About

Our Staff

Kelly Sue, a white woman with long curly brown hair and dark rimmed glasses, smiles over her shoulder in front. She is wearing a shite shirt with blue stripes and is standing on a trail somewhere out west in the desert.


  • Southern Crossroads Director

    Kelly Sue Waller grew up in trailer parks across Tennessee and Georgia. When she was working low-wage jobs in Nashville, she found Worker’s Dignity, an organization that brings together workers to fight for workplace justice issues like unions and wage theft. With Worker’s Dignity and other groups in Nashville, she organized as a member for four years and then joined Southern Crossroads staff in 2018. Along with other folks in Shelbyville, Tennessee, she founded SCOPE’s first base building project: the Bedford County Listening Project (BCLP) that brings together renters across the community to fight for renter protections. She now serves as the Director of Southern Crossroads.

    When not organizing, Kelly Sue can often be found with her nose buried in fiction books featuring folks fighting the system with an eye towards building better worlds. She believes that those most affected by injustice have the experience and wisdom to come up with solutions. And that building power with our neighbors across lines of difference– race, class, ability, sexual orientation– is how we all get free.

Grace Bauer-Lubow, a white woman with short, light blonde hair, sits in front of a screened window. She smiles gently at the camera. She is wearing a white blouse with an open, billowing neck and a black vest.


  • Assistant Director

    Grace Bauer-Lubow was born and raised on the Louisiana Gulf Coast. Her son became involved in the juvenile justice system at age 14 and was sent to the notorious Tallulah Correctional Center for Youth where he was abused and mistreated. When it became clear that there was no system accountability for her son’s treatment, and nowhere to turn for help, Grace became a passionate advocate for juvenile justice reform. Grace’s personal experiences with the juvenile justice system and later the adult criminal justice system made her a dedicated advocate, organizer and an especially impassioned public speaker.

    Grace helped organize families to form the Lake Charles chapter of Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC). The chapter became an integral part of the “Close Tallulah Now Campaign” which successfully advocated for the passage of the Louisiana Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2003 and, soon thereafter, led to the closing of the infamous Tallulah juvenile prison.

    In 2008, Grace joined the Campaign For Youth Justice (CFYJ) in Washington, DC. While at CFYJ, Grace led the development of the National Parent Caucus, a national network of family members who joined together to end the misguided practice of trying, sentencing and incarcerating children as adults.

    In November of 2011, Grace joined Zachary Norris to establish Justice for Families (J4F). J4F was the first national family-driven organization committed to ending the youth incarceration epidemic and promoting the reinvestment of resources in youth, families and communities most impacted by our nations over-reliance on incarceration. In her role at J4F, Grace focused on creating a network to link families and their organizations, planning and building a shared learning environment for families, promoting leadership development of family members and, through advocating system reform of policy and practice, creating greater awareness of the critical need for family voice and power at all decision-making points in the juvenile justice system. After serving as the Executive Director of Justice For Families from 2013-2020, Grace became a Senior Associate to the Director until her departure in December of 2021.

    Today, Grace has returned to organizing in the south as the Assistant Director at Southern Crossroads.

  • Administrator and Assistant to the Director

    Tay grew up in Jeffersontown, Kentucky as a child of a single parent, public school teacher. As a child, Tay loved singing, dancing, and painting and was drawn to all forms of expression. Tay continued with the arts into their 20s, and learned from mentors and elders that art and theatre could also be used to capture the truth of what was happening around them and express concern, anger, and hope. Tay was politicized through their creation and study of theatre and then guided further into understanding of what was at stake at this moment by organizing leaders in Lexington, Kentucky. Tay’s background includes Theatre of the Oppressed facilitation, teaching artist work for children and adults, event planning and producing, and participation in local and international efforts to increase social and economic equity. Tay serves as the assistant to the Director of Southern Crossroads and is also currently studying nursing in Louisville, Kentucky.

  • Georgia Lead Organizer

    Ryan is a Southerner by choice with nearly twenty years of experience organizing around housing and workers rights. Ryan enjoys science fiction and nature — sometimes at the same time.

Our Advisory Board

  • Jerome Scott, Founder of Project South & League of Revolutionary Black Workers

  • Colette Pichon-Battle, Director, Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy

  • Ash-lee Henderson, Co-director Highlander Research and Education Center

  • Rev. Allyn Maxfield-Steele, Co-director Highlander Research and Education Center

  • Pam McMichael, former Director of Highlander Research and Education Center

  • Ashley Sparks, Cultural Organizer and Narrative Strategist

  • Shawn Fischer, Member of About Face and Mutual Aid Specialist 

  • Maggie Martin, former Co-director of About Face

  • Nikki Brown, Spirit House