a new report: Black Well-being: Moving Toward Solutions Together to support collective organizing, direct resources to Black communities, and inform policy changes to advance equitable opportunities for Black Washingtonians. Christian views updating this report as one of Byrd Barr Place’s most important initiatives. “It is critical to understand what has changed for the better or worse over the past seven years, and how COVID-19 has impacted the Black community,” said Christian.
When not involved in direct work serving her community, Christian is a business development manager at Momentum Professional Strategy Partners, a full-service diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility consulting firm that engages clients in a process of cultural transformation through centering DEIA in their workplace ethos.
She is excited to employ her community engagement expertise to deepen partner and community relations, and is eager to support the growth of this Byrd Barr Place as we continue adapting to meet the needs of the community.
We are fortunate to have her energy and dedication in this work with us.
