Remarkable Women 2025: Zeneta Everhart forges her own path

Yahoo

05-03-2025

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — News 4 celebrates Women's History Month by recognizing remarkable women in Western New York. The 2025 campaign kicks off with community trailblazer, Zeneta Everhart.
Many Buffalo residents likely know the Masten District councilwoman, but who is the woman behind the bright smile and contagious laugh?
'I love being around people, I love the energy of people,' Everhart said. 'But I equally love solitude, actually. That's how I'm able to do what I do every day.'
Though it's hard to encapsulate the powerhouse Everhart is, her story begins on the East Side of Buffalo.
'I grew up in kind of a 'Brady Bunch' situation,' Everhart said. 'Both of my parents were working class people. When my parents split up, our family went through a very tough time… [My mom] suffered from depression. After the breakup, she began using drugs for a very long time, so you can just imagine what that was like growing up.'
Everhart started working as a young girl to help her family make ends meet.
'I wasn't one of the kids that got to use their paycheck to go buy cool clothes and things like that,' Everhart said. 'I was paying electric bills. I was making sure that I was helping my family.'
The need to support her family came before Everhart's studies.
'I dropped out of high school. That's something people don't know. I have a GED. I never graduated. I didn't walk across that stage,' Everhart said. 'It was more important to be at work and helping to provide for my family, and help my mom — me and my sister both. That's what we did, we helped.'
Though they went through so much, Everhart's parents ensured life was good for their children.
'We were a family that was rooted in the church. We were rooted in service to our community,' Everhart said. 'We did have a great childhood, even though there was a lot of pain around it.'
Everhart received her greatest gift when she needed it most — her son, Zaire Goodman.
'Kids sometimes save your life, right? And I tell people that about Zaire. He saved me,' Everhart said. 'It was a true, true blessing because my life could've been different, a lot different — a lot worse.'
While raising her son, Everhart decided to go back to school to pursue TV production. She went to Villa Maria College for her associate degree, and then went to Canisius University for her bachelor's.
One month after graduation, Everhart found herself diving into what she always wanted to do.
'I started working at Spectrum News,' Everhart said. 'I was an overnight photographer. I did that for two years, and then I was promoted to producer, and I did that for four years. I was living my dream.'
But sometimes, dreams change. Everhart made the transition to politics, working for then-Senator Tim Kennedy as his Director of Diversity and Inclusion. In that role, she brought direct resources to her neighborhood.
'One of the things he said to me was, 'I want you to give me something. Put it all on paper. Tell me what we're missing. What are we missing out on? What targets are we not hitting on the East Side of Buffalo? How can we help the underserved community?'' Everhart said. 'So I put together the East Side Blueprint.'
Through the East Side Blueprint, the Single Moms Club was born — a space for community, sisterhood and trust. It has connected 5,500 women in seven years.
'While going through a divorce, I was raising a 7-year-old kid. I was working full time. I was in college full time as a 27 year old, and there were no resources out there for me. There were no outlets. There were no spaces for me,' Everhart said. 'This is a place where [single moms] can bring their kids, but somewhere they know they're gonna get something, and they're gonna be able to take something home from it.'
'Zeneta has shown other single moms who might be struggling right now, not only that resources exist to help them grow and thrive, but that it's never too late to become who they wanna be,' said Everhart's close friend and former co-worker, Molly Hirschbeck.
Something Everhart had to experience as a mother is the fear of losing her child. On May 14, 2022, her son was shot by a racist gunman who killed 10 people. He survived.
'Those were truly the roughest days of my life, and I've been through some things,' Everhart said. 'One day I'll tell somebody about them all. But that day — there's nothing like that.'
In the darkest days of trauma, something beautiful was brought to light: Zeneta & Zaire's Book Club — a celebration of diversity, acceptance and representation. They put together an Amazon Wish List and collected thousands of books for schools, libraries and community centers.
'It just lit a fire, literally across the world. We got books from Japan and Australia,' Everhart said. 'The first bulk of books that we got was 10,000, and they all were being delivered to Molly's house.'
Zeneta and Zaire's Book Club celebrates diversity after tragedy
'Zeneta has always been a champion of education, literacy and kids,' Hirschbeck said. 'It just made sense when people were asking how they could help, for us to connect her and connect them with the books that had helped her raise Zaire.'
The response exceeded anything Everhart could have imagined, which is when Villa Maria College stepped in and offered to serve as the book club's distribution hub. Zeneta & Zaire's Book Club continues to grow and will soon have its own dedicated space at the school.
'It'll be our 'book club book nook,' and we will have a space — a forever space — in Villa Maria College's library,' Everhart said. 'We're gonna be able to use that space to bring kids in and do some book readings on a college campus, which is important because kids need to start learning about college campuses and things like that. It's exciting.'
Everhart also created the Buffalo Black Caucus one year after 5/14 to 'transform tragedy into triumph.' It's an annual day of empowerment to address the systemic inequalities that came to the forefront, not only on the East Side, but beyond.
'For me, the one year anniversary meant, 'I heard you. I heard you loud and clear,'' Everhart said. 'It was just beautiful to see how many people showed up to these events to soak up some knowledge, and to feel seen and heard.'
'Beautiful' because the East Side is Everhart's safe haven.
'When I think about my childhood and growing up, I think about the days where I was trying to escape what was happening in the house. I would go to the library, and the librarian started taking notice that I was there every day, and she would bring me little snacks. Like, it is that… That is what the East Side is to me,' Everhart said. 'It's always been those little nuggets of humans that just show up out of nowhere and they're like, 'What do you need? How can I help you?' That's who I always wanted to be, and that's how I lead, right? I want to be the people who raised me.'
Everhart's love for her community runs so deep, she ran for the Buffalo Common Council in 2023 and became the first woman elected to the Masten District since the early 1960s.
'I'm willing to sacrifice myself for my community. I have their back,' Everhart said. 'We live in a world where so many decisions are being made about a woman, and we're not at the table, which is crazy. That doesn't make sense. How can you make a decision about what I should be doing with my body, or with my children, or around education, or anything? I have to be at the table.'
So, she pulled up a chair and sat down, and Everhart went to work. One of the first things she did was bring an Office of Gun Violence Prevention to the Queen City.
'The police show up, ambulance, fire truck, and then everybody goes away. Like, where's the follow up?' Everhart said. 'We need those offices in our communities. We need to make sure that we are protecting people from trauma. And when trauma does happen, we have a resource for them. I'm still on that mission. I'm not going to stop.'
The mission was inspired by her trips to Washington after 5/14, where she met with the president and testified before Congress to fight for gun reform.
'I talked about Zaire all through it,' Everhart said. 'But I talked about the love of the East Side of Buffalo, and I talked about our neighborhood, and I talked about the treatment of our neighborhood and the people. I talked about Black people historically in this country. I talked about the issues with this country. It was a shoot your shot moment, and I did.'
Who Everhart is today at 43 years old is the woman her mother always raised her to be — an alpha female who unapologetically forges her own path.
'Her story is just so powerful to other people who might have been in her shoes and who are in her shoes,' Hirschbeck said. 'To just see the power of support, the power of positivity, and the power of putting your dreams into action.'
'I'm just a woman. I'm just a Black girl from the East Side who's a dreamer,' Everhart said. 'I'm a dreamer and I can work to make those dreams realized.'
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Tune into News 4 at 4 every Tuesday throughout March to hear the stories of standout women in Western New York. The local winner of this year's Remarkable Women campaign will be announced on Tuesday, April 1.
Jordan Norkus is an Emmy-nominated, award-winning anchor who has been with the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here or follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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