Meet York County's most influential people for 2023: Activism & Social Justice

In a world of change, one thing remains constant: The number of people who work, often behind the scenes, to make our lives a little better.

The York Daily Record and its sister publication, The Evening Sun of Hanover, sought to highlight those who have a big impact in York County – from the entertainment world, to activists, to politicians and sports stars and business leaders.

You won't agree with every pick. That's to be expected. And we consciously made some unexpected choices to highlight some emerging community leaders rather than household names.

This group is more about who had an impact on our lives rather than a simple popularity contest. These lists are in no way comprehensive.

The goal here is to offer recognition of those working hard throughout our county and as a reminder of who to watch. We encourage debate and feedback!

Methodology: The entire York Daily Record and Evening Sun staff participated in this project. We created teams for each category, and team members crowd-sourced potential nominees, asking community members for their suggestions. We then undertook the daunting task of narrowing each list down to the top five.

Bobby Simpson

Nearly everybody recalls the first time they encountered Bobby Simpson.

Powerfully built, with expressive eyes, his trademark bushy mustache, he makes an impression. Or you could say he leaves a mark.

He’s brash and outspoken and, in his staccato voice, he gives the impression of a person who speaks his mind and doesn’t care what you think.

That may sound harsh, but it’s Simpson. He says what he means and does so in a way that leaves no doubt about his intentions.

That style made him one of the most influential people in this town, one who could command the attention of the powers that be and convince them that their interests met the interests of the community he represented.

In 1979, the Crispus Attucks Community Center was in disarray. It'd had seven executive directors in the past eight years. Its finances were rocky. The center, which had been founded in 1931 to serve York’s African-American community, was on the verge of falling apart.

Board members Dan Elby and Ray Crenshaw asked Bobby Simpson to take over as an interim executive director. Simpson, who had been working at the now-defunct Caterpillar factory in East York, accepted the challenge.

He had a vision, that the community center could become a force of good in the community. And it became one, largely from his vision and his powerful leadership.

Simpson oversaw the community center’s renaissance. He stabilized its leadership. He expanded its services. Over the years, the community center expanded into housing services, child care, education, job training and placement, economic development.

Today, the center’s campus covers several blocks in the south end of York, including a sleek office building, the Loretta Claiborne Center and other properties. Its reach into the community cannot be understated.

In 2020, Simpson wrote an essay about the Black Lives Matter protests that sprouted up after the murder of George Floyd.

He wrote something that reflects his philosophy and vision that he had in 1979 when he took over leadership of Crispus Attucks.

“Focus on ourselves and start being accountable for the actions that take place in our neighborhoods. Focus on improving our living conditions in the city by providing safe and affordable housing. How do we, and our community, hold each other accountable for the safety and cleanliness and the behaviors that are taking place in our own communities and neighborhoods? We have to stop blaming others — that is getting old. If things are going to improve, it is up to each and every one of us.”

Ted Evgeniadis

Not long ago, Ted Evgeniadis was asked what he does, as the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper. An onlooker answered the question for him, saying he tests water for pollution and sues people.

Evgeniadis laughed and said, “That’s about right.”

As the riverkeeper, Evgeniadis has elevated the position into a force in environmental justice. His resume includes forcing a record fine for the operators of the Brunner’s Island coal-fired power plant over runoff from its ash heaps, revealing that Harrisburg’s antiquated stormwater and wastewater systems were dumping raw sewage into the Susquehanna River, participating in a massive lawsuit that forced the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to enforce clean water standards in Pennsylvania, testing for the presence of what are known as forever chemicals flowing from the Modern Landfill into creeks in Windsor Township and other actions that result in cleaning up the river and its watershed.

He came to this activism kind of in a sideways manner. A native of New Jersey, he came to York to study finance at York College. He had always been drawn to the water and is a fisherman, and after he graduated and worked in finance, he volunteered for cleanups hosted by former riverkeeper and current York Mayor Michael Helfrich.

Waterkeepers Chesapeake recently selected him as the 2023 Waterkeeper Outstanding Win Award winner.

That led to him succeeding Helfrich as the riverkeeper in 2017. And he has thrown himself into the work, currently working with other activists to protest the proposed energy storage project at Cuffs Run on the Susquehanna.

“In Pennsylvania, we all have a right to clean water,” he said in a profile on the Waterkeeper Alliance website. “It’s an amendment in our state constitution, and when our rights are being stripped away from us, I have a problem with that. It’s in my nature to stand up for people and to make sure that people who are doing wrong, stop doing wrong. I saw this as a career in the making. I was very drawn to the opportunity.”

He said, “Granted, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.”

Lettice Brown

You could call Lettice Brown an accidental activist.

