Kearni
In 1950, Kearni’s grandmother migrated from Sparta, GA, to Chester for a better life. Kearni was born in Chester in the Sacred Heart Hospital and was raised in the Ruth L. Bennett Homes with her two aunts, mother, and grandmother.
Kearni has seen first-hand the value of hard work and achieving the impossible through difficulty. Her mother and grandmother were single parents. Her mother, Rev. Bernice Warren, was a strong force and voice in Chester and believed in peace. As a Minister, Activist, Pastor, and Executive Director of Chester Eastside, she partnered with neighboring communities to create social and educational programs to improve the lives of Chester residents, particularly the children.
Education & Social Justice
Kearni’s family believed in the values of hard work and education. She is a graduate of Eastern University and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.
Her mother was an advocate for exposure and thinking outside of the box. As a result of the direction she received from her mother, Kearni saw community disparities as a result of different zip codes which is why she understands the importance of booming communities and how our environments impact our abilities to thrive. While attending private school, she saw differences in school districts and the level of education offered to students. As a youth, she traveled and noticed differences in housing, finding quality food, access to recreational activities, and the different types of living environments. These experiences are the reasons she wants to make a difference to Re-Claim and Re-Frame the city of Chester.
Her family taught her by example. Through their life of mission, Kearni learned the importance of giving back to her community and paying it forward. She follows the Bible verse from Luke 12:48. “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
Continuing in the social justice spirit of her mother, Kearni has also become a fearless activist and political and union organizer. She is an author, speaker, environmental and racial equity activist, and a healthcare advocate and is a member of the Emerge PA class of 2021.
Community Leader
Showing her love and dedication to her family, she has been a family caregiver for 20 years. She continues to support her community. She is the founder of The Caregiver Society, an intentional and inclusive community supporting caregivers’ spiritual, mental, and physical needs. As a proud union member leader, she fights for healthcare and home care workers’ dignity, respect, and union rights. Before running for City Council, she was a member political organizer and lobbyist with the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Pennsylvania (SEIUHCPA) and United Home Care Workers of Pennsylvania. She recently served on Governor Tom Wolf’s Covid -19 Racial Task Force Subcommittee and assisted with Chester being 1 out of 10 locations in Pennsylvania designated to receive financial grants from the United Way to support outreach for vaccine hesitancy. She is a member of the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Covid-19 Response Team.
Kearni believes Chester residents are worthy of clean communities where streets are maintained, trash is picked up on time, and the grass is cut in parks and on public properties. As an advocate for Environmental Justice and a supporter of the Green New Deal, she speaks up against Environmental Racism fighting for the residents of Chester to breathe clean air and to have the ability to open their windows or sit outside without smelling the unhealthy stench of burning trash from Covanta’s incinerator.
Kearni wants equity and prosperous communities for Chester residents. She believes the people in Chester deserve the same opportunities as others located in different zip codes. As an underdog, she has never taken the road for popularity, instead, she is not afraid to take the road less traveled to go against the status-quo to stand up and use her voice to fight for what is right.