“I'm always looking for people's superpower” (w/ Kristin Urquiza and Christine Keeves of Marked by COVID)
A new crisis explodes and you’re the frontlines. What do you do?
Marked by COVID co-founder Kristin Urquiza’s father died from COVID after trusting Arizona Governor Doug Ducey’s claims that “it was safe to resume normal activities.” While reeling from the loss, she and co-founder Christine Keeves made the decision to act, hoping to save others from facing similar losses. Find out how they went about forming Marked by COVID and began helping lead the fight for accountability, recognition, and justice in the age of COVID-19.
Episode Links:
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Credits:
To the best of our knowledge, all audio used by What Can I Do is in the public domain or is used with permission. Our theme song is Good Deeds by Serj Anto, and we hold a license for use of the song through PremiumBeat.
Original artwork is by Matthew Weflen and used with express permission.
Kristin Urquiza
Kristin is the nation’s top disaster equity advocate, with expertise in race, economic, environmental, and health policy. An experienced grassroots organizer, Urquiza co-founded Marked By COVID and catalyzed the nation’s foremost community-led Covid justice movement days after the death of her father, Mark Urquiza, to Covid in June 2020.
By uplifting impacted voices, Urquiza improved the nation’s Covid response and advanced legislation for a just recovery, recognition, and pandemic prevention. Over the last 20 years, she has transformed global power dynamics to put power back in the hands of people at former Congressman Henry Waxman’s Mighty Earth, Angela Glover Blackwell’s PolicyLink, California’s leading environmental justice organization Communities for a Better Environment, and U.S. PIRG.
Urquiza holds a B.A. from Yale University and an MPA from U.C. Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, and is the recipient of the Arizona Public Health Association’s 2021 Community Partner Award and the Goldman School’s inaugural Alumni Award for Social Justice Impact.
Christine Keeves
Christine works at the intersection of storytelling, advocacy, and impact analysis to build a more inclusive, equitable world.
A proud child of immigrants, Christine grew up in New York City and was the first in her family to attend college at The George Washington University and then complete a Master of Public Health at Boston University. She has more than ten years of communications experience working on a range of progressive issues, from health care to LGBTQ+ rights.
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