As part of this blog’s “Women In the Spotlight” series we are featuring a duo, Vanessa Garrison and T. Morgan Dixon, Co-founders of the internationally impactful GirlTREK Black women’s health initiative. They are both, in their own right, dynamic change agents, entrepreneurs and sought after public speakers.
Vanessa is a volunteer Advisory Board member of the Washington DC Bicycle Advisory Council and a certified Sierra Club Outdoor Leader Trainer. Her professional background includes being Senior Project Coordinator for CNN’s Digital Media Group, responsible management and build out of Time-Warner websites including CartoonNetwork.com, CNNHealth.com, Sports Illustrated’s website, and the launch of CNN’s mobile site. She started her digital media career at Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta.
Vanessa Garrison, right
As an Echoing Green fellowship recipient Vanessa is in some rare company including former First Lady Michelle Obama and Wendy Kopp the founder of Teach for America. She is also an Aspen Institute Fellow. The Institute was founded in 1949 as, “a gathering of diverse nonpartisan thought-leaders, creatives, scholars and members of the public to address the world’s complex problems.”
Prior to co-founding GirlTREK with her friend Vanessa, T. Morgan Dixon was having positive impact in the field of education and training in positions as Director of Student Life for Link Community School, Director Of New School Development with Urban Assembly- managing and creating 5 schools funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and as Consultant and Acting Principal for the Saint Hope Schools in Greater New York, as well as the role of Director of Leadership Development with Achievement First.
Morgan is also an Echoing Green fellowship recipient, and received a 2012 Social Innovation Award from Teach For America. Morgan has been featured on CNN and in the Washington Post and The New York Times. She also participated as a panelist on the Closing The Gap On Obesity Forum with the Clinton and Robert Woods Johnson Foundations.
Vanessa and Morgan’s nonprofit GirlTREK is the focus of a separate post on this blog. With walking groups in over 49 countries including the U.S.A. they are. having a positive health impact on the lives of over 1.3 million women who have committed to walking at least 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.
Above and beyond this the organization creates positive community outreach, networking and valuable cultural education opportunities via multimedia initiatives, podcasts and in-person and virtual events. One example, March 10, 2024 GirlTREK coordinated a national network of community education outreach initiatives and “Harriet Tubman Birthday Parties” festivities to honor the trailblazing escaped slave and abolitionist. This included supporting local businesses like Octavia’s Bookshelf, a Black-owned bookstore in Pasadena California. To learn more about GirlTREK’s activities and impact visit https://www.girltrek.org