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St. Louis Native Brittany Packnett Discusses Work Around Justice, Empowerment and Difference-Making

Brittany Packnett joined Thursday's "St. Louis on the Air."
Evie Hemphill | St. Louis Public Radio
Brittany Packnett joined Thursday's "St. Louis on the Air."
Brittany Packnett joined Thursday's "St. Louis on the Air."
Credit Evie Hemphill | St. Louis Public Radio
Brittany Packnett joined Thursday's "St. Louis on the Air."

Activist, educator and writer Brittany Packnett returns this week to her hometown of St. Louis – the place where she participated in protests after the police shooting of Michael Brown and was appointed to the Ferguson commission in 2014.

Now based in Washington, where she is Teach for America’s vice president of National Community Alliances, Packnett has been described by former President Barack Obama as a leader whose voice “is going to be making a difference for years to come.”

On Thursday’s St. Louis on the Air, she joined St. Louis Public Radio’s Jonathan Ahl for a conversation ahead of her appearance at the Ethical Society of St. Louis Thursday evening. That free event (registration requested) is co-sponsored by Women’s Voices Raised for Social Justice and will be moderated by Fox 2 News' Shirley Washington.

Packnett’s work focuses on racial justice, criminal justice reform, and social change and empowerment. She is a co-founder of Campaign Zero and was a 2018 fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics.

Listen to the on-air discussion:

Related Event

What: Visionary Voices: A Candid Conversation with Brittany Packnett

When: 7 p.m. Thursday, June 13, 2019

Where: Ethical Society of St. Louis (9001 Clayton Rd., St. Louis, MO 63117)

Have a question or comment for Brittany Packnett? Tweet us (@STLonAir), send an email to talk@stlpublicradio.org or share your thoughts via our St. Louis on the Air Facebook group, and help inform our coverage.

St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Alex Heuer, Evie Hemphill and Lara Hamdan. The engineer is Aaron Doerr and production assistance is provided by Charlie McDonald.

Send questions and comments about this story to feedback@stlpublicradio.org.

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Evie Hemphill joined the St. Louis on the Air team in February 2018. After earning a bachelor’s degree in English literature in 2005, she started her career as a reporter for the Westminster Window in Colorado. Several years later she went on to pursue graduate work in creative writing at the University of Wyoming and moved to St. Louis upon earning an MFA in the spring of 2010. She worked as writer and editor for Washington University Libraries until 2014 and then spent several more years in public relations for the University of Missouri–St. Louis before making the shift to St. Louis Public Radio.