Co-President Vickie Wellman grew up in Detroit during the 50’s while there was lots of activism, organizing, and community life. At the same time it was the beginning of white flight, the big car companies leaving the city, and so much more. Those formative years taught her that we must all have housing, food, jobs, health care, and education.
Vickie left home at 18 and moved to Ann Arbor to work as a hairdresser for the next 20 years. She has been happily married to Ian for 35 years, has 3 kids, lived in Colonial Square Coop for 25 years, went to school part time, worked part time and earned a bachelor and master degree.
She was involved with ICPJ years ago and has continued to pay attention to what we support and make happen. She’s been impressed with the leadership, energy, and the direction of ICPJ recently which is why she is now interested in joining the Board.
Vickie is a lifelong gardener and continues that passion, working to make this planet better and sustainable for us all. She looks forward to being a part of this next chapter of change and growth. She believes we and our world certainly need to do things differently for us all to survive.
Co-President Leslie McGraw is a poet, writer, and social media activist who provides resources, coaching, and in-person or online tools for community members to share their voice and personal narrative to build and strengthen the world around them. She began writing poetry in third grade when she discovered her voice through the pen.
Leslie has been the Director of Communications for Protectors of Equality in Government (PEG) since 2017, a core member of the VOTE Caucus of ICPJ since 2022, and has been a member of multiple writers groups and grassroots movements. Last Fall, Leslie founded the Elbert Williams Voting Corner and Elbert Williams Voter Engagement Day and is currently the sponsor and lead facilitator of the first ever Elbert Williams Digital Media Cohort Summer 2023 in partnership with the West Side Promise Neighborhood and the Civic and Community Engagement Office at Buffalo State University in New York.
Passionate about promoting social justice and creating positive change in her community, Leslie imagines a world that uses the poise, pause, and peace of a poem and the dynamo of digital media and social networking to disarm the status quo and inspire creative brands and organizations to use their platforms intentionally and heartfully.
Treasurer Beth Gibbons brings nearly twenty years of experience working on climate adaptation, sustainable development, community engagement, and partnership building to her role at Farallon Strategies. Her past climate portfolio includes developing and executing climate adaptation plans, strategies, and projects at multiple scales of government and across sectors. Beth previously served as the Executive Director of the American Society of Adaptation Professionals (ASAP). There she was responsible for leading the North American professional society for climate adaptation and resilience. Her work strengthened the capacities of individual adaptation professionals, adaptation and resilience-oriented organizations, and accelerated the evolution of the adaptation field of practice. Prior to joining ASAP, Beth directed the University of Michigan’s Climate Center and managed NOAA’s Great Lakes Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Center. Beth is a leader in co-creating inclusive climate adaptation plans and approaches. She has worked with community organizations, tribes and indigenous communities, and BIPOC led institutions as an advisor, partner, and advocate ensuring that the lived experience, expertise and demands of communities are prioritized in local, state, and federal adaptation initiatives.
Hagan Capnerhurst (she/her/they/them) is a Michigan transplant with southern roots, making the Midwest a home (of many) on and off for the past 8 years. She settled in southeast Michigan during grad school where she studied conservation and environmental justice with a focus on sustainable and just food systems. True to her nature of indecision, loving skepticism, and desire to experience all that life has to offer, Hagan has explored various routes toward global harmony, questioning all of them along the way. This has gifted her opportunities to learn from, work alongside, and grow with many tender hearts from a variety of personal and professional backgrounds. Hagan has served as a community college educator, nonprofit fundraiser, and advocate for equitable and climate-smart agricultural policy. She currently works for Michigan Food and Farming Systems (MIFFS), supporting farmers in reshaping federal agricultural policy in a way that contends with past and continued harm to earth’s body and the people who have lovingly tended it. She strives to be “spiritually developing” and seeks this development in community with plants and animals (us included) who don’t take themselves too seriously while joyfully sharing their unique gifts with the world. Hagan loves living simply (and is taking tips on how to do it better) with her best dog pal Fig, and her partner in all things life, Jesse.
Jo Ella Coles says: I’m so excited about the opportunity to possibly join ICPJ. My earliest memory of ICPJ was hearing the stories of an effort to respond to reports of the massacre at My Lai in Vietnam. It was the call for the simple act of being a reconciling voice and eastering up the importance of creating a just peace.
I serve as a Mission Volunteer at Journey of Faith Christian Church. I pair my call to ministry with a radical call to service. At the heart of my call is the conviction that the opposite of scarcity isn’t abundance, it’s simply enough. We don’t have to solve the problems of the world at once or by ourselves. We do what we can with what we have and share the gifts God has generously given each of us with one another. It’s more than enough.”
By trade, I’m a former IT Director retired from the University of Michigan. A prodigal Buckeye daughter in the strange and foreign land of the Wolverines. On record, I’ve been the best babysitter to three generations of a group of fantastic nieces and nephews. I grew up listening to the stories of my grandmothers, so at heart, I’m a scholar of history and storytelling – and the impact that ordinary people have on our understanding of the past and the daily decisions we make that determine our future.
What can I bring to ICPJ? A willingness to break down walls that leave people out even as I’m welcomed in. I can’t wait to pray, celebrate and serve alongside you, if you’ll have me, and work to make our patch of the Earth a life-giving place for all. Peace!
Belinda Dulin grew up in Detroit and attended Detroit Public Schools. She began working at The Dispute Resolution Center 2003 where she launched a variety of mediation and restorative practice services to the community. She’s a mediator and restorative justice practitioner and a contributing author of “Colorizing Restorative Justice.” Belinda has embraced the Washtenaw County Community and has served on several non-profit boards in the past to offer support to the vital missions aligned with community care. She’s a wife, mom, sister, aunt and cousin. She enjoys family dinners and during her spare time, she attends to her house plants and gardening.
While her work is national, she is a dedicated community leader and extends her passion for resilient places and justice into her service and volunteer work; she serves as a sustainability commissioner in her beloved community of Ypsilanti, MI and is a former Peace Corps Volunteer, having served in Togo, West Africa.