Innovation Fellow

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MARIAM SANKOH

Office and Finance Administrator, Coming Together Virginia
Facilitating cogenerational, cross-racial dialogue that contributes to racial healing and creates thriving, equitable and just communities

Mariam Sankoh is a scientist who has always had a humanitarian heart and an artist’s mind. She has a decade of experience in research, teaching and volunteering in her current role as a PhD candidate in Integrative Life Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University. Mariam serves as Office and Finance Administrator for Coming Together Virginia, an organization in the former capital of the Confederacy that provides an environment for all who wish to acknowledge and heal the wounds from racism that are rooted in our nation’s history of slavery.

As a first-generation American with roots in Sierra Leone, Mariam is motivated by a passion to create community across many divides. She is fascinated by the cultural concepts defining community and race on both shores as well as how the legacy of enslavement and colonization still impacts policy and cultural norms. She also explores trauma-informed care in underserved, incarcerated populations, and rural and minority populations in the Richmond metropolitan area.

She came to Coming Together Virginia as a volunteer and has stayed over the years building relationships with elders and wisdom-bearers in the hopes of becoming the healing bridge for future generations.