For someone who claims to have fallen serendipitously into social justice work, Stacy Bailey-Ndiaye seems entirely unsuited for anything else. Her warm eyes, welcoming smile and calm voice s/files/storyimages/a peaceful message immediately, while her work at the Ali Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of Louisville lets that message reverberate through the community and the world.
A Louisvillian for just over a year, Bailey-Ndiaye, 38, previously resided in various parts of New York. Most recently she lived in Westchester, working at Manhattanville College, when she found her calling as director of the Westchester Martin Luther King Jr. Institute for Nonviolence. "I was very active in college, but Westchester really launched me into community involvement," she says. Her longtime friendship with Alvin Herring, now director of the Ali Institute, brought her here as the associate director.
The Institute is funded by U of L and is responsive to the wishes of the Ali family, who were in the process of revamping the program when Bailey-Ndiaye came on board. Since then the focus has gone from international to community-based violence prevention. "We wanted to include students more," she says, "and connect them to the underlying issues that impede peace, especially in urban situations." The focus is not so much murder in the streets as it is relating economics and development to social justice.
Student involvement has come through Bailey-Ndiaye’s primary responsibility: the Ali Scholars program, which is just a year old. The scholars — U of L students who join the program as an extracurricular activity — sp/files/storyimages/one year laying groundwork through service projects and travel (this year to England, France and Senegal); in the second year, they participate in a community-based project. "Ali scholars were conceived as a way to make a meaningful impact on a few students and for them, in turn, to have an impact on the wider community," Bailey-Ndiaye explains, "so it’s kind of like unleashing leadership."
Her efforts are paying off: One Ali Scholar, Savannah Barrett, organized the "Witness" exhibit of renowned war and geographic photographer James Nachtwey currently at the Paul Paletti Gallery, 713 E. Market St. Talks are underway for an Ali Scholars program in Senegal and the Ali Institute is launching its "Do No Harm" campaign to inform and empower people against the "six faces" of violence. Bailey-Ndiaye says, "We are just trying to use our resources to make our community — our home — a better and more peaceful place to live."
