Roxanne Hoke-Chandler accepts the Patricia Blake Advocacy Award.
A mother, a problem solver, a public health advocate and a straight talker — Roxanne Hoke-Chandler (’95, ’98) is the person people come to when they need someone who can get things done.
“She’s the mother for all and is always willing to lend a helping hand,” her younger daughter, Ebony, said in a video honoring Hoke-Chandler, the recipient of the Federation for Children with Special Needs’s 2022 Patricia Blake Advocacy Award.
A double alumna, Hoke-Chandler earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Management from Lesley.
“My thought was that I was going to be the VP of HR somewhere,” she says.
The advocate
That changed when her daughter, Faith, was born with Down Syndrome. She was now a mother on a mission, determined to find the services her child needed. When she, not infrequently, hit obstacles of racism and classism, a lack of information and underdeveloped systems, Hoke-Chandler started making phone calls.
“I quickly realized the privilege of my education — to use my voice and to make things happen. I really credit Lesley for that,” she says, adding that her family was also influential in her journey.
Advocating for her own daughter left her asking herself: “What if I didn’t have this education? What happens to everybody else?”
Those questions led Hoke-Chandler into the public health sphere.
“I just started doing it and realizing there was so much information not getting out there,” says Hoke-Chandler, who fought for months to get Faith into an inclusive public school.
She began to speak with the Department of Public Health under the name Joy of FAITH (Free Advocacy, Information Training and other Help). She then volunteered for the Federation for Children with Special Needs, eventually working for them for 14 years while also teaching college-level courses in special education and family support. In 2018, she began working for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, where she currently holds the lengthy title of Early Childhood Systems Coordinator for Family Engagement and Training.
Basically, she helps children and families.
The Boston native calls herself a “cultural broker” who lowers the barriers that prevent families from getting the services that they need or even knowing that they should ask. That may mean working on a doula initiative, requesting a list of general practitioners with experience helping mentally disabled adults or even approaching a family in the grocery store to tell them how they can access public services for their child with Down Syndrome.
The fixer
In the Boston area and beyond, Hoke-Chandler has become a go-to for families who need help. She gets a steady stream of calls and emails requesting help, even from as far away as Missouri.
“When there’s a need, let’s set up a system and fix it,” she says. “It’s about connecting people.”
Part of her success is that she’s in the rooms where decisions are made — sitting on dozens of committees and advisory boards over the past two decades, including the Massachusetts General Hospital Parent Advisory Council and the National Down Syndrome Congress Diversity Committee. She also contributed to Strengthening Partnerships: A Framework for Prenatal through Young Adulthood Family Engagement in Massachusetts which offers a “roadmap for practitioners and families in health, human services and education.”
She’s not indefatigable, and she’s learned that she doesn’t have to save everyone.
“When I was younger working, I felt like I had to do it all. Now, I am perfectly fine with planting the seed. Sometimes I get to water it, sometimes I get to watch it grow.”
But she’s stubborn when it comes to accepting awards.
“When I get nominated for awards, I usually refuse them,” Hoke-Chandler says. “I feel like this is what I should be doing. This is my ministry, this is how I was brought up, this is the bare minimum.”
Ebony, who jokingly refers to her as mother as Michelle Obama, knows her mother deserves every accolade.
“Hearing (she was) advocate of the year just kind of screams ‘Ms. Roxanne Chandler,’” Ebony says on a video for the Patricia Blake Advocacy Award. “That’s my mom. That’s what she does.”
