Jimmy Wright is president of Wright Solutions of Alabama and owner and operator of Wright’s Market, a traditional neighborhood retail food store in Opelika, Alabama. Wright’s Market was the first Independent Grocery in the United States to offer the ability to use SNAP benefits to shop online. He testified before both the U.S. Senate and House Agriculture committees on the importance of SNAP. In January 2020, he formed Wright Food Solutions to offer consulting services to retailers, wholesalers, non-profits and community development groups in the area’s food access, food security and food affordability, with a focus on urban inner city and rural America.

Roshun Austin is the President/CEO of the Works, Inc, a 30-year-old community development corporation. The Works, Inc. (TWI) is the developer of single-family and multifamily properties in distressed neighborhoods. TWI is a operates a farmers’ market, a greengrocer, a mobile grocery; provides nutrition education; operates a mortgage loan fund; and does work around the comprehensive needs of children and families. The Works, Inc merged with Neighborhood Preservation, Inc in January 2022 expanding its services to include policy advocacy, the Strategic Code Enforcement Management Academy, the Blight Elimination Steering Team, promoting collaborative efforts to develop practical and sustainable resolutions to blighted properties and to the systems that lead to widespread neglect, vacancy and abandonment of real estate.

She earned her M.A. in Urban Anthropology at the University of Memphis and her undergraduate degree at Middlebury College. She’s the mother of one daughter, Lailah who is pursuing a career in the real estate and the arts.
Ms. Austin is the Treasurer of the Memphis Fourth Estate (The Daily Memphian). She is also Treasurer of Urban Renaissance Partners. She will end her tenure as Assistant Secretary for the Methodist Healthcare Foundation and as the Chair of Mission Advancement on the management committee of the Urban Land Institute Memphis Chapter in June 2023. She has long served in advisory capacity to the Memphis Black Arts Alliance. Recently Ms. Austin joined the Board of Directors of the Mid-South Food Bank.

Previously she worked for the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. She was hired as the Controller for the Foundation and was later named the Program Director to coordinate the Mid-South Delta Initiative, an economic and community development initiative. She retired from that position in, August, 2009. Prior to her work at Kellogg, Dickerson was Vice President of Financial Operations for MINACT, INC. in Jackson, Mississippi.

Dickerson opened the Mae Bertha Carter Learning Center in September 2017 where she instructs and directs youth and adult programs including workshops of life skills, healthy living, African American history, financial literacy, healthy relationships, mindfulness, and career readiness. Dickerson was elected to the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors in November 2015, and is unopposed for her third term as Supervisor.

Dickerson received her bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Mississippi in Oxford and her MBA from Millsap’s College in Jackson, Mississippi. She is a former Certified Public Accountant. She is an instructor/trainer and is certified in Heal Your Life®, Mindful School®, Infinite Possibilities®, and Primordial Sound Meditation™. Additionally, she is a Life Coach, and an Internal Family Systems Counselor. Dickerson lives in Drew, MS. She is married to Donald Dickerson and has one son, Deidrick.