Leadership

MAPB Board Member Pamela J. Meanes is the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for CareSTL Healthcare, a Missouri community-based healthcare system that provides medical care to underserved, underinsured, and uninsured populations. Ms. Meanes is a former partner at Thompson Coburn LLP, St. Louis, Missouri’s largest law firm. She was the first African-American in the firm’s history to be elevated from associate to partner.

A native of East Saint Louis, IL, Ms. Meanes received her formal education from the East Saint Louis Public School system. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and Education from Monmouth College, Monmouth, IL; Masters of Arts in African/African-American Studies from Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA; and Juris Doctorate from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA. She also holds an honorary Doctorate in Divinity from the New Freedom Bible College, Belleville, IL. Ms. Meanes has a long history of service to professional and civic organizations and is the current chair of the NAACP St. Louis County Branch’s Legal Redress Committee and Vice President of the Mound City Bar Foundation. She is a past President of Mound City Bar Association and former co-chair of the ABA Section of Litigation’s Legal Service Project. Ms. Meanes has also served on the board of directors of MERS Goodwill, Greater East St. Louis Community Fund, Inc., and Legal Services of Eastern Missouri. In addition, she has taken leadership roles with the Gateway Junior High School Mentorship Program, the Young Lawyers Division of the Missouri Bar and the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis (BAMSL). She is also an ordained minister and active in her church, New Freedom Church in Belleville, Ill., where she helped launch such programs as “Keepin’ It Real,” a youth rap session group, and the “Each one, Reach One” mentor program.

Ms. Meanes is the recipient of numerous awards including the Award of Merit from BAMSL, St. Louis University Black Law Student Association’s 2008 Outstanding Attorney Awards, and Washington University of St. Louis Black Law Student Association 2008 Outstanding Achievement in Public Service Award, St. Louis Business Journal’s “40 under 40” recipient, selection in Missouri Lawyer’s Weekly “Up and Coming Lawyers,” St. Louis Business Journal’s Most Influential Minority Business Leader, the YWCA Leader of Distinction Award, the Women of Achievement Award, 2012 Sister to Sister Award, the 2014 Missouri Lawyer’s Weekly Litigation Practitioner Award, the 2014 NAACP St. Louis County Branch Medgar Wiley Ever Freedom Legacy Freedom Award; and the 2015 NAACP East Saint Louis Medgar Wiley Evers Freedom Legacy Freedom Award; 2015 Top Ladies of Distinction Unsung Heroine Humanitarian Awards; 2015 St. Louis Diversity Job Fair Award; 2015 NCNW Missouri Visionary Leaders Award; and the Dred Scott Civic Leadership Award.

Ms. Meanes concluded her one-year term as President of the National Bar Association (NBA) on July 23, 2015. She was sworn in as the organization’s 72nd President on July 31, 2014, just days before Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson, Missouri. As President of the NBA, the nation’s oldest and largest organization of legal professionals, Ms. Meanes was responsible for guiding the organization through the turmoil in the months following the shooting, and for representing the NBA in dealings with government officials on the local, state and federal levels. In addition to waging a war against police misconduct, to eliminate the continual erosion of civil and political rights and restore democracy, the NBA focused on the following critical issues: 1) Education: The New Civil Right; 2)Voter Protection: Restoring the Voting Rights Act & Advancing Democracy; and 3)Judicial Equality: Dismantling The Barriers That Prohibit A Diverse Bench.

Ms. Meanes has received numerous NBA honors including the 2013 Outstanding Officer’s Award, 2012 NBA Special Presidential award, 2012 & 2011 WLD Chair’s award, 2011 & 2010 Presidential award, 2011 & 2010 Region of the Year, 2010 NBA Young Lawyers’ Hon. A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. award, and the 2007 Affiliate Chapter of the Year award.

Ms. Meanes is married to Reverend Doctor William M. Meanes, Sr., and they have seven wonderful children: Wilson, Ciara, Kandia, William, Jr., Anointing, Aayannah, and Divinity

A co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality, John Fullinwider is an educator and community organizer, with more than 35 years’ experience in Dallas, working on a wide range of issues ranging from lead pollution to homelessness. He has served on the boards of the National Coalition for the Homeless, National Low-Income Housing Coalition, Low Income Housing Information Service, and Institute for Community Economics. He has testified as an expert witness on housing and homelessness in federal court and numerous times before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Housing & Community Development. Fullinwider is the co-founder of Common Ground Community Economic Development Corporation, the first community development corporation in Dallas, and East Dallas Community School (now Lumen Education), Dallas Peace & Justice Center, and Friends of the South Dallas Cultural Center. He is board president of Teatro Dallas. John taught for 15 years at Otto Fridia Alternative High School in Dallas ISD; he won the district’s highest honors, the Excellence in High School Teaching Award and the “Golden Apple” Teacher of the Year Award. For his community work, he is the recipient of numerous awards including the Equal Justice Award from Legal Aid of Northwest Texas, the Martin Luther King Jr. Center Neighborhood Improvement Award, and the Dallas Urban League President’s “Bridge Builder” Award.

From 2015-2020, John was a key organizer of the successful movement to take down Confederate statues and monuments in Dallas, Texas.