Stories from the Stoop: Stepping up to lead

By Melissa Gerr

Published May 2, 2025 at 9:44 AM EDT

Here's a Stoop Story from Chief Donna Wolf Mother Abbott about finding her way, and stepping into leadership for her Native American community in Dorchester County, Maryland.

Monday, May 5 is the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP). Two women from Baltimore’s Lumbee community are among those remembered: Tiffany Jones was abducted and murdered in 2018. And Yasmine Wilson was murdered in 2019. Both were mothers. And both were taken violently, in front of their young daughters.

May their memories and those of others, live on in the name of justice, visibility and healing.

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Melissa Gerr

Melissa Gerr is a Senior Producer for On the Record. She started in public media at Twin Cities Public Television in St. Paul, Minn., where she is from, and then worked as a field producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland. She made the jump to audio-lover in Baltimore as a digital media editor at Mid-Atlantic Media and Laureate Education, Inc. and as a field producer for "Out of the Blocks." Her beat is typically the off-beat with an emphasis on science, culture and things that make you say, 'Wait, what?'

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