Culture of Health Leadership Institute for Racial Healing.

Biography

After an honorable discharge from the United States Marine Corps, Abdul-Hai graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Arts in English. Abdul-Hai relocated to Jacksonville, Fla., and began his career in education. He earned a Master of Arts in Public School Building Leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a Doctor of Education in Leadership and Learning in Organizations from Peabody College, Vanderbilt University. Abdul-Hai serves as the Child and Youth ombudsperson at Jacksonville’s Center for Children’s Rights (CCR)—using community-based and youth participatory action research to integrate children’s rights, restorative justice practices, and youth participation into Jacksonville’s System of Care.

Biography

Adelaide “Adele” Appiah is a public health practitioner who approaches her career as a changemaker in the maternal health field by centering the voices and experiences of Black women and birthing people. In this vein, she has acquired over seven years of experience managing grantmaking initiatives and implementing grant-funded programs to advance maternal health outcomes. Adele’s passion for her work is rooted in her own maternal health journey and challenges navigating the maternal health care system. Her career goal is to improve the birthing outcomes of Black people through birth equity and by dismantling oppressive systems in maternal and reproductive care.

Adele has served in various programmatic and leadership roles where she’s managed multimillion-dollar grant initiatives funded by The Ford Foundation, Anthem Foundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Groundswell Fund.

One of Adele’s greatest career achievements is codeveloping the Black Birthing Bill of Rights, an evidence-based resource for individuals to become knowledgeable of their rights as a Black person in need of maternal care while with the National Association to Advance Black Birth. It also serves as guidance to engage health providers to change/improve their ethics, policies, and delivery approach in supporting Black people throughout the birthing process.

Adele received her Bachelor of Science in public health and sociology from The Ohio State University and her Master of Public Health in maternal and child health from George Washington University.

Biography

Alexandra Arrington is a devoted partner, mother of three precious beings and principal consultant of Alexandra Arrington Consulting—an organizational effectiveness firm focused on creating space for minoritized people. She is co-founder of the Money Magnets Club, a community for elementary-aged “kidpreneurs-in-training” and their responsible adults to experience principles and practices of entrepreneurship as a gateway to financial independence and economic mobility. She has degrees in interpersonal/organizational communication and African-American studies, a master’s degree in counseling, and a doctorate in organizational leadership with expertise in culture and practices of Black-led, Black-benefiting organizations.

She is a provisionally licensed mental health counselor who has curated an ethic of care that has resulted in work over the span of her career as an executive director of a justice system and a financial literacy/ entrepreneurship nonprofit, a career counselor, in local organizing as a community impact director, a lead trainer for a community-based digital inclusion effort, an HBCU adjunct faculty member, and a racial equity consultant/trainer. The racial healing work is apparent in working in ways that are conducive to living an integrated life, bringing people together across socioeconomic and digital divides, and working to help people acquire the resources and means to live the lives they want to live. These convergences that Alexandra has found herself in, with gratitude and purpose, serve to promote racial healing, encourage community uplift, and mobilize economic prospects of Black and Brown families in Charlotte, North Carolina metro area.

Biography

Alexandria Brown is a Health Insurance Specialist at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). She received her MPH at Virginia Commonwealth University and will attend Harvard’s Master of Bioethics program in Fall 2022. Her research focuses on understanding how social environments impact overall well-being, specifically for underserved populations. She collaborates with community partners in analyzing data to explore racial and health disparities within Richmond’s unhoused population.

Biography

Alhelí M. Irizarry is an experienced community organizer, program manager, trainer, facilitator, and strategist. She has over 15 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, both statewide and for local, community-based organizations in coalitions; and in service organizations. She has worked with youth, adults and allies, advocating for the reform of immigration laws for a humane and just legalization. She has also worked in education and violence prevention programs and citizenship engagement, and has trained in organizing, leadership development and racial equity. 

Alhelí previously worked as a manager for the Cultivate: Women of Color Leadership program, and as a trainer and organizer for the United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations and Enlace Chicago. Alhelí holds a bachelor’s degree in Latin American and Latino studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She lives on the outskirts of Chicago with her husband and two children. She is a proud immigrant from Mexico and has called the United States home for over 20 years.

Biography

As a first-generation American daughter of Chinese immigrants, Alice is a mother, woman architect, artist, green building/sustainability professional, facilitator/intermediary strategist, children and public schools advocate and climate justice change agent. Her background includes an architecture degree from UC Berkeley, a Master of Architecture degree from MIT, and many other training and credentials of the sustainability field to community resilience and engagement. She is a longtime champion of high-performance, zero-carbon public K-14 school districts. Her later architectural career has focused on prioritizing the health, environmental, economic, and educational benefits of green schools for those most impacted. She has also advocated for energy democracy, building decarbonization, climate change action and racial and environmental justice, especially for children and other vulnerable communities before public agencies and community meetings. She has led many environmental and green building sector-related organizations for over two decades.

Working with the NAACP Centering Equity in the Sustainable Buildings Sector—together in partnership with many local environmental justice and community-based organizations, industry organizations, policy-makers and thought leaders—Alice seeks to bridge technical climate solutions of the built environment to center equity, from public policy and organizational or systems change to program design and local implementation, in order to leverage a sustainable, just transition toward an equitable, resilient, zero-carbon future for all of us. She serves in the first cohort of the Environmental Justice Movement Fellowship at The New School, exploring bridging to belonging, at pace and scale.

Biography

Amanda Nicole Rodriguez’s community work revolves around supporting environmental, labor, gender, educational, racial, and cultural justice efforts with a focus on the wellness of all people, especially those most impacted. They work with organizations to bridge environmental and racial justice practices for land development in regards to protecting sacred sites in our community. Amanda has led efforts to support nonprofits in creating culturally relevant and equitable programming to empower youth of color. They were also a member of the planning committee for the Seven Generations Training in the Bay Area that focused on Indigenous futurism and ensured access to Black and Indigenous leaders of color.

Amanda’s professional role at Rockwood Leadership Institute as Director of People and Culture weaves aspects of nature and culture to create pathways for wellness. This builds upon past career experience in organizing with unions and high school teachers about financial literacy and professional development. Among their achievements at Rockwood are building relationships with staff and supporting their intersectional and inherent leadership, which involves cultivating behaviors through practice to sustainably enable engagement in values-based projects while simultaneously challenging structures of oppression. For example, they incorporate ecological awareness, restorative methods, and liberatory wellness policies that inform how human resources support staff.

Additionally, Amanda is a coach for Coaching for Healing, Justice, and Liberation. The purpose of their work is to support transformation and healing of Black and Indigenous leaders. They actively engage with their network for developing strategies to support their coaching partners.

Biography

Amara Ullauri (they/them) is a queer and trans student of seeds, pollinators, and the moon, casting spells of healing and reciprocity through their farming, education, and organizing work. Their work is rooted in their Andean ancestral land-based healing traditions to support queer, trans, and BIPOC (QTBIPOC) communities in reconnecting with the earth. They do this work as founder and lead land steward of Ayni Herb Farm, a QTBIPOC-led herb farm growing culinary and medicinal herbs that sustain ecological abundance and nourish collective liberation. 

Amara brings 10 years of creating space to reimagine our food system through a racial justice lens that centers autonomy, dignity, and reciprocal care for each other and the land. They started their farming journey in 2014 through a community apprenticeship program in Brooklyn that grew into organizing citywide food justice campaigns with high school students and youth. Their farming practice has always had an educational emphasis to ensure that the contributions of queer, trans, and BIPOC communities in agriculture are honored. Amara has brought this focus into their role as a farmer and educator at KCC Urban Farm, Farm School NYC, Soul Fire Farm, and Rock Steady Farm. Amara also incorporates an academic foundation in anthropology into their work. They received a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology of Environmental Politics from the CUNY Baccalaureate School for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies. Amara is also a Culture of Health Leaders (Cohort 5) alum, continuing their leadership development with each seed they plant and share with their community. 

FUTURE FOCUS 

As Ayni Herb Farm enters its second year, Amara is looking forward to deepening a culture of reciprocity and participation in solidarity economies to ensure queer, trans, and BIPOC communities have access to herbal medicine and healing resources that support collective wellness and environmental health.

Biography

With a dynamic career at the nexus of social work, research, and academia, Amml’s, EdD, passion unfolds in reshaping society with love. As the director of research at the Council on Social Work Education, she co-envisioned and implemented the Research, Policy, Practice Student Summit, engaging students in Capitol Hill’s influential halls to shape social policy on issues like substance use disorders and gun violence. This initiative seeks to revolutionize social work education by decolonizing its foundations and inspiring proactive student engagement.

Immersed in health policy, Amml’s background as a social scientist, clinician, and researcher uniquely equips her to address pressing healthcare challenges. Field visits to marginalized communities in New Jersey solidified her belief in healthcare as an essential human right, fueling her work in managed healthcare, from utilization to complex case management.

Beyond the conventional, Amml collaborated with legislators to establish a social policy lab leveraging artificial intelligence to address racial disparities. Now, her trajectory aims at contributing to a more inclusive healthcare ecosystem, with a specific focus on mental health access and coverage. Participating in the Culture of Health Leadership Institute for Racial Healing is her next step, empowering her to dismantle systemic barriers. Amml’s current research explores the potential in leveraging AI and expressive arts for trauma healing, envisioning a future where technology and compassion converge. This passion project reflects her commitment to creating a positive impact at a national scale, and the institute will provide the knowledge, networks, and influence needed to drive these transformative changes.

Biography

“Ames” (she/they) is a Transformative Justice and Healing Justice facilitator and practitioner, writer, speaker, trauma survivor, mental health advocate, and founder of Healing Together, a global nonprofit working at the intersection of trauma healing and social justice. To date, Healing Together has trained over 10,000 local leaders in 28 countries to serve as community healing advocates, equipped with skills to support survivors of interpersonal and systemic violence and heal cycles of harm. 

A survivor of orphan trafficking; child sexual abuse; gender-based violence; and transracial, transnational adoption, Ames has been navigating medicalized, traditional, and alternative systems for mental and emotional health for decades, and as a result, is passionate about de-stigmatizing and de-pathologizing trauma and democratizing access to healing centered care.

Ames holds a Master of Science in Nonprofit Management with a concentration in Global Studies from Northeastern University and certifications in Trauma-Informed Interventions (U.C. Berkeley), and Global Mental Health and Refugee Trauma (Harvard Medical School). She is also a facilitator of circles (T-Groups) at Stanford University’s most popular elective course, Interpersonal Dynamics, in the Graduate School of Business.

​Ames has published essays on sexual violence, grief, mindfulness and social change, and healing. Her work can be read in the books Anatomy of Silence and The Unfinished Social Entrepreneur. She recently discovered her love of growing food and is co-founder of Resilient Together Farms, a collective, regenerative growing and healing space on unceded Miwok lands in the Central Valley of California. 

FUTURE FOCUS 

Amy “Ames” Paulson will be deepening their work of racial healing for BIPOC folks, offering healing circles for racial affinity groups as well as engaging in cross-racial healing circles through their Healing Justice work with educators, activists, organizers, and youth workers. 

They will also be expanding their work from classrooms and community centers to the land, incorporating land stewardship, food growing, herbal medicine, and storytelling as it pertains to ancestral healing foods, as modalities for healing within and across racial and cultural lineages.

Biography

Amy was diagnosed with a rare stage IV cancer in the prime of her life while studying at Singularity University (SU) at NASA, known for empowering leaders to positively impact the world with exponential technology. Puzzled by how quickly she went from marathon runner to cancer patient within a year, Amy researched stress and investigated combining nano-biosensors and music for nonintrusive stress management. The day after her first eight-hour chemotherapy and radiation treatment, she received enthusiastic validation for the project from SU faculty, classmates and community members via standing ovation. She had to put the project on hold while undergoing intensive treatment for a year. During her recovery, she rediscovered her childhood love of music, dance and art, forgetting how sick she was. 

In 2013, she attended BJ Fogg’s Stanford Design for Dance conference. Amy was intrigued by Fogg’s belief that dance is a powerful behavior change tool yet was dismayed by its low utilization in health care despite extensive research; she left her high-paid corporate job to build Dance4Healing (D4H, AI behavioral telehealth). Her expertise includes AI research, human-centered design and behavioral strategy for AT&T, Yahoo!, Sony and VW, with work featured in The New York Times and on Gizmodo, NBC and Yahoo! Amy’s work has earned AT&T multiple patents. She is a board member of the nonprofit Humanity+, with work mentioned in Time. It advocates for the ethical use of technology, and as a minority disabled immigrant woman, she is committed to addressing AI bias that increases health disparity.

Biography

Analiza’s life’s work is to create a world that facilitates our shared humanity, wellbeing, and freedom. She has spent the bulk of her 25 years in education, building and leading schools for low-income students of color, so that they can see their inherent beauty and genius. As the CEO of Neighborhood Charter Schools, Analiza led 200-plus staff and 1,200 students where they centered DEI. In recent years, her DEI work has evolved as a community facilitator and leadership design consultant. Transitioning into community facilitation and leadership design consulting, she now specializes in bringing diverse groups together—spanning sectors, generations, races, political backgrounds, economics, and identities. Through retreats, workshops, and forums, she creates spaces for experimentation, connection, rest, and collective discovery toward freedom.

Her approach emphasizes turning disagreements into relationship-strengthening opportunities, shifting from struggle to dreaming, and fostering collaboration over siloed efforts. Collaborating with organizations like AARP, Analiza facilitates community members in advocating for elderly rights. Engaging in voter education, they’ve successfully connected with New York politicians to influence just legislation, such as lowering drug prices. With the Jeremiah Program, she empowers single, low-income moms through group cohort programs, supporting their pursuit of education, housing, and child welfare. Additionally, with the Pahara program, she guides educational leaders nationwide in forming multiracial coalitions to transform institutionalized educational systems, ensuring the thriving of all children.

Biography

Angela A. Allen-Bell’s professional pursuits have largely involved civil and human rights; racial equity; social, transformative and restorative justice; and the interplay between race and justice. It was her research that catapulted the recent movement to end the use of non-unanimous juries in Louisiana. And she is one of the founding members of the advocacy team that led this reform effort. Prior to this, Angela worked on several other historic advocacy campaigns, such as the Angola 3 case, the case of Soledad Brother John Clutchette, and the case of Robert Holbrook.

Angela has made many media appearances and participated in many local, national, and international collaborations to discuss her scholarship and advocacy work, including La Presse (France), Le Nouvel Observateur (France), MSNBC (News Nation with Tamron Hall), NBC Nightly News, and National Public Radio (All Things Considered). She has twice submitted written testimony to the United States Senate’s Judiciary Committee on the Constitution, and she has been published in or quoted in a range of print media sources, such as the Washington Post, Russia Today TV, the New Yorker, the Huffington Post, and the Advocate.

