Sandra Lobo

Sandra Lobo currently serves as the Executive Director of the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition (NWBCCC), a 42 year old member led organization that unites diverse people and institutions to fight for racial and economic justice through intergenerational organizing.  The NWBCCC organizes around health justice, energy democracy, school to prison pipeline, equitable economic and community development, and safe affordable housing within a racial justice and economic democracy framework.  A first generation immigrant and resident of the Bronx for over 20 years, Sandra’s areas of focus are developing leadership of color, creating long term organizational sustainability, and building community shared wealth and ownership and collective governance over local assets through an anti-racist lens.  Before this role, Sandra was trained in anti-oppression organizing and leadership development incorporating a restorative justice framework and served as Director of the Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice at Fordham University for 17 years, shifting the focus of the Center’s work from a charity to a justice model.  Sandra has served on several board of directors, currently on the Simon Bolivar Foundation, Robert Sterling Foundation Advisory Council and is currently Vice President at the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative.  Sandra has a Masters in Social Work and a BA in Urban Studies from Fordham University.  She lives, works and worships in the Bronx raising her two children, Amelia and Tiago.

How does your current work relate to economic democracy?:

The NWBCCC, a 42 year old grassroots member-led organization, was transformed by its partnership with BCDI and therefore a lot of our work is a collective effort at creating initiatives and projects in the Bronx that embody economic democracy—that build shared wealth and ownership and collective governance over local assets.  While we still employ traditional community organizing, with an emphasis on building grassroots leadership of color and having those most impacted by issues at the center of decision making, the NWBCCC goes beyond responding to negative policies and practices to create alternative models that build a sustainable and generative community that works for all.  The NWBCCC also aims at embodying economic democracy principles wrestling with issues of collective governance and decision-making within the organization.