Star forms advisory group to ensure fair, inclusive coverage of communities of color

Looking back and coming to terms with The Star’s disgraceful treatment of Kansas City’s Black community is only a beginning. More important will be the steps we take going forward.

With that in mind, The Star has brought together an advisory board of diverse and accomplished business leaders, activists and public servants. This group will work with editors and reporters to ensure that our coverage of Kansas City’s communities of color is fair, expansive and all that this city deserves.

We’re excited to welcome these individuals to the table, but this is by no means the end. Our goal is to grow and adjust the board’s membership as the community’s needs — and our coverage — demand. The Star welcomes additional suggestions for individuals to consider as we look ahead to producing inclusive, quality journalism.

The advisory board members so far are:

Michele Watley

Michele Watley is founder and owner of The Griot Group, a consulting firm based in Kansas City focused on bringing together the people, institutions and resources necessary to generate advocacy and change. She is also founder of Shirley’s Kitchen Cabinet, a nonpartisan, nonprofit dedicated to amplifying the voices and power of Black women to be more effective advocates for issues impacting the communities they serve. Watley began with a successful career in carpentry before delving into the world of political advocacy. In 2016, she served as national African American outreach political director for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. She has worked with government agencies and nonprofits, including the Missouri Department of Transportation, the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, and The Hague Conference on Private and International Law located in the Netherlands.

Chris Goode

Chris Goode is founder and owner of Ruby Jean’s Juicery, named in honor of his late grandmother who died of complications primarily from Type 2 Diabetes. A Kansas CIty native, Goode has sought to provide the community where he grew up with fresh, health-conscious juices and foods. He has expanded Ruby Jean’s into a partnership with Whole Foods, and as part of his commitment to encouraging people to make healthy changes to their lives, Goode was appointed to the Kansas City Board of Parks and Recreations Commissioners. He also serves on the boards of Operation Breakthrough, the National WWI Museum and Memorial and Visit KC. Through his civic engagement, he has provided Kansas City with an authentic voice that prioritizes health, collectivism and equity as the cornerstones of genuine progress.

Cynthia Herron

Cynthia Herron is an investments and financial specialist in Kansas City, running a firm that manages $20 million in assets and is focused on, among other things, retirement planning, life and disability insurance and portfolio and account management. Herron also serves as a board member for the KC Downtowners, an association supporting growth and livability downtown. She has also been instrumental in laying the foundation for subcontractors to navigate the bid process with local government entities, including the city of Kansas City and the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority. Herron’s goal is to help contractors establish multi-generational wealth. She has created a team that consists of banking, bond and bid partners to be a one-stop shop for contractors on their way to being bid ready, or who are approaching the next level of growth.

Christal Watson

Christal Watson serves as executive director for the Kansas City, Kansas, School Foundation of Excellence, a nonprofit that seeks to help public school students succeed by directing funds and services from community members, businesses and other organizations to areas where educational funding is not available. A native of Kansas City, Kansas, Watson has a long career in business and government. She’s previously worked as deputy chief of staff for Mayor David Alvey of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County, president and CEO of the Kansas Black Chamber of Commerce, and has served as a member of the Kansas City, Kansas Board of Education. Watson has spent much of her career focused on economic development, government reform and education and workforce initiatives.

Stacy Shaw

Stacy Shaw runs her own small law firm in Kansas City, providing representation for personal injury, family and criminal law. During the summer, Shaw became a prominent voice in Kansas City and a notable protest leader against racial injustice and inequality, as well as lack of police accountability. Since taking up the mantle in May, Shaw has led protests, sat in jail cells and become a revolutionary in Kansas City. She told The Star in August: “There are things in life that are so important that you have to be willing to put it all on the line. You have to put it all on the line for what you believe in and what is good for America.”

Moon Brown

Moon Brown is a leader in Kansas City’s LGBTQ+ community. Over the last 13 years they have dedicated their life to the liberation of LGBTQ+ people. Brown is the co-founder of Zekes Freedom Foundation, which was developed to create spaces that help facilitate healing and justice and drive activism for the Black queer and trans communities. They also serve as a Governance Committee chair for the National Coalition of Anti Violence Programs. Brown previously served as a board member for Kansas City’s LGBTQIA Community Center and as executive director at the Kansas City Anti-Violence Project, where they helped offer services to LGBTQ+ youth and adults throughout Missouri and Kansas who have experienced trauma, violence, harassment or neglect. Brown too co-founded Black Pockets LLC, which provides financial education, plant based food and products, and healing services dedicated to people of color as well as members of the queer, trans, Black, and Indigenous communities.

Colleen Hernandez

Colleen Hernandez’s career has spanned more than 30 years with a focus on affordable housing for low- and very-low-income families, mostly families of color, having led the nonprofit Kansas City Neighborhood Alliance from 1985 through 2003. KCNA build 283 units of rental housing for families making minimum wage. At KCNA she led the effort to help reverse the impact of redlining by helping 15,000 families train to become homeowners. From 2006 to 2014 she led the national nonprofit Homeownership Preservation Foundation, which was commissioned by Presidents Bush and Obama to help families facing foreclosure. Under her leadership The HOPE hotline took 7 million calls and helped nearly 2 million families avoid foreclosure. Her board service has included the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank Board and the Fannie Mae Foundation board. Hernandez currently runs her own consulting practice, which focuses on the need for affordable housing in metro Kansas City.

The Star’s team

Mará Rose Williams

Mará Rose Williams conceived the idea for The Star’s self-examination. She has written on all things education for The Star since 1998, including issues of school safety, teen suicide, universal pre-K programs, college costs and campus protests.

Eric Adler

Eric Adler specializes in reporting that often tells the extraordinary tales of ordinary people. A graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York, he also teaches journalism ethics at the University of Kansas.

Cortlynn Stark

Cortlynn Stark covers breaking news as well as race and class issues for The Star. She studied journalism and Spanish at Missouri State University.

Mike Hendricks

Mike Hendricks joined The Star’s reporting staff in 1985 and was a metro columnist for 14 years before joining the investigations and watchdog reporting team.

Visuals were produced by Shelly Yang, Tammy Ljungblad and Neil Nakahodo and edited by Chris Ochsner. Stories were edited by Bill Turque and Sharon Hoffmann.

This story was originally published December 20, 2020 at 5:00 AM.