Tyeone Barner

Ty is a firm believer in there being a multitude of ways to explore identity and how we all show up in the world. What brings Ty to the work with GreenLight is their experience in community organizing in grassroots local as well as academic capacities. Ty’s organizing experience began in their hometown, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. They moved to Atlanta during the during their freshman year at Morehouse College in 2017. Five years into their residency in Atlanta, they have connected into several communities that hold space for their intersecting identities: organizer, creative, writer, truthteller, liberation-seeker — and most abundantly present in how they show up in any space — unapologetically black and queer.

Prior to joining the GreenLight team, Ty worked as a Lead Prevention Specialist at another nonprofit based in Atlanta. Ty’s work as a specialist prioritized their expertise in engaging and advocating for black and brown, queer and trans low-income communities. In this work, they led an outreach team through community engagement and related project and event planning and execution.

Ty is deeply committed to having a genuine understanding of the necessities that mean the difference for thriving, surviving, or not surviving for varying groups of people. Ty believes that to know a person is to know more than where they are, but to also know where they’ve been and where they intend to go.