Get to Know Culture Crown, a City of Charlotte ERN
Published on February 24, 2026
Each February, the United States celebrates Black History Month. This year, we want to take a moment to highlight one of our Emloyee Resource Networks (ERN) that celebrates Black History year-round: Culture Crown.
Culture Crown was established in 2023 with the goal to form belonging, inclusion, community and culture among the African American diaspora of City of Charlotte employees.
We caught up with a few members to ask about the ERN, Black History Month and who inspires them.
Tell us about yourself.
Antawuan Schofield: Mayor & Council Support Specialist
Aleka Thrash: Public Information Specialist, Charlotte Area Transit System
David Wright: Senior Utilities Coordinator, Storm Water Services
Edrina Maben-Collins: Operational Manager, Storm Water Services
Nicole Harris: Organizational Workforce Development Lead, Charlotte Area Transit System
How did you find out about Culture Crown?
Schofield: I was in the original meeting. They shot their ideas out there, and they asked for individual people who were brave enough to put themselves out there to try to get this started.
Thrash: I was invited by one of the members, and they told me about it, and I was like oh this is really great and amazing. Also, paying attention to Crown Weekly and seeing that the ERN groups were formulated, and there was a link to be able to go look at the lists that were available. So kind of a hybrid of both the members that were part of the organization, but also the communication that was sent out through the city newsletter.
Wright: My mentor actually. Her name is Edrina Maben-Collins. She’s been mentoring me since day one, and she would always send me emails about the ERN, and I was like oh interesting so eventually she talked me into it.
Maben-Collins: I’m one of those that reads the emails that come through, and there was an email that said that the city HR was looking to establish an ERN, and for me that was exciting because most of my career that was not a benefit that I was able to access. So, I definitely wanted to jump in on it.
Harris: Actually, I am one of the co-chairs and founders of Culture Crown ERN. So, I found out about it relatively early on when the city launched the initiative, so just about two years ago.
Why is having this ERN so important?
Schofield: Having an ERN and having this space is extremely important to me, because it allows us to cultivate amongst like-minded individuals. It allows us to be able to share, grow and just do different things. Also, too, it’s important to me because it allows me to realize that the company that I work for or the city that I work for stands behind its employees. It gives us a space to be different but the same at the same time.
Thrash: I think having ERNs across the board are extremely important. Not only does it create opportunities for safe spaces, if you are in an identity group or if you are an employee with an aging parent which is an ERN group that I lead, but it allows you to find the different things that your intersectionality can be connected to and find your people, find community with potentially people who are like-minded but also people who are going to challenge you in your systems or beliefs. I think the ERN, specifically Culture Crown, does a really good job of exposing individuals to things that they may not know about, especially when it comes to the focus and the mission of what Culture Crown has to offer.
Wright: For me, it’s about being on the front line of progress. I saw a good thing. I saw the progress that was happening, and I said you know why not. I’ve sat in the wings for a while, and I’ve always been the change I wanted to see. However, I figured it was time to be a voice. It was time for me to be a voice in this change.
Maben-Collins: I think it’s important because it’s a community that is a safe space, and it’s a place where you can find accountability. So, you know, we all have times in our careers where we start second-guessing ourselves or we feel like I can’t do that. In that space, we are able to sort of nudge each other along. Then there are times that there’s something heavy weighing on you, that you can talk to somebody that really sort of, you don’t have to start from the very beginning. They understand that sense of weight that you’re feeling, and it’s just a good space, but I like the fact that we push each other. Career development, you know, we also are like, hey, what are you doing as far as your mental health? What are you doing for your physical health? So that’s why I think it’s a great space.
Harris: It does provide a collaborative space for employees of Charlotte. It provides a very culturally specific space for Charlotte employees. It provides opportunity for networking, for career discovery, for career building, and it just provides a sense of, I guess, just camaraderie and community and collectiveness.
What does Black History Month mean to you?
Schofield: Black History Month means to me an opportunity for us to showcase our contribution to this great country. It gives us a history lesson in things that we’ve done. Historically speaking, we have always been somewhat told that we weren’t great contributors. Well, you know, coming out of school, you have a different mindset once you start knowing. I do wish it was longer, but it’s fun and it’s good to have and I’m glad that we’re able to expel on some of the great inventors and the great historians and the great contributions that we were able to make.
Thrash: Black History to me means American history. Black history is an opportunity for us as a nation to acknowledge the good, the bad and honestly even the ugly of what our country has gone through. But what is so beautiful about this current iteration of Black History Month, we get to celebrate all of the things that we have achieved as a community, as a culture and even as people in America, just as Americans as a whole.