Angela is a member of the National Black Lawyers-Top 100 and The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation, two invitation-only societies. In 2019, the Girl Scouts Louisiana East recognized her as a Woman of Distinction, and she received the National Civil Rights Conference Civil Rights and Social Justice Award. Her signature trait is a never-ceasing desire to eradicate racism and dismantle systems of oppression.

Biography

Born and raised in the Midwest—Kalamazoo, Mich., more specifically—afforded Angela the opportunity to grow through racism, classism, and gender inequality. Coming from a family that filled gaps, challenged cultural norms, and led with compassion, she learned to navigate these obstacles. She began her formal community service with LISC AmeriCorps, followed by the AmeriCorps Leadership program. Through her roles as a consultant, employee, and volunteer, she has provided project leadership to facilitate programing, funding, and services to the most vulnerable. Her passion lies in advocating for the ethnically, linguistically, and culturally marginalized—a very intentional life journey. Drawing from 10 years of experience in health inequity training and over 10 years of criminal justice/reentry, Angela is committed to assisting individuals with high-priority health needs to reenter society. She created a nonprofit organization called the Institute of Equity and Justice to make a difference.  

FUTURE FOCUS 

Angela Warren is excited about the opportunity to weave the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) framework into the newly founded nonprofit organization, Institute of Equity and Justice (IEJ). Deepening her understanding of this framework will be used to: establish authentic relationships with like-minded colleagues; introduce racial healing to the justice-involved who have been historically discriminated against; and reengage with the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation while using the community-impact workgroup model to see communities transformed. She will continue using an equitable lens to facilitate community-based participatory research as the project evolves. The kitchen-table chats with our most vulnerable will target those who are disproportionately affected by ethnic, linguistic, and cultural barriers. She feels like this timely answer to prayer is a culmination of her life’s work, training, and service within the justice-involved community.  

Biography

Angèle Pressley (she/they) is an herbalist, artist-scholar, food history enthusiast, clinical nutrition master’s student, performer and urban gardener. She came back to this mortal coil to help co-create healing with people, minister, and to be of service using plant and spirit medicine, culturally affirming nutrition and her healing hands. Angèle uses her knowledge of the Earth and African-American traditional religion to support healing, wholeness and restoration of the mind, body and soul. Angèle is passionate about teaching and hosts classes and workshops in community settings both virtually and in person. Her work has been featured on CNBC and Sirius XM, and she has taught workshops at institutions and conferences such as Hunter College, the Gullah Geechee Herbal Gathering, the Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners National Conference and the International Spiritual Technology Conference. She was recently accepted into a highly competitive dietetic internship and will be an intern at UNC Greensboro in the fall. Angèle will be completing the requirements to become a registered dietitian with a Master of Science so that she can not only have a seat at the table to create change in the nutrition field, but also create a whole new table that is inclusive and affirming for people from all walks of life.

Biography

April Fitzpatrick is a licensed mental health counselor, board certified art therapist, mixed media visual artist, and CEO of Pineapples with Purpose, LLC, a mobile mental health service that introduces art therapy to communities impacted by race-based traumatic stress. Her current work calls into question the invisibility of race based traumatic stress (RBTS) and using the pineapple as a guiding metaphor to assess the core of racial trauma. Weaving historical narratives, her work is a conversation between self, people, and place to deepen our understanding of lifeworlds. She combines contemporary abstraction with experimental narrative to capture the layered realities of Blackness, racial trauma, and oppression alongside the history and evolution of cultural memory and symbolism. Fitzpatrick’s principle purpose is helping individuals uncover, assess, and externalize challenges that affect their overall wellbeing.

Fitzpatrick’s work has been featured in the Tallahassee Democrat, the Tallahassee International Airport, Canvas Rebel, Artful Infrastructure, Black Superwoman Chronicles, ArtPlace America, Black Minds Mag: Issue 2, Art Seen: The Curator’s Salon Magazine, and ART4EQUALITY x LIFE, LIBERTY, PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS Exhibition Catalog.

April’s most recent accomplishments include being Arts in Medicine Fellow (AIM), Baldwin for the Arts Fellow (BFTA), and New Leaders Council Fellow (NLC). She believes that in order to turn pain into purpose, you must  “Make Room for Your Crown!”

Biography

April S. Love is a native of both Kentucky and Mississippi, and is what would be considered by many to be a true southern belle. She is a policy analyst and licensed attorney working on agriculture policy, civil rights, and social equity. Prior to beginning her career in the public policy sector, she began immersing herself in the field as an undergraduate, graduate, and law student. She was a first-generation college student when she began her adult education and advocacy journey at Tougaloo College, receiving her bachelor’s degree in 2015. Following her time at Tougaloo, Angela joined the Mississippi Teacher Corps, taught full-time in a high-needs school district, and pursued her master’s degree at the University of Mississippi. Distraught about what she saw in her classroom, Angela left the field of education to pursue her law degree at Southern University Law Center, where she graduated in May 2020.

In her spare time, April participates in organizations that drive change in her community, the United States, and the world. Outside of the work she does in her professional capacity, she attends to her other full-time job as a mother to her 2-year-old son, Dawson, fostering his development as a positive member of society. When she’s not working or advocating for others she spends her time horseback riding (a family tradition on both sides), playing golf with her father, or connecting with nature by working outside in her garden.

Biography

Healing the effects of racism and colonization in communities of color has been the focus of April’s work and passion. Since 2007, April has supported hundreds of organizations in advancing racial equity initiatives through her role as a facilitator and consultant. She specializes in building liberated organizations that utilize equitable decision-making and power-sharing practices. April has supported multiple environmental justice organizations across the U.S. in utilizing these methods to advance the health of communities of color.

April Nishimura is the co-executive director of Together Rising as an Environmental Community, an organization that supports hundreds of environmental organizations along the West Coast of North America. Her work focuses on healing the effects of colonization on our relationship with Mother Nature and with each other. She focuses on supporting Indigenous land management and building stronger partnerships between Indigenous and settler organizations. 

April draws on her diverse background as a former labor organizer and community organizer for LGBTQ BIPOC communities, as well as her work in the movement to end domestic violence and the environmental sector to inform her work. Previously, she has developed curriculum and trainings at University of Washington and Brandeis University on understanding and dismantling racism. 

April currently co-facilitates the Environmental Capacity Builders Network and is a board member of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), an international human-rights organization, where she co-founded the Diversity, Equity and Justice Taskforce.

Biography

Born in Ocotlan, Jalisco, but raised in East San Jose, Ariel grew up with hard-working parents who wanted the best for their children. Despite being faced with many barriers in his community, he was able to accomplish his goals of graduating high school and attending college. Ariel graduated from San Jose State University in 2013 with a double major in Psychology and Sociology. He was then introduced to the National Compadres Network where he currently serves as the network and program coordinator.

The National Compadres Network is a national voice for racial equity, training, system change, and culturally infused efforts that create transformational change. Ariel currently oversees the Joven Noble Youth Academy and the Racial Healing Practitioner’s Network. He was first introduced to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation when overseeing the Forward Promise initiative. This initiative was focused on disrupting dehumanization and addresses the question, “If it takes a village to raise a child, then what does it take to create a healthy village?” 

As the program coordinator for the National Compadres Network, Ariel conducts culturally relevant services to marginalized young and adult men in promising communities. Please see the video for a deeper understanding of who he is. 

Conocimiento and Who are you Poem: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8az6GzODj8I.

Biography

Born into a single-parent family in the state ranking 47th in public health spending, her story is shot through with the impact of being “outside” the circle of human concern. She grew up in a conservative, working-class, Rust-Belt town and her adolescence planted within her a desire to unite her White family and neighbors into the struggle for fairness and equity historically led by communities of color.

Four years after serving two tours abroad enlisted in the Navy, Audrey graduated summa cum laude in Political Science and History. Whether supporting immigrants fighting for better working conditions at meat packing and manufacturing corporations in Kentucky; studying social movements and communications in Italy and Washington, D.C.; working across racial lines to build the first full-time Social Justice Ministries office within the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend; or co-organizing a statewide power organization to build grassroots leadership in the five most segregated counties of Indiana, she’s been building for more than a decade the ecosystem she wished existed as a kid. She has worked for health equity by addressing some of Indiana’s most profound social determinants of health including the impacts of mass incarceration. Most recently, her family’s and her own resilience were challenged like never before as she competed for the third-most influential seat in the second-biggest city government in the state, engaging 46,000 voters in a vision for a city where everyone belonged, and had access to mental healthcare and housing, rather than more jail beds.

Biography

Beatriz Garcia (she/ella) was born in Guanajuato, Mexico. Her hometown is deeply rooted in history and culture, and for these reasons, she proudly carries her roots and honors them with a resilient spirit. She is a passionate person who cares deeply about social justice, equity, and sense of belonging as a community.

Today, Beatriz lives in Durango, Colo., and works for Good Food Collective with the La Plata Food Equity Coalition. She serves as a community empowerment coordinator and facilitates the Community Voices workgroup, which is a group of Latinx that creates empowerment through mutual support. She is also a part of the Culture and Equity Design Team for the local school district, where she partners with the Durango 9-R Board of Education. Beatriz serves on boards including The Hive, First Southwest Community Fund, and ACLU Colorado. In 2020, she was nominated for the Kathy Underhill Scholarship Award for contributing to food and health equity through advocacy, policy, and community engagement. In 2021, the City of Durango Community Relations Commission recognized her work in their annual report as a person who models action in community care.

Through her journeys and community involvement, she has been exposed to social problems including homelessness, hunger, inadequate access to housing, and food insecurity. Moving forward, she aims to continue contributing to a better world by empowering families with the skills they need to thrive. In particular, she is passionate about designing models of empowerment that allow individuals to pursue their dreams and goals autonomously.

Biography

Belinda is currently the co-executive director and director of Immigration Legal Services at Voces, a nonprofit organization committed to serve the Latinx community in Battle Creek, Mich. She has been a licensed attorney since November 2018 and has spent approximately five years working in the field of immigration law, advocating for the rights of individuals and navigating complex immigration processes. Her diverse background encompasses teaching, representing clients in immigration and Michigan state courts, developing legal strategies, impact work, and managing a legal team. 

Belinda spearheaded the growth and instituted the current legal practice of the newly formed subpractice, Unaccompanied Children Released Team within Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC). With the help of MIRC attorneys, her work has been established as Michigan state case law—In re Velasquez, No. 360057, 2022 Mich App LEXIS 6799 (Ct App Nov. 10, 2022)—and serves as binding authority on Michigan state court judges presiding over state court actions requesting special determinations for Special Immigrant Juvenile status. The impact of the case has been published in the State Bar of Michigan’s Family Law Journal in December 2022 and January 2023 for legal practitioners and courts to follow. She is deeply committed to advocating for the rights and wellbeing of immigrants. Her passion for serving the disenfranchised and underserved community stems from her personal journey, and it was featured in Rapid Growth Online Blog: “Attorney Belinda Orozco’s passion for serving unaccompanied migrant children” and in Michigan Radio’s NPR article: “What family separation looks like for a 5-year-old in Michigan.”  

FUTURE FOCUS 

Belinda is currently leading an innovative project within their nonprofit organization that integrates the principles of truth, racial healing, and transformation into her work representing clients in removal proceedings. This project seeks to address the disproportionate impact of immigration enforcement on communities of color, particularly Latinx immigrants. Through specialized legal advocacy, community outreach, and coalition-building efforts, she aims to challenge systemic injustices and advocate for fair and equitable immigration policies. By centering the experiences and narratives of affected individuals, she hopes to raise awareness, promote healing, and catalyze transformative change within both the immigration system and broader society. This program presents an exciting opportunity to deepen their impact by leveraging resources, engaging with stakeholders, and amplifying marginalized voices in the pursuit of racial justice.

Biography

Brandon (he/him) is the Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health (MACMH) executive director. His consulting and training background spans addressing adverse childhood experiences; historical and intergenerational trauma; social/emotional intelligence; leadership; and intercultural development inventory. Brandon holds a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from the University of Minnesota, a master’s in community psychology from Metropolitan State University and a master’s in psychotherapy (MFT) from Adler Graduate School. Brandon is also a 2013 Bush Foundation Leadership fellow. Today, he provides the MACMH staff and board with the leadership and vision necessary to stay at the forefront of mental health education and advocacy.

Biography

Castel Sweet is a community builder and embedded sociologist who works at the intersections of community, culture, and race, particularly emphasizing relationship building through placemaking and place-based engagement practices. She serves as the director of the Center for Community Engagement and assistant professor of practice in Community Engagement in the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at the University of Mississippi, where she supports the development of mutually beneficial community-campus partnerships. Castel is also the co-facilitator of the Layafette Community Remembrance Project, which seeks to educate Lafayette Countians and beyond regarding the history and continuing effects of lynching and racial violence, with justice at the heart of all we do.

Castel is a practitioner-scholar committed to using her skills and talents to create a thriving community where all people can be their whole and authentic selves regardless of their identities and life experiences. She has collaborated with communities and community-led organizations to deepen their impact and strengthen their capacity to achieve sustainable outcomes grounded in the lived experiences of community members. In addition, she has a growing track record advancing racial equity, working in community with others to engage in storytelling and truth telling to promote racial healing. 

FUTURE FOCUS 

As part of the cohort, Castel is excited to deepen her work with the Lafayette Community Remembrance Project based in Lafayette County, Miss., which uses the Equal Justice Initiatives Community Remembrance Project model to confront the tragic history of lynching and racial violence through truth telling, and to promote healing and transformation in our community. She will work with the group to organize gatherings for individuals and communities in Mississippi (and beyond) interested in memorialization work around racial injustice. Through this work, she hopes to increase her capacity and the capacity of others to support our collective ability to heal from the wounds of the past, build mutually respectful relationships and trusting intergenerational and diverse community relationships that better reflect our common humanity.

Biography

Cecily Relucio is a Pinay (Filipina-American) racial justice leader with 30 years of experience in youth and adult learning, educational leadership development, and organizational capacity-building. Cecily has led transformative antiracism initiatives in nonprofit and community-based organizations and K–12 and higher education institutions, including the New Teacher Center and the University of Chicago. Her past and current clients include Google and several Illinois school districts including Chicago Public Schools.

Cecily has co-led liberatory spaces of belonging, beloved community, and racial healing for BIPOC organizers, educators, and leaders for 15 years. She co-founded the Chicago Ethnic Studies Educators of Color Collective in 2015. From 2017–2023, she was the program director for the Surge Institute’s flagship Chicago Fellowship, graduated six cohorts and built the capacity of a community of 166 Black and Latinx/e education leaders. Concurrently, in 2021, she became co-director of the inaugural Truth, Healing and Equity Fellowship for Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Greater Chicago, which operationalizes the TRHT framework for Action to shift organizational culture, practice, policy, and power. Twenty-four fellows from five Chicago arts and social service organizations successfully completed the impactful pilot cohort.

