Graduate School of Leadership and Change Professor of Leadership and Psychology, Fayth Parks, PhD was the 2023 keynote speaker for the Communities of United Chicago’s A Gathering of Communities conference. The theme of the conference was Strategizing for a Healing Centered City and her keynote entitled, “We All Have a Right To the Tree of Life” was in response to present-day and historical trauma, strategies for racial justice and transformative social change, and healing as an essential corresponding process including traditional healers who provide the blueprint and wise guidance for tapping into inner strength and resilience embedded in cultural beliefs and pathways for healing.