• Anthony Smith is co-director of reparationWorks. He is a West Philly based organizer and educator. He worked in the Philadelphia school district and in other youth development sectors, primarily as a Social Studies teacher for 7 years. In that capacity, he has undergone and facilitated restorative justice trainings for staff and students alike in which the question, “what harm has been caused, and how can that harm be repaired?” was paramount. His lessons were primarily concerned with the social determinants of health, and how the systems of housing, healthcare, education and justice affect our ability to co-exist in full humanity with each other. Anthony has been organizing primarily around addressing police violence and building independent political power for Black and Brown community members through direct action, political education, and mutual aid. Through identifying issues with policing and carceral punishment, he understood that a mass relocation of resources must occur not only to address the harm that has been done, but to prevent carceral and exploitative institutions from operating in the first place. He has worked with and contributed to organizations such as Philly for REAL Justice, the Philly Black Radical Collective, Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal, W.e.b Du Bois School for Abolition and Reconstruction, and Food not Bombs Solidarity. He has been recognized by his students through awards such as YouthBuild’s 2021 Teacher Recognition award, recognized by the city through the 2018 Mayor’s Award for Distinguished National Service, and recognized by his community through the 2023 Radical Truth Teller Award. He is a lover of art and design, of music and the various forms of storytelling from oration to poetry to video games to books.

Meet the Team

  • Jethro Heiko is the reparationCommons Design Lead at reparationWorks. In this role he guides the creation of the Commons model based on learning from the community in and outside of Philadelphia. He brings a lot of passion for urban agriculture which grows from his work in urban community organizing and land use planning combined with experience of urban food forestry which he came to during the pandemic as the founder of Oak Lane Maple, a creative approach to making maple syrup using street and yard trees in his neighborhood in north central Philadelphia. Jethro has nearly 30 years of community organizing experience around a number of issues including over a decade of day to day efforts advancing community planning efforts to counter destructive proposed mega projects in both Boston and Philadelphia. Since founding a bereavement program for college students in 1994, Jethro has been exploring the transformative power of grieving in numerous campaigns, mobilizations, products and initiatives. He co-ran the Action Mill and then Common Practice, which included over 7 years working as a partner, with reparationWorks co-director, Rob Peagler. He has served on a number of boards of nonprofits, and just finished his Vice President role on the Board of Communities Revolutionizing Open Public Spaces in Atlantic City. He lives with his family of 6, including two dogs, and spends a lot of time with his son, Orson, in a variety of food forestry projects including foraging and gleaning, especially mushrooms in the Philadelphia area, which they provide to a few local restaurants including Honeysuckle Provisions in West Philadelphia.


  • Lucy is reparationWorks co-director with a focus on organizing. In that role she guides rW’s efforts to catalyze the coherence, vibrancy, and momentum of Philly’s emerging reparations ecosystem. She is a racial justice organizer and educator who has worked for decades supporting white people in becoming co-conspirators for racial justice. From 2022 until recently she served as Truth and Reparations Co-Fellow (with Rob Peagler) for the Truth Telling Project and Grassroots Reparations Campaign. From 2020 until 2023 she served as co-chair of the Philadelphia Mayor's Commission on Faith-Based and Interfaith Affairs, launching a campaign to invite 100 congregations into sincere reparations work, which continues under the stewardship of the Rise up for Reparations Campaign steering committee. From 2011 until 2022 she served as Director of Friends Relations for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). In that role she was lead organizer and  co-facilitator for Radical Acting in Faith for white people and co-conceived and birthed the ongoing Quakers Uprooting Racism community of practice project. She has published many articles on working to end white supremacy including the 2023 “Reparations and Transgenerational Healing” in Friends Journal. She is a member of Green Street Friends Meeting (a congregation of the Quaker regional body Philadelphia Yearly Meeting), founded their Reparations committee which inspired the meeting to budget $500,000 toward reparations in 2021. In the early 90s she co-founded the storytelling troupe, The Five Bright Chicks, and co-hosted a storytelling radio show for three years. She uses storytelling as a tool for enlivening community and understands reparations as a powerful vehicle to remake the world beyond colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacy. Lucy enjoys leaning into the reparative belief that the past is alive with us in the present. She lived in a Quaker cemetery for 15 years, her son who was born there is currently a grave digger, and she takes her daily morning constitutional in a nearby Victorian cemetery.

