Liz Gannon Graydon is Co-Founder and President of “What BETTER Looks Like”

FWM: Share your journey with us.

My journey has been shaped by three main forces: my father’s wisdom, my mother’s wisdom and my first memory of the world. My father was a college professor who worked for civil rights in the 60s. He believed it was possible to shift the culture as a whole by introducing love into both personal relationships and societal infrastructures. My mother was an emergency room nurse and she believed that you couldn’t change the world— you could only change the life of the person next to you by ministering to their immediate needs. My first memory of the world was the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. It was the first time I saw my father cry while watching television. When I asked him why anyone would want to kill Martin he responded that there are some things we may never know but that the work of that Martin left undone was the creation of what he called the Beloved Community. He told me that it was my job to create a Beloved Community. My journey and the work I have done each step of the way has been an exploration into how to fulfill that mission – creating Beloved Community—by balancing the vision for creating systemic change with the need to minister to the needs of the people I meet along the way.

FWM: How important is giving back to you?

Giving is a way of life. I had a friend who always said, “Whoever has more money in their pocket pays.” She meant that both literally and figuratively. I was blessed with a family that prioritized relationships, love, education, and community. I feel a strong responsibility to use all that has been given to me to improve the lives and the world around me.

FWM: Tell us about your non-profit, “What BETTER Looks Like. What was your inspiration for launching it?

What BETTER Looks Like was inspired by my work as a middle school teacher. Every year I would say to my class, “You are the future. It is up to you to make the world a better place.“ One year, one of my students raised her hand and challenged me, “Mrs. Graydon, adults are always saying that but what would better look like?“ I asked her to go further and she responded, “if you want me to make the world better then what would that look like?” Inspired by her question, along with my husband and a small group of friends, I co-founded What BETTER Looks Like, a nonprofit organization whose main goal is to foster the development of Beloved Community by helping people to envision, articulate, and create their visions for creating positive change in their communities.

“The social change I would most like to see is to make more visible the work of peacebuilding and its ability to transform the world at the individual and societal levels.”

FWM: Share your experience with the New York organization, Hour Children. How did you get involved?

Hour Children is an organization that ministers to the families of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women. Their mission is to help incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and their children successfully rejoin the community, reunify with their families, and build healthy, independent, and secure lives. It is an extraordinary organization. It is run by one of my most influential mentors, Sister Tesa Fitzgerald, an amazing, supportive community infrastructure. I came to them as a volunteer about 20 years ago. One of their homes for returning moms was located next door to the school where I taught. I started babysitting for the young children as the women were transitioning back home. I volunteered for many years and I still stay in touch with many of the women and children that I met there. What I love most about them is that they operate on both levels that are important to me: They work to surround individual women and children with the supportive loving community both in prison and upon their return home and they also work to create more humane justice systems that benefit the entire community.

FWM: What social change would you like to see?

The social change I would most like to see is to make more visible the work of peacebuilding and its ability to transform the world at the individual and societal levels. I am a lifelong student of nonviolence and peacebuilding along the model articulated and lived by Martin Luther King Jr. In the last 50 years, especially at this moment, there are people around the globe using the tools Peacebuilding and Nonviolence to transform their lives and communities. The work is both practical and transformative but much of it is done so quietly that many people are not aware of it. I want to use my life and work to advance and make visible the necessary and powerful work of community peacebuilding.

FWM: You have facilitated peacebuilding programs. Tell us about these programs.

Through my organization and others, I have facilitated many different workshops but they all share a couple of characteristics. I have had several mentors that taught me that the fastest way to shift from a culture of violence to a culture of peace is to change the stories that we tell. All of my workshops invite people to examine the stories that they tell about themselves and the world around them. We then help them to use the tools around them to articulate a vision of the world they would like to create and to help them connect with resources that will help them to realize that vision.

FWM: You are on the Board of Directors of “The Peace Alliance.” What is important for people to know about this organization?

The Peace Alliance is an organization whose mission is to empower civic action towards a culture of peace through education, advocacy, and mobilization. They have identified five cornerstones of peacebuilding that are instrumental in shifting to a culture of peace – community peacebuilding, peace education, humanizing justice systems, cultivating personal peace, and fostering international peace. Their work encapsulates everything I’ve done in my private and professional life to create the vision of a Beloved Community.

FWM: What advice do you have for younger people?

For me, the more interesting exploration is not so much what advice I have for young people, but rather how much I am willing to listen to and learn from younger generations whose wisdom and experience are different from my own. My life‘s work became instantly defined when as a young teacher, a student challenged my advice to create a better world with a very practical question, “What would that look like? “ That question became the guiding star of my life‘s work from that moment forward. The real challenge for those of us who have reached places of societal and institutional power is to seek the experiences and wisdom of people, especially younger people, whose life experience is different from our own and to help them gain access to levers of power. I see my role as collaborating across generations to create communities and social infrastructures that work for everyone.

FWM: Why are you a Formidable Woman?

I am most formidable when I channel the wisdom of my mother– when I take the time to center myself and respond to and connect with the people around me. I try to respond from a place of love and connection. I find that the process always leads me to the next right step.

You can find me on Facebook and Instagram @lizgannongraydon