Dr. Michael Meares

“I grew up in Brownsville or what we call Brown Sub, which is in Miami. It was a community, all African American community, majority African American community, there was one Spanish family there. Who were close knit community, the teachers from the school lived in the community, my parents were educators, neighbors were educators, my godparents who lived next to me were educators, so I had a lot of support when I was growing up. Had lots of friends that have been lifelong friends from when I was young and it's a special place.”

“I want them to understand that there are black professionals because you don't see them, we're so diluted and unfortunately many of us are working so hard and we don't have time to do that type of stuff, but I've always, because of that environment that I grew up, I've always felt the responsibilities to have to go back and contribute, because they contributed so much to me.”