LEADERSHIP

Shawn James
Chair / President

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and owner of my private therapy practice. For 20 plus years, I have enjoyed my work in Community and Human Services. Serving as a mental health provider and a community activist is a deep passion of mine. I am also a mother of two young men, one school age, and the other serving in the military.

I am dedicated to helping our community be the change that we desire to see. I happily joined the E.R.A.S.E. Organization to advocate, and fight for change. I would like to help foster relationships that builds alliances within our community. I desire to sever the head of racism and discrimination, and eliminate the culture that seeks to keep it alive.

I believe in E.R.A.S.E’s core values and its mission to become our communities change agent, to impact our neighborhood’s policies around equality and equity. I am committed to providing education to our families within our community on social justice so they can continue the work to end racism in their own homes. I support E.R.A.S.E. in being the accountability that our community needs, and that our children deserve.

Nicholas Robertson 
Advisor, Founding Member

I live in Irondequoit in the Winona Woods neighborhood with my wife, and two children. We moved from the City of Rochester to Irondequoit in the Fall of 2014. My oldest son is about to be a graduate of Irondequoit High School and my youngest son is completing the third grade at Briarwood elementary. I am originally from Jamaica, West Indies, and have lived in NYC, and Geneseo, NY. 

I am passionate about social justice, especially matters of racial justice, and this passion led me to become a sociologist with a focus on race, crime, immigration, urban sociology, and the African diaspora. For most of my adult life I have taught students about these issues at Monroe Community Community, Geneseo, Brockport, and am currently an Assistant Professor in the Criminal Justice department at the Rochester Institute of Technology. 

E.R.A.S.E. provides a great opportunity to engage in social/racial justice work in Irondequoit. We are at a historical moment where there is an opportunity to address racial inequality at the local, state and national level in a manner that we have not been able to since the Civil Rights Movement, and my hope is that by working with the Steering Committee and members of the Irondequoit community, E.R.A.S.E will be able to make a significant contribution in reducing inequality and toward social justice.

Chelsea Galvin 
Secretary, Co-Leader of Education Task Force

I was born and raised in Rochester and spent many years after graduating high school living in NYC and Los Angeles pursuing a career in the theater/arts. Eventually, I changed my focus and received an advanced degree in education from USC. I spent several years teaching elementary school in Los Angeles and then back at home in Rochester. I moved to West Irondequoit 5 years ago with my husband, and our 5-year-old daughter just started kindergarten in the district.

Like many others, I became frustrated by a system that provides different resources and opportunities solely based on the zip code in which you live. While I cannot fix a broken education system, I realized that I could help to make change in my own community by joining E.R.A.S.E. As the Co-Leader of the Education Task Force, I’m excited to help nurture and uplift the diverse voices in our school district, so that my daughter and all children in the Irondequoit can benefit from the beauty and importance of diversity, equity and inclusion, just as I did growing up in the city of Rochester. I want to fight for social justice on the local level to help create a diverse and welcoming town where everyone deserves to feel safe & seen, protected & valued.