  • Kiasha Huling is an experienced community steward. She is adept in organizing toward action, increasing capacity and connecting neighbors with resources that uplift and improve communities. As a Social Work and Public Health professional, Kiasha has galvanized populations around actions toward healthier communities through environmental reinvestment and increased greenspaces. Most recently, Kiasha served as the Director of Development for a national non-profit based in Philadelphia. Previously she served for several years as executive director of UC Green, a non-profit based in West Philadelphia that fosters connections to ways of making Philadelphia communities green through tree planting, gardening and other cooperative ventures. Kiasha created and directed the social work program for Sayre Health Center, a Penn partnered federally qualified health center on the campus of William L. Sayre High School in the Cobbs Creek section of West Philadelphia. Amidst managing health services and resources complicated by poverty, inequality and community disinvestment, Kiasha partnered with urban gardeners and created a sustainable CSA program for pre-diabetic patients and a weekly farmer’s market featuring produce grown and harvested by Sayre High School students. The freedom to explore, dream and grow in nature is a birthright for all humans. Kiasha works to realize that right for all.

    Kiasha received her Bachelors of Arts in Psychology from Temple University and her clinical/ macro Masters Degree in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania. Her training and experience in social work, public health, and non-profit management will serve us well. She is an alum of the City of Philadelphia’s Citizen Planner Institute, an Environmental Organizer for the Clean Air Council, a community advisor to the Department of Health’s Department of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention, a Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Tree Tender and member and member of the Penn Injury Science Center Community Advisory Board and Holly Street Neighbors’ Community Garden gardener.

reparationWorks testimonials.

on our work together

“This was a really thoughtfully planned program that instilled me with both a sense of urgency around reparations and ideas of how to implement reparations on the institutional and individual level.” - Participant in Exploring a Quaker commitment to reparative justice workshop with Pendle Hill/Woodbrooke, January 2023

“An amazing opportunity to explore how white supremacy has impacted you on a personal level, your community, and beyond. This includes ways in which your personal actions help to reproduce white supremacy and how to interrupt this phenomenon and envision a loving and more equitable future.” - Participant in Exploring a Quaker commitment to reparative justice workshop with Pendle Hill/Woodbrooke, January 2023

“An intimate and reflective look at reparations: what they are, the case for engaging, what Meetings are doing, and what you can do as an individual and collectively as a Meeting.” - Participant in Exploring a Quaker commitment to reparative justice workshop with Pendle Hill/Woodbrooke, January 2023

“This was a deep, centered experience involving exceptional people, both presenters and participants. It was enriching in many ways - experientially, cognitively, emotionally and spiritually, and connected me to the concepts of reparative justice in altogether new ways.” - Participant in Exploring a Quaker commitment to reparative justice workshop with Pendle Hill/Woodbrooke, January 2023

“This was an astonishingly rich and well-thought-out course! Lining up all those outstanding, experienced presenters (most of them in real time) and connecting them with our discussions was such a gift! … Rev Naomi and Lucy were excellent facilitators. Dave Ragland's testimonies were very moving. … Pacing of the days was good…. Deep thanks for pouring yourselves out into this work for us -- now the ball is in our court!” - Participant in Building a Culture of Reparations course for faith leaders hosted/co-led by the Truth Telling Project & the Mayor’s Commission for Faith-based and Interfaith Affairs and for which Lucy served as lead organizer and co-facilitator, January 2023

“I think the quality of leadership, presentations, and content, as well as this sequence and variety of activities, were very effective. There was also a good balance of structure and emergent workshop design.” - Participant in Building a Culture of Reparations course for faith leaders hosted/co-led by the Truth Telling Project & the Mayor’s Commission for Faith-based and Interfaith Affairs and for which Lucy served as lead organizer and co-facilitator, January 2023

LUCY DUNCAN

We were reminded repeatedly that this is messy and uncomfortable work and that we are going to make mistakes. Class leader Lucy Duncan said she has been doing this work for fifteen years and she still makes mistakes and feels like she is just beginning. We were told that there will be many times when we don’t have the language to describe what we’re seeing and feeling but that we will know in our hearts when something is not right and we need to speak up anyway. We were encouraged to just stay curious and to speak with anyone we can trust, and we were reminded that our shame wants to keep us silent. We heard that this is about building authentic relationships; about accompanying rather than helping; following rather than leading.

