Igrew up on the west side of Indianapolis, 16th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street, a place full of grit, pride and people doing the best they could with what they had. The westside raised me. It taught me resilience and resourcefulness, but it also revealed how easy it is to mistake surviving for living.

Today, I’m a husband, a father, a proud graduate of Indiana University-Indianapolis with a sociology degree and a J.D. from the IU McKinney School of Law. And I had the profound privilege of serving as the inaugural chief violence prevention officer for the city of Indianapolis. That role gave me a front-row seat to both the pain and the promise of our city and, more importantly, it gave me perspective.

My year in that position wasn’t just about leading; it was about learning.

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