Coffee With Commissioners on Oct. 19th

On Thursday, October 19th, stop by for a cup of coffee and chat with Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara and Commissioner Al Whitesides from District 1.

They will have coffee waiting as well as time to talk starting at 8:00 am in the First Floor Conference Room at 200 College Street in downtown Asheville.

Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara grew up in Chapel Hill and was raised by her mom, a public health nurse. Today, Jasmine and her wife, Meghann Burke, live in the East End neighborhood of Asheville with their one-year-old, Calvin. Jasmine roots for the Tarheels and the Panthers and loves spending time with family and friends.

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Jasmine is the founding Executive Director of the Campaign for Southern Equality (CSE), an Asheville-based non-profit that launched in 2011 to promote full equality for LGBT people and families across the South. Service and faith are the driving forces in her work – from teaching in prisons to becoming an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.

Al Whitesides is recognized throughout Asheville as a successful businessman, a community leader and a living touchstone to the city’s struggle to eliminate segregation. While attending the segregated African-American Stephens-Lee High School in the early 1960s, he and his classmates joined ASCORE (Asheville Student Committee on Racial Equality). The group organized and participated in nonviolent demonstrations to desegregate local businesses. Whitesides remained active in the civil rights movement while attending college, where he met his wife Shirley, a retired art teacher and nonprofit leader, who leads the Delta House Life Development of Asheville. The Whitesides have two daughters.

Can’t make it but want to submit a question? Contact them at [email protected] or [email protected] anytime.