Join us for a new series of online discussions with activists about the lessons they have learned while working long-term with people who share their goals but not their identities. Our third event will be with Judge Elaine O'Neal & Dr. Kaaren Haldeman on Thursday, June 17th from 6:30 to 7:45 PM (ET).
Register on Zoom at bit.ly/PMCJUST3.
Our intention is to illuminate challenges and rewards of communicating with others across historically divided lines of identity:
to grow self-awareness of implicit bias and assumptions;
to acknowledge the vulnerability required to have deep conversations;
to gain insight in ways of listening and working with silence;
to recognize the power and benefit of our interconnectedness.
Elaine O’Neal
Elaine M. O'Neal is local to Durham, North Carolina. She grew up on the West End Community. She spent many days in the "Big House,” which is now the Pauli Murray House. The Pauli Murray house was a part of her family for many years before being purchased by ts current owners.
Elaine is now semi-retired. She was a District Court Judge for 17 years and was the first woman in Durham County to be named Chief District Court Judge. In 2011, she was elected the first woman Superior Court Judge in Durham County. She retired from the bench in 2018 to lead her law school, NCCU School of Law, as Interim Dean. She is currently a candidate for Mayor of her hometown.
In 2018, she became Chair of the Racial Equity Task Force for the City of Durham.
She has many family members in Durham, including one son, 3 God given children and 2 God given grandchilden. She is a member of several organizations including First Calvary Baptist Church, Durham County Bar Association, George White Bar Association and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She is a Board Member of Made in Durham.
Kaaren Haldeman
Kaaren Haldeman is a mother, activist, and intersectional scholar. She earned her PhD in 2006 in medical anthropology from UNC-Chapel Hill, studying the impacts of racism on experiences of pregnancy and motherhood among Black women in North Carolina. Prior to that work, her studies in public health at the University of California at Berkeley enhanced her understanding of binational health at the US-Mexico border as well as the impact of gun violence on Black and Brown communities in Oakland, CA. For the past nine years, she has been active in gun violence prevention advocacy and organizing, serving as the first statewide chapter leader of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. She is currently a board member of North Carolinians Against Gun Violence. She has been a strong advocate for voting rights, LGBTQ+, immigration, and health rights at state and national levels. In the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, she led the Durham Hub of Rise to Run--an organization aimed at recruiting and training young women of diverse backgrounds to run for political office. Dr. Haldeman ran for the Durham City Council in 2018 and most recently served as the vice-chair of the City of Durham Racial Equity Task Force. She and her husband Gavin are raising their three sons in Durham, the city they love and have called home for nearly 19 years.