David Bonnell on the e-course “Radical Acting in Faith for white people” for which Lucy served as lead organizer and co-facilitator

Lucy is a "people person" with a conscience, and my perception is that she's deeply faithful in her motivations and efforts. [She is] a passionate social justice advocate who doesn't hesitate to patiently educate others in an attempt to overcome ignorance. Her inclusive, open-minded demeanor invites people to join in, rather than nurse ulcers over the injustices of the world we live in.

Arthur Kegerreis, member of Orange Grove Friends Meeting

Lucy always shows up to make sure that [the programs she leads] are gathered and collective processes, where all parties are included in the design and decisions regarding the work before us. Her adept ability to invite people in has been a teaching to me of what an embodied Quaker process in program design can look like.

Mila Hamilton, co-lead facilitator of “Radical Acting in Faith”

I am writing to express the enormously positive impact of Lucy Duncan’s spirit-led work in my life and in my experience of the Quaker world. Her writing on Quakerism and abolition, her facilitation around accompaniment, and her steadfast modeling of integrity have expanded my own ability to work towards justice in myself and in community. I am a friend-of-Friends who has been deeply shaped by Quaker communities for 22 years now, and Lucy has changed my sense of what is possible within Quakerism: she has repeatedly restored my hope in the liberatory possibilities of Quakerism.

Sarah Moss Yanuck, facilitator with Rise for Racial Justice

Lucy’s work during her tenure at AFSC and her work in the community beyond AFSC demonstrate her deeply held commitment to equality of all people, particularly in her anti-racism work. I see this commitment shine through in everything she does -  it is part of the ongoing journey of her work, not only the destination. Whether seeking to accompany undocumented immigrants in their struggles for justice, helping mostly white Quakers better understand their place in a white supremacist culture, standing in solidarity with the prison abolition movement, or bringing to light the violence faced by Palestinian children, Lucy is working towards a world in which all people are able to live lives with dignity and justice.

Lori Khamala, program director at Code the Dream, former program director, AFSC/Greensboro

This course is incredible, strong, well thought out, heart based yet action oriented. And just so wise; it will take a while for me to catch up with understanding the wisdom enough to practice it, I think. I don't know of anything like this class anywhere. I think y'all are remarkably smart, committed and generous.

Participant in “Radical Acting in Faith for white people,” for which Lucy served as lead organizer and co-facilitator  

ROBERT PEAGLER

Rob is a creative capacity builder who can help people to gain insight into their work, sharpen their vision of the future and design innovative pathways to get from here to there.

Cynthia Silva Parker, Senior Associate at Interaction Institute for Social Change (Client)

Rob is deeply socially minded, compassionate, and always considering who needs help and how he might participate. He's had a fascinating career in the service of good work with and for good people.

Shel Kimen Global Strategy Lead, Advanced User Experience at Ford Motor Company (Former Manager, Collaborator on program design for inaugural United States Social Forum)

Rob is a special kind of innovator, of course curious and super smart, naturally, beyond that his fluid imagination is tuned to place complex and beautiful thoughts into a context of action toward the desired outcomes. Though he makes this look easy, it is not. Another favorite attribute of Rob is his very thoughtful listening practice. His ability to listen closely and empathetically to hear and to process what is happening in the interaction is magic. But you will really know if you are being successful with Rob when you hear his joyful laugh. Enjoy and make great things happen with Rob.

Howard Goldkrand, International Innovation Catalyst (Ally/Coconspirator)

Robert listens deeply, evaluates thoroughly and devotes himself 100% to providing individual clients with the questions that they need to be asking in order to maximize their effectiveness in a collaborative work dynamic. Robert's patience is otherworldly and his generosity limitless.

Susanna Speier,  Digital Journalist and Web Content Writer, Playwrite (Client)