As a pregnant and parenting teen growing up in the North Carolina foster care system, Lanitta Berry always had a passion for her peers and changing the system. Earlier in her advocacy career, she worked on all three levels of government while also volunteering each year to give back to her community. These experiences allowed her to make connections that directly shaped the system. Locally, Lanitta was a youth leader in Mecklenburg County and advocated for her peers’ wants and needs. She participated in statewide and national policy transformation when she was on the board of directors at Sayso from 2015 to 2018. Her commitment to the work was rooted in the belief in uplifting issues whenever influential government leaders listened. At the beginning of 2018, Lanitta started her official role as a child/mother welfare consultant, working alongside nonprofit organizations, community partners, stakeholders and government agencies both in and outside her community. In May of 2022, Lanitta graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with her bachelor’s degree in business administration and finance. Today she continues to advocate, advise and lead in building a better world for her community.
For many people, February 2023 was a time to learn about Black history by uplifting important figures of the past and present-day times. At I Am Why our Justice Initiatives team decided to give reverence to Black culture by taking time to acknowledge the past while...