n this episode of the Mission Driven podcast, I speak with Charlie Cooksey, the founder and CEO of WEPOWER, A social enterprise dedicated to empowering the black and Latino communities to reimagine and shape a future that honors their humanity and dignity.

ABOUT CHARLI: Charli Cooksey is a St. Louis native and the Founder & CEO of WEPOWER, a non-profit organization building power to create education and economic systems that nurture our lives.

Before this, Cooksey worked as an English teacher through Teach for America; she co-founded an educational access venture called inspireSTL (during her tenure, each senior class of inspireSTL Scholars celebrated 100% high school graduation and four-year college acceptance rates.

Additionally, inspireSTL has inducted seven classes of scholars, and it is on track to serve approximately 400 scholars annually); Cooksey then went on to serve as an Executive-in-Residence at United Way - with a focus on education innovation; and prior to WEPOWER, she served as the Interim Executive Director/Lead Catalyst of Forward Through Ferguson.