Quaniqua Carthan-Love

Quaniqua currently serves as the Deputy Director at Cities United. Cities United is an organization that supports a national network of mayors focused on reducing homicides of African American men and boys ages 14-24yrs of age. Quaniqua is responsible for the development, implementation and evaluation of the organization’s programs and activities. These programs and activities support a network of over 300 local government representatives, young leaders and community-based partners. To date, Quaniqua has led the charge for the development of the organizations’ primary planning tool, “Roadmap for Safe, Healthy and Hopeful Communities” as well as the organization’s two principal programs 1) Roadmap Academy and 2) Roadmap Academy Fellowship.

Prior to her role with Cities United, Quaniqua served as the Operations Coordinator for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods within the Office of the Mayor under the leadership of the Mayor Greg Fischer in Louisville, KY. As the Operations Coordinator, she served as the first author for Louisville’s Blueprint for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods Phase II: One Love Louisville. One Love Louisville is a city-wide partnership, managed by the City of Louisville that aims to reduce homicides, suicides and drug-related overdoses. Quaniqua served as the program manager for the implementation of “One Love Louisville”.

Quaniqua’s professional experiences also includes serving as the Graduate Research Assistant for a 3-year, National Institute of Health funded research project within the University of Louisville’s Department of Communications within the Office of Intercultural Communications. This research project was titled, Fruit and Vegetable Consumption among African Americans in Kentucky focused in Louisville and Hopkinsville, KY. Quaniqua’s responsibilities included administration support, supervision of undergraduate research assistants, quantitative and qualitative data collection, data entry and dissemination of research findings. Quaniqua has also served as a service coordinator, youth worker, counselor and case manager in youth serving organizations both private and public. Her experience ranges from serving individuals with intellectual disabilities to providing supports to teenage girls who have experienced sexual assault.

Through her professional experiences, Quaniqua remains committed to working alongside communities of color to eradicate systemic injustices rooted in racism and patriarchy. Quaniqua received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Houston (2010), Master of Art in Pan African Studies (2014) and Master of Science in Social Work (2014) from the University of Louisville. Quaniqua currently serves on the board at Bridge Kids International and is a 2018 Leadership Louisville Bingham Fellow. Quaniqua is also a mother to a curious 4-year-old girl and in her spare time enjoys seeking new adventures with her husband Justin.