Combining his 30 plus year history of public service with her 15 years of nonprofit leadership, Raymond A. Jetson and Sherreta R. Harrison form the dynamic, intergenerational co- leadership team at MetroMorphosis, a Baton Rouge- based social enterprise focused on transforming communities.
After completing a two-year fellowship on advanced leadership towards social impact at Harvard University, Raymond set about the business of creating a different approach to community change, one with a decidedly asset- based framing and focused on systems and structures. Informed by 15 years as a State Representative, 23 years as pastor of Star Hill Church, and as the deputy secretary for the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH), Raymond founded MetroMorphosis with the understanding that lasting change had to emerge from and be sustained by those who stood to benefit most from it. As a result, one of MetroMorphosis’ earliest strategies, the Urban Leadership Development Initiative (ULDI), involved mobilizing young and emerging leaders and equipping them to lead change that was meaningful to them.
It was during the second cohort of ULDI that Raymond first encountered Sherreta. Driven by the desire to create access for those who have been historically denied it, Sherreta began teaching basic reading, writing and math skills to low- skilled adults before earning her Masters degree in Counselor Education. After working with families to improve the outcomes of adjudicated youth, Sherreta realized her passion lies in working with adults to help build stable families and communities. In 2013, she returned to her teaching and training roots providing capacity building services to nonprofit organizations before landing with MetroMorphosis in 2018, where she currently explores the intersection of organizational leadership, legacy building and community change.
Together, Raymond and Sherreta have led the repurposing of barbershops into community hubs, the increasing of private spending with black and woman owned businesses and the cultivation of the next generation of change makers.
Raymond is a leading voice on community change strategies, social innovation and the resurgence of elders in African American life, an Encore Public Voices Fellow, and along with his wife Tammy, is the proud parent of J’Erica Nicole and Jeremy Louis. Sherreta, an emerging authority on organizational leadership and member of the inaugural cohort of Encore’s Gen2Gen Innovation Fellowship, is a loving aunt to 9 amazing people. Both Raymond and Sherreta reside in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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