Demeatreas Whatley

Demeatreas Whatley is the site supervisor at Cure Violence Global, working to combat gun violence in the South Side of Chicago. As a part of this work, Demeatreas leads and trains a team of community outreach workers on conflict mediation and ways to detect and interrupt community violence. After serving 17 years in prison, Demeatreas dedicated his life to working on violence interruption tools and techniques in his own community of Woodlawn. Demeatreas is also the co-founder of the Woodlawn Battle On Wax for Peace, an organization that uses music and art as a foundation to conduct healthy dialogue around conflict resolution and peace agreements with young men and women throughout the community. His model of community engagement has been so successful, he currently facilitates national trainings for Cure Violence Global.

Demeatreas is pursuing his master’s degree at the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice.