Interview with Gepsie M. Metellus

Interview with Gepsie M. Metellus, an executive director and co-founder of the Haitian Neighborhood Center or Sant La in Miami. She was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and moved to New York when she was 12 years old. Gepsie majored in French and Political Science at Queens College. When she was 23, she moved to Miami, in the midst of the Haitian boat people crisis, the Duvalier regime, and the AIDS crisis. Gepsie did not start her organization immediately but did join the Haitian Refugee Center and other organizations that kept her rooted to Haiti. She worked with Miami-Dade public schools for 10 years and then for the Miami-Dade County government. She left in 2001, and began to develop an organization to bridge the non-Haitian and Haitian community. She developed Sant La, which focuses on education, advocacy of issues, and documentation. Gepsie is on the board of many organizations in the South Florida community and has won numerous awards for her efforts, including the Woman of Impact award.