Dr. Kimberly Muktarian | board member

A modern-day Abolitionist, Dr. Kimberly Muktarian is the President of Save Our Sons Agency, an organization designed to train entities on how to create just and sustainable people, families and communities.

She is also the CEO of SOS Consulting Firm, a legislative Advocacy Group and Executive Director of Raleigh Police Accountability Community Taskforce, designed to bridge sensible policies that protect all of humanity, specifically those in Marginalized Communities. 

Dr. Muktarian has served as a driving force to implement Body Worn Cameras in the City of Raleigh as early as 2018. She has fought relentlessly to preserve the Quality of Life for African American children through her service of 18 years as a Wake County Court Advocate as a Guardian Ad Litem.

As a History Teacher, Dr. Kimberly Muktarian has taught Ethics, History and Science in the county jail as well as the public and charter school sector. Her goal is to address corruption and dismantle all forms of enslavement through teaching, training and direct action.

She has served on several boards including Raleigh’s Historic Cemetery Advisory Board and other humanely driven boards that serve poor and disenfranchised persons. Her foundation of candid truth provides realistic solutions to systematic failures.

Dawn Blagrove | board member

Dawn Blagrove is Executive Director of Emancipate NC,  an organization committed to fighting systemic and institutional racism and abolishing the carceral system.  She is an attorney and a proud graduate of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) and North Carolina Central School of Law. She obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in political science with a minor in Secondary Education and a Master’s Degree in Applied Social Science.

After graduating law school, Blagrove worked for eight years as a post-conviction staff attorney with North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, where she evaluated and prioritized requests for criminal post-conviction representation from people incarcerated in North Carolina’s Department of Correction. 

Blagrove, as executive director of Emancipate NC,  has emerged as a leading voice in North Carolina, demanding an end to mass incarceration and the dismantling of systemic and institutional racism. She has conducted innumerable public trainings on an array of criminal justice issues, including defunding the police, ending cash bail, police accountability, and health impacts of being justice involved, to name a few. She also has taught an array of Continuing Legal Education courses on community and movement lawyering.

Blagrove constantly engages in community conversations challenging the status quo. She has been a guest on multiple NPR segments and interviewed by many of the leading journalists in the state.

Today, Blagrove’s experience as a post-conviction attorney, combined with her undergraduate training in Secondary Education, fuel her passion for educating youth and the public about abolishing the incarceral system.

Kerwin Pittman | board member

Kerwin Pittman was born in Germany but raised in Raleigh, NC. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Recidivism Reduction Educational Program Services, Inc (RREPS)- A nonprofit geared towards reducing the recidivism rate in North Carolina.

Pittman is a National Social Justice Activist, who advocates in the social justice field, particularly criminal justice, in which he is a voice for the voiceless. He is an Author who penned the book “Love Yours: A guide on how to love yourself”, which is a self help book slated towards self empowerment of love in ones self.

Kerwin is also a field director for Emancipate NC- A non profit slated towards combating structural racism in the criminal justice system. Kerwin also sits on the state re-entry council collaborative created and headed up by North Carolina’s Governor Roy Cooper. Kerwin also sits on the North Carolina Task Force For Racial Equity In Criminal Justice. A board headed up and created by North Carolina’s Governor Roy Cooper.

byron laws | board member

Byron has an educational background in Social Work earning his degree from North Carolina A&T State University in 2011. Less than a month after graduating Byron entered the Advance Standing Program at North Carolina State University where he received his Master of Social Work degree in 2012.

As a proud Raleigh native Byron has a passion for helping others regardless of their circumstances. Prior to joining NC Counts Byron spent several years working in youth development with the Boys & Girls Clubs in Eastern North Carolina as well as here in Raleigh. Byron is the co-founder of What’s The 919: A Raleigh Resource Guide, a collective of local leaders committed to bridging the gap between people and the information needed for them to be more informed and engaged citizens. 

Byron has serves on several boards such as Raleigh Police Accountability Community Taskforce and chaired the City of Raleigh’s Human Relations Commission.

Tammie zhao | board member

Marcus Bass | Board Member

Marcus Bass is the Executive Director of the political strategy and advocacy group Advance North Carolina providing infrastructure support for local organizing and electoral strategy among black-led groups and underrepresented communities across the State. The work of Advance Carolina in the 2018 midterm election aided in a record number of Black Sheriffs and District Attorney’s elected across North Carolina. 

Marcus came to Advance Carolina in 2017 after serving as Statewide Campaign Director for voting rights advocacy group Democracy North Carolina, where he led their long-term redistricting effort, coordinated millennial and faith-based voter engagement and served as a key messenger for the organization. Prior to that Marcus worked for the North Carolina Association of Educators.  Marcus is the former Board Chair of Common Cause North Carolina and is currently the vice-chair of the NC State Voices affiliate Blueprint North Carolina. 

Marcus has spent the past decade organizing issue-based campaigns and leading citizens to harness their own power to create change. A native of Eastern NC, while at NC A&T, as Student Body President, Marcus led several grassroots efforts including Greensboro’s largest student march to the polls between Bennett College, UNC-G, Greensboro College and North Carolina A&T and a protest of the inequitable coverage of A&T by the Greensboro News and Record. After graduation Marcus served as Campus Outreach Coordinator for Common Cause North Carolina working with HBCUs on ways to engage college students in civic participation.  He has been featured on various media outlets and publications providing insight on southern and college voter engagement. Marcus is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc, and is the is also the founder and Co-Director of Camp Lead Up, a summer leadership institute focused on facilitating the transition for minority middle school students to high school through academic support, cultural enrichment, leadership development, civic engagement and community service.