Lee Brazzell is on the front lines promoting the interests of women business owners as president of the Richmond/Southeast Virginia Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO). She was elected to the post in 2015 and is …

Maurice Tyler says he was driven to establish Coaches Against Violence Everywhere after 12-year-old Amiyah Moses was killed Dec. 19 during a gun battle between two 20-year-old men on North Side as she and her friends played nearby. “Her mom …

Grand Master Sonny Strong earned his first belt in karate 44 years ago. Today, the Richmond resident is still fit as a fiddle, getting his kicks in the sport by teaching karate classes at the Downtown YMCA.

Enjoli Moon first contemplated the idea of starting the Afrikana Independent Film Festival in 2014. “I was planning to attend black film festivals in other areas and began to wonder why Richmond didn’t have one,” the Richmond native recalls.

Meldon Deloris Jenkins-Jones has witnessed the difficulties some African-American children have learning to read. She explains how she watched her grandson struggle “despite the fact that his parents and I are educated. I wondered who would help children learn to …

Audrey Anderson Britt became interested in playing pinochle when she was a student at Virginia Union University. “They needed somebody to play,” she says of some of her classmates, “so I told them I knew how to play, but I …

In 1969, only 136 of the nation’s 100,000 certified public accountants were African-American. In response to that dismal lack of representation, nine African-American accountants met in New York to discuss the quandary faced in their profession. They formed the National …

Lillie A. Estes first got involved in efforts to improve the community as a high school student in Newport News. Friends urged her to join the NAACP Youth Council.

Brandi M. Daniels serves on the front lines for the most vulnerable in the East End as the executive director of the East District Family Resource Center.

Robert N. Barnette Jr. says he was inspired to accept the position as board chairman of the Richmond-based Virginia Alliance Against Mass Incarceration after reading “Billion Dollar Divide,” a report by the Justice Policy Institute in April 2014. “I wanted …

“Equal access is paramount,” declares Richmond Realtor Bruce S. Richardson Sr. of providing access to homeownership to all people.

“To inspire men to a higher moral, intellectual, civic and social standing” through activities that build a better community and promote racial equality.

Altamese R. Johnson first met the late Elvira B. Shaw in the early 1990s, when the two attended an AARP meeting with Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott of Newport News. The two became fast friends, advocating for issues important to …

Dr. Karen Faison says she gains deep satisfaction as a professor in the Virginia State University Department of Nursing when “the light comes on” for her students “when information is mastered for patient-centered care.”

James A. McCain says being a firefighter with the Richmond Department of Fire and Emergency Services is a dream come true. “I wanted to become a physical therapist when I graduated from Hampton University in 2003,” he recalls. “But I …