Wright: It’s about strength, resilience and progress. As negative as Black history is portrayed, I didn’t find it, as weird as it may sound, I didn’t find it as a bad period in time if that makes sense. I think evolution, advancement carries big sacrifice, and I think our forefathers and our predecessors took on that sacrifice because they knew what the long game would look like. We’re built on sacrifice. So, that’s why it’s so dear to my heart, and that’s why Black history means so much to me.
Maben-Collins: Black History Month means to me that we as a community are intentionally taking the time to highlight the contributions of African Americans in our society. I said the word intentionally because at times we just go about our day. We don’t think about how things happen or why things are where they are, or as we say the streetlight or right now AI. You know people, they don’t realize African Americans had a great contribution in that.
Harris: Black History Month is... It’s historical knowledge for me. Current and past, current and future. It’s really about remembering where we come from, remembering the people, the shoulders that we stand upon. Just for me being a student and a curator of current history, it just means involvement in the Black history movement, being part of my origin of my people. It also means storytelling.
Who in your community or family has inspired you the most? How?
Schofield: My children. They inspire me the most because it allows you the motivation to do better and to realize that a mistake can be made, but you can overcome it. You know, as a parent, you are sometimes trapped in the mindset doing things, and when you realize that hey, it’s okay because you got to talk to your kids. You got to tell them oh, I messed up. It’s going to be okay. But then you get to believe what you’re saying, because you really do know it’s going to be okay.
Thrash: So, there are so many people in my community and family that have inspired me, but specifically, I want to highlight and talk about the Urban League Central Carolinas, specifically the young professionals. They have been doing such an amazing job of engaging our community in an intentional way. Everything from outreach events to community development events, conferences for young professionals. It’s been really cool to see young people, especially because I’m no longer considered young, young people doing work that really ties back to how we can serve our current city with intentionality.
Wright: It could easily be my dad. My dad passed away when I was 17, and believe it or not his influence was indirect because he wasn’t done raising me as a man. However, he put in so much work that I just had to continue living in order to fulfill what it is that my dad was putting into me. My grandfather definitely, and funny enough my Uncle George. So just looking at those guys and their resilience and their will to win, even though they had the smallest setbacks in life.
Maben-Collins: Well, I would say my family because a foundation is what is very, very important in anybody’s life. And in my family, there were various, today’s terminology, subject matter experts. So, there were the teachers, there were the nature people that built all they had into me. So therefore, with that foundation, I’ve been able to build on it in various different parts of my career. There have been other people who have stepped in and mentored me and guided me along the way.
Harris: I don’t know if I have one particular person. I would just say there’s probably a collection in a diaspora of people who inspire me. Just to be able to celebrate my Blackness and be involved in various initiatives and communities. So, I don’t think I can name one particular person. I think it’s just a collection of our history.
What is a lesser-known fact about Black History you think more people should know?
Schofield: Mayor Vi Lyles. She’s walking history. The first female Black mayor in the City of Charlotte. I think we take her for granted, because she’s here and she’s overlooked. But I think Mayor Vi Lyles is walking history in the Government Center. So, when you see her, you’re looking at history.
Thrash: Susan E. Rice. She was the first African American woman to become the UN Ambassador, specifically as a foreign policy advisor. I think that is really cool to think of how many people in our history were the first but also contributed so much to the way our country has been formulated.
Wright: So, Bayard Rustin is my favorite all-time Black history person. Nobody knows about him, and that was his strategy to not be known. Just through some deep research of Black history, I ran across his name. The name was interesting because I know some Rustins. Bayard Rustin is actually monikered as Mr. March on Washington. So, you get where I’m going. Bayard Rustin was actually the chief strategist and advisor to Dr. King, and everything that Dr. King was the face of was organized and orchestrated strategically by Bayard Rustin. He had an alternative lifestyle that wasn’t acceptable in society, so he was kind of forced to be behind the scenes, but a lot of people don’t know that. A lot of Dr. King’s ideas and movements were strategized by Bayard Rustin. He was the man, and I would advise anybody to really look up his story. He’s very interesting.
Maben-Collins: I think more people should look into David Blackwell, an African American mathematician, game theory. He’s also [made significant contributions to] probability theory. He had a lot to do with those series and AI. Most people don’t even know who he is.
Harris: I attended a talk through the Levine Museum of the New South, [and] I did not know that there was a Civil Rights movement by Black female hospital workers out of South Carolina. They led a movement to get their wages increased. So, they were one of the first groups of female Black women that led a movement of wage disparity, and they addressed those wage disparities. So, that was something very interesting I had not known about.