{"id":280,"date":"2018-03-09T21:15:18","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T21:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theadclub.org\/womens2018\/?p=280"},"modified":"2018-04-03T20:20:31","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T20:20:31","slug":"smith-monalisa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2018\/2018\/03\/09\/smith-monalisa\/","title":{"rendered":"Monalisa Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"stripe stripe-style-5\" style=\"background-position: top;background-repeat: no-repeat;background-attachment: scroll;background-size: auto;padding-top: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;margin-top: 0px;margin-bottom: 0px\"><div class=\"wpb_row wf-container full-width-wrap\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;padding-right: 40px\" >\n\t<div class=\"vc_col-sm-12 wpb_column column_container \">\n\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\n<div class=\"gap\" style=\"line-height: 50px; height: 50px;\"><\/div>\n\n\t<div class=\"wpb_single_image wpb_content_element vc_align_center\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" vc_box_border_grey \" src=\"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2018\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/57\/2018\/03\/monalisa_smith.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" alt=\"monalisa_smith\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div> \n<div class=\"gap\" style=\"line-height: 5px; height: 5px;\"><\/div>\n\n\t<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element \">\n\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Monalisa Smith<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Founder and CEO of Mothers<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> for Justice and Equality<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div> \n<div class=\"gap\" style=\"line-height: 15px; height: 15px;\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"vc_separator wpb_content_element vc_el_width_50 vc_sep_color_grey\">\n\t<span class=\"vc_sep_holder vc_sep_holder_l\"><span class=\"vc_sep_line\"><\/span><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"vc_sep_holder vc_sep_holder_r\"><span class=\"vc_sep_line\"><\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"gap\" style=\"line-height: 25px; height: 25px;\"><\/div>\n\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div><div class=\"wpb_row wf-container\" style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-bottom: 0px\" >\n\t<div class=\"vc_col-sm-3 wpb_column column_container \">\n\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div> \n\n\t<div class=\"vc_col-sm-6 wpb_column column_container \">\n\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\n\t<div class=\"wpb_video_widget wpb_content_element\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\"><div class=\"wpb_video_wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WEbtjS3EJEA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div> \n\n\t<div class=\"vc_col-sm-3 wpb_column column_container \">\n\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><div class=\"wpb_row wf-container\" style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-bottom: 0px\" >\n\t<div class=\"vc_col-sm-12 wpb_column column_container \">\n\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\n<div class=\"gap\" style=\"line-height: 25px; height: 25px;\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element \">\n\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\tMonalisa Smith is the President of Mothers for Justice and Equality, a non-profit grassroots organization in Dorchester that aims to eliminate youth violence in Boston neighborhoods by bringing together families and communities through education and engagement. Monalisa founded MJE in 2010 following the loss of her nephew to local violence and through a \u201ccall to action,\u201d gathered fellow mothers, many of whom were also suffering the loss of a child to violence, to share their concern with the gross amount of violence against children occurring within their neighborhoods. It was then that the group agreed upon its mission to end neighborhood violence and began to believe that mothers can become catalysts for change in their communities.<\/p>\n<p>Since its founding, Mothers for Justice and Equality has humanized homicide statistics through the sharing of personal stories in various media forms throughout Boston, established Monthly Empowerment Meetings and has engaged hundreds of local people in marches and rallies in support of the cause. MJE has also partnered with the City of Boston Public Health Commission in creating their first Mothers Watch Circle which advises the Defending Childhood Initiative, and has impressed upon Governor Deval Patrick the urgency to addressing neighborhood violence. Accomplishments such as these have then allowed for MJE to receive the following awards: the Boston Business Journal\u2019s Extraordinary Leadership Award, the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation\u2019s Community Leadership Award, the Asian American Civic Association\u2019s Community Leadership Award and the Boston Globe 100 innovation award.<\/p>\n<p>Monalisa is a Dorchester native who has used her corporate background as Director of Community Investment for Citizens Bank, Massachusetts, to help drive this movement of mothers looking to put an end to youth violence within their neighborhoods. She is also a local civic leader and serves on the governing board of the Black Ministerial Alliance and Boston Higher Ground.<\/p>\n<p>Monalisa earned B.A. in business from Simmons College. She received Executive Leadership Training from Babson College. Monalisa resides in Dorchester with her husband and three children.\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div> \n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Founder and CEO,<br \/><b>Mothers for Justice and Equality<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-speakers-2018"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2018\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/57\/2018\/03\/monalisa_smith-1.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2018\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/57\/2018\/03\/monalisa_smith-1.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"The Ad Club","author_link":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2018\/author\/theadclub\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}