MPA Celebrates Spring 2025 Graduation With More Than 70 New CVI Professionals

Metropolitan Peace Academy graduates are celebrated at their Spring 2025 graduation on Wednesday, June 18, 2025 at the South Shore Cultural Center.

It was a joyous occasion for Metropolitan Peace Initiatives (MPI) and Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P) as they celebrated the newest cohorts from the Metropolitan Peace Academy (MPA) on Wednesday, June 18, 2025 at the South Shore Cultural Center. These individuals will go on to become professionals in street outreach, case management, and victim services, in addition to taking on various leadership roles within Chicago’s Community Violence Intervention (CVI) network.

MPI Director of Training Tina Cooper led the evening as emcee, spotlighting the incredible work of more than 70 graduates who made up the Spring 2025 class. To date, more than 600 individuals have graduated from the MPA.

Vaughn Bryant, Executive Director at MPI, provided opening remarks that touched on the current state of funding within CVI, while encouraging graduates to lean into their purpose and contributions to the work.

“We’re living in an unprecedented time. It is important for us to keep our heads up and our eyes on the prize of what we’re trying to get accomplished, and [to not] be distracted by things we can’t control,” Bryant said. “What you can control is getting up every day with purpose and serving your community and making your community better, no matter what the circumstances are around us.”

The graduating cohorts included Case Management Cohort 9, Victim Services Cohort 4, Outreach Cohorts 19 and 20, and the inaugural Management and Supervision Fellowship. As each class walked across the stage, they were led by MPA reflection speakers who represented their cohort and shared their transformative experiences at the MPA.

“I’m grateful to [the] MPA for the connections I was able to make, for the new organizations I was able to meet, and especially for the people,” said graduate Martin Leon, who works as an Outreach Worker at New Life Centers.

“Most of all, I’m [thankful for] the stories — the stories that taught me that it doesn’t matter what you have been through in life, once you’re able to get past that and learn from your struggle, you can be somebody. And you can be that change that you want to be in your neighborhood.”

Graduates also heard from a pair of keynote speakers, which included Cook County Justice Advisory Council Executive Director Avik Das and Chicago CRED Women’s Center Co-founder Necole Muhammad. Both expressed their gratitude for the graduates’ selfless efforts in keeping Chicago safe.

“The work you’ve chosen is sacred and intentional. It’s dangerous, but it’s necessary,” Muhammad said. “You step into your chosen field with life experience that no textbook could ever teach. You came carrying your own pain and your own power.”

The evening reached a somber moment when remembering MPA Outreach Cohort 5 graduate Shronda Mcatee and Dr. Jerry Watson, who have since passed. Dr. Watson, in particular, was instrumental in writing MPA’s course curriculum and served as a mentor to many. His impact and influence remain a constant presence in the halls of the Academy.

“Dr. Jerry was a force to be reckoned with. He believed in hard work, commitment, and social justice. His mind was a never-ending memory box full of experience of being in the street or behind the wall, of being a student in the classroom or a lecture hall. Brother Jerry was the real deal,” said Dr. Vanessa Perry DeReef, Chief Training Officer at MPI.

“[…] We thank you, Dr. Jerry, for believing in what the Metropolitan Peace Academy could become. We thank you, Dr. Jerry, for taking all of us under your wing. You used the same stories, the same wisdom, and that same sense of humor to mentor us, to mold us, and to love us.”

Metropolitan Peace Initiatives Chief Training Officer Dr. Vanessa Perry DeReef honors the late Dr. Jerry Watson.

Dr. Perry DeReef closed out the ceremony by offering words of encouragement to the graduating class and praising the work of CVI professionals in helping to curb gun violence in Chicago. Year over year, there has been a 30 percent decrease in homicides and shootings.

“This is what happens when we center the people who are closest to the pain and closest to the solution. You are building a new kind of public safety infrastructure, one that we can trust in healing and lived experiences,” Dr. Perry DeReef said.

“You are hyperlocal leaders with a license to operate in spaces that institutions alone cannot reach. […] That is your superpower, and that is so unique.”