Remaking the Economy: Movement Economies

Steve Dubb is senior editor of economic justice at NPQ, where he writes articles (including NPQ’s Economy Remix column), moderates Remaking the Economy webinars, and works to cultivate voices from the field and help them reach a broader audience. Prior to coming to NPQ in 2017, Steve worked with cooperatives and nonprofits for over two decades, including twelve years at The Democracy Collaborative and three years as executive director of NASCO (North American Students of Cooperation). In his work, Steve has authored, co-authored, and edited numerous reports; participated in and facilitated learning cohorts; designed community building strategies; and helped build the field of community wealth building. Steve is the lead author of Building Wealth: The Asset-Based Approach to Solving Social and Economic Problems (Aspen 2005) and coauthor (with Rita Hodges) of The Road Half Traveled: University Engagement at a Crossroads, published by MSU Press in 2012. In 2016, Steve curated and authored Conversations on Community Wealth Building, a collection of interviews of community builders that Steve had conducted over the previous decade.

Rithika is the former Economic Justice Editor at Nonprofit Quarterly. She lives and writes in Providence, where she is finishing her dissertation on representations of work in nineteenth century novels. She is the first elected president of the graduate student union at Brown, GLO-AFT Local 6516, and a founding member of Reclaim RI, a grassroots organization dedicated to building people power in the ocean state. She has work in Teen Vogue, Lux Magazine, The Drift, The Baffler, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Forge: Organizing Strategy and Practice, and elsewhere. Rithika left NPQ in April 2024 to become the new Director of Communications at The Climate and Community Project.

Davarian Baldwin is the Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and is author of In The Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities.

A-dae Romero-Briones (Cochiti/Kiowa) is the director of programs, Native Agriculture and Food Systems Initiative, at the First Nations Development Institute, and cofounder and former executive director of Cochiti Youth Experience, New Mexico. Formerly, Romero-Briones was the director of community development for Pūlama Lāna'i, Hawai'i.

Johanna is the Executive Director at the Climate and Community Project. She directs the network of researchers and experts to develop crucial and justice-based climate policy. Her work has been published and cited in outlets such as the Nation, the Guardian, Huffington Post, and the Hill.

Maurice is a nationally-recognized social movement strategist, a visionary leader in the Movement for Black Lives, and a community organizer for racial, social, and economic justice. Born and raised in New York to Caribbean working-class parents, Maurice began organizing as a teenager — and never stopped. As a high school student, Maurice served as a student leader for the Long Island Student Coalition for Peace and Justice. At Howard University, after a classmate was killed by police officers, Maurice led organizing efforts against police brutality and for divestment from private prisons. Maurice went on to work as an organizer for the Long Island Progressive Coalition, downstate organizing director for Citizen Action of NY, and Director of the NY State Civic Engagement Table. Two tragedies changed the course of Maurice’s life. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy destroyed Maurice’s house in Long Beach, NY and left him living in hotels for months. Eighteen months later, after Mike Brown was killed by police in Missouri, Maurice relocated to Ferguson to support organizations on the ground. Seeing the need for an anchor organization to provide strategic support and guidance to Movement for Black Lives activists across the country, Maurice co-founded and managed Blackbird. Maurice was a key organizer of the Movement for Black Lives convention in Cleveland in 2015. In 2018, Maurice took the helm of the Working Families Party as National Director. He is applying his passion and experience to make WFP the political home for a multi-racial working class movement.