Emerging Leaders Class of 2024

Cheryl Harris is a compassionate capitalist who understands that neighborhoods which have high concentrations of poverty, food deserts and/or poor food choices, and are usually littered with vacant homes and lots, and substandard houses are strategic and by design. She lives and has her businesses on the East Side of Buffalo, so she sees how her community experiences the effects of blight on poor mental and physical health and hopelessness. This issue inspired her to help launch the East Side Garden Walk and participate in the Urban Farm Tour for three years. These projects are important to her because home gardens serve several purposes, including remediating blight and enabling families and individuals to obtain food sovereignty and improved health.

Cheryl is currently working on two projects. Her first goal is to diversify and replenish the healthcare workforce, so that when people visit a hospital, they can be taken care of by someone that looks like or understands them. She also works to educate the healthcare workforce regarding the negative impacts of the social determinants of health. The second project she is working on is a grant from the Department of Labor which assists low-wage workers in understanding and obtaining their legal rights and benefits.

Cheryl is most proud of managing and owning Csolutions for 14 years. Csolutions is a business consulting and coaching agency. Her most successful program at Csolutions was “Owning It,” a program for entrepreneurs. As is clear from the common theme running through Cheryl’s work, she strongly believes that we should own our own stuff. She will be relaunching Csolutions and her non-profit Wholly Healthy Solutions in January 2025.