In early December 2022, she got wind of Manchester Township changing the zoning designation of a parcel of land off Pennsylvania Avenue, adjacent to Prospect Hill Cemetery. There was a lengthy Facebook post which described how the wildlife – mostly deer that grazed in the lot – were being killed to clear way for something. People were indignant and upset, she said.

“I just kind of wanted answers to what’s going on,” said Brown, a 39-year-old employee of York City’s Public Works Department.

She went to a Manchester Township supervisors meeting in December and was told that there had been no official plans filed for the property. Later, she said, she saw a rendition of a warehouse planned for the property and concluded that someone “wasn’t being truthful.”

“It kind of snowballed from there,” Brown said. “I just kind of went with it. Everybody was looking to me for information.”

She didn’t have much background in activism. She had participated in a few protests against gun violence in 2015 and 2016, but she wasn’t an organizer. “I pretty much had no experience whatsoever,” she said.

She started a Facebook group, Residents Against Warehouse on PA Avenue, the conduit for organizing protests and opposition to the project.

Asked whether she thought the protest would become as large as it has, she said, “No way. Not at all.”

“I knew there was no giving up," she said. "We want to do what we could.”

Samantha Dorm

Samantha Dorm’s commitment to her community was evident from a young age.

She attended William Penn Senior High School in York, where she was involved in, well, almost everything.

From cheerleading, to debate team, to gifted studies, fundraising, and even encouraging her classmates to vote during her senior year, Dorm wore many hats, which camouflaged her sense of not belonging.

As a student in a predominately non-diverse environment, Dorm said she often felt isolated, but refused to let this impede her progress.

In her early 20s, Dorm attended parks and recreation meetings, and later became a youth program coordinator, helping to facilitate opportunities for the city’s youth such as movie events, playgrounds and art programs.

Despite never finishing college, her disciplined work ethic and fascination with numbers and spreadsheets helped Dorm as she embarked on a career in grant consulting for local government and nonprofits, which brought millions of dollars into York County.

In recent years, Dorm has taken on a new mission – preserving the rich history of the local community.

“In 2019, my aunt and uncle passed away in West Chester, and I was shocked to see the conditions of the cemetery. I started volunteering with other concerned family members – we started documenting the history of the people that were buried there,” she said.

Learning the history of the people gave Dorm an appreciation and drive to do this work in her hometown.

“I started laying out the information on a spreadsheet and discovered that an overwhelming number of places where prominent Black families lived are now parking lots.”

In 2019, Dorm and a group of volunteers gathered at Lebanon Cemetery in North York, which has been in operation since 1872, where six generations of her family are buried on two lines of her family tree.

Dorm now serves as an adviser to the Friends of Lebanon Cemetery Board, a nonprofit organization that conducts research, provides educational presentations and works with federal legislators to advocate for the protection and preservation of historic Black cemeteries across the country.

"My primary objective is to preserve and protect the land where six generations of my family were laid to rest." Dorm added, "I've found a new love for history now that I have tangible proof of the many accomplishments of York's Black citizens. So, I aim to uplift their stories."

Now Dorm has made it her mission to uncover the stories of historical figures in York County, such as members of her own family, Underground Railroad conductors and Civil War soldiers.

Dorm, mother of a special needs son, is also an advocate for Autism York and works to bring more resources to the special needs community.

“It’s important to be proud of who you are and where you come from. To me, I’m not doing anything that special, I’m doing what needs to be done.”

Aaron Anderson

Aaron Anderson sees himself not as an activist, but as a pilgrim, someone involved in a handful of causes whose journey has led him to the intersections of social issues in York City.

“I’ve found that social issues are interconnected here, as they are in any city,” he said.

Working in the world of education and nonprofits, Anderson understands the interconnection of systems that support the lives of ordinary people.

“You have the education system and how it connects to poverty, and poverty to the social determinants of health, housing, nutrition, the justice system, policing and so on,” he said.

Anderson is involved in several initiatives to address these issues. He runs Logos Academy, a private Christian school in the city, and is the CEO of Logos Works, a social enterprise working to marry the ingenuity of the for-profit sector with the passion of non-profit causes. Anderson also sits on the Opioid Settlement Board.

Previously, Anderson served as the vice chair of the York City Redevelopment Authority and has served on the boards of LifePath Christian Ministries and Keystone Kidspace.

“I have had the privilege in being able to be involved in many high-level community conversations about systemic issues. It’s given me a global perspective on the global challenges our community faces.”

He shies away from calling himself a specialist in these areas, but rather a generalist.

“There are doctors who understand opioids and the challenges in the medical industry, people who work in policing and those who work in racial justice – but I’ve learned a lot about how all of these areas weigh in on each other.”

Anderson said if he’s an activist for anyone, it’s for everyday people who are trying to figure out how to survive in our community.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Meet York County Pa.'s 2023 most influential activists