Olatunji Oboi Reed

Olatunji Oboi Reed’s passion lies at the intersection of community, culture, and health. He works globally as a racial equity tactician and racial justice activist. With an extensive background in both nonprofit management and corporate social responsibility, he is most proud of his work to create a diverse coalition working together to achieve racial equity and mobility justice across the City of Chicago.

Oboi serves as the founding president & CEO of Equiticity, a racial equity movement, operationalizing racial equity by harnessing our collective power through research, advocacy, programs, and community mobility rituals to improve the lives of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people in our society. Equiticity’s vision is a mid- to large-sized U.S. city where racial equity is fully integrated at the policy and legislative levels into every function, department, budget, and resource associated with the city’s operations, services, and programs.

Oboi co-founded and recently served as the president and CEO of the Slow Roll Chicago bicycle movement. Slow Roll Chicago worked to build an equitable, diverse, and inclusive bicycle culture in Chicago by organizing community bicycle rides and advocating for bicycle equity.

In 2015, Oboi was awarded The White House Transportation Champion of Change award by The White House and the United States Department of Transportation. Oboi serves as co-chair of the Transportation Equity Network and is a member of the 2018 Grist Fixers cohort, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s Human and Community Development Committee, and PolicyLink’s Transportation Equity Caucus.

Oboi graduated from Roosevelt University with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics.

Community Mobility Rituals (CMRs) include Equiticity, community bicycle rides, neighborhood walking tours, public transit excursions, group scooter rolls, and open street festivals. Their mobility events have elements which lend themselves to being ritualistic. These include a schedule with rhythmic frequency, priority on socialization, focus on racialized healing, reduced barriers to participation, natural development of shared customs, active disruption of the status quo, and the collective ownership of “our” space. CMRs at the neighborhood level contribute to growing trust in communities. When trust increases in neighborhoods, perceptions of violence decrease. As a result, people are moved to walk, bike, shop, and explore their communities. More vibrant streets attract increased retail, leading to greater job creation and contributing to reducing violence in communities.

Post-Institute: Transformative Action Plans

At the start of CoHLI, Olatunji was working to create diverse coalitions to achieve racial equity and mobility justice across Chicago. His work now centers around cultural exchange and community/relationship building between the US and Brazil. Olatunji is coordinating virtual learning exchanges to operationalize racial equity and in-person study tours that strengthen the relationships between cohorts in Brazil and the US. He hopes to expand the cultural exchange to other South American countries. Ultimately, he hopes to establish a community of racial equity technicians worldwide.