TEAR Steering Committee

The Steering Committee of Miami-Dade TEAR was formed in September 2018 to spur public awareness about the history of racial terrorism in South Florida. The centerpiece of the committee’s work is to bring the Miami-Dade County Monument from the National Memorial for Peace and Justice located in Montgomery, Alabama, to South Florida for public remembrance. Since TEAR’s inception, the committee has come together on a quarterly or monthly basis to identify the scope and parameters of the TEAR initiative, plan strategically, share resources, learn the history of racial terror in Miami-Dade County, and develop relationships. More than half of the committee members have visited Montgomery and spent time in the Memorial and Legacy Museum. To begin the truth-telling process, the Miami-Dade TEAR committee engaged in a historical tour of Black Miami, presented Miami-Dade’s racial violence history at community forums, and hosted dialogues about race and the reconciliation process. In January 2019, the committee visited the site where William Sim mons was lynched in 1923 and collected soil for EJI’s Community Remembrance Project. The TEAR committee will convene community dialogues and soil collections in spring 2020 to commemorate the lynchings of Robert Gaines and J.B. Harris. The TEAR committee will expand the community dialogue to include other acts of racial terror, including the slaying of Arthur McDuffie by police officers in 1980. In the summer and fall of 2020, committee members will present TEAR’s work at a series of conferences. A community group will also journey to Montgomery in the latter part of 2020 to deliver soil, stopping at other racial terrorism sites in Florida.

Courtney A. Berrien, Co-chair

The Associate Director of the Center for Community Service Initiatives at Barry University and Co-Chair of Barry University’s Antiracism and Equity Coalition. As a Ph.D. student in the University of Miami’s Community Well-Being program, she studies truth and reconciliation processes around race in the United States. Prior to working in higher education, Berrien served as a DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) facilitator and program director in Miami. She also spent ten years teaching high-school history and civic engagement programs in International Baccalaureate schools in the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe, and North America. Berrien has published and consulted in the areas of program design, curriculum development, and assessment.

Guy Forchion, Co-chair

Mr. Forchion is responsible for the management, planning, and operation of the $40 million dollar restoration of Historic Virginia Key Beach Park in Miami, Florida. He coordinates property renovation, facilities management, ecosystem restoration, and capital improvements which includes the planning and construction of a museum facility on the 82-acre Historic Beach Park. He has held the position of Director of Operations and Executive Director during his tenure with the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust.

Dr. Marvin Dunn

Taught in the Department of Psychology at Florida International University for 34 years, retiring as chairman of the department in 2006. He earned his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He co-authored The Miami Riot of 1980: Crossing the Bounds (1984), with Bruce Porter, and authored Black Miami in the Twentieth Century (1997), and The Beast In Florida: A History of Anti-Black Violence (2012). He has directed three documentary films: Black Seminoles in the Bahamas: The Red Bays Story; Murder on the Suwannee River: The Willie James Howard Story; and Rosewood Uncovered.

Dinizulu Gene Tinnie

Is an artist, author, educator, and activist who uses his talent to preserve the heritage and culture of the African American community. As one of the original members of TEAR, he serves as one of the main researchers of historical records related to the occurrences of lynchings within Miami Dade County.

Karen P. Moore

As a public policy strategist, Karen brings over thirty years of experience in community & economic development, higher education, and civic engagement. She has demonstrated leadership in the areas of program review and design, community outreach, legislative advocacy, and policy analysis. She is a native Miamian and considers it a privilege to serve with the other members of  TEAR, as we lift up the voices of those brutally silenced, by barbaric acts of extra-judicial violence in South Florida.

Victor Romano

Is an Associate Vice Provost for Student Success & Undergraduate Studies and Associate Professor of Sociology at Barry University. He earned an MA and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Florida. Dr. Romano’s research and publications focus on racial and ethnic relations and gender stratification. Dr. Romano is Chairperson of Hope, Inc., a non-profit organization committed to combating housing discrimination and a member of the Florida State Advisory Board to the US Commission on Civil Rights. He is also a past member and Chair of the Miami-Dade County Commission on Human Rights. 

Judith Bachay, Ph.D., L.M.H.C. (Deceased)

Barry Alumna, Judi Bachay is a Professor in the Social Science and Counseling Department at St. Thomas University and a founding member of the University’s Loss and Healing Program. Dr. Bachay is a licensed Mental Health Counselor who has written numerous articles for journals in the field of conflict mediation and resolution. She co-edited three books with topics related to justice and the intersection of gender, law, and trauma incurred by migration. As a Fulbright Scholar in Slovenia and Fulbright Specialist in Greece, Croatia, and Bosnia, Dr.Bachay provided an interdisciplinary lens to the way that people leverage resilience and communal strength to solve complex social problems. She is committed to dismantling racism and healing race-based trauma and is a member of the Miami-Dade County Truth, Education, and Reconciliation (TEAR) Steering Committee.

Roni Bennett

Roni Bennett has a Bachelors’ in Business Administration from the University of Missouri. Before moving to Miami, she enjoyed a successful career in Silicon Valley where she held several technical and management positions at leading technology firms. After an accomplished business career, Ms. Bennett decided to devote the next part of her life to improving race relations in her South Florida community. In 2015, Ms. Bennett and two associates founded the Miami Shores People of Color, now known as South Florida People of Color. Ms.Bennett currently serves as the Executive Director of the organization where she manages the daily operations, including programs and volunteer staff. She is a member of the Miami-Dade County TEAR Steering Committee.

Heather Burdick

Is a passionate advocate for justice, equity, empowerment, and self-expression. These values drive her work in facilitating community conversations, organizational consultations, legal advocacy, and workshops in the areas of consent, DEI, team building, and restorative justice. Transformational learning and experiential education are at the root of her offerings and help to create a space in which vulnerability and personal truth-telling lead to powerful and positive shifts in perspective. She unabashedly calls this magic and works with South Florida People of Color as a facilitator, consultant, and coach. She is a board member with the Greater Miami Chapter of the ACLU and lets out her rock’n’roll side as co-founder and co-director of the award-winning Miami Girls Rock Camp.

Heather Burdick is a facilitator, consultant, and coach with South Florida People of Color and a restorative justice trainer and practitioner. She is also a co-founder and co-director of Miami Girls Rock Camp and a board member of the Greater Miami Chapter of the ACLU, for which she chairs their Juvenile Justice Committee. Prior, she worked as a teacher in Miami Dade County Public Schools for 12 years.