Rebecca Irby

My family is walking through something very hard right now. My mother, Susan Irby, has been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. My mom has spent her life caring for others. For more than 40 years, she has cared for my sister Leslie with extraordinary love and dedication. Even after her own Parkinson’s diagnosis, she never stopped showing up. She has continued to visit Leslie multiple times a week, take her to therapies, bring her homemade food, and pour love into her life in every way she can. She has also given so much to the broader community. She helped advocate for disability rights, served on the disability committee in Montclair, helped create an inclusive playground that still serves families today, and spent years supporting individuals and families through the New Jersey Brain Injury Institute. She has quietly given her life to service, compassion, and care. We created this GoFundMe to help with medical expenses, travel, and to make space for comfort, connection, and some meaningful bucket list moments in the time ahead. We want to surround her with the same love she has given so freely to so many others. If you are able to give, thank you from the bottom of my heart. If not, sharing this fundraiser would mean so much to our family. https://gofund.me/029e33999 link 🔗 in bio Thank you for holding my mother, and all of us, in your prayers, love, and support.

Happy Birthday 🎂🎉 to my amazing beautiful sister!!

Join me today at this incredible music festival! 2:00 - 5:30 at the Solanus Casey Center | 1780 Mt Elliott St, Detroit, MI 48207 I’ll be playing the sound bowls and performing my spoken word poem “The Power of We”. It’s an honor to join incredible Jazz legends for this Freedom and Healing Music Festival 🎶 thank you to the @concertofcolorsdetroit , for hosting this event and the @smithsonian for their support!

Join me today at this incredible music festival! 2:00 - 5:30 at the Solanus Casey Center | 1780 Mt Elliott St, Detroit, MI 48207 I’ll be playing the sound bowls and performing my spoken word poem “The Power of We”. It’s an honor to join incredible Jazz legends for this Freedom and Healing Music Festival 🎶 thank you to the Concert of Colors, for hosting this event and the Smithsonian for their support!

I’m so proud to be featured in the new International Women’s Day issue of My Green Pod magazine. In my article, “Where Power Meets Progress,” I share a woman’s view from inside the United Nations, along with reflections shaped by my work in peacebuilding, equity, and transformational change. The piece speaks to both the promise and the complexity of leadership, and to what it means to move through spaces of power as a woman and to keep pushing for leadership grounded in dignity, courage, and collective care. I’m grateful to be included among so many inspiring women whose work is helping build a more just, compassionate, and sustainable future. Thank you to Jarvis Smith FRSA, Katie, and the entire My Green Pod team for this thoughtful and timely issue. Please read and share: /magazine #MyGreenPod #IWD #IWD26 #InternationalWomensDay #WomenLeadingChange #Leadership #Sustainability #UnitedNations #PEACInstitute

I want to ask for your support today, January 15. I’m one of 365 author contributors to The Art of Connection: 365 Days of Resilience Quotes, which just launched on Kindle. If you’re willing: Buy the Kindle edition today (it’s $3.99 for a limited time) Read a few entries Leave an honest review on Amazon Doing this today helps spread awareness of the book and directly supports the authors involved, including me (my entry is Feb 17th, page 137). The link is also in my story:) /dp/B0GF8QQGGW Thank you for supporting work like this!

Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday, and I keep thinking about one of our youth delegates, Priya. She grew up volunteering at Mother’s Pantry, in Inkster, and this winter she is preparing to study across 10 countries on Semester at Sea while earning 13 college credits and completing a UN-endorsed dialogue facilitation program. Priya launched the $1 for the Dream Challenge to help close her remaining scholarship gap. Every dollar we Boyer and Adrian I’ve been and every share helps. I will share more tomorrow about how you can support both Priya and PEAC Institute’s youth leadership ecosystem. For now, if you would like to boost her directly: GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/5f3ef3f32 Cash App: $GenniferWilliams Zelle: Priya Williams · 313-762-1021

I share this last photo of my father and me every Veterans Day. He served in the 101st Airborne and was proud of that service. Coming home was harder than combat. Being a Black man in America, and a veteran, meant facing a system that did not care for him or our family. I do not support war, I support people. There is a difference. Today I’m asking us to show up for veterans and their families with real care. Pick one action today or tomorrow: 1. Check in on a vet you know - Say, “I’m thinking of you. How can I support you this week?” Then follow through. 2. Share the Veterans Crisis Line - dial 988, then 1. Text 838255. This saves lives. 3. Help a vet with a ride or appointment - Offer a lift to the VA or ask your local DAV chapter about driving veterans to medical visits. 4. Cover a grocery run - Send a gift card to a veteran family or drop one at your local Fisher House for families staying near VA hospitals. 5. Buy, hire or mentor - Buy from a veteran-owned business, or volunteer with groups that help with resumes, interviews, and job transitions. 6. Record a story - Sit with a veteran for 30–60 minutes, capture their oral history, and submit it to the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. 7. Fight homelessness close to home - Call a shelter or housing nonprofit and ask what they need this week for veteran clients. 8. Call your representatives - Ask for full funding of VA mental health care and caregiver support, stronger housing programs that end veteran homelessness, and continued support for toxic-exposure care. Keep calling. Care is a community practice. If you take one small step, tell someone. It helps others move too. #VeteransDay #CommunityOfCare #SupportVeterans

It has been a wild week. I also made it into the finals for sound healer of the year!

I am grateful to be elected to the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations Board on behalf of PEAC Institute. My focus is clear, center dignity, elevate youth leadership, and practice radical collaboration so civil society can work together and deliver real results. Our mandate includes modernizing the rules and practices that shape NGO participation, building a Learning Academy to equip organizations around the world, and bringing a strong media lens so the work of civil society is seen and understood beyond UN rooms. With PEAC Institute partners like EDLINKS®, Jennifer McKenna, The Unity Collaborative, Hubcast Media and so many more, we have a real opportunity to create a new communications paradigm for global cooperation. Thank you to the member organizations and colleagues who shepherded this process. If your organization wants to engage more deeply with the UN system, I’d love to connect. rebecca @ peacinstitute.org #CoNGO #UnitedNations #CivilSociety #Dignity #YouthLeadership #RadicalCollaboration #MediaForGood #Learning

Your vote matters! 🙏 I’m part of the Sound & Energy Healer of the Year Contest. Free daily vote + paid votes support @BrighterHealing ’s mission & film Supernaturally. Please support me here: /Contest2025/entry/175 Voting ends Oct 23rd!! #soundandenergyhealeroftheyear2025

Last week you showed up big. I went to bed with a few dozen votes and woke up to hundreds. I didn’t think I’d make it very far, and now I actually have a chance. I feel so supported by this community. Thank you. Winning for me isn’t about a title. It’s about spreading the word that gathering in joy is healing. Sound, music, and vibration can reshape our nervous systems and help bring the change we all crave. Today only, every vote counts double until 11:59 PM ET. If my work has supported you, a free vote would mean a lot. Optional paid votes support the Brighter Healing Foundation and the film Supernaturally. Vote here: /Contest2025/entry/175 or link in bio. With gratitude.