Passed & Present with Mary Fetchet and Wanda Irving
Bring your most pressing questions to our next event in the Passed and Present conversation series. Gilbert will host a new discussion the last Thursday of every month.
After the untimely death of Wanda Irving's daughter, Shalon, following the birth of her own daughter, Irving devoted her life's work to bringing attention to health equity and racial equality. She is currently developing a nonprofit to honor her daughter's work while raising her two-year-old granddaughter, Soleil. Check out her provocative TED Talk, "How the US Medical Community Fails Black mothers." Early in her career, Wanda developed a passion for leading community betterment and social change initiatives. She spent nearly three decades working in federal and local government, faith-based organizations and in the nonprofit arena. She focused her expertise to create effective leadership development and meaningful engagement to achieve resourceful solutions to complex community issues.
Mary Fetchet is Founding Director of Voices Center for Resilience, formerly known as Voices of September 11th, an organization she co-founded following the death of her 24 year-old son Brad on 9/11. Her unique background as a mother of a victim, along with 27 years of experience as a clinical social worker, influenced VOICES innovative approach to providing long-term support services for thousands of 9/11families, survivors and responders. Ms. Fetchet is equally committed to helping communities impacted by other tragedies, by sharing lessons learned and working collaboratively with public-private partnerships in the United States and abroad. She has co-authored several important scientific publications examining the long-term needs of victims’ families, and has published best practices, tip sheets and training.
A strong advocate for the rights of victim's families and survivors, mental health care, and public policy reforms, she advocated for the notification of human remains, the creation of the 9/11 Memorial and was instrumental in the establishment of the 9/11 Commission. She testified before the U.S. Congress on 5 occasions. Ms. Fetchet has received several awards including induction into the Hall of Fame at Columbia University School of Social Work, ABC News Person of the Year, and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams Making a Difference.
Allison Gilbert is an Emmy award-winning journalist and author of numerous books, including the much-anticipated, forthcoming biography of Hearst newspaper columnist Elsie Robinson, to be published by Seal Press, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, in 2022.
On 9/11, Allison was a television news producer in New York and was nearly killed by falling debris when the second tower collapsed. She is the official narrator of the 9/11 Memorial Museum’s historical exhibition audio tour, the only female journalist to be so honored. To mark the 20th anniversary of the attacks, she is executive producer of two film projects in collaboration with the 9/11 Museum and Wondrium: a documentary called, "Reporting 9/11 and Why It Still Matters,” and a 20-part series entitled, "Women Journalists of 9/11: Their Stories.” Both projects explore what it was like to be a working journalist covering the terrorist attacks 20 years ago and how the aftermath changed journalists and media forever. Featured journalists include Tom Brokaw, Savannah Guthrie, Maggie Haberman, Linda Wertheimer, Scott Pelley, and many others.
Allison writes regularly for the New York Times and other publications. On her popular grief and resilience blog, she features Q & A’s with some of the most notable names in our culture today including, Arianna Huffington, Jon Stewart, and bestselling authors Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Dani Shapiro, and Susan Orlean. She is co-editor of Covering Catastrophe: Broadcast Journalists Report September 11.
You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Learn more by visiting www.allisongilbert.com.
The Passed and Present series, named after Gilbert’s inspiring book, is sponsored by Domani for Grief, a platform created with a single goal in mind: to provide in one place the best and most trusted resources, support, and information available to begin the healing process. “Domani” means tomorrow in Italian. Domani for Grief believes there’s always hope in a brighter tomorrow.
Registrants will be added to the Domani for Grief & Reimagine e-newsletter lists.