Cecily is founding a new organization, Umuwi Ethnic Studies, committed to practicing, protecting, and sustaining ethnic studies as a pathway toward facilitating the collective healing and transformation of educators and educational institutions and policies. Cecily co-authored chapters in Rethinking Ethnic Studies and The Pilipinx Radical Imagination Reader. Most importantly, she is the proud mother of two biracial daughters, Vanessa and Mia.

FUTURE FOCUS 

Our schools shape and reinforce narratives in our society, and have the potential to be sites of youth consciousness-raising and activation. This is precisely why they are a target of the “anti-woke” movement. Umuwi Ethnic Studies’ response to “anti-wokeness” is a long game, “for us, by us” strategy of strengthening, protecting, and sustaining ethnic studies and other truthful and inclusive methods of educating BIPOC and multiplying marginalized youth. Umuwi is co-designing an organizing framework and strategy, and the intended impacts of our work are to broaden awareness of ethnic studies as an alternative to traditional modes of schooling; expand, deepen, and institutionalize the practice of ethnic studies in Chicago schools and other youth-serving spaces; and protect ethnic studies through a coordinated, multitiered strategy.

Biography

Celina Ngozi is an agrarian from the South. In 2022, they moved to their family land to grow food full time in rural Central Texas. They have been growing food and have been involved in food systems work for 10 years. They advocate for land access for Black and Brown agrarians and deepening relationships with the earth through cultivating food and medicine and accessing ancestral knowledge. Celina Ngozi’s personal praxis has led to the development of earth-based programming uplifting practices from the African Diaspora centering culturally relevant foods, ritual, ancestral connection, community care, and collectivism.  

Additionally, Celina Ngozi has 20 years working in education and nonprofit programming. They received their Master of Arts in Community Art Education in 2013. Their thesis examined the role of the arts in building relationships across race and class in a gentrifying community. From there, Celina Ngozi deepened their work with frontline communities through facilitating courses in leadership, nutrition and wellness, and community-based art. They also coordinated community garden programs and distributed food to people and organizations. 

As a leader in food access and social justice, they served on six boards and committees including the Lafayette (Colo.) Human Rights Committee and the Community Garden Urban Agriculture working group for the local food policy council. Recently, they were welcomed as a board member of the National Young Farmers Coalition. In the past two years, Celina Ngozi received three fellowships with the NYFC and Castanea to further her leadership and advocacy for equitable and just food systems. 

Biography

Chaya is the Director of the Child Health Data Lab—a department within the Child Health Advocacy Institute (CHAI) of Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. Her work centers on using data to advance racial and social justice issues, particularly in reaching health equity for children. Chaya has significant experience working collaboratively with community-based organizations to facilitate social and health change. She co-directs the community-engaged research component of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Children’s National and co-chairs its Community Advisory Board. In addition, Chaya holds a faculty appointment at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences as an assistant professor of pediatrics. 

Her passion for social and racial justice crosses into her professional and personal life. 

Chaya lives outside of Washington, D.C., in Arlington, Virginia, where she is involved in the school system, the local homeless shelter and the food assistance center. As a mother of two teenage girls who are starting their own personal advocacy journeys, she spends many hours volunteering and supporting local programs, from cooking and delivering meals to fundraising for the food bank to writing op-ed advocacy pieces. She works with her daughters’ school systems to educate youth on social justice issues and actions they can take to make an impact in their communities.

Biography

As an Indigenous woman, community member and professional with experience in the higher education and public health arenas, Chelsea (she/her) has a unique understanding of the missed opportunities to better serve students, professionals and racially diverse communities. The unique lived experience of growing up on a reservation, being an American Indian with fair skin, and being educated by a predominantly white community outside of the reservation for grades seven through 12 allows Chelsea to understand what is often described as “two different worlds.” Her privilege is something she continuously works toward understanding while also honoring her cultural and ancestral lineage that can often be discriminated against. 

Chelsea’s work within the American Indian and Alaska Native communities as a project coordinator and as one of very few Indigenous employees with the University of Montana provided an immense understanding of the racism that exists in education and academia. Her current position with the Western Montana Area Health Education Center focuses on identifying health inequities within rural populations. One of the first tasks was vocally identifying the lack of diversity, Black representation and Native American representation. Chelsea believes fulfilling the role of the position to ensure health equity is improved across the state of Montana requires centering and prioritizing the practitioners, structures and systems that serve populations experiencing health inequity. 

Biography

In December 2020, Cheryl Miller started working for Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP) as their Public Health Organizer. Her primary campaign is to push the city to reopen mental health centers closed by previous Chicago mayors, and to create a citywide non-police mobile crisis response program for mental health calls. Although this is her first job as a professional organizer, she has been a lifelong activist, starting in middle school, when she spent her lunch break picketing with United Farmworkers supporters at the local A&P grocery. She also helped organize Take Back The Night marches and worked on campaigns for reproductive rights and against domestic violence.

As a member of the ACT UP Women’s Caucus, Cheryl helped organize numerous actions, including the successful campaign that pushed Cook County Hospital to open up beds for women on the AIDS ward. She has been active in many campaigns around LBGTQIA rights, including housing and employment rights, and helped organize the first LBGTQIA March On Washington. Cheryl was also a co-founder of the TWAT Team (Theater With Alienating Tendencies), a guerilla street theater troupe of five women formed to protest the Gulf War.

She was a Chicago cab driver for more than 20 years and helped establish the first official Chicago cab drivers’ union, Cab Drivers United. Cheryl has held numerous conversations about race with people from across the U.S. and other countries. Engaging in those difficult conversations taught her the value of mutual sharing and deep listening.

Biography

Chhaya Chhoum is the executive director of the Southeast Asian Freedom Network. Chhaya and her family lived in refugee camps in Thailand and the Philippines before being resettled to the U.S. After the U.S.’ refugee resettlement program abandoned her family and thousands of Southeast Asian refugees in the Bronx, she organized her community through the newly created Youth Leadership Project. She took on slumlords, overcrowded schools, and cutbacks in translation services at public assistance centers and local health clinics. Chhaya harnessed the energy of youth in a community that has lost much of its adult generations. Through an intergenerational framework, she organized adults as well as youth to fight for justice and developed the framework of healing and organizing in the Southeast Asian community that justice is healing. In 2002, Chhaya put out a call to Southeast Asian organizers across the country to train and strategize against welfare reform and the secret repatriation agreement between the U.S. and Cambodia, which catapulted the deportation of thousands of Southeast Asian refugees. It was in the Bronx that the Southeast Asian Freedom Network and the Southeast Asian movement for social justice started.

In 2012 she co-founded Mekong NYC in the Bronx, empowering Southeast Asians through arts, culture, community organizing, and advocacy. Its work in the Bronx honors the history of the Bronx and all its people. As one of the earliest anti-deportation activists, Chhaya’s award-winning, strategic, and innovative leadership has been critical to the movement and has laid the foundation for stopping numerous deportations. Her achievements were recognized by the Ford Foundation and the Petra Foundation. Her work was featured in the documentary Eating Welfare and in the NBC Asian America Deported series.

FUTURE FOCUS 

Chhaya is working on a national campaign that attempts to build and mobilize support for our Southeast Asian Relief and Responsibility (SEARR) Platform. The SEARR campaign continues a decades-long effort to free our people from generational cycles of displacement and heal our communities from this collective trauma. 

Our multiyear campaign aims to win concrete relief for our people by 2025, which marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the U.S. wars in Southeast Asia. This campaign seeks to hold the U.S. accountable for the harm and violence inflicted on our people through both reparations for toxic chemicals and removal of leftover bombs in Southeast Asia, as well as providing immediate relief to Southeast Asians facing deportation in the U.S. today. The campaign is part of our larger vision of reimagining our immigration system through an abolitionist framework and working toward the world that we know is possible.

Biography

Christa David is a visual artist, writer, and researcher raised in Harlem but now based in Atlanta. Inspired by the artistic works of Romare Bearden, Wangechi Mutu, and Alma Woodsey Thomas, and the literary works of James Baldwin and Toni Morrison, she fuses the media of painting, collage, and assemblage to create and recreate stories about home, belonging, faith, and identity. She is a two-time Columbia University alumna, holding a bachelor’s degree and a Master of Public Health. In 2016, after years of “making art in the cracks” (nights and weekends) alongside her demanding work as the founding Senior Director of Policy, Planning, and Performance for the Center for Health Equity (CHE) at the New York City Health Department, she leaped into making art full-time.

Before her leap, Christa spent more than a decade conducting equity research and designing and evaluating public health programs aimed at transforming community health in high-need neighborhoods across New York City. In her role as senior director, she had the privilege of setting strategic direction for all of CHE’s planning, research, and evaluation efforts across the city, including those focused in predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods made vulnerable by structural racism and disinvestment. Since her leap, she founded The Blackprint Institute LLC, a public health consulting firm that provides strategic planning, research, and evaluation support to social justice-focused organizations across the United States.
Christa’s public health practice and art practice are cut from the same cloth and ask the same questions: How do we get free? What does liberation for all Black and Brown people look and feel like?

Biography

Born in a prison cell to an incarcerated mother and a father unknown, Christian D. Green has overcome many obstacles rare, atypical, and uncommon to others. 

Christian David Green is a first-generation, former foster youth, nontraditional graduate from the Antelope Valley, specifically Lancaster, Calif. Christian graduated in spring 2016 from UCLA with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with a minor in African American Studies. He then graduated from UCLA with a Master of Arts in African American Studies in spring 2018. He currently serves as a national ambassador on the U.S. Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Coalition (U.S. TRHT), as the policy and advocacy director for Sanctuary of Hope that serves our transitional age youth (TAY) population, and as of fall 2023, Christian has been hired on as the first African American Studies professor at West L.A. Community College, where he is building out the curriculum and the department. In 2018, he released his first book, Uncovering Your Worth: From Legal Custody to UCLA, which has allowed Christian to speak all over the nation about his own adventure within the child welfare system.  

https://c-green2386.medium.com/a-dream-to-enact-a-truth-racial-healing-and-transformation-in-america-c6c1631a4ad1

Experienced in leadership, strategic consulting, policy analysis, public speaking, community organizing, and government relations. His passions are: effective political decision-making, criminal legal policy, youth justice, education, employment equity, community building, child welfare, and civic engagement.

FUTURE FOCUS 

Professor Christian D. Green has experienced a lot of trauma but has overcome every obstacle to become who he is today. He currently serves as a professor of African American Studies at West Los Angeles College and as the policy and advocacy director for Sanctuary of Hope.

His work and voice have been featured in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Billboard, and others.

Biography

Cris Izaguirre is a farmer, educator, writer, trans, queer Nicaraguan immigrant of Afro-Indigenous descent. He is an old-school jaded New Yorker with a big laugh, committed to creating spaces that celebrate the brilliance of Queer & Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

For five years he managed an urban farm in Brooklyn, where he taught Black and Brown students how to grow food from seed to harvest through a social justice lens. Prior to their work in agriculture, they worked for LGBTQ rights organizations, including El/La Para Translatinas, Community United Against Violence, and Lambda Legal. Outside of paid work, he has directed and produced community theater shows at WOW Theater Cafe, BAAD, Dixon Place, and Galapagos Art Space.

Cris currently resides in Decatur, Ga., with his partner and their unruly cat.

Biography

Cynthia Robbins has helped to build, lead and support successful, enduring organizations since she was a student at Harvard and Stanford. Passionate about engaging communities to improve social outcomes, she is skilled in program, resource and organizational development, capacity-building and program design, particularly for youth and family-serving organizations. Cynthia is an expert in helping mission-driven organizations take lofty missions and good programs to scale. Her work has taken her from winning in the courtroom on behalf of low-income clients to serving as a successful consultant, advocate, funder, executive and board member.

Relevant personal, professional experiences not mentioned elsewhere

• Child of African-American, early U.N. parents;
• Grew up learning French and Spanish, lived in garden apartments constructed for U.N. affiliates to escape housing discrimination;
• Co-founder, Harvard Radcliffe Expressions Dance Company and the Third World Center Organization, developed united approach to challenges facing campus communities of color;
• Co-founder, East Palo Alto Community Law Project while at Stanford Law;
• Civil rights litigator, Center for Law in the Public Interest;
• D.C. public defender and juvenile law adjunct;
• Director, Urban Recovery Legal Assistance of Public Counsel following the 1992 L.A. unrest;
• Vice president, Eureka Communities fellowship program—sponsored nonprofit leaders visits to other communities for shared learning;
• Senior program officer, Meyer Foundation, managed general grant program and Neighborhood Intergroup Relations project sponsoring projects across cultural lines;
• Director, See Forever Foundation, operates school at D.C. youth prison;
• Co-authored articles on new strategy for civil rights enforcement; 
• Real estate investor and entrepreneur; and 
• Convener, speaker, moderator, facilitator, writer.

Biography

Balanced, influential, and determined, Darius Ballinger has turned trauma into transformation for the benefit of his family and the community at large. He is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Chasing23 Youth Empowerment Group, dedicated to helping young Black men develop key life skills while building the wellness and confidence needed to achieve goals for long-term success.

Darius also serves as president of South Side Prints and is author of the book, Heart of a Chaser. He currently serves on the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center Advisory Board and as youth design team co-chair for TRHT Greater Chicago Chapter.

Biography

Denise Herrera, PhD, is a nationally recognized social change agent with expertise in health policy, culturally responsive program evaluation, and human development across the lifespan. Denise is a community capacity builder with much success in leading change management and transforming large organizations, while infusing equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) into all practices and policies. Denise has devoted much of her academic and philanthropic career to leveling the playing field for underserved communities to receive quality health services and education.

Her proudest accomplishment was establishing the “Herrera Internship Endowment” in 2016, which provides internship and scholarship opportunities for Hispanic students throughout New Mexico. Denise has managed broad portfolios of federally funded studies, statewide quality improvement efforts, and initiatives focused on improving health and education outcomes. She has provided programmatic and evaluation expertise on issues related to leadership development, community health, and civic engagement in the U.S. and abroad. Denise has held various leadership positions at three of the largest health foundations in the U.S., currently holds a faculty appointment with UTHealth, and serves on various nonprofit boards. Denise completed her BS in Health Education from the University of New Mexico, MS in Family Studies and Human Development from the University of Arizona, and PhD in Health Education from the University of Texas at Austin.

Biography

Derek is currently in year 16 of his career teaching in public high schools. He also funded and has been running an educational nonprofit called Erase the Space for seven years. His work as a teacher has been to equip his students with language and the social emotional skills to navigate tension and build connections across boundaries. He teaches in Central Ohio, a metropolitan area ranked the second-most economically segregated city in the country and in the top 20 most racially segregated.
He has been working with other teachers in Central Ohio to facilitate classroom learning exchanges for students attending segregated schools, among students that are literally not meant to meet each other. Students engage in narrative sharing, shared learning, and meet in person at a neutral, public space at the end of the year to collaborate about solutions to social issues facing both student populations.

