Cameryn Okeke (they/them) MBE 2018
Cameryn is a senior program associate who loves space—not the type that astronauts live in; but the everyday spaces and loving connections that liberate them. Being the child of an immigrant and the inheritor of the legacy of U.S. chattel slavery, Cameryn is obsessed with what it takes to make public space safe, nurturing, and inclusive.
At Vera, Cameryn builds projects centered around community flourishing, participatory design, and nurturing accountability. Their current project focuses on disrupting punitive narratives, building community-rooted safety plans, and advocating for deep investment in community nurturers.
Prior to coming to Vera, Cameryn was a research associate at the Urban Institute, leading research on various projects on racial justice, community safety, and creative placemaking.
Cameryn sees their life’s work as dismantling oppressive structures and designing brave inclusive spaces while building power with the intentionally silenced: Black queer women, nonbinary people, and trans people.
Cameryn earned their master’s in bioethics with a concentration in public policy and safety from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and holds a BA from the University of Chicago