Bowers fosters connection with her community
STACEY BOWERS
A Chicago native, Stacey V. Bowers met her husband at the University of Chicago Law School, and they originally settled on her turf in the Windy City. One December, 26 years ago, they returned to the frigid midwestern weather from a visit to her husband’s family in Hancock Park, and it occurred to her that they could change the scenario. “We need to reverse this commute,” she informed her husband. “We need to live in L.A.” And so they bid adieu to the snow and first moved to Eighth Street and Windsor Boulevard, in Windsor Village, in 1998. Jeryl Bowers is a senior partner at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, while she is a real estate professional who manages their properties. “I fell in love with the neighborhood, with Los Angeles, with the climate,” Bowers states.
She notes that her husband “grew up on the ninth hole of the golf course.” His father, Dr. Mirion Bowers, integrated the Wilshire Country Club and with his wife Geraldine was one of the first Black families to move into Hancock Park. Jeryl’s parents still live in that same golf course-adjacent home.
Bowers says that she is surrounded locally by the delightful warm weather, but also the warmth of extended family within blocks of where she and Jeryl live. Besides her husband’s parents living nearby, his sister, Dr. Jasmine Bowers, lives in Windsor Square, and their niece, Dr. Onyeka Bowers Obioha, who recently held her wedding at the Wilshire Country Club, resides in Hancock Park.
After leaving Chicago, Bowers settled right in and immediately began contributing to her new community in Los Angeles.
Her involvement in the Los Angeles Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Inc. is one of the ways she works to connect with other Black families. Apart from social engagement and charity, the group’s website states that Jack & Jill is “… an organization of mothers dedicated to raising the next generation of African American leaders,” a goal especially important to Bowers as the mother of two daughters, Alexa and Kaelyn. Both are graduates of Harvard-Westlake School. Alexa is a Barnard graduate; Kaelyn is a rising senior there. They live in New York City.
Bowers also is a member of the Beverly Hills West Chapter of Links, Inc., a service organization dedicated to African American culture and sustainability. She is active in the historically African American sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha, made famous by such past, present and honorary members as Kamala Harris, Toni Morrison, Ava DuVernay and Maya Angelou. She also is a member of The Ebell of Los Angeles.
In keeping with her professional interest in real estate and the importance of historic preservation in the neighborhood, the Bowerses purchased a 1913 Craftsman on Van Ness in 2000 and renovated it from 2006 to 2008. In 2007 their careful restoration earned their home the 91st Windsor Square-Hancock Park Historical Society Landmark Award. Jeryl Bowers also supports neighborhood preservation and is a board member of the Windsor Square Association.
Whatever Stacey Bowers tackles, she does large and with great aplomb. She tried her hand at writing a screenplay and, on her first try, won the 2008 Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation Award, which supports political and social justice writing. Her love of reading led her to become a lifetime member of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) whose activities she enjoys with her daughter Alexa. Bowers notes with pride that, in 2016, she mentored Alexa, who became the first high school student to lead a breakout session at JASNA’s annual meeting. Alexa presented her paper, “Blood and Water: The Tyranny of Nonchalance in the Shaping of Female Ambition at Mansfield Park.” Bowers said she was particularly excited when descendants invited her and Alexa to visit the Austen childhood home.
In 2017, Bowers joined the board of Los Angeles Christian Health Centers, where she has been the Board Chair for the past three years. There, she oversaw an innovative project whereby the health facility formed a partnership with the Skid Row Housing Trust. After a successful fundraising drive, a five-story building opened near downtown’s Skid Row in 2021. Its first two floors hold a clinic, and its top three floors hold 55 units of permanent supportive housing. Residents own their condominiums and have access to clinic facilities, as do members of the surrounding community.
Bowers says, “We added a street team with a van that was reconfigured to provide services. There’s also spiritual care if there’s interest in that, with Christian learning and bible studies.” She hastens to add that this is entirely optional. The medical care and housing itself are open to all.
Locally, Bowers enjoys the Larchmont restaurant Great White and feels indebted to Edie Frère at Landis Gifts & Stationery for all her help with selecting stationery and invitations to all the events she threw back before the pandemic limited social engagements.
Stacey Bowers not only fell in love with our community, but our community has many reasons to be glad she did.
Category: People