2020 CTF Faculty & Staff
Each year, CTF draws from faculty with expertise in facilitation, dialogue, healing memory, conflict resolution, peacebuilding, urban planning, implicit bias, social change, adaptive leadership, and more. In addition to our team of three core faculty members, each module is accompanied by a prominent guest faculty with focused expertise correlating with the weekend theme. Check back soon for guest faculty profiles!
Lacette Cross (Core Faculty)
Lacette is a community faith leader, activist and speaker affectionately called Rev. L. She is committed to working with people to help make Richmond, VA a more just city. Lacette is an experienced facilitator, speaker, and presenter in areas such as racial equity, intersectionality, sexuality, spirituality, gender and justice. She wears many hats as the pastor of Restoration Fellowship RVA, co-founder of Us Giving Richmond Connections (UGRC)/Black Pride RVA and business owner of Will You Be Whole. A continual learner, Lacette is a former fellow through the Equity+Health Fellowship and also a current doctor of ministry student at the School of Theology at Virginia Union University. Lacette works as a state strategic advisor for a foundation. In the moments that are hers, she spends time with friends, watches sci-fi action movies and reads good books. Lacette is an alum of the Community Trustbuilding Fellowship, class of 2018.
Matthew Freeman (Core Faculty)
Matthew’s passion for racial equity and social justice has led him across the United States and overseas, helping people connect across difference and begin to address the challenges that divide them. Matthew has worked with members of Congress, the Federal Reserve system, as well as organizations of all sizes, from Fortune 500’s to small non-profits. With degrees in the sciences and in the humanities, Matthew appreciates the opportunities to bring that diverse educational background to bear on topics like unconscious bias- exploring what we know about how the brain functions and how that impacts our human interactions. He is the author of the book Overcoming Bias: Building Authentic Relationships Across Differences. Matthew is an alum of the Community Trustbuilding Fellowship, class of 2005.
Ebony Walden (Core Faculty)
Ebony is an urban planner, consultant and facilitator with over a decade of experience working to transform communities. Ebony is the Founder and Principal Consultant at Ebony Walden Consulting (EWC), an urban strategy firm based in Richmond, Virginia. At EWC, she works with organizations in the housing and community development arena to design and facilitate workshops, trainings, strategic plans and community engagement processes that explore race, equity and the creation of just and inclusive communities. In addition to her work at EWC, Ebony is an adjunct professor at Virginia Commonwealth University where she teaches a class on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion & The City. Ebony is an alum of the Community Trustbuilding Fellowship, class of 2015.
Kelly Carter Merrill (Staff)
Kelly is an educator, writer, and facilitator. Kelly is a professor of communication studies at Randolph-Macon College and nonprofit studies at the University of Richmond; she teaches courses on intercultural communication, leadership communication, social entrepreneurship, and the art of facilitation. For the past three years Kelly has been an independent consultant facilitating groups through difficult conversations about diversity and inclusion, self-discovery, and leadership. Prior to her current work, Kelly had a 25+ year career in college student affairs where she served at seven different institutions in six different states, and was a faculty member in a higher education administration graduate program. Kelly serves on three nonprofit boards for causes that mean a great deal to her: Circles-Ashland (poverty resolution), Side by Side (LGBTQ youth center), and a local history museum. Kelly blogs about the gray areas of current events and her life at Gray Areas.org (and on Facebook). Kelly is an alum of the Community Trustbuilding Fellowship, class of 2017.
