Lea Dotson

Lea is a lifelong resident of the city of Warren.  A Warren G. Harding High School grad, she credits her parents’ diligence in shaping her outspoken character. Throughout her childhood, her parents made it mandatory that she and her two older brothers sit as a family every night to watch the evening news.  The regular debates on the content between her parents and eldest brother impacted her opinions and made her keenly aware of the world’s injustices at a young age.

Her mother raised her under the model of “put up or shut up”, compelling her to become not just aware of but involved in her community. After high school, she took a job at the then Rebecca Williams Community Center, which provided her a deeper understanding of the systemic conditions hindering inner-city youth from reaching their potential. The lessons she learned from RWCC still have a profound impact on Lea to this day.

Though always actively volunteering in her community, her first taste of organizing came during the summer of 2001 when an outpouring of brutality allegations came against the Warren Police Department.  Lea took this opportunity to organize citizens, churches, and neighborhood groups around the ineffectiveness of the former police chief and a small group of officers. The organized marches, protests, and community meetings garnered not only local but national attention.  She saw the experience as a powerful example of a community coming together to claim their sense of collective power.

After graduating from Kent State University with a B.A. in Pan African Studies and a minor in Political Science, Lea remained intent on working as a Social Studies Teacher in an inner-city school and gained employment at a Youngstown City charter school.  It was there she was inspired by then MVOC organizer DaMareo Cooper when he asked her candidly “what good is it if the kids leave from your embrace only to return out into a world where they are systematically set up to fail?”, prompting her to volunteer with MVOC. After a week-long organizer’s training, Lea decided to change focus and applied to be full time organizer, now working primarily in Warren.

Lea says it is a blessing to be able to have a career in which she can give back to the community that gave her so much. Her passion remains for the children of the city and cites her biggest inspiration as her 8-year- old daughter Nailah.

 “I do what I do mainly for her. God willing, she will be able to look back one day and understand her mother did something,” said Lea.  “Even if all I do is instill the spirit into her to do something.  Like my mom told me, ‘Put up or shut up’.”