March 13. 2025 - Everything Co-op continues its Women’s History Month series with the theme “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations,” set by the National Women’s History Alliance. This episode features cooperative advocates Stacey Sutton Ph.D., Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, and Assata Richards, founding director of the Sankofa Research Institute. Stacey and Assata discuss the necessary components for building a solidarity economy and share their research findings related to social/economic justice Stacey Sutton Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago in the Department of Urban Planning and Policy. She co-directs the Solidarity Economy Research, Policy & Law Project, which serves as the hub for the City of Chicago’s Community Wealth Building Ecosystem. This initiative aims to promote local, democratic, and shared ownership of community assets to create more sustainable and just economies. Her research focuses on solidarity economy, economic democracy, and racial equity. Stacey Sutton Ph.D. is also a Board member of the New Economy Coalition, a Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, and a Senior Researcher with the Small Business Anti-Displacement Network. She is currently working on a book titled "Real Black Utopias," which explores Black-centered worker cooperatives and solidarity economy ecosystems in various US cities. Stacey Sutton Ph.D. holds a BA from Loyola University, an MBA from New York University, an MS from The New School for Social Research, and a joint Ph.D. in Urban Planning and Sociology from Rutgers University. Her extensive involvement in various organizations underscores her commitment to social justice and economic democracy. Assata is the founding director of the Sankofa Research Institute (SRI), a nonprofit with a mission to “create knowledge to build community” through community-based participatory research. In addition, as a public sociologist, Assata serves as the Board President of the newly formed Houston Community Land Trust, the Third Ward Cooperative Community Builders, and the Emancipation Economic Development Council. Most recently, she was elected as the founding board president of the Community Care Cooperative, Houston’s first home care agency owned by caregivers and the nation’s first community health workers’ cooperative business. Lastly, she is a founding member of We Are The Ones, a cooperative working to build a “Black Solidarity Economy,” enabling community members to define what success is for them and hold accountable institutions that claim to act on their behalf and develop economic enterprises that fairly compensate workers and build community wealth.