His job at Erase the Space is to support teachers engaging their students in this program in building relationships across segregated school districts to create meaningful learning and democratic discourse among students. They hope young people have this opportunity to experience community collaboration early on in their lives along with the wonderful ideas they bring to the table as solutions to issues that adults cannot imagine.

Biography

Diane Hosey oversees philanthropic “reach out” for the Embrey Family Foundation, a small and mighty woman-led family foundation in Dallas, Texas. In her 12 years of working with Lauren Embrey and Sallie Beck, it has been her pleasure to support the organization’s artistic and social justice vision and mission to “expand awareness, explore possibilities and elevate consciousness.” Diane was the incubator and lead champion for Dallas Faces Race, an over-300-member nonprofit forum from 2013 to 2017. She currently serves on the steering committee for the Dallas Truth Racial Healing and Transformation. 

Diane has been a teacher, an actor, an orchestrator and an activist. Sometimes she is all that rolled up in one. It just depends on the day.

Post-Institute: Transformative Action Plans

Diane’s project, Tell Her Story, remains consistent with the focus of her work at the start of the program. The initiative aims to hire a curator with lived experience to collaborate with Diane and an advisory team of diverse artists and breast cancer warriors to co-create impactful deliverables. Recognizing that breast cancer is the second-highest cancer diagnosis worldwide for women, Diane’s work addresses the alarming rates of missed diagnoses and faltering treatment plans among Black women in Dallas, Texas.

Tell Her Story seeks to create a healing experience for both women who share their stories and those who listen. Diane believes that learning and advocacy are integral to the healing process, which will be a central component of this project’s output.

Biography

Dirk has more than 20 years of strategic management and leadership experience within the public and private sectors, building successful and sustainable programs and policies for children, families and communities. Currently, he is president and chief operating officer of the Center for Policing Equity, which works with community and law enforcement agencies throughout the country to reimagine public safety, well-being and health. Previously, he was at the United Way of the National Capital Area, where, as vice president of community engagement and impact, he developed the organization’s overarching strategic vision and oversaw the management of programming, which focused on promoting education and public health strategies.

Prior to that, Dirk held a senior role at the Annie E. Casey Foundation and served as a senior policy director in the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Obama administration. Earlier in his career, he founded The Opportunity Institute, a Chicago-based research and consulting firm that served as a conduit between academic research institutions and vulnerable communities.

Dirk is completing a Ph.D. in social service administration and research from the University of Chicago. He received a Master of Social Work from Clark Atlanta University in Georgia, and holds a bachelor’s degree from Hunter College, CUNY, in New York.

Biography

Doreen, PhD, is a transnational Indigenous epistemologist with a PhD in Sociology. Her work demonstrates how knowledge is produced and understood, and how meaning/outcomes/consequences are represented, experienced, and known through the practice of knowledge systems, i.e., values, materials, and norms/codes. Her projects offer valuable insights and practical applications that build and address cultural, political, and historical understandings, while pursuing contemporary understandings and solutions.

Her collaborative work has included engineers, veterinary researchers, infectious disease scientists, physicians, agricultural professors, architects, and other social scientists. Their projects address various inequity needs and situations such as ticks/Lyme disease awareness, mental health and chronic pain projects, environmental justice (air and soil quality,) citizen environmental measurement tool (patented), as well as projects to enhance the use of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

Doreen presents at international, national, regional, and local conferences/events, plus various community outlets. While students have shared, “Dr. Martinez has an uncanny ability to identify talent in others and encourage, champion for, and promote them in a selfless manner so that they may progress in all of their endeavors, may it be education, work, or social justice.” And a second student writes, “Attending Dr. Martinez’s classes has been a weekly rejuvenation and relief, because not only does Dr. Martinez teach more in one hour than I usually learn in an entire semester, (but) she is also a living example of social justice in all of her actions and lifeways.” Her dedication to develop working relationships, effective collaborations, and her ability to reach and connect with others is evident.

Biography

Taylor is a graduate of the Lake Erie College Physician Assistant Program and a recently board-certified PA-C. Her journey began in high school when her close friend faced a mental health crisis, sparking her interest in mental wellbeing. She has dedicated considerable time to engaging with individuals facing mental health challenges and authored a book titled Hidden in the Shadows to reassure others that they are not alone in their struggles.

With an educational background in psychology, urban health, and cultural competency, she has cultivated a steadfast commitment to serving and advocating for marginalized populations. Her dedication to service is exemplified by her active involvement in community service, including fostering children who have been displaced from their homes due to various circumstances, and mentorship in several capacities.

As a scholarship recipient through the National Health Service Corps, she is committed to delivering evidence-based, culturally sensitive care that fosters mental healing while actively working toward a more equitable healthcare system. Taylor envisions a future in advanced practice provider leadership where she actively champions healthcare reform and spearheads initiatives that uplift marginalized populations.

FUTURE FOCUS 

Taylor is currently focused on promoting racial healing and changing the narrative surrounding mental health, creating an environment where the Black community is not only heard but is also affirming of and willing to take control of their mental health. She is also actively contributing to breaking systemic cycles of inequality and creating healing spaces for young individuals affected by foster care. Through advocacy, policy changes, and cultural-competency initiatives, she strives to create a more equitable and just society where the unique needs and strengths of the Black community are recognized, celebrated, and actively incorporated into all facets of life. She is excited to deepen this work through the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation framework, aiming to further amplify marginalized voices and drive systemic change.

Biography

As a lifelong resident of Trenton, N.J., an impoverished urban enclave in one of the state’s wealthiest counties, Elijah’s personal and professional trajectory has been oriented around the development and implementation of economic empowerment strategies for Black and Brown communities. 

As senior program officer for Economic Development at Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a national community development financial institution, Elijah has had the privilege of directing the organization’s portfolio of N.J.-based economic inclusion initiatives. In this capacity, he collaborates with civic, public, and private partners across the Garden State to engineer the conditions necessary for historically marginalized communities to build and maintain economic systems conducive to agency, equity, and self-determination.

Outside of his employment at LISC, in 2015 he founded and continues to operate the Orchid House (OH), a cultural staple in the City of Trenton that functions as equal parts cafe, grassroots community organizing hub, and cultural venue for artistic expression and ideological exchange. As an outgrowth of the organizing at the OH, in 2017 he co-founded a Trenton-based community investment fund that continues to serve as a conduit for low-income Black and Brown residents to build and sustain equity while safeguarding the socioeconomic and cultural fabric of our city’s most vulnerable neighborhoods. 

FUTURE FOCUS 

In addition to the aforementioned social enterprises, he actively spearheads a coalition of African American entrepreneurs, developers, and faith-based leaders who, together, are leveraging their social, political, and economic capital to facilitate the complete transformation of the neighborhood’s built, economic, and cultural environment.

Biography

Guided by a desire to design educational spaces that center healing and learning, Dr. Elizabeth Mendoza has focused her research on the intersection of sociocultural theories of learning, critical theories of race, participatory action research, and curanderismo, a traditional Mexican healing art. With this aim, she co-founded the Healing, Empowerment, and Love (HEAL) program for women of color graduate students. HEAL completed its second cohort in the spring of 2021, and has fostered academic and racial healing to deepen participants’ connection to their inner wisdom and relations to each other, and to Mother Earth. 

Dr. Mendoza is currently a project scientist at the University of California, Irvine, where she supports efforts to integrate youth voice and inquiry in career development and career equity for racialized youth. Previously, she worked alongside teachers, community members and researchers co-creating professional development frameworks that foster equity in math classrooms and was the director of the Latinx Student Services Center at the University of Colorado, Denver. Dr. Mendoza co-edited Power, Equity and (Re)Design: Bridging Learning and Critical Theories in Learning Ecologies for Youth. Recently, she co-authored “The Ability to Lay Yourself Bare: Centering Rupture, Inherited Conversations and Vulnerability in Professional Development” to underscore human elements of teaching. She is the upcoming keynote speaker for the Teachers of Color and Allies (TOCA) conference, themed Heal for Real: Finding, Creating, and Sustaining Communities that Prioritize Educators of Color. 

She earned her Ph.D. in learning sciences and human development at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Biography

Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Emil is first-generation Filipino and second-generation Chinese. Emil was appointed to the role of relational strategist for the Oregon Department of Education (ODE). This leadership position is intended to support and nurture systems, relationships and ways of being for ODE’s Office of Education Innovation & Improvement (EII) to model the practices and competencies it is seeking to advance across the state, in partnership with nine sovereign nations. Their role is designed to cultivate strong teams, healthy organizational culture, and living out core values and vision rooted in the wisdom and strengths of staff within the department and with the people and communities we serve. This includes operationalizing a deep equity and anti-racist lens, as well as tending to wellbeing, promoting courage and humility, and shifting paradigms about educational and organizational change.

Prior to joining ODE, Emil helped launch the cutting-edge Master’s in Leadership for Sustainability Program and Crossroads Leadership Lab at the University of Vermont. By looking to the wisdom of nature and experienced changemakers, Emil co-created the programs with the mission to support aspiring leaders in more adeptly addressing complex transformation processes while dismantling systems of oppression. Now, as a doctoral student at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, Emil’s dissertation research draws on intersections among ecology, organizational change and non-dominant wisdom traditions in liberation and justice. Emil received a B.A. in sociology and American studies from Boston College in 2012, and an M.S. in environmental thought and culture from the University of Vermont in 2015.

Biography

Over the past ten years, Enrique Arturo Orozco-Perez has served as a community advocate and organizer in Compañeros, Durango Rapid Response Network, La Plata County Food Coalitions, and Four Corners Mutual Aid Network. His involvement in organizing demonstrations to raise awareness about immigration issues and policies in La Plata County complements his lived experience and enthusiasm for the challenging and transformational work of social justice, and informs specialized knowledge in systems change and social advocacy work. He is passionate about and experienced in leading others and collaborating toward a common goal. He takes sincere and humble ownership of this work, and is both a leader and a lifelong learner—there’s always more learning and unlearning to do.

Growing up as a person of color in an immigrant family allowed Enrique to develop a lens on the importance of social equity and justice for people of marginalized communities. His career and advocacy work have been shaped by the experience of living in systems of oppression and power, and he knows first-hand the barriers continually set up to perpetuate a system that favors those in power and privilege. This is not just his career, but his life’s work, and he has continuously worked to defend the civil liberties and rights of his community and others through advocacy, education, and collaboration. Enrique has been humbled and honored to work and learn from mentors and organizations who continue this fight for LGBTQIA+, Native/Indigenous, and Black communities’ rights.

Biography

Ezekiel Aaron Richardson (University of Pennsylvania, 2019) is an emergency medicine physician resident in the city of Chicago, where he works with multiple organizations to prolong the lives of residents of underserved communities through medical care, organizing, and activism. He works as a medical liaison for the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, the Chicago community liaison for the national board of White Coats for Black Lives, a national physician activist organization opposing systemic racism, and the sitting physician representative on Chicago’s Community Health Equity Coalition, a group of activists and community leaders that organize for community representation in healthcare.

In these roles, Ezekiel works to bring community concerns and issues, like the recent attempted closure of the historic Mercy Hospital on Chicago’s South Side, to the attention of medical students and physicians to promote advocacy and responsiveness to the needs of the communities they serve. Ezekiel also works as a clinical educator within Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s emergency department, where he promotes adapting physician professional identity formation toward antiracist and activist frameworks to better serve communities struggling against systemic racism. He has organized residents across multiple hospital systems within Chicago and has been a staunch advocate for the provision of reliable, quality healthcare for those who would be denied as a result of American systemic racism.

Biography

Born and reared in New Mexico, Ian listens deeply through coaching, consulting, facilitating, and mediating, working primarily with philanthropic, nonprofit, and government teams. Ian loves learning and values education. He grows his self-awareness through experience, coaching, reflections, and teachings—formal and informal.

Ian studied in Arizona before returning home to work with the Albuquerque Community Foundation. Next, Ian worked at the Native American Community Academy, NACA, supporting operations, communications and finance. He learned more about Native communities during his two years with NACA than he had during his entire K–12 experience and began wondering how New Mexican public education would be different if it included more complete narratives. Ian continues to support NACA through his service on the NACA-Inspired School Network Board of Directors.

Ian led Learning Alliance New Mexico, an organization supporting dialogue on education issues at the local and state levels by working in partnership with community and networks. He co-facilitated a statewide process resulting in 4,000 New Mexicans sharing insights on how they wanted their schools to improve under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

After completing the Leadership that Works Coaching for Transformation and Racial Equity program, Ian launched Oak Hill Coaching & Consulting in 2018. Five years later, he has co-facilitated 1,000-plus hours of gatherings and training focused on equity and he’s coached partners (675-plus hours) as they explore pathways to liberation.

One of Ian’s core values is family happiness. He indulges in his time at home with Katie, his wife, and Aurora and Javi, their children.

Biography

Isioma Odum moved to Chicago in 2015 from Sacramento, Calif., to pursue a degree in social justice from Loyola University. She started her racial healing journey while finishing her graduate degree as an intern at the Br. David Darst Center for Justice & Peace, Spirituality & Education. She facilitated peace circles for immersion retreat participants ranging in age from 13 to 18. Every year, the center hosts hundreds of students from all over the country interested in reflecting on the injustices of our world and their root causes.

What made Isioma’s experience so unique was that the circles weren’t just about everyone sharing their experiences, but were also about creating action plans to address the issues realized from those experiences. They focused on an array of justice issues, such as homelessness, food insecurity, incarceration, education, racism, and immigration. Students not only learned about what was happening all over the world, but what was happening in Chicago, and how many people are doing great work in the communities most impacted by violence and lack of resources.

Isioma’s experience at the Darst Center connected her with other organizations, such as Precious Blood Ministries of Reconciliation, La Casa Norte, Growing Home, and Arise Chicago. Co-educating with these agencies opened her eyes to see more clearly those change-makers and freedom fighters who don’t always stand in the spotlight, but are in the midst of the chaos, and serve where they are most needed. It also taught her about the importance of addressing injustice through a collaborative approach.

Biography

Rev. Jennifer “Jen” Bailey is an ordained minister, public theologian and leader in the multifaith movement for justice. She is the founder and executive director of the Faith Matters Network, a womanist-led organization focused on “healing the healers” by equipping community organizers, faith leaders and activists with resources for connection, spiritual sustainability and accompaniment. 

Rev. Bailey is co-founder of The People’s Supper, a project that aims to repair the breach in our interpersonal relationships across racial, political, ideological and identity differences over shared meals. A sought-after commentator and public speaker on the intersection of religion and public life, Rev. Bailey has spoken at the inaugural Obama Foundation Summit, Makers, TEDxSkoll and the White House. Her work has been featured on On Being with Krista Tippett, CBS This Morning, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and dozens of other publications. She is the author of To My Beloveds: Letters on Faith, Race, Loss and Radical Hope (Chalice Press 2021). Rev. Bailey is ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Follow her at @revjenbailey.

