Meet our team

  • Co-founder

    Armani White is a Third generation Bostonian and Roxbury/Jp native that cofounded Reclaim Roxbury in 2015. Armani has served as lead organizer for Reclaim Roxbury since its founding. Armani founded Reclaim Roxbury after being concerned about the rapid gentrification of Roxbury post the 2008 housing foreclosure crisis, which Armani’s family was directly impacted by. After learning that over 40 acres of public land in the heart of Roxbury, public land taken from residents through racist “imminent domain” tactics under the guise of “urban renewal” would soon be sold by the notorioius Boston Redevelopment Authority, now rebranded as the BPDA. Armani knew Roxbury residents needed to come together to determine our own future and set our own standards for how public land should be used, and also that a strong grassroots mobilization would be required to build the power to solve this crisis. Reclaim Roxbury is important because our advocacy is directly responsible for more low income, working class, and middle income Black people beingle able to afford to stay and thrive in Roxbury.

 

  • Lauren is a Roxbury native who started volunteering with Reclaim Roxbury in 2017. She currently serves on the leadership team and supports with community outreach and communications. As someone with strong ties to Roxbury, she believes Reclaim Roxbury is necessary to ensure that development does not happen without community input. In addition to Reclaim Roxbury, Lauren is a Program Manager at JFF where she works on projects that strengthen education and workforce development programs. Prior to JFF, she was a Program Manager in the Center for Workforce Development at Roxbury Community College and a College Affordability Advisor at uAspire.

  • My name is Melissa Beltran, and I am an Afro-Latina born and raised in Jamaica Plain borderline of Roxbury. I joined Reclaim Roxbury in October of 2020 during the pandemic. During that time there was a lot of housing insecurity and evictions going on all over the city due to people being out work hence not being able to pay their rent. I wanted to advocate for people in their behalf and realized Reclaim Roxbury had already been doing the work to lift voices in the community and I wanted to join movement. The work I do at Reclaim Roxbury is special to me because I am encouraging other young people to care about their community and take action against injustices while also educating them on politics and the local changes happening in the city.

 

  • Kai Palmer-Dunning is a lifelong Bostonian and Roxbury resident. He joined Reclaim Roxbury in 2017 after experiencing the challenges of finding affordable rents throughout the city and noticing a rapidly changing Roxbury through unchecked development. Kai brings a passion for architecture, urban design, and environmental justice to local community organizing work with Reclaim Roxbury.

    Kai also works as the Director of Environmental Justice Outreach at a local environmental organization called Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) and serves on a number of Boston committees related to environmental justice and urban sustainability planning.

  • My name is Cheryl Antoine, I have been doing community activism for many years. I am regional coordinator with COOLJC Social Justice a faith base organization. I have a degree from Northeastern University and also hold a master’s degree in Public Administration.