Mélisande Short-Colomb

Mélisande Short-Colomb began her relationship with Georgetown University in 2017 as a descendant of two families enslaved and then sold by the Society of Jesus in 1838 to ensure the solvency of the institution. Following the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation recommendations and with the support of President Jack DeGioia, Mélisande was one of two undergraduate students accepted into the College. Beginning as a freshman, and continuing to this day, she has developed an ongoing relationship with the Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics. Under the direction of Derek Goldman, Meli has written, developed, and will be performing her one person show Here I Am.

Meli serves on the Board of Advisors for the Georgetown Memory Project, is a founding Council Member of the GU272 Descendants Association, and was on the GU272 Advocacy Team. She was a leading voice in the student referendum on the $27.20 reconciliation fee, which passed with overwhelming student support on April 11, 2019. She received the 2019 Fr. Bunn Award for journalistic excellence for commentary in support of the “GU272 Referendum to Create a New Legacy.”

Additionally, Meli serves as a Research and Community Engagement Associate for The Lab, a position for which she is very well qualified given her high media profile. Meli is frequently invited to speak on the subjects of the GU272 and reparations. Her talks vary from testimony before the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights, to speaking at the Brooklyn Historical Society, to a TEDx talk. Meli has been featured in print in outlets from the Washington Post and The New Yorker to the AARP Journal. Multiple news programs have had stories on Meli and she starred in a Full Frontal with Samantha Bee episode on reparations.

A native of New Orleans, LA, she retired from a lengthy culinary career, most recently as Chef Instructor for Langlois Culinary Crossroads, to relocate to Washington to attend Georgetown University. Her family includes four adult children and much-loved grandchildren, and scores of newly identified GU272 extended family members.

Maxine Gross

Maryland, College Park Restorative Justice Commission; Lakeland Community Heritage Project

Maxine Gross is a fifth-generation member of College Park’s historic African American community, Lakeland. Her family’s contribution to the University of Maryland dates from the early 1900s with employment by her great uncle Ferdinand Hughes, great grandmother, grandfather (48 years) and father (28 years). She was the first of the family able to enroll at the University, completing a Bachelor of Arts degree. Maxine is the founding chairperson of the Lakeland Community Heritage Project. She also serves on the boards of the College Park City- University Partnership and Embry Center for Family Life. Maxine is a former College Park City Council member.

Jordan Chadwick

Braxton Institute Community Fellow

Jordan Chadwick is a dedicated community activist, scholar, and leader committed to fostering social change through education, service, and advocacy. A junior at Bowie State University, Jordan is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Communications with a concentration in Public Relations and a minor in Business Administration: Marketing. As Vice President of the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Club, he plays a pivotal role in fostering intellectual discourse and student engagement on critical societal issues.

Passionate about civic engagement, Jordan has served as a Deputy Field Organizer for the Maryland Democratic Party, where he mobilized student volunteers, coordinated community outreach, and organized events across multiple college campuses. His dedication to service extends to his leadership roles in campus organizations, including his work as Chief of Public Relations for the Hispanic Student Association and an active member of the Campus Activities Board and Ignite Men's Fellowship.

Jordan is a Community Fellow at the Braxton Institute, where he is mentored by Rev. Dr. Joanne Braxton. In this role, he collaborates with thought leaders to address social justice issues, promote equity, and empower marginalized communities. He has also been mentored by Senator and educator Joanne Benson of the 24th legislative district. His passion for advocacy, leadership, and mentorship continues to shape his commitment to public service and community development.

With a strong background in strategic communications, event planning, and community organizing, Jordan aspires to bridge gaps between diverse communities, cultivate meaningful dialogue, and create lasting change.

Sophie Bouwsma

(she/her)

Sophie is a musician and peacebuilder focused on addressing the roots of structural and cultural violence in the United States. She engages in collaborative peace and justice work through cultivating partnerships, program development, training design and facilitation, and compassionate relationship-building. Sophie is the co-founder and co-director of Transformation Collaborative, a peacebuilding and conflict transformation consulting and training organization. She is especially interested in the relationship between spirituality and activism, the role of music in healing, and peacebuilding in faith-based communities and in interfaith settings. Sophie has been connected with the Braxton Institute since 2019, collaborating on workshops, communications, and fundraising.

Sophie has an MA in Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont and is a Certified Music Practitioner by the Music for Healing and Transition Program.

Rev. Joanne M. Braxton, PhD, M.Div.

(she/hers), Founder and CEO

Joanne Braxton is an ordained minister with full ministerial standing in the Eastern Virginia Association of the Southern Conference of the United Church of Christ. She is also Frances L. and Edwin L. Cummings Professor Emeritus at William & Mary and Adjunct Professor of Family and Community Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS). A graduate of the doctoral program in American Studies at Yale, the M.Div. program at Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, the M.T.S. program at Pacific School of Religion, and Sarah Lawrence College, Braxton is poet and a scholar whose books include Black Female Sexualities (2015), Monuments of the Black Atlantic: Slavery and Memory (2003), Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: A Casebook (1993), The Collected Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar (1993), Wild Women in the Whirlwind: The Renaissance in Contemporary Afra-American Writing (1990), Black Women Writing Autobiography: A Tradition Within a Tradition (1989) and Sometimes I Think of Maryland (1977), a collection of poetry. She has also written online curriculum in spiritual practices for Pilgrim Press of the United Church of Christ.

At W&M Dr. Braxton founded and directed the W&M Middle Passage Project and was instrumental in the formation of the programs in American Studies, Women’s Studies and especially Africana Studies. She taught writing, courses about the Middle Passage, about Black women writers and African American community issues while also serving as United Church of Christ campus minister. She was PI for the W&M-EVMS Narrative Medicine for Excellence Project. More recently, Braxton spent a year as David B. Larson Fellow in Spirituality and Health at the Library of Congress John W. Kluge Center with her project “Tree of Life: Spirituality and Health in the African American Experience.” She has been a Wellness Consultant to the National Institutes of Health Office of Internal Training and Education and served as a pastoral and spiritual caregiver in clinical, congregational and movement settings. Dr. Braxton is a member of the Society for the Study of Black Religion, the Association of American Medical Colleges Fundamental Role of the Arts and Humanities in Medical Education (FRAHME) Initiative and a Fellow of the Hastings Center for Bioethics. She curates and moderates the Braxton Institute Community Dialogues on Resisting and Thriving and facilitates workshops and trainings in contemplative practice, reflective writing and the cultivation of moral resiliency. Dr. Braxton received the “Recognition of a Warrior” from the Weyanoke Association for Red-Black History and Culture, where she is known as Mama Sage, as she is also known in healing circles.