neighborhood news
Ward 8 Welcomes New ANC Commissioners by Sarah Payne
T
he November general election brought significant political change to the nation and the District, including 17 new commissioners elected to the Ward 8 Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC). ANCs are a non-partisan body of elected officials that represent local community members. The commissioners serve two-year terms without pay. Each commissioner represents a Single Member District (SMD) of approximately 2,000 residents. The ANCs main role in the District is to be their neighborhood’s official voice in advising the District government on things that affect their neighborhoods. Commissioners Holly Muhammad (8A01), Barbara Clark (8A02), Brian Thonmpson (8A03), Paul Trantham (8B02), Charles Wilson (8B03), Humam Abdulmalik (8B06), Mustafa Abdul-Salaam (8C05), Rhonda Edwards-Hines (8C06), Salim Adofo (8C07), Patricia Carmon (8D01), Olivia Henderson (8D02), Absalom Jordan (8D03), Monique T. Diop (8D04), Ellen Armstead (8D05), Cheryl Moore (8E02) and Kendall Simmons (8E04) were all re-elected to their single member districts (SMD) last year.
ANC 8A
Laneice Moore (8A04) is a native Washingtonian who has been living in Ward 8 for 46 years. Moore attended Kimball Elementary, J Hayden Johnson Jr. High and Ballou Senior High Schools. She received her GED from Delaware Valley School of Trades where she became a certified nursing assistant and home health aide. In 2000, Moore began
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Laneice Moore
E a s t o f t h e R i v er D C N e w s . c o m
abusing street drugs, but has been clean and sober for more than five years. In 2015, however, Moore moved to Green Street which was a drug infested environment. As she started putting her life back together, the things happening in her community and the women’s rights movement became clearer and more important to her. Moore decided to run for a seat in the commission to do something to help bring the spirit back to her community. Moore said she realized that she needed to lead by example. She hopes to show the young people that there’s another world out there, waiting for them to conquer and overcome their adversities. More believes that her educational and life experiences will make her a strong leader and proponent of change in Ward 8 and the District as a whole. (anc.dc.gov/page/advisory-neighborhood-commission-8a)
Jamila White
cial justice activism in DC. White saw that 80,000 Ward 8 residents have access to just one major grocery store, one hospital, and live in an area of concentrated poverty despite being in the seventh richest city worldwide. She ran for ANC because she saw this as a moment of reclaiming power and embracing potential. She believes that increasing access to quality education, affordable housing, economic opportunities, food, elderly services, community-led healing and crime prevention efforts must be guided by community input.
Jamila White (8A05) believes in solving the big problems to give her neighbors the life they deserve. She said the COVID-19 pandemic was what led her down her ‘unexpected’ path to the ANC. White’s work as a humanitarian first responder had her serving on the front lines of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas. White said when COVID hit the US she immediately realized that local response efforts were not robust enough to get ahead of the virus, and would increase inequities in Ward 8. White holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from Hampton University and a master’s in public administration with a concentration in economic development and international affairs from Indiana University. She currently serves her community by mentoring students through the College Bound program, through volunteer work with her church and other local organizations in Ward 8, and racial equity and raRobin McKinney
Robin McKinney (8A06) is a lifelong Washingtonian who did not grow up dreaming of being an elected official. McKinney’s goals for herself and her children were never about being successful; she simply wanted them to survive. McKinney began to realize how much her hometown of Washington was changing, and she realized she was watching from sidelines. McKinney said she could no longer wait for her life to change but had to be the change that her family needed. Her journey has been full of challeng-
