Featured
Speaker - Quincy Lucas
Quincy
Lucas, prior to the year 2003, described her life as normal and
uncomplicated. She was the child of college educated
professionals living in the suburbs of Baltimore. A
product of Parochial schools and a member of St. Bernadine's
Roman Catholic Church, Quincy's childhood showed no evidence
that she or her family would ever be caught up in the violence
that infected Baltimore City. As adults, Quincy and her sister
Witney were advocates for change in the Baltimore community.
Their mission was to establish a foundation to help the
needy in inner city Baltimore. That is until one day her life
was dramatically altered by a crime that would eventually affect
58 individuals in Maryland in 2003 alone.
In
January, 2003 Quincy's life was changed forever when her
sister, Witney, was murdered at the hands of her ex-boyfriend,
James Buie. Quincy and her family were not accustomed to a
life of violence and had no reason to suspect that Witney was in
danger of becoming a victim of Domestic Violence. Buie was
eventually convicted of first-degree premeditated murder and was
sentenced to life in prison.
In
spite of the loss of her sister, Quincy remains committed to
keeping her memory alive and she continues the mission they had
set out to complete together. Quincy currently lives in Dover,
Delaware with her husband and three children. She works in
the field of education and has become an advocate for victim's
rights and domestic violence awareness. She is instrumental in
the annual Witney H. Rose Cultural Diversity Day and Psychiatry
Scholarship at the University of Maryland, which features a
lecture series about domestic issues and needs within the
community. Quincy has worked to host the Domestic
Violence/Intimate Partner program: Intimate
Partner Violence Breaking the Cycle, at Delaware
State University. Quincy is currently working to establish a
non-profit organization: Witney's L.I.G.H.T.S, an organization
dedicated to empowering youth to be aware of the violence within
their communities and teach them to make a difference. “My
life-long commitment,” Quincy notes, “until I have no breath
left in me is to continue to speak to anyone willing to listen
about the effects that violence has on the victims and that
crime can strike anyone; all are vulnerable; yet the first step
to change is awareness.”
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