Dr. Shanequa Smith is a community organizer and restorative justice practitioner working from West Charleston to create healing and learning opportunities for marginalized people through relational listening practices. She has a PhD in Human and Community Development from WVU and a Master’s in Counseling from Marshall. Along with recent voter empowerment initiatives, her work is centered on developing the Resiliency Railroad, which is a systematic, strategic, and collaborative initiative designed to instill resiliency factors for marginalized youth and families. This initiative, is seeded in restorative justice circles for parents, early literacy programs for children and youth, mindfulness and moral leadership training for middle schoolers and mentorship opportunities for high schoolers. Grounded in restorative and racial justice pedagogies, this initiative aims to create space for marginalized people to heal, learn, and connect to opportunities that will produce self-efficiency and stronger communities.