Biography

Jen Mergel is a nationally respected Boston-based contemporary art curator and cultural leader working to expose her hometown’s histories and collaboratively reimagine its futures through an equity and empowerment lens. She has organized more than 50 exhibitions for museum, academic, and citywide venues. Her latest curatorial projects focus on Boston’s Black Feminisms, Exquisite Corpse collaborations in times of pandemic, and exploring histories of spatial justice through the forthcoming Olmsted Bicentennial in 2022.

Jen’s recent roles include vice president for the Association of Art Museum Curators, guest editor for Boston Art Review Magazine: The Public Art Issue, curator of The Armory Show’s public Platform Section, and guest curator of the award-winning citywide exhibition Fog x FLO: Fujiko Nakaya on the Emerald Necklace.

From 2010 to 2017, Jen headed the Contemporary Art Department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, after prior curatorial roles at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, and Addison Gallery at Phillips Academy, among others. In 2017, she left the museum context to found the Curatorial Network Accelerator of Boston. She now serves as the inaugural Director of Experience and Cultural Partnerships for Boston’s Emerald Necklace Conservancy, where she builds the nonprofit’s capacity to co-create more impactful and inclusive park experiences through partnerships with history keepers, change agents, and thought leaders in public-making through art, design, and culture. Jen graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University, received her master’s from Bard’s Center for Curatorial Studies, is a Fellow of the Center for Curatorial Leadership, and continues her studies through the Racial Equity Institute.

Biography

Jessica Santana is the co-founder and CEO of America On Tech (AOT), a nonprofit organization preparing the next generation of technology leaders in order to decrease the economic and racial wealth gap in underestimated communities. AOT provides students with access to the development, mentoring, networking, and professional experiences that prepare them for degrees and/or careers in technology. Their work has been featured in major media outlets, such as Forbes, CNN, Wells Fargo, Sirius XM Radio, Huffington Post, TechCrunch, BET, Black Enterprise, AlleyWatch, and The Network Journal.
Prior to AOT, Jessica worked as a technology consultant for global brands, such as JPMorgan Chase, Accenture, and Deloitte.

Jessica has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and NYN 40 Under 40 Rising Stars list. She is an Ashoka Emerging Innovator, Pahara Institute Next-Gen Leader, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, former Entrepreneur in Residence at General Assembly, Wells Fargo Millennial Activist, Camelback Ventures Social Innovation Fellow, Points of Light Civic Accelerator Entrepreneur, 4.0 Schools Launch Entrepreneur, and JPMorganChase Global Enterprise Technology Leader. Jessica was also one of the inaugural technology anchors on Univision. In 2020, New York City and New York state named her a Brooklyn Hero for her work in the community during COVID-19, and Causeartist named her one of 37 social entrepreneurs to watch.

Jessica graduated with undergraduate and graduate degrees in Accounting and Information Technology from Syracuse University. She has also obtained a Certificate of Business Excellence and Executive Education in Social Enterprise from Columbia Business School.

Biography

John is the father of two daughters and a native of Birmingham, Alabama. He was in and out of the foster care system through his younger years. When he finally came to live with his mother permanently, he went to Chilton County High School, where he started making his mark as a trailblazer. John was elected president of the student government association—the first Black student elected to that position. Always learning and growing, he graduated in 2017 in the inaugural classes of both the Youth Speaks Institute for Emerging Organizations and the University of Alabama at Birmingham/Gulf State (UAB) Community Research Fellows Program. 

John currently serves as the senior campaign strategy associate, rights restoration, at the Advancement Project to build their national rights restoration campaign. He served as the first rights restoration field director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, covering Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida. John began this work as the North Region Outreach fellow, Alabama Voting Rights Project (AVRP), a collaboration between the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C.

He is the co-founder of Real Life Poets, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit community service organization focusing on mentoring young people and encouraging good communication and oratorical skills using spoken word poetry and the arts. He works directly with justice-involved people, from groups of youth in the Family Court setting to those in drug diversionary programs, as coordinator and creator of the Hip Hop is Life program, serving youth from the UAB Juvenile Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime program and Adolescent Substance Abuse Program.

Biography

Jordon Johnson, PhD., is a researcher, educator and community health leader committed to creating, implementing and sustaining innovative strategies and practices to advance the health and wellness of individuals, families and communities. His work is embedded in establishing relationships and collaborative partnerships that are results-oriented, which is critical to enhancing the vision and mission of organizations, programs and projects. Jordon considers himself a lead learner and effectively creates an environment to elevate human capital through professional and personal enhancement. He was born and raised in Duluth, Minnesota, and is thrilled to be back in his hometown after spending over 15 years in New Mexico. Jordon enjoys spending time with his wife and family, running, reading and venturing out for hikes.

Biography

Joshua Parks is a Black cultural worker who uses filmmaking, photography, and archivism to analyze urban and rural communities in the Black Belt South; their relationship to land and water as the basis of subsistence, autonomy, survival, and collective memory; and how these elements influence cultural and spiritual development. He was raised in Jacksonville, Fla., but his roots stretch from the Lowcountry of South Carolina to the interior of Georgia, down to the Gulf Coast of Florida and Alabama.

Joshua was the principal photographer for the Greenbook of South Carolina (2022) and has photos exhibited at the International African American Museum, Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, the Seashore Farmers’ Lodge Museum and Cultural Center, and the Ferrette House.

He formerly served as an in-house producer for the International African American Museum, contributing to their core films and digital exhibitions (short educational documentaries) such as Flashpoints Interviews, A Brief History of Mother Emanuel AME Church, Carolina Gold, Memories of the Enslaved, Gullah Geechee Overview Film, Praise House Film, A Brief History: International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1422, A Brief History: Moving Star Hall, Community Connections: The Parks-Wilder Family, and more.

Biography

Juan Antonio Rios Jr. holds a Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate in Social Work and is a Social Work Futures Health Equity Fellow. A licensed clinical social worker, he has provided clinical mental health trainings and counseling to community survivors of gun violence and trauma-informed trainings to national, state, and local government agencies.

Juan has also served as a research fellow at the Huamin China Foundation at Rutgers University and provided trainings and lectures nationally and internationally on philanthropy, trauma, cognitive behavioral therapy, race bias, men and masculinity, and mindfulness. His research has studied the traumatic effects of migration and issues surrounding masculinity among men of color and depression. Most recently, Juan was awarded the Teaching Innovation Grant at Seton Hall University on his work integrating Virtual Reality to Teach Social Justice.

Juan was the previous director of the Masters of Social Work program and full-time faculty professor at Seton Hall University. He is co-chair of the National Association of Social Workers-New Jersey (NASW-NJ) Ethics Board Committee, serves on the NASW-NJ Cultural Competency Nomination Identification Committee, and is the NASW-NJ State Delegate Representative for Social Workers. He also serves on various Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committees both on and off campus, and as an inaugural faculty member of the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Center at Seton Hall University. Juan has provided consultation to various government agencies regarding restorative justice practices and community-led diversion programs.

Biography

First and foremost, Kaiwipunikauikawēkiu Lipe is a mother, daughter, sister, and aunty. And while all of her grandparents are now deceased, she is a granddaughter, nonetheless of Hawai‘i and of her many human ancestors. In particular, her mother’s family comes from Hawai‘i, China, and Europe. Her father’s family comes from India via Fiji. Kaiwipunikauikawēkiu is also the daughter of other genealogies, including that of her traditional hula school, Hālau o ke ‘A‘ali‘i Kū Makani, and that of mentors including but not limited to educators and community leaders from South Texas at the Llano Grande Center; Cleveland, Ohio, at the National Rites of Passage Institute; and MA‘O Organic Farms in Wai‘anae, Hawai‘i.

Kaiwipunikauikawēkiu’s roles in each of these genealogies guide her commitments everyday. In terms of titles, at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa she is the inaugural director of the Native Hawaiian Place of Learning Advancement Office as well as the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Center. She is also the interim director of the Institute for Hawaiian Language Research and Translation. She holds a Bachelor’s in Hawaiian Studies, a Master’s in Counseling Psychology, and a PhD in Education Administration.

Biography

As a senior researcher for the Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI), an interdisciplinary think tank of the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), Kesha uses research to support LDF’s litigation, political advocacy and community organizing efforts to challenge structural racism. Her TMI publications explaining the dynamics of racial injustice within the criminal-legal system and identifying public policy solutions include “When an Arrest Becomes a Death Sentence: Overpopulation of U.S. Jails Increases the COVID-19 Threat to Every Community”; “Pretrial Justice Without Money Bail or Risk Assessments: Principles for Racially Just Bail Reform”; and “Lies, More Lies, and the Truth Behind Crime Statistics: Avoiding Distortions and Improving Public Safety.” She is currently examining the harms of predictive policing and surveillance on Black and Latinx children and interventions in law enforcement to remedy racial bias. Kesha’s research on the intersections of the criminal-legal system and political participation includes a podcast episode on prison-based gerrymandering and her upcoming research on re-entry and jail-based voting. 

Kesha has extensive experience working with marginalized communities to design innovative solutions to redress racial inequality. As a professor at Drew University, she helped build a transformative institutional infrastructure to promote social mobility and reintegration for incarcerated individuals (NJ-STEP), which facilitates students’ transition to college during and after incarceration. Kesha built this infrastructure in collaboration with higher-education colleagues, prison administrators, incarcerated people and formerly incarcerated people. This program has contributed both directly and indirectly to bolstering policy support for higher education in prisons across the nation.

Biography

“Kim Rodgers’ journey to becoming a racial justice advocate began in 2012, after George Zimmerman was acquitted for the murder of Trayvon Martin. She was 22 years old and just beginning to realize how interconnected and complex the issue of racism was in America. Kimberly gradually began to sharpen her socio-political analysis by reading more, watching the news to see how issues of race were discussed, and engaging in conversations with people in her personal networks. In the years that followed, she witnessed countless other Black people die at the hands of the state, but saw few repercussions for those who committed the violence. She attended protests and joined discussion groups, but her most purposeful work for racial equity has come through professional opportunities.

In her previous job at the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), she was an active member and co-lead of a staff affinity group focused on taking action for inclusion, equity, and diversity. She facilitated NACCHO’s Roots of Health Inequity course and provided technical assistance on communicating for health equity to local health departments and other external partners. In her current job, she provides capacity-building that prepares cross-sector professionals to foster racial equity in their work. She delivers trainings; has been invited to present at conferences on narrative, identity, and power; and co-wrote two modules of the Fostering Equity Guide. And she currently manages a Truth & Reconciliation initiative in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she led the standing up of a leadership development program for people interested in championing racial justice.
“

Biography

Kyoni Cummings is an advocate for individuals living with mental health conditions and their families. She was thrust into the world of mental health 10 years ago when a close loved one was diagnosed with a serious mental illness. She and her family quickly learned that there was little direction and more closed doors than could ever be imagined. She often had to fight to get basic care for her loved one and quickly decided that she was going to do everything in her power to help change things for the families that came after hers.
Kyoni began working as a volunteer for the Pomona Valley affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and was hired by the organization as their education coordinator a year later. Since that time, she has dedicated herself to bringing mental health awareness to her community through the power of education. She teaches families how to understand their loved one’s illness, and helps students, parents, and educators recognize all of the ways they can identify mental illness symptoms, reach out, show compassion and understanding, and get connected to resources.

Kyoni is also a very strong advocate for the reorganization of legislation that does a disservice to individuals living with mental health conditions inside and outside of our criminal justice system. She strongly believes that prosecution and detention of individuals living with serious mental illness does more harm than good and can prolong (or, in some cases, completely eradicate) a pathway to recovery.

Biography

Dr. LaDrea Ingram is Founder at ProjectiGive and Associate Research Scientist at Yale University. She is a social behavioral scientist by training and certified as a health education specialist (CHES) and Alcohol Drug Counselor (CADC). She earned her doctoral degree in Health Education & Behavioral Studies from Columbia University, Teachers College. She received a Master of Arts in Government from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Science in Health and Medical Policy from George Mason University.

LaDrea’s professional experience includes working on national projects to advance healthcare quality, health equity, and program planning initiatives at the local, state, and federal levels. She has worked on high-level healthcare policy analysis as a junior service summer fellow at the Agency for Healthcare Quality and as a deputy director at The George Washington University, Milken’s Institute of Public Health. While a community health specialist with the Fairfax County Health Department, LaDrea oversaw the Health Department’s HIV prevention program. She coordinated a community-wide partnership with the faith community and the expansion of a statewide collaboration with George Mason University, Inova Juniper Hospital, and interfaith agencies in Fairfax County.

LaDrea is a passionate community-based practitioner who engages in research scholarship to eliminate racial/ethnic health disparities while increasing the overall quality of health of people of color and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. As a scholar-practitioner, LaDrea recognizes the dynamic interplay between research and community change and thus applies a social justice-oriented approach to community-based participatory research (CBPR).

Biography

Lauren W. Reliford is a passionate and mission-oriented public and population health professional focused on bridging the gap between social theory, spirituality, research, and practice to the forefront of our major policy decisions. She recently earned her Master’s in social work, focusing primarily on the biological impacts of trauma in Black birthing women and the need for policy solutions, such as the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act of 2021 (S. 346/H.R. 959).

Lauren’s work as a public health lobbyist for ten years prior to graduate school allowed her to address the racist systemic and institutional structures that prevented whole health (physical, mental, behavioral, emotional) for Black and Brown communities, and it is work she is blessed to continue as political director at Sojourners. Lauren also credits her time doing frontline social work during the pandemic as a turning point in her life and career that demonstrated the real need to address the ineligibility requirements in policies and programs that further poverty and oppression for aging and older adults in need.

Though she is a macro social work practitioner, Lauren still engages with the clinical practitioners in the hopes that their direct experience working with her focus populations will help build a bottom-up, middle-out policy formulation process that centers the lived experience of Black and Brown communities. Her hope is to continue the good work and act on her morals and values at a policy level that either creates a space at the table—or builds a new one—for lived experience.

Biography

Lauren, DNP, MSN-Ed RN, has devoted the last 16 years of her professional life to advocacy, education, and nursing, particularly on rare diseases and reducing health disparities. She has worked with esteemed business leaders and researchers to establish groundbreaking precision medicine initiatives within the African American community. She had the honor of serving as president for two terms of the Southern Nevada Black Nurses Association, a chapter of the National Black Nurses Association.

Lauren had the privilege of being designated a Leadership Fellow by the Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Consortium for Health Equity and Researcher Diversity (AIM-AHEAD) from September 2022 to June 2023. The primary objective of this NIH-initiated program is to increase the representation and involvement of underrepresented communities and researchers in the field of artificial intelligence/machine learning. The primary objective is to utilize electronic health records (EHR) and various other forms of data to mitigate health disparities and inequities. 

