Shawn Lassiter Creates Sustainable Models That Help Communities Thrive

Shawn Lassiter’s paternal grandfather planted a seed that sprouted into her life path as a community builder. From his farm in Cantonment, Florida, that grandfather, Alfonzo Cottrell, told the story of how he built the family home brick by brick with support from his neighbors.

Lassiter ’24 PhD saw the power of community firsthand when neighbors gathered to take home fresh food from her grandfather’s farm during harvest season. She took to heart how seeds of goodwill could grow into fruits that would reap well-being for the people around her.

In 2021, Lassiter founded BRAVE/R Together, a nonprofit that serves the Fort Worth community in ZIP code 76104, a few miles east of TCU. Her work uplifts people at significant risk of suffering from poor health outcomes. Residents in the ZIP code have the lowest life expectancy in Texas, a 2019 study from UT Southwestern Medical School found.

Lassiter combined her experience as a high school science teacher, education advocacy trainer and doctoral student into becoming chief executive officer of BRAVE/R Together. Through the organization, she helps people in the Southside community thrive by removing barriers to a high-quality education, promoting equitable health care and access to affordable housing, and devising a stronger business and economic development plan for the area.

“I am a habitual dreamer,” she said. “It is almost as if I were a seed, if there were seeds planted in me, and I waited for the opportunity for them to sprout.”

The Shape of a Seedling

During the hot Florida summers of Lassiter’s childhood, her grandmother Martha Cottrell, who worked as a janitor at a local elementary school, would gather discarded workbooks and study materials to bring home. “I would use the books to not only teach myself, but to teach other kids in my neighborhood over the summer,” Lassiter said. “It helped prepare us for the next grade.”

Lassiter’s mother, Kathsya Kirkland, also provided a firm foundation. As the eldest of five, Lassiter worked with her mother to care for her siblings. “I have always felt I had a responsibility, that I was like my mom’s co-pilot,” she said. “I do not have this individual sense of responsibility; I have a collective sense of responsibility. It’s the oldest child in me.”

“Shawn has always been focused,” said her father, Calvin Cottrell. “And once she sets her mind on something, she will do it.”

As an academically astute teen, Lassiter said, she knew she wanted to be the first in her family to go to college. At Alabama State University, she studied biology, a decision that shaped her trajectory. She said her time at the historically Black college in Montgomery made her into the leader and person she is today. Lessons of community, culture and collective impact from Alabama State are carried out in her work.

She next pursued a Master of Public Administration with an emphasis in urban planning from Ashford University’s Forbes School of Business.

Lassiter moved to Fort Worth in 2012 to teach science at Paschal High School, a few blocks east of TCU. Over the next decade, as she learned of the challenges in 76104, including disparaging narratives and deadly health outcomes, she decided to act. “I knew the work needed to happen here,” she said, “because this is where the need was the greatest.”

Shawn Lassiter guides BRAVE/R Together in preserving the Southside’s rich history while fostering economic and educational growth for residents.

The Historic Southside and Morningside neighborhoods in Fort Worth have a vibrant history stretching back to the early 20th century. Johnny Lewis, an Air Force veteran, first made the neighborhood home more than 50 years ago. He described the 1970s, when he and his fellow airmen would walk down Evans Avenue and visit popular gathering spaces, including the Flamingo, to hear the sultry sounds of jazz and blues musicians like Flo and James Ray.

Back then, he said, he could always count on a delectable meal enjoyed alongside neighbors because famed chefs such as Louise Smith worked in the area. “The Southside was a special place that had everything we needed, from doctors to theaters to lounges to the best barbecue … and people who cared for one another.”

His wife, Shirley Lewis, worked to ensure that history would be preserved for future generations. The Black history markers she advocated for are etched in stone along Evans Plaza, the outdoor hub of the community. At nearby Ella Shamblee Library, flooring symbolizing the Niger River is below one-of-a-kind works from world-class artist and Fort Worth resident Letitia Huckaby.

Shirley Lewis died in 2018 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Johnny Lewis said his wife’s community revitalization efforts paved the way for leaders such as Lassiter to continue and build upon that work — which is as important today as it ever has been.

Today’s Evans Avenue is a shell of the vibrant culture that once thrived on both sides of the street. Numerous for-sale signs hang in front of buildings like the Brooks Clinic, which once was the center of preventive care for generations of Black families.

