Cassandra Overton

Cassandra Overton Welchlin is co-convener of MS Black Women’s Roundtable (MS-BWR) an intergenerational civic engagement statewide network of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP) at the forefront of championing just and equitable public policy on behalf of Black women and girls. Prior to joining MS BWR, Cassandra co-founded and launched an ambitious and progressive MS Women’s Economic Security Initiative (MWESI), founded as a project of MS Low Income Child Care Initiative. As an experienced policy advocate, organizer and coalition builder, she has led and been a partner on a number of local, statewide, and national initiatives & campaigns to advance racially & gender equitable policies for low income women, their families and communities of color. She’s been featured in publications such as Truthout, NBC-BLK, Ms. Magazine, The Hill, Meet the Press, Clarion-ledger, Jackson Free Press, The Jackson Advocate, The Link and other state media outlets. Cassandra is a Kellogg Fellow with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, a Ms. Foundation Public Voices Fellow a project of the OpEd Project, and a fellow of Congressman Bennie Thompson’s MS Black Leadership Institute.