"What are the things that impact people and prevent them from moving forward?” That is the question that has always interested Lillie Estes in her work for social justice. Lillie has been a community organizer from a young age and was politically active before she finished high school. Bused to a predominantly white high school in the mid-70s, she encountered racial tension and saw how social issues could escalate into racial violence and be used as political fodder instead of being resolved through dialogue. It became for her a moral and spiritual imperative to battle against the unfairness in the existing social order, so she headed for university to earn a degree in Administration of Justice and Public Safety.

When Lillie joined the first class of the Connecting Communities Program she was weary of the struggle and was finding that her passion for community change often made others perceive her as “an angry black woman.” But she found in the program the "quintessential key component of community transformation," that of helping people look within and change their own behavior. For her this meant acquiring greater patience. “Going against the grain” is still the way she operates but instead of cutting people off, she has found a willingness to listen and learn from their experience. While still a passionate person, she has become “way more calm.”

Now her work in the community is about growing leadership and encouraging participation. The needs for education, housing, jobs, and wealth creation are interconnected and require coordinated strategies. True empowerment means modeling the change and implementing a process of self-correction.

In her regular blog, “Flava of this Day”, Lillie tries to add the “unspoken ingredient” to the day’s conversation.