Damita Brown is a painter, poet, and a writer, currently serving as the Co-Executive Director of the Flywheel Skill Share (a social justice organization) where she leads abolitionist restorative justice and racial justice workshops using a contemplative approach. Brown has been practicing meditation in the Shambhala tradition for over 20 years. She has studied and taught social movement history, critical race theory, and Black liberation consciousness. Brown holds a doctorate in History of Consciousness from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has been involved on and off in social justice work since she participated in the boycott of her junior high school in 1977.