Meet the summer 2020 MORRE Fellow: Faith Rynda
The Initiative on Cities (IOC) and the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground are proud to announce that Faith Rynda has been selected as the summer 2020 MORRE Fellow. Faith will spend the summer working with the City of Boston’s Chief Resilience Officer, Ms. Lori Nelson, in the Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Racial Equity (MORRE). As Chief Resilience Officer, Ms. Nelson is responsible for leading the development and implementation of Boston’s Resilience Strategy, specifically in advancing racial equity, social justice and social cohesion through community engagement, public policy initiatives, collaboration with non-governmental institutions, and research projects.
Faith is a junior at Boston University majoring in political science on a 4-year BA/MA program track and minoring in innovation & entrepreneurship. She is from the Bay Area, California where she lives with her family and two dachshunds. She plans to pursue a career in government, and her policy interests include economic development, housing, voting rights, and education reform. In the past, Faith has served as a Diversity & Inclusion fellow in the Office of Access & Opportunity at the Massachusetts statehouse and is currently a Program Coordinator for the Howard Thurman Center on campus. Faith is passionate about making government reflective of the people it represents and using her positions to create space and build community. In her free time, Faith likes to cook, watch bad TV, and go on long runs.
We asked Faith a few questions about her interest in MORRE, and what she’s looking forward to:
What made you want to apply for the fellowship?
During my time at the statehouse, I worked with the Black and Latino Advisory Councils to create policy recommendations for the governor focused on economic development as a means for expanding racial equity in Massachusetts. This work was rewarding and taught me a lot about the crafting process behind policy. I applied for the City of Boston fellowship because I wanted to continue similar work but also learn more about the implementation process of social policy. The City of Boston MORRE office has an inspiring mission and completes important work for communities of color; I wanted to join their team in hopes to help advance this mission.
How did you first become interested in racial equity and social justice?
I grew up helping out in my mom’s small business and as it grew, we were able to move 20 minutes away to a town with better schools and more opportunities. Still, when I was not in school, I was at the office doing my homework or playing with the kids from the surrounding neighborhood. As I got older, I began to notice that I was spending my time in two completely opposite worlds, only 20 minutes apart. I began to notice the socio-economic differences between my two communities and the significant barriers my family, alongside the rest of the community, had to overcome in order to gain access to the opportunities and resources found only in my new neighborhood. The Bay Area is notorious for economic inequality and significant racial disparities; the current housing crisis is just one of the many examples of this. It is difficult to grow up there and not recognize the importance of social justice. When I started college the barriers I had noticed growing up were given context. I learned about redlining and other significant policies that have made it more difficult for communities of color to advance economically and build generational wealth. Though my interests have been lifelong it wasn’t until I learned about the subject in school that I realized it was an issue I wanted to dedicate my career towards solving.
What are you most looking forward to this summer?
This summer I am most looking forward to learning from the leaders in the MORRE and discovering new ways I can make a change in my own community. I hope to gain experience in creating social and economic resilience strategies and I hope to play a role in assisting Boston communities through the challenges COVID-19 has introduced. I wish to complete my fellowship knowing that I played a role in making a difference.