Staff Members

Bill O'Brien

Executive Director/Co-founder

Email: wobrien@swsol.org

Bill has a total of 31 years of community organizing experience. In addition to being the Founder and Director of the Harriet Tubman Center, he is currently the Director of Community Partnerships at Southwest Solutions, a 340-staff agency that provides mental health services and community development in Southwest Detroit.  Bill's work in Southwest Detroit was featured in an LA Times article. Click here to read the article.

Prior to founding the Harriet Tubman Center, Bill was the Mid-East Regional Director for the Gamaliel Foundation from 2003-2008, working with 17 community organizing projects in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York. In 1993 he founded the Jeremiah Project in Southwest Detroit and Downriver and in 1996 he created the MOSES organization, a large 3 county urban/suburban faith based community organization in Metro Detroit, which he directed until 2004. He has conducted many leadership trainings and workshops for community organizers, students and community leaders at the local, state, national and international levels.

Bill speaks Spanish fluently and has traveled extensively in Central America, India and Romania. His education includes a BA from Univ. Detroit, an MA from Boston College and a Masters of Divinity from Loyola Chicago.

Luke Allen

Community Organizer - Metro Coalition of Congregations

Email: luke.allen@tubmanorganizing.org

Luke Allen grew up in the small town of Bear Lake, in rural northwest Michigan.  He attended Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste Marie Michigan where he ran Track and Field and studied Political Science and Evolutionary Psychology. 

Graduating in 2009, he comes to the Tubman Center after a year of service with City Year Detroit, where he led a team of 8 young adults who tutored and mentored students full time in a middle school on the east side of Detroit.  In his spare time, he enjoys running, watching and participating in sports, reading, and jumping off of things into water.

DeAndre' J. Calvert

Community Organizer

Email: deandre.j.calvert@tubmanorganizing.org

DeAndre' J. Calvert grew up in Flint, Michigan where he attended Valley Christian Academy and Carman-Ainsworth High School.  For his college years DeAndre' attended Harding University in central Arkansas and Wayne State University in Detroit.  At Wayne State University, DeAndre' majored in Sociology and is working towards a double major in Peace and Conflict Studies. He was activitely involved on campus and was a four year member and president of the Delta Nu Chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.  He is extremely excited to begin working as a community organizer and make a real impact in communities.

James M. Booker Sr.

Community Organizer

Email: james.booker@tubmanorganizing.org

James served the City of Detroit for 23 years as a Police Officer until he retired in July of 2009.  After retirement he accepted an appointment by his Pastor, Bishop Edgar Vann II, to become the Executive Director of the Made-Men (Men Affirming Discipline and Education) program, a group of volunteer men who provide a safe passage for children walking to school near the Osborn complex.  James is a proud graduate of Detroit Public School’s Northwestern High School.  He also received his two year Degree in Theology and Black Church Studies, from Ashland University Theology Seminary in June of 2009.

James is a family man that is devoted to his wife and community.  He is also an active member of his church (Second Ebenezer Church) where he is highly respected, culturally connected, and spiritually led.

Kayla Mason

Community Organizer

Email: kayla.mason@tubmanorganizing.org

Kayla Mason was born in Los Angeles, CA and began community organizing in high school. She was a youth peer organizer at the Los Angeles Community Coalition and in 2005 helped pass a resolution that brought college opportunities to thousands of South LA students. Kayla received her Bachelors in Sociology at California State University-Dominguez Hills and worked as a student organizer for the California Faculty Association. In 2010, Kayla was a fellow for AmeriCorps Public Allies of Los Angeles and served at Community Development Technologies where she facilitated youth leadership trainings and co-created the youth group Speak Up.

In December 2011 Kayla received her Master of Social Work degree from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor as a Community-Based Initiative scholar. She completed her field placement at the Harriet Tubman Center working with YOUTH VOICE and currently works full-time at Tubman as an organizer for both YOUTH VOICE and Our Kids Come First.

Vanita Mistry

Online Organizer

Email: vanita.mistry@tubmanorganizing.org

In 2009 Vanita trained to be a community organizer at the Harriet Tubman Center working on school based initiatives in Southwest Detroit.  Currently, she is a Community Resource Coordinator for Southwest Counseling Solutions’s Early Childhood and Family Literacy program and an Online Organizer for the Harriet Tubman Center.  Vanita graduated in 2007 from the University of Michigan with a B.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering.

Diana Alvarez

Fellow Community Organizer

Diana Alvarez received her BA in African American studies from Earlham College in Richmond Indiana. After graduating, she spent time in various places including Brooklyn, NY, Honolulu, HI, and Philadelphia, PA, until finding her way back to her home town of Ann Arbor Michigan. She is currently enrolled at the University of Michigan working towards her Masters in Social Work with a focus on Community Organizing in urban settings.

Diana is thrilled to become part of the organizing team at the Harriet Tubman Center, and looks forward to working with Youth Voice chapters, and Our Kids Come First chapters for the next year of her internship.  Diana is very active at the University of Michigan, participating on the Student Union and co-facilitating the Queer Social Workers Alliance, among other things.

Ginger Dowdle

Fellow Community Organizer - Battle Creek

Email: gingerdowdle@gmail.com

Ginger Dowdle grew up in Battle Creek, Michigan and attended Kellogg Community College.  In 2001, she  obtained a certificate in transportation relocation and then in 2009 she also received certificates in: Front line Services and Customer Relations.

Before joining Tubman, Ginger began grassroots organizing as a member of the Woman’s  Co-op in Battle Creek, Michigan.  She still continues to organize and volunteer with the Woman’s Co-op because she believes everyone, including her, must get involved to make the world better.

Ginger also enjoys spending time with her family especially her son.  All of her organizing and volunteering is to show her son that people must get involved to make the world a better place with the motto “one person, one place at a time”.