Her professional focus has consistently been on reconciling divides, specifically within the domain of bedside predictive technologies. She has actively participated in educating and assisting clinical nurses in implementing these technologies. As an assignment for the AIM-AHEAD program, she was tasked with educating nurses of African descent regarding the expansion, hazards, and advantages of AI/ML in the healthcare industry. Lauren created a 15-minute educational module utilizing a generative learning platform to tackle the issue of inadequate digital and technological literacy among nurses, focusing on individuals of African descent.

FUTURE FOCUS 

Nurses of African descent have a crucial role in promoting racial healing and transformation in healthcare, particularly in the context of technological advancements. Frontline caregivers have been recognized for their crucial role in integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into patient care, bridging the gap between cutting-edge technology and the particular needs of patients. With a focus on digital literacy, the goal is to provide these nurses with the technical skills and ethical insights necessary for effective AI integration. Current and future projects include developing comprehensive education and practical training programs while building strategic alliances with technology professionals to promote AI-related digital literacy among nurses of African descent. By equipping these caregivers with AI skills, they can deliver compassionate, informed care while navigating the complexities of today’s AI-driven healthcare modalities.

Biography

LC Johnson is an award-winning writer, entrepreneur, and activist with a passion for empowering women, especially women of color (WOC). After graduating from Duke University in 2010 with a degree in Women’s Studies, she immediately began a career in the nonprofit sector, seeking out a range of opportunities that mirrored her passion for racial equity, gender equity, and entrepreneurship.

Ten years into her journey as a dynamic, creative, and committed social justice professional with a well-established entrepreneurial spirit, LC has deep experience in curriculum development and facilitation, nonprofit program design, entrepreneurship, public speaking, and community building. She is a recognized subject matter expert whose work and writings on the topic of race and gender have appeared in outlets such as Forbes Magazine, Huffington Post, and Black Enterprise.

Most notably, LC is the founder and CEO of Zora’s House—a coworking space and leadership incubator created by and for WOC. She has been recognized in her community as a “40 under 40” and “Columbus Future 50” leader. In her non-existent free time, LC enjoys reading Afrofuturistic novels; hiking with her hubby, two kiddos, and mutt; and EATING ALL OF THE THINGS.

Biography

Leah Gordon is associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion at Boston College Connell School of Nursing. Previously, she served as the diversity director for Patient Care Services (PCS) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) where she led diversity and inclusion activities for the department. She oversaw training and education, program design, administration, implementation and evaluation. Leah has also worked as a staff nurse and a chemotherapy infusion nurse in prior roles, where she was either the only Black clinician, or one of a small number of nurses of color providing nursing care.  

Leah’s career in academia includes serving as adjunct faculty at various schools of nursing. She has served as an academic advisor and formal mentor to diverse nursing students. In 2019, Leah served in the role of the assistant director of multicultural programming and inclusion at the MGH Institute of Health Professions, where she curated many events that exposed the community to multidimensional levels of cultural experiences and health practices. Leah received her associate’s degree in nursing in 2003 and went on to pursue her bachelor’s and Master of Science degrees in nursing. In 2017, she earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), with a focus on culturally competent and attentive nursing education.  

Leah’s personal life created the foundation for what is now her intentional work as a social- and racial-justice health equity advocate. Leah is the daughter of a Black American father and Panamanian mother; her parents fostered and instilled in her equity ideology. Leah became a single mother at the age of 19. Throughout Leah’s life, academic journey and nursing career, she has faced many challenges being a Black woman engaging and working in systems that have challenged her as well as her Afro-Latina heritage. Her personal and professional experiences provide a lens that makes her perspective unique, insightful and important to her roles in nursing and nursing academia, and as a Black woman.

Biography

Leon is a co-founder of the African American Diabetes Association (AADA). He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts, College of Public and Community Service, along with a master’s degree from Cambridge College, Cambridge, Mass. He has over 30 years of experience in community development and healthcare initiatives, managing major grants and contracts with a proven ability to handle complex projects and resources. 

His experience as the co-founder of AADA, with a group of like-minded individuals, highlights his commitment to community-based solutions and leveraging shared experiences to tackle the diabetes challenge. He possesses strong partnership, communication, and collaboration skills, essential for building impactful community health programs. He possesses a well-rounded blend of leadership, community development expertise, financial management, and partnership-building skills. 

FUTURE FOCUS 

As co-founder of the African American Diabetes Association (AADA), a new organization tackling health disparities, Leon is passionate about racial healing in healthcare. This program aligns with AADA’s mission to dismantle unequal healthcare structures. Through grassroot organizing, they aim to build a movement focused on low-income communities. By collaborating with stakeholders, he plans to use advocacy, relationship-building, and community empowerment to create a truly equitable healthcare system, ultimately envisioning AADA as a key player in achieving healthcare justice. 

Biography

Leslie Mac is a Brooklyn-born and -raised organizer and founder of the Ferguson Response Network. A seasoned digital strategist and communications expert—via her firm, LM Consulting—she helps her clients create diverse, imaginative campaigns and branding that are action-oriented and impact-focused on inclusivity and justice-minded content.

Leslie was the founding chair of the Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism Organizing Collective Board and former Communication Director for The Frontline.

In 2016, Leslie co-founded Safety Pin Box, which was featured in New York Magazine, The Daily Show, Vice News, and more. She has been named to Essence Magazine’s list of 100 Woke Women, BlogHer’s 2017 Voice of the Year for Impact, and a 2020 Election All-Star by BET.

She also speaks nationally and conducts antiracism audits and training to support institutions in the work of dismantling systemic white supremacy. Recent clients include Google, Articulate, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amazon, Meadville Lombard Theological School, Canvas8, and The Advancement Project.

You can read more about her personal story in this Essence magazine feature.

Biography

Lidia Doniz is daughter, mother, and comadre. She is a proud mother of two sons, Pakal and Balam. Lidia was born in Guatemala of Mayan descent, raised in Inglewood, Calif., and considers herself a Bay Area transplant. She is a weaver of words, time, and cultures. A storyteller, activist, bridge builder, and antiracist who is disrupting and dismantling institutions for the liberation of BIPOC communities.

Lidia has worked in the fields of economic development, arts, nonprofit, community outreach, and engagement, and is currently working at the Santa Clara County Public Health Department with the Violence Prevention Program. Lidia led the department’s Safe and Peaceful Neighborhood Strategy, which uses a public health approach to address complex issues, including violence, disinvestments in community, and re-establishing trust and building relationships in and with communities. She continues her antiracist work as a member of the Department’s Racial and Health Equity Implementation Team and is a trainer for the Racial and Health Equity Learning Institute for Santa Clara County.

Lidia is a member of Calpulli Teokalli, based in San Francisco, Calif., and founded by the late Manolo Sanchez from Tacuba, Mexico City, Mexico. Her teachers are Irma Pineda and Alvaro Tellez. Lidia initiated her own circle, Movimiento Cósmico, in 2008. Movimiento Cósmico’s purpose is to preserve and strengthen Indigenous traditions of life through dance and movement. Lidia is a student of Pascual Yaxon, Ajqij (Mayan Elder and Keeper of Time) in the Noj Tijoxela school of Mayan Cosmovision.

Biography

Lilianna-Angel Reyes, trans Latina woman and Master of Public Administration graduate from the University of Michigan school system, has an extensive history leading organizations and coalitions focused on reducing social and health disparities of marginalized populations. Her work focuses on anti-racism and trauma-informed principles. She has worked with many state and national civil rights organizations and government and corporate entities, including Planned Parenthood, the Detroit Police LGBT Advisory Council, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Consumers Energy and many others. 

Lilianna is a longtime member of the ballroom dance scene and member of the Iconic House of Ebony, now serving as the Detroit godmother for the house. She was recently inducted into the Detroit Ballroom Hall of Fame in 2020. Lilianna most recently spoke at the United Nations on the status of trans women of color in the global call for women’s success. 

Biography

Linda is the inaugural director of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) in Durham, North Carolina. She leads efforts to identify and oversee the development, implementation and strategies to strengthen DCRI’s DEI culture (people/practices/policies). This critical role is charged with enacting real and lasting changes in how DCRI addresses equality, equity, racial justice and social justice across the DCRI and the broader Duke community. 

She also directs sustainable change efforts in health equity and inclusion, leveraging real-world data—generated in the course of daily health care—to inform all aspects of the development, strategies and implementation of innovative and pragmatic research designs. In her role, Linda partners and collaborates with industry and government partners, clinical researchers and sites that are focused on methods to improve health equity. She also works with participants and community engagement teams, recognizing the importance of participant voice in clinical research. 

Previously, Linda served as the DCRI operation leader for the Anti-Racism and Health Equities Research team where she researched programs and policies fundamental to the advancement of diversity, equity and inclusion in health research. She has co-authored more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national meetings on diversity and health economics. Linda holds a Master of Arts from Duke University, a bachelor’s degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and was recently certified in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Solutions through Opportunity Hub.

Biography

Lisa Boudreau is a lived experience and professional policy advocate. She has 18 years of experience working on child welfare and maternal-child health policy. She believes that policymakers must build greater support for proximate leaders who can create policy solutions that are both sustainable and transformative, and that we can be more intentional about fully tapping human potential by putting our most marginalized people in positions of power and leadership with decision-making authority, leading to a more just and equitable world for all children.

Since 2001, Lisa has been focused on raising the awareness of federal policymakers about the needs and unique perspectives of children and youth in foster care, and of families facing the barriers and institutions that put their children at risk of entering foster care.

Lisa is currently an appointed, volunteer policy advisory council member for the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that supports Congress’ Adoption Caucus with the information and resources needed to hear direct experiences of those affected by child welfare policy, become engaged in this issue, and work to bring about legislative improvements for children and families.

Lisa is also the director of Advocacy and Strategic Messaging at Parents as Teachers National Center, where she advocates for state and federal policy that addresses a wide range of maternal-infant and parenting support services that address key social determinants of health and promote family and community strengthening. One of her main roles is to train and support lay advocates to participate in policymaking.

Biography

Lorenzo has been a resident of Santa Fe County since May 18, 2021. In addition to being a small-farm and hacienda owner with 350 acres in Cerrillos, New Mexico, he is currently serving on the board of governance at Turquoise Trail Charter School, where two of his five children attend school. He also recently completed a seven-week fellowship on educational reform in New Mexico through the Parents Together program.

In his past place of residence in Peekskill, New York, Lorenzo served on the board of the Caring for the Homeless and Hungry of Peekskill (homeless shelter and food pantry) and the local chapter of The Lincoln Society, as well as the city’s Human Relations Commission.

Apart from a commitment to community service most of his adult life, Lorenzo’s qualifications include a master’s in international public law, human rights and humanitarian Affairs from Columbia University, and a B.A. in international cultural studies and cultural anthropology from UCLA. 

He has long served on the leadership teams and as a best-practice consultant for all of the employee resource groups at New York Life Insurance, where he has been an employee for nearly 24 years. This includes their pride, disability, African-American, Latino, veterans and women’s groups.

Biography

Lucia Obregon is a queer artist and community organizer from Guatemala, now residing in Raymatush Ohlone land also known as San Francisco, Calif. She is the policy analyst and organizing manager at the Mission Economic Development Agency in the Mission District—The Latino Cultural District—where she has worked for the past six years developing a leadership program that recruits community leaders to organize around equitable housing, civic engagement, and education.

In 2021, Lucia was appointed as a commissioner, a volunteer position for the Immigrant Rights Commission of San Francisco. In this role, she has been able to connect with other immigrant communities like her own. She is now the chair of the Newcomer Committee, a working group that focuses on the needs of newcomers, asylum seekers, and refugees.

In her personal time, Lucia organizes with the Build Community Collective, organizing events and actions around Black liberation and Indigenous sovereignty. Additionally, she is an artist and is currently one of the lead singers of Inti Batey (Inti=Sun in Nahuatl, Batey=Gathering in Taino), a nine-member band whose sound is a fusion of traditional and contemporary Latinx sounds. Her music often speaks about the hardships of the human experience in a time of political oppression, health crisis, and spiritual awakening. Her art as well as her activism centers around creating spaces of healing, collaboration, and exploration where communities can explore the intersectionality between art, identity, and social justice.

Biography

The Mahoganee Xperience yields the best of the Artistry of Mahoganee who is a Gullah/Geechee lowcountry creative, renowned improvisational vocalist, recording artist, songwriter, poet, mixed-media visualist and music cultural preservationist who believes in arts advocacy through strategic partnerships. In her latest work she explores Afro-futurism with “time travel” and “portals.” Her work is heavily influenced by the quote, “The South is a Portal” from the thesis of griot, time-traveler, historian, writer, and educator Sara Makeba Daise, and the new book BlackWorld by American sociologist, author, lecturer, and educator Bertice Berry.

Mahoganee’s mission is to make a huge impact on the world by using art to entertain, elevate, enlighten, and explore the possibilities utilizing the power of our creativity and imagination to advance the Gullah Geechee culture and heritage specifically by highlighting environmental responsibilities with land stewardship, caring for our waterways, and assisting our Black landowners and farmers to move us forward. Also referred to as “Da Sea Island Songbird,” her unique style of Indigenous soul music blends elements of jazz, funk, blues, and hip-hop with African and Caribbean influence, touching on all elements of both contemporary and traditional American roots music, making her a quintessential modern folk singer. This music that ignites the senses and lyrics born out of her trans-Atlantic heritage that sparks the soul is created by Mahoganee and her husband, music producer André Amigér, and they call it Funky Organik Soul or Seed, Soil and Soul Music.

Biography

Maria Dautruche (she/her) is the founder of the Dopwell Group LLC, the inaugural director of the Westchester Center for Racial Equity at the YWCA White Plains & Central Westchester, and manager of Race Forward’s H.E.A.L. Together (Honest Education Action & Leadership) initiative. Before taking on these roles, Maria was a senior advisor to the president and CEO of the National Urban League (NUL)—after time on staff at the national civil rights organization as a vice president. In addition to managing a portfolio of funding partnerships, Maria managed special projects at NUL, including the organization’s participation in the Racial Equity Anchor Collaborative, 2020 census initiatives and COVID-19 Communities of Color Needs Assessment. 

Maria previously worked at the Smithsonian Institution, National Black Child Development Institute, New York Edge (formerly Sports and Arts in Schools Foundation) and Wave Hill. Maria is a trained Rx for Racial Healing circle facilitator, 2018 Independent Sector NGen Fellow and 2017 92Y Women in Power Fellow who has completed Yale School of Management’s Interpersonal Group Dynamics facilitator training. In 2004, Maria co-founded New Voices for Reproductive Justice—a powerful organizing force for the health and well-being of Black women and girls, women of color and LGBTQ+ people of color at the local, state (Pennsylvania and Ohio) and national levels. 

