Dr. Jeanette Davis (Dr. Ocean) – Assistant Professor, Marine and Environmental Science at Hampton University

*Bio coming soon!*

Stephanie Lynch, MSW – City Councilor, Richmond’s 5th District

Stephanie serves as the Executive Director of Virginia’s Kids Belong, a non-profit organization dedicated to dramatically improving outcomes for kids in Virginia’s foster care system. She also serves as the Director of Government Relations for Sevita over the Pediatrics division, one of the nation’s largest Medicaid providers. In her role there, she oversees 16 states and works on efforts to expand access to mental health, autism and child welfare services. Stephanie has had a long career working in and around state government, serving under two Gubernatorial Administrations, leading advocacy efforts to expand Medicaid and Medicaid programs and serving on various state workgroups to increase housing and improve homeless services for youth, individuals with disabilities and mental health diagnosis.

In 2019, Stephanie was called to public service and was elected as the 5th District City Council Representative for the City of Richmond. In 2020, Stephanie was appointed to Chair as the Education and Human Services Committee, the oversight body for all of Richmond’s public education and human services agencies. She uses her role on city council to advocate and create systemic change for the most vulnerable of Richmond’s community members and connect back to the individual stories that inform her policy making. On council, she has led efforts to create and fund the first Trauma-informed networks around communities impacted by gun violence (led the creation and funding of the Trauma Healing Response Network), led the effort to create and fund the Family Crisis Fund, an emergency relief fund primarily for families facing homelessness and/or eviction, increased investment by nearly $10M for homeless services and shelters, led an effort to block hundreds of RRHA families from eviction from Spring 2024-Winter 2025 and helped increase funding for community-based programming for youth and families. She is also an avid advocate for safe, walkable neighborhoods and has led the charge on organizing the 5th District neighborhoods to form ‘safety committees’, carried legislation to implement photo-speed ticketing in school districts and high-risk fatality and has increased funding for traffic safety infrastructure and sidewalks.

Stephanie also has served on the Department of Social Services Board, the Mayor’s Homeless Advisory Committee, the Richmond Regional Planning Commission, Plan RVA, and the Community and Policy Management Team (CMPT) for the Office of Children’s Services Act, the Maymont Board, the Richmond Regional Airport Commission and is Vice Chair of the Council’s Public Safety Committee.

Stephanie received her Masters of Social Work Administration and Policy Practice and a double major in Women’s Studies and Biopsychology, with an African American studies minor from Virginia Commonwealth University. She graduated from the Sorensen Institute of Political Leadership in 2014 from the Emerging Leaders Program. She is a kinship parent to an amazing 13 year old boy, a bio mother to an adventurous 3 year old and one year old. Her husband, Dustin Dunbar, is an Army veteran who continues public service in a role within Virginia’s Economic Development Authority.

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