Tilling the Soil

Lassiter decided Southside needed the kind of community building she had discovered in her childhood. Nine years after arriving in Fort Worth and while working toward a doctorate at TCU’s College of Education, she launched BRAVE/R Together, with a mission to engage stakeholders and align resources for residents of 76104 to improve outcomes through education, health care, housing and economic development.

The premise of BRAVE/R Together is that the work of community development and revitalization cannot happen in a vacuum but must happen with the community at the helm, Lassiter said. “Community is health.”

In summer 2021, after an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Lassiter used her passion to fuel her new endeavor. She gathered Southside community leaders at the Shamblee Library to ask how they perceived leadership in the community and who the leaders were, which helped her launch the first initiative, the Community Ambassador Program.

Educators, youth leaders, community organizers and small-business owners, all who live, work, grew up or own a business in 76104, came together as ambassadors. Their first act was to host roundtables centered on education, health care, housing and business. These robust dialogues with the community not only upheld the history of the area but cast hope for the future.

That work continues to expand.

Lassiter now spends her days as the leader of BRAVE/R Together working alongside the community, ensuring small-business owners have access to capital and networks, building a high-quality learning environment for children and educators, promoting health care and wellness for vulnerable people, and restoring a thriving neighborhood that residents can call home for generations to come.

Driving substantive, enduring change is no small feat, but Cottrell said his daughter is up to the task. “She has never had a problem dreaming big and going after it.”

The Opportunity to Grow

Lassiter’s vision is for residents, visitors and neighbors to drive down Evans Avenue and see an oasis of resources, small businesses, cultural and artistic expressions, and a reminder that the people are the heartbeat of Southside.

BRAVE/R Together has raised and reinvested nearly $800,000 in its Community Grants Program, which has supported nearly 20 grassroots nonprofits. Funds have supported organizations such as the Kids Environmental Education Network, which provides children with a chance to grow an affinity for nature, and the Lenora Rolla Heritage Center, which features programming designed to preserve the history of Black people in Tarrant County. BRAVE/R also empowers efforts in neighborhood schools such as Van Zandt Guinn Elementary and Morningside Middle School to provide students access to basic needs.

The BRAVE/R Business Academy has served more than 100 small-business owners, providing them with financial and technical assistance to attain minority business certifications, connecting them with bank representatives to learn about accessing capital and leading classes in marketing.

Lassiter said she envisions academy members filling empty storefronts and grantees providing services from new community workspaces in the neighborhood.

Angela Rainey, a lifelong advocate and ambassador for the Southside neighborhood, said Lassiter is “galvanizing the residents in a way that allows them to have a voice and agency in rebuilding our community. BRAVE/R Together ensures that everyone has a seat at the table, from the elders to the youth.”

The efforts are starting to bear fruit.

The city of Fort Worth is supporting funding for the Evans & Rosedale Urban Village mixed-use development project, which will bring new residential facilities, retail and parking to the area. The National Juneteenth Museum plans to open at the corner of those two streets in the next few years. BRAVE/R Together is on the ground to ensure that community voices are heard and valued as the development proceeds.

“I want to stand here 20 years from now knowing that the investments and sacrifices we made today made a difference for generations to come.”
Shawn Lassiter

Meanwhile, businesses like Smoke-a-holics BBQ and Stephanie’s Jamaican Kitchen are bringing traffic and life back to Southside. Johnny Lewis ventured out to Evans Plaza on a cool November day to attend the Phoenix Festival, hosted by BRAVE/R Together. Camera in tow, he listened to local artists and enjoyed cuisine from small businesses empowered by the BRAVE/R Business Academy.

Lewis said these moments give him hope for the future of the neighborhood. “I am extremely proud of the work of BRAVE/R Together, and I know that Shirley would be too. Watching Shawn with her education, knowledge of resources and understanding of bringing the right people together brings me joy.”

Lassiter said the relentless focus on improving the future is fueled by her own children, Christian, Chance and Destiny. “They are my priority. The work and dreams are centered around them.”

Due to witnessing the benefits of harvest season back on her grandparents’ family farm in Florida, she knows that if she continues to till the soil, harvest season is on the horizon for the Southside.

“I want to stand here 20 years from now,” she said, “knowing that the investments and sacrifices we made today made a difference for generations to come.”