Biography

Mariel Betancourt-Jungkunz is a Puerto Rican journalist who grew up in Río Piedras (PR) and north Florida. A graduate of the creative writing program at Florida State University, she is currently a senior research editor at Dictionary.com, where she is particularly interested in issues of how race, pop culture, and language intersect. Mariel has published two books: Dreams of Green and its Spanish translation, El Verde de mis Sueños, about the Latin American and Caribbean tradition of Día de Reyes. Mariel is active with Las Musas, the first collective of Latinx women writing and/or illustrating in traditional children’s literature, and a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop for socially engaged writers. She resides in Ohio with her family, including her 11-year-old daughter. 

FUTURE FOCUS 

Mariel is working on her next children’s books, which center around Latinx families in the U.S. She is excited about using language as activism and harnessing the power of literature to provide readers and families with a sense of belonging. With other writers of color, she is developing presentations for K–12 educators about how to use children’s literature by Black and Latinx authors, as well as others from traditionally excluded communities, to promote empathy and challenge stereotypes in the classroom. Mariel is also exploring models for celebrating and sharing diverse literature directly with children—such as at Día de Reyes community celebrations. These initiatives are meant to give voice to the Latinx community through media and curricula, countering false narratives and bringing to life our truth.

Biography

Marinah V. Farrell is currently the Director of Organizational Wellness for Birth Center Equity, an organization created to make birth center care an option in every community, by growing and sustaining birth centers led by Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Marinah is also the owner of Phoenix Midwife, a longstanding midwifery practice, and the founder of Parteras de Maiz, an umbrella organization for diverse advocacy and health justice projects.

Marinah has worked with and directed many Indigenous and BIPOC health justice projects, developing clinical, organizational, and regional birth justice initiatives in Arizona, New Mexico and nationally. These initiatives include indigenous reproductive healthcare access, community-based education, organizational wellness, ancestral healing, and student/workforce development. These experiences inspired Marinah to certify in somatic healing work (completing in 2022) to better understand the role of trauma in communities and organizations of color as a fundamental resource for radical change.

Marinah was co-founder and staff midwife for Phoenix Allies for Community Health, a free primary care clinic. Marinah is an educator for traditional midwives, and in countless health justice coalitions, such as street medic work and immigration activism. Marinah was the first BIPOC elected President of a national midwifery association in North America recognized by the International Confederation of Midwives. Currently, she is a board member for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, advisory member Birth Detroit, a contractor for Maricopa County and White Mountain Apache and working on Medicaid expansion with the Institute for Medicaid Innovation.

Biography

Marlon Chamberlain is an advocate for people directly impacted by the criminal legal system, and the manager for Fully Free, the campaign to end permanent punishments in Illinois. He brings over 20 years of lived and professional experience to his work at Heartland Alliance.

Marlon has an established track record of creating effective coalitions. Previously, he served as the Englewood project manager with the READI Chicago Program at Heartland Alliance. Prior to that, he was a community organizer with the Fighting to Overcome Records and Create Equality (FORCE) Initiative. Marlon developed FORCE into one of the strongest organizations led by people with records to advance issues, policies, and legislation at the state level, including passing the largest conviction-sealing expansion law in the United States and leading a voter registration campaign that registered over 1,000 people with records to vote.

Marlon is very active in the community. He is a founding member of the Restoring Rights & Opportunities Coalition of Illinois (RROCI), chairs the Live Free Decarceration Advisory Committee, and is an alumni of JustLeadership USA, a national organization with a mission to reduce the U.S. prison population by half by 2030. In 2013, Marlon received the Purdy Award from the Community Renewal Society in recognition of his outstanding leadership in organizing and policy work. And in 2017, he received the CARRE Visionary Award from Safer Foundation. Marlon lives on the South Side of Chicago with his wife and five children.

Biography

MB (Marybeth) Mitcham, PhD, is the director of the Online MPH Program and an assistant professor at George Mason University, the first school of Public Health in Virginia. Mitcham’s research and work focus on the interplay between humans and their environment, leveraging available resources to achieve better community health outcomes, and exploring intergenerational and interdisciplinary approaches to foster personal connectedness. She uses qualitative and mixed-methods research approaches, as she also believes in the power of storytelling. Some of her research includes the impact of intergenerational initiatives on combating loneliness, the resilience of rural first responders, factors contributing to isolation among rural residents, the intersection of climate change and community resilience, gender identity exploration in rural contexts, and addressing food insecurity and poor patterns of dietary practices through plant-rich diets. A resident of the Adirondack Park of New York, Mitcham continues to work with local community organizations to help reduce health inequity, and spends as much of her free time scampering up and over mountains as she possibly can (sometimes dragged by her dogs).

FUTURE FOCUS 

MB was blessed to have two amazing grandmothers, who valued storytelling as a mechanism to share truths, packaged in a form that may be more readily accepted by those who may be ignorant of or resistant to that truth. These grandmothers also valued a community of multiple generations, fostering communication and relationships between each person. In honor of her grandmothers, her work in the truth, racial healing, and transformation space involves intergenerational collaboration and storytelling, where people from diverse backgrounds learn, explore, share, laugh, and heal together, using the LARA method of conversation (Listen, Affirm, Respond, Ask) to support potentially challenging topics of conversation. MB is excited about the opportunity to learn from other members of the third cohort and the leaders of the Culture of Health Leadership Institute for Racial Healing, so that her understanding of how to foster open and healing conversations can be deepened, making her work more effective to support a truthful framework through narrative change. 

Biography

His birth name is Daniel Bowden. His pseudonym is Messiah Equiano. Messiah is from a neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side that is predominately African-American. For elementary and high school, he attended Catholic schools that were mostly Caucasian. His community and educational upbringings gave him a well-rounded understanding of race, class, religion and a host of other prevalent topics. Messiah has 20 years of sales experience. He’s sold everything from job postings to carpeting. 

His community and educational upbringings and professional sales career, along with life’s collective experiences as a Black male in America, have all given Messiah a well-rounded view of race in America. In addition to his professional career in sales, he’s also emerged as a playwright. Since 2009, he’s been fortunate to write, produce, direct and star in 10 original stage plays to date. One of his plays, Man Law–produced in 2016—explores the historically turbulent relationship between the Black community and White police officers. Man Law examines why confrontations with Blacks and White police officers occur, what each participant might be thinking as the confrontation takes place, and ways to increase the peace between the two sides. Messiah premiered the play in Chicago on July 24, 2016. The game-changing aspect of the premiere was the attendance of both community residents and police officers. Both sides joined in powerful discussions regarding race and community policing that led to the beginning of healthy, productive relationships. 

Biography

Michael Rafael Ehijo-Sierra is a second-generation Cuban, Puerto Rican, Nicaraguan and Salvadoran organizer, educator and nonprofit founder currently residing in Oakland, California. He has built community through direct service and education for over 10 years. During his undergraduate years at City College of San Francisco, he organized alongside Save City College, Diversity Collaborative and MEChXA community school while teaching in the school’s community preschool. He later transferred to the University of San Francisco in the dual-degree Teacher Preparation Program, becoming a lead preschool teacher and coach/enrichment program director. 

Michael also founded a direct-action mutual organization called San Francisco Homeless Outreach Project, which later became Myriad Outreach Project in 2016. Now a charitable nonprofit, the org centers on connecting intersectional people through shared experiences. Myriad engages in collaborative art activism: banner drops, flyers, posters, shields making/training, street murals, educational forums, performance art, garbage pickups, crochet circles and homeless-outreach food drive components, which have fed over 10,000 people now with national and international chapters through its new venture, Meals on Onewheels. 

Michael has also co-founded various existing mutual aid groups. Direct Action for Farmworkers provides resources to farmworkers and their families affected by wildfires by raising over $50,000 to direct to frontline workers. Building Community Collective partakes in direct community action centered on self-expression events, art and healing throughout the Bay Area. Michael also is a site coordinator for an equity mentorship program in Bayview, San Francisco, called Urban Ed Academy.

Biography

Michelle C. Chatman, PhD, (she/her/hers) is an associate professor at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) and director of the Violence Prevention and Community Wellness Initiative at UDC. As a sociocultural anthropologist, she researches gentrification and urban inequality, Black family wellbeing, youth justice, and healing-centered social change. She is an alumnus of the Transformative Educational Leaders program and the Interdisciplinary Research Leaders program where she designed and piloted a mindfulness-based youth violence prevention program (Project Youth MIND). Chatman has led and contributed to various critical studies including the Ancestral Computing for Sustainability (ACS) study, funded by the National Science Foundation, and the Yale University Study on Diversity in Student Well-Being.

With over 30 years of experience in urban education, the arts, and community development, she is committed to advancing health equity and thriving for Black families. She has lectured broadly on mindfulness and contemplative approaches for social justice. In 2022, she was recognized as one of the 10 Most Powerful Women in the Mindfulness Movement. She has delivered two TEDx talks, “How Africa Changed My Life” and “Healing the Harm in Schools,” along with numerous other public lectures and presentations. She serves on the Advisory Committee for Organizing Neighborhood Equity (ONE DC) and is the founding director of the Mindfulness and Courageous Action (MICA) Lab at UDC, which advances healing-centered approaches to learning, service, and leadership. Chatman earned both her master’s in Applied Anthropology and PhD in Cultural Anthropology at American University.

Biography

Moni Avila has a deep-rooted passion for working in and with her community. As a grassroots organizer, she founded the Mexican American Studies program MAS for the Masses. Through her role as a cultural educator, she worked collaboratively with the community to teach ethnic studies to people who did not have access to institutions of higher learning. The program aimed to highlight the contributions and impact Mexican American history had on American society as a part of the global narrative, not as something exclusive and separate. In her work in public health and with community health workers, she serves as a conduit between ethnic studies and public health. Her unique lens and lived experience working and living in the community she serves allows her to transition from institution to community and serve as liaison. 

Avila holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio in Mexican American Studies, with a minor in Public Administration and a concentration in nonprofit management. She received her master’s from University of Texas at El Paso in Leadership Studies with a concentration in Community Engagement. Avila is pursuing her doctoral degree from Arizona State University in Leadership Studies focusing on grassroots organizing and Nepantlera community health workers. She hopes to identify the need and implications of incorporating history in public health.

Biography

As senior vice president of Cities and Community Engagement for the Children & Nature Network, Monica Lopez Magee helps city and community leaders develop programs, policies, and partnerships to provide children and families access to nature and its many health and academic benefits. She draws upon her Master’s in Public Leadership from the LBJ School of Public Affairs, undergraduate studies in environmental science, a decade leading and facilitating youth and family programs in New York City, and Austin and Houston, Texas, and her cultural heritage to create nature-based solutions that prioritize communities of color, transform public spaces, and foster love and stewardship of the natural world.

Her dedication to the outdoors carries into her personal life, where she serves on the Austin ISD (Independent School District) Community Bond Oversight Committee and enjoys paddling and volunteering with her family.

Biography

Nāwāhineokalaʻi (Nawahine) Lanzilotti, M.A. / M.F.A., is a kanaka ʻōiwi (Native Hawaiian) multidisciplinary artist and educator from Hawaiʻi. Nawahine facilitates creative acts of decolonization rooted in Indigenous storytelling practice to cultivate deeper connections across communities and amplify Indigenous voices.

From 2012–2018, Nawahine lived between New Delhi, India, and Hawaiʻi, studying Hindustani music and creating cross-cultural productions with her international arts collective in India, and training in hula kahiko (classical Hawaiian performance) in Hawai’i. Working with Indigenous artists in India motivated her to return home in 2019 to build opportunities for global exchanges between Native Hawaiians and global Indigenous communities.
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As a member of the Hawaiʻi contingent for the Western States Arts Federation’s (WESTAF) 2023 Arts Leadership and Advocacy Seminar, Nawahine met with Hawaiʻi congressional representatives in Washington, D.C., to emphasize the connection between supporting Indigenous arts and cultural practice and advancing health in community and environment. In October 2023, Nawahine attended the U.S. State Department’s Young Pacific Leaders regional workshop in Samoa on “Embracing Equity, Inclusion, and Human Rights” to address pressing issues in the Pacific and culturally responsive strategies for advancing Pacific communities.

Nawahine most recently served as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion coordinator for East-West Center on Oʻahu. Her equity and inclusion philosophy centers Indigenous methods of healing and relationship-building for transformative justice.

In May 2023, Nawahine founded Pulse Oceania, an organization dedicated to supporting creative expression for the success of self-sovereignty in the Pacific and connecting Indigenous communities through creative collaboration.

Biography

family nurse-midwife who has devoted her life to serving and empowering people in underserved communities. Nikia has more than 15 years of experience working in public health and nursing, with her more recent work focusing on reproductive rights and justice, birth justice, and midwifery. Nikia has a deep love for midwifery, health equity, and growing the workforce of midwives and birth workers of colors in the south. She is passionate about being a disruptor to the current healthcare system and creating new models of care that integrate midwifery and center Black and Brown communities. She works daily to ensure all persons have the rights and means to make decisions regarding their sexual and reproductive health. Nikia is the chief clinical officer at CHOICES Center for Reproductive Health, where they have opened the first birth center in the city.

Biography

Nishi Kumar is currently the head of Medical-Legal Projects at the Medical Justice Alliance. Nishi is an experienced civil rights attorney and was most recently the Director of Civil Litigation at the Promise of Justice Initiative, in New Orleans, Louisiana. There, she advocated on behalf of and alongside currently and formerly incarcerated people throughout Louisiana, specifically at the intersection of mass incarceration and healthcare. She is an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School, where she teaches an incarceration seminar. Nishi graduated from NYU Law School in 2015, where she was a Hays Civil Liberty fellow, a Notes Editor on the NYU Law Review, and co-chair of the South Asian Law Students Association. After law school, she clerked for Judge Paul Watford on the Ninth Circuit and Judge Jesse Furman on the Southern District of New York. Prior to law school, she was a middle school math teacher in New Orleans.

Biography

“To make a difference in someone’s life, you don’t have to be brilliant, rich, beautiful or perfect. You just have to care enough and be there.” This quote perfectly captures Nyasha’s “why” that led her to the field of law and shaped her journey as a lawyer to make a positive difference. Her “why” keeps her focused on serving marginalized groups, pursuing justice and working toward equitable solutions.

Nyasha brings 25 years of public interest law experience. She spent the early years of her practice litigating thousands of cases as a public defender, child support attorney and child welfare agency attorney. She served as the court improvement program attorney for the Administrative Offices of the Tennessee Supreme Court. During her tenure with the Court Improvement Program, Nyasha developed and presented curated training curricula and authored publications, and provided technical assistance to child welfare stakeholders. 

In 2020, Nyasha brought her talents to the ABA Center on Children in the Law as a senior attorney. In her role, she works with courts across the country, bringing a wide-angle lens from having worked as an agency attorney and for the courts. She also is active in addressing the intersection of health and the law in her well-being projects portfolio with a recent grant award focused on race equity and mandated reporting. 

Nyasha says, “My why remains constant, my commitment is strong and my passion for this area of law has only strengthened over the years.”

