Join Mary’s House for Older Adults as it welcomes Mandy Carter and Dr. Imani Woody.

White supremacy is not new and has not gone anywhere if the insurgency that happened in Washington, DC and at the Capitol building are any indications. National Treasures and Agents of Change, Ms. Mandy Carter and Dr. Imani Woody create a brave and provocative space to have conversation and spark dialogue that highlights their 101+ years of activism and Getting It Done!

Mandy Carter is a southern African-American lesbian social justice activist with a 54-year movement history of social, racial and LGBTQ+ justice organizing since 1967. Ms. Carter was raised in two orphanages and a foster home for her first 18 years in New York state. She attributes the influences of the Quaker-based American Friends Service Committee, the former Institute for the Study of Nonviolence, and the pacifist-based War Resisters League for her sustained multi-racial and multi-issue organizing. www.afsc.org www.warresisters.org

It was her participation in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. inspired 1968 Poor People’s Campaign organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) that solidified her sustained commitment to nonviolence. The Poor People’s Campaign was the last project Dr. King was working on before his assassination in Memphis, TN on April 4, 1968. In 2018 participated in the 2018 Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. www.poorpeoplescampaign.org. Ms. Carter was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize as part of the 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 in order to recognize, make visible and celebrate the impressive and valuable, yet often invisible peace work of thousands of women around the world.

Dr. Woody is a nationally recognized thought leader and an advocate of women, people of color and LGBTQ/SGL people for more than 25 years. She has spoken out locally and nationally about the circumstances of elder LGBTQ+/SGL individuals and the specific jeopardies that LGBTQ+/SGL elders of color face as they age. Dr. Woody brought these perspectives and decades of community praxis to the 2015 White House Summit on LGBT Elder Housing and partnered with SAGE as a panelist in the National LGBT Elder Housing Symposium. She has been a three-term Mayoral Commissioner appointee to the DC Office of LGBTQ Affairs and appointed by Mayor Bowser to serve on the Global Age-Friendly Task Force. Dr. Woody was the first Program Officer for the 50+ Ministry of Metropolitan Community Churches and is the President of the Greater Brookland Intergenerational Village.

Dr. Woody is the Founder and CEO of Mary’s House for Older Adults (MHFOA), with the vision and commitment to serve LGBTQ+/SGL elders experiencing housing insecurity and isolation. She produces a Living Life Like It’s Golden program that empowers people to live their lives more fully through visioning. Dr. Woody has received many awards including Next Avenue’s 2019 Influencers in Aging, Forbes Business of Pride, and the SAGE Creating Change Advocacy Award.