Lisa Owens

Lisa brings more than 25 years of experience in building local grassroots organizations and national movements for social, racial, and economic justice. She began organizing in the mid 1980s as a young person in the Roxbury based group, Free My People, fighting against systemic racism in the police department and in the schools. Since then, she has maintained her commitment to Black liberation and grassroots power building in communities of color. She previously served as the Executive Director of City Life/Vida Urbana, a prominent housing justice group that is nationally recognized for organizing communities against displacement and building collective power for systemic change. Prior to that, she was the Executive Director of mytown, a nationally recognized youth development organization.