Biography

Olatunji Oboi Reed’s passion lies at the intersection of community, culture, and health. He works globally as a racial equity tactician and racial justice activist. With an extensive background in both nonprofit management and corporate social responsibility, he is most proud of his work to create a diverse coalition working together to achieve racial equity and mobility justice across the City of Chicago.

Oboi serves as the founding president & CEO of Equiticity, a racial equity movement, operationalizing racial equity by harnessing our collective power through research, advocacy, programs, and community mobility rituals to improve the lives of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people in our society. Equiticity’s vision is a mid- to large-sized U.S. city where racial equity is fully integrated at the policy and legislative levels into every function, department, budget, and resource associated with the city’s operations, services, and programs.

Oboi co-founded and recently served as the president and CEO of the Slow Roll Chicago bicycle movement. Slow Roll Chicago worked to build an equitable, diverse, and inclusive bicycle culture in Chicago by organizing community bicycle rides and advocating for bicycle equity.

In 2015, Oboi was awarded The White House Transportation Champion of Change award by The White House and the United States Department of Transportation. Oboi serves as co-chair of the Transportation Equity Network and is a member of the 2018 Grist Fixers cohort, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s Human and Community Development Committee, and PolicyLink’s Transportation Equity Caucus.

Oboi graduated from Roosevelt University with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics.

Biography

Patrick Hendricks is a lawyer with 15 years of experience building and managing high-impact partnerships across the public, private and social sectors. Over the course of his career, Patrickhas secured millions in funds for hospital-based initiatives designed to improve health outcomes in disinvested communities. He has worked in roles of increasing responsibility at four large health systems: New York Presbyterian Hospital, Regional One Health Foundation, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Rush University Medical Center.

Currently, Patrick is the director of development at West Side United, a six-hospital collaborative based in Chicago charged with reducing the 16-year life expectancy gap between Black and white residents by 2030. In this role, he is responsible for garnering public and private commitments to advance the organization’s ambitious mission. Previously, he worked at the Obama Foundation, where he raised private-sector capital for its Equity and Sustainability initiatives and the Obama Presidential Center.

As a native of Memphis, Tennessee, Patrick worked for the City of Memphis Mayor’s Office, managing a $5 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies focused on increasing neighborhood economic development and reducing violence through public-private partnerships. He has completed leadership development programs with the Association of Black Foundation Executives, Leadership Greater Washington, and was a founding board member for Believe Memphis Charter School and Just City Memphis, a criminal justice organization.

Hendricks has a Bachelor of Arts in English from Lake Forest College and a law degree from the University of Memphis School of Law.

Biography

Pheng Thao, has been actively building and developing new concepts of healthy masculine expressions and male practices for close to 20 years as a violence prevention expert. He believes that creating healthy and healing connections and interconnections with men and masculine folks is necessary to transform their relationships with women, girls and LGBTQ/gender-nonconforming folks and not limit their full potential. 

Pheng has provided over 700 keynotes, trainings and technical assistance to many diverse groups and organizations at the local, national and international level. Many of his speaking engagements are about violence prevention in the family and community, how public safety needs to include interpersonal safety, the intersections of gender-based violence (domestic violence, sexual violence, sexual exploitation, etc.), manhood and masculinity, practicing healthy masculinity/manhood and culturally appropriate healing practices. 

He coordinates the statewide engagement of the Men and Masculine Folks Network, a collaborative network of many community organizations, groups and individuals invested in the strategy of violence prevention through engaging men and masculine folks. Pheng is eo-executive director of Transforming Generations, a nonprofit located in St. Paul, Minnesota, which provides culturally appropriate and community-based education/awareness, direct services and community organizing to the Hmong community to end interpersonal forms of violence. Pheng is also the founder and executive director of ManForward, a national Southeast Asian men and masculine grassroots group that uses community organizing to activate men, boys and masculine folks to practice new forms and concepts of masculinity and manhood. 

In all these roles, Pheng deeply believes that healing is an essential part of his work in building and connecting communities. As a healer doing life and leadership coaching work, Pheng supports and works with individuals and organizations to strengthen their connections internally and externally. Lastly, he is a past 2018 Bush Leadership fellow and past 2019 Rockwood Leadership InstituteLeading from the Inside Out fellow.

Biography

Quraysh Ali Lansana is author of 20 books of poetry, nonfiction, and children’s literature. Quraysh Ali is currently a Tulsa Artist Fellow and serves as director of the Center for Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa, where he is also a lecturer in Africana Studies and English. Quraysh Ali is creator/executive producer of KOSU/NPR’s Focus: Black Oklahoma monthly radio program. A former faculty member of both the Writing Program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Drama Division of The Juilliard School, Quraysh Ali served as Director of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing at Chicago State University from 2002 to 2012, and was an associate professor of English/Creative Writing there until 2014.

His work Our Difficult Sunlight: A Guide to Poetry, Literacy & Social Justice in Classroom & Community was published in March 2011 by the Teachers & Writers Collaborative and was a 2012 NAACP Image Award nominee. His most recent books include Opal’s Greenwood Oasis, the skin of dreams: new and collected poems, 1995-2018, The Whiskey of Our Discontent: Gwendolyn Brooks as Conscience & Change Agent, and The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip Hop.

Quraysh Ali’s work appears in Best American Poetry 2019, and his forthcoming titles include Those Who Stayed: Life in 1921 Tulsa After the Massacre. He is a founding member of Tri-City Collective and serves on the Board of Directors of the Philbrook Museum of Art and as a curatorial scholar for The Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art.

Biography

As Public Health National Center for Innovations’ (PHNCI) director of Innovation, Reena Chudgar brings more than 15 years of direct public health experience to her efforts to support health departments and their communities in using innovation as a tool for transformation and to create equitable opportunity for optimal health. Her work centers around strategy and program implementation, and she is passionate about social and systems change, addressing root causes of historical and current racial and health inequities, and local and people-centered decision-making.

Reena aims to support public health by engaging in dynamic partnerships, fostering cross-sector collaboration, looking to community expertise, and advocating for public health needs. She previously directed the National Association of County and City Health Officials’ (NACCHO) Performance & Systems team. She has prior experience working internationally in both Ghana and Kiribati. Reena earned a Master’s in Public Health and a Bachelor’s in Chemistry from Emory University.

Biography

Regina Campbell was born and raised in California’s Bay Area but has spent her adult life living and traveling around the United States and abroad, addressing the effects of structural racism in the environment and within communities of color in a variety of capacities. Trained as an Environmental Engineer at the University of Maryland, she worked to build connections and implement strategies to protect the environment and enforce environmental policy. It was in this capacity that her passion for environmental justice was fueled. After years of service in this capacity, Regina dedicated four years to service in Belize, developing educational systems for youth and creating economic opportunities for women throughout the country.

Since her return to the United States in 2014, Regina has consistently worked to break the cycle of illiteracy, poverty, and low expectations by helping families in low-income communities of New York rise above poverty through education and career programs. Her current role as project manager for the Rikers Public Memory Project, highlights her private industry, nonprofit, and government experience in planning, implementing, and monitoring programs while building collaborative relationships with diverse stakeholders. Regina has a passion for social justice and works toward sustainable solutions to critical social problems.

Regina has been married to her high school sweetheart and best friend, Stephen Campbell, for 26 years and counting. They have two children and currently live in Connecticut.

Biography

Rita Fields serves as the chief talent & strategy officer for Lighthouse Michigan. She is also a dual CEO of both 313 Industries, Inc., and Copper Phoenix Consulting, LLC. Rit is on the faculty of the School of Management at University of Michigan (MSU) and in the healthcare administration at Central Michigan University. She is also a dissertation advisor in the PhD program at Assumption University in Bangkok, Thailand. Rita is a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Certified Senior Professional of Human Resources (SHRM-SCP), and a lifetime member of the National Association of African Americans in Human Resources (NAAAHR). She serves as a spokeswoman for the Center for the Education of Women at the University of Michigan and as a member of the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) University Center for Regional Economic Innovation (REI) at the MSU Center for Community and Economic Development.

Rita is a board member of the Coalition on Temporary Shelter (COTS), the Metropolitan Detroit Black Business Alliance (MDBBA), and the Black Business Association of Macomb, and a member of the board of trustees at Sinai Grace Hospital in Detroit. Crain’s Detroit Business named her among “40 under 40” in 2008. She was selected to be a presenter at TEDxDetroit in 2015. In 2019, she was named Outstanding Lecturer in the School of Management at University of Michigan (Flint). In 2020, she was named the inaugural executive in residence for the Community Impact Incubator based in Detroit, Mich. She is a sought-after speaker for her transparent commitment to sharing her story of struggle and resilience.

Biography

Robert Reyes Villagómez is a housing justice organizer. In 2018, they graduated from New York University with a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and Anthropology. They went on to organize an environmental and health justice campaign in Uniontown, Alabama. Robert conducted a participatory toxicology study and held classes on the arts and civic engagement at Robert C. Hatch Highschool in Uniontown, Alabama. During this campaign, they found their place in the racial justice movement in the U.S. thanks to their mentor, Esther Calhoun.

Robert then worked as a tenant organizer in the Bronx, New York, and saw first-hand the intersection between housing and health in a low-income, multi-racial community. Mold, infestation, and lack of services plagued the hundreds of families they worked with. Together, families organized to pressure their landlords and regulatory agencies to win improvements in their living conditions.

In 2020, Robert moved back home to Los Angeles, where they have organized mutual aid programs, assisted and created tenant associations in respond to unfolding health and housing crisis exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the statewide organizer with the Resident’s United Network (RUN), Robert work to develop RUN’s organizing capacity to build resident power and organize effective campaigns to end the housing crisis. Robert’s goal is to connect local and regional tenant organizing into a powerful statewide movement that pushes elected officials both in the capital, and back home to create material change. In every situation, they work across race and class to form communities of care that challenge power and demand accountability.

Biography

For over 15 years, Rocío Villalobos (she/her/ella) has been involved in social justice work in Austin, Texas, covering education, immigration and the outdoors/environment. Her transnational childhood shaped her understanding of community, family, migration, inequity and borders, all of which led her to her current position as the immigrant affairs manager with the City of Austin’s Equity Office. 

Rocío is the co-founder of Native Roots ATX, a running and wellness crew based in Austin. She also volunteers her time as a mentor with Explore Austin, board member at Ecology Action of Texas, member of the Dell Community Strategy Team, and local ambassador for the 52 Hike Challenge and Women Who Explore.

Biography

Rodney Washington, EdD, is a dedicated educator and advocate with a multifaceted background in criminology, justice services, mental health counseling, and early childhood education. As the owner and lead researcher of Consulting Plus, LLC, he channels the lived experiences of underrepresented populations into enhancing community engagement approaches and fortifying qualitative research methods. His approach prioritizes community-first strategies, employing an equity-driven, participatory research model to provide a deeper context that supports safe spaces for participation with dignity.

In his role, Rodney has spearheaded numerous initiatives to support children and families. He has led evaluation efforts for the Mississippi TRHT, a project central to this fellowship application. His work also includes advocating for developmental screenings for African American children from birth to age 8 (Help Me Grow Mississippi) and facilitating access to crucial mental health services for families. Recognizing the distinct challenges of different communities, he aids school districts and early learning centers in crafting tailored, evidence-based interventions. These interventions aim to effect substantive change, targeting issues like reducing suspensions, excessive disciplinary practices, and enhancing parental engagement.

Rodney’s commitment extends beyond education into public health, particularly focusing on HIV testing among African American MSM and addressing barriers to PrEP adherence and use among sexual minority populations.

Biography

As a bilingual, bicultural, and bisexual millennial, Rosemary Linares holds the themes of racial equity and social justice close to her heart. Her identities and work experiences have inspired her to promote revolutionary acts. Being a child of a Cuban immigrant, she uses the term “revolutionary” in a sincere and delicate way. Since launching the first Gay-Straight Alliance in her high school in Michigan, Rosemary has devoted her work and studies to promoting social justice across the lines of race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, class, disability, age, and religion.

She is the founder of Cross Movement Social Justice Consulting, and for the past decade has worked to advance social justice by increasing the capacity of nonprofit organizations and building alliances across social movements. She has worked with an extensive portfolio of clients in a variety of sectors. Serving as co-coordinator of the Battle Creek Coalition for Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation invigorates her commitment to co-liberation and justice.

Rosemary graduated in 2010 from New York University with a Master of Public Administration. Prior to graduate school, she was a program assistant at the Arcus Foundation, a global foundation working to advance LGBTQIA+ equity, as well as the conservation and preservation of the great apes. Her studies in Latino, Africana, and women’s issues at Antioch College gave her a deeper and broader understanding of the inherent richness and resilience of traditionally marginalized communities. Her time as an undergraduate student living in Cuba, Mexico, and Ecuador built on that understanding.

Biography

Sean Dunnington is a queer playwright and civic artist living between New York and Honolulu. He’s currently a resident storyteller and narrative arts design specialist with the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa’s Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Center, and an Emerging Artist Fellow with the California Arts Council. Sean recently concluded a year-long arts residency with the East-West Center, writing residency with Ka Waiwai Collective and playwriting fellowship with Creative Labs Hawai’i. Select plays include The Children’s Farm, Flat Fish, Zap, Small Minds, Hawaiian Shake, House Plays, and The Undocumented, or a Far Too Brief History of Ravensbrück. Sean’s work has been produced and/or developed by Magic Theatre, Custom Made Theatre, Lounge Theatre, Circle Squared Collective, LabTheatre, Manhattan Repertory Theatre, Kumu Kahua Theatre and more. Sean recently launched Tree Moss, the first-ever playwriting collective for playwrights in Hawai’i. Sean graduated with a B.A. in Applied Playwriting from the University of Redlands’ Johnston Center for Integrative Studies, and he’s currently pursuing his MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Sean strongly believes in democratizing storytelling practices across Hawai’i, which is why he has led writing workshops and story circles with organizations such as The United States Department of State, Hawai’i State Art Museum, Hawai’i Council for the Humanities, Hawai’i LGBT Legacy Foundation, Hālawa Correctional Facility, DreamHouse ‘Ewa Beach, Mānoa Heritage Center, Hawai’i Sea Grant, Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Hawai’i Green Growth, Ala Wai Watershed Collaboration and Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative. He co-designed TRHT Narrative Design workshops with Dr. Kaiwipunikauikawēkiu Punihei Lipe. 

Biography

Shamera is a registered dietitian nutritionist with a background in public health and diabetes education. Her work focuses on eliminating disparities, promoting health equity and uplifting historically marginalized communities through nutrition. As a nutrition consultant, Shamera helps organizations develop inclusive messaging and equitable strategies required to address the nutrition needs and concerns of diverse groups.

Biography

Shannon Stokes is a Black 20+ year attorney with extensive experience in race, law, and policy. Her entire legal career has been in government. In every position