Swope Health invites you to join our Black History speaker series, a lunchtime virtual meeting, featuring civic and community leaders. Each of the four weekly events is free and open to the public.
The first event in the speaker series was held Thursday, Feb. 8, with Mickey Dean, a member of the Kansas City Reparations Coalition. The KC Reparations Coalition was founded in November 2020 as a grassroots community organization advocating for reparations in Kansas City.
The movement gained traction in January 2023 when Kansas City City Council, by ordinance, declared its intent to make amends for its participation in sanctioning the enslavement of Black people and any historical enforcement of segregation and discriminatory practices against Black citizens of Kansas City. established a commission to advise the city on reparations issues.
The Mayor’s Commission on Reparations was formed in May 2023. Dean, who was a prior guest on Swope Health’s podcast, One on One with Swope Health, is an adviser to the commission.
The second event in the series was held Thursday, Feb. 15, with Judge Brian C. Wimes, U.S. District Court for Missouri’s Eastern and Western District.
Judge Wimes was appointed to the U.S. District Court in 2012 by President Barack Obama. At the time, he was serving as a Jackson County Circuit Court judge, a position he held since 2007. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas and his law degree from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University.
Wimes also was an assistant prosecuting attorney for Jackson County and an attorney advisor with the U.S. Department of Justice. He has been active with community organizations addressing domestic violence, mental health, and mentoring.
The third event in the series was held Thursday, Feb. 22, with Terri Barr-Moore, chief of staff at the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority.
Barr-Moore joined the Area Transportation Authority in 2019 with more than 25 years of experience in government relations and legal and community affairs. She also has served on the Missouri Public Transit Association, including as a member of its board of directors, and as a member of the Hickman Mills Board of Education.
Prior to joining the Transportation Authority, she served for more than a decade as the political director, field representative and office manager for former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill. She was a paralegal for 15 years and has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
The final event in the series was held Thursday, Feb. 29, with Judge Robin Ransom of the Missouri Supreme Court.
Judge Ransom was appointed to the court in May 2021 and in November 2022 was elected to a 12-year term, ending in 2034. She formerly was a judge in the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, and prior to that was a circuit judge of the 22nd Judicial Circuit in St. Louis.
She has presided in the 22nd Circuit as administrative judge in family court, overseeing all aspects of juvenile and domestic court operations. She frequently speaks on topics of juvenile justice.
A native of St. Louis, she received a bachelor of arts degree from Douglass College-Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., and a law degree from the University of Missouri, Columbia School of Law.
