Ella Christian is the Founder and Executive Director of Robert & Keba Guns Down Pens Up, Inc., a legacy-rooted, survivor-led nonprofit based in Brownsville, Brooklyn. She founded the organization in memory of her son, Robert Louis Black, who was killed by gun violence on January 25, 2020, and her sister, Keba Grazette, who passed away from colon cancer.

After losing her son, Ella was left to navigate grief, trauma, unanswered questions, and the aftermath of violence without meaningful outreach, guidance, or community support. No organization contacted her to offer grief counseling, resources, or help understanding what came next. That experience became one of the strongest reasons she created the organization—to help ensure that other survivors and families are not left alone during their most difficult moments.

Although Brownsville held painful memories, Ella chose to remain in the community and help build the type of support system that had not been available to her. As a mother, community advocate, mentor, and qualified CPR/AED and First Aid instructor, she brings both lived experience and practical education to the organization’s violence-prevention, wellness, literacy, mentoring, resource-navigation, and family-support work.

Ella’s leadership is rooted in compassion, accountability, prevention, and trusted community connection. She believes that prevention must begin before a crisis escalates and that young people ages 10–24 need safe spaces, positive guidance, strong mentors, meaningful opportunities, and the confidence to use their voices.

Her work is guided by a simple truth: she is not removed from the people the organization serves—she is one of the people it serves. Through Robert & Keba Guns Down Pens Up, Inc., Ella is turning personal pain into purpose and building safer pathways for youth, families, survivors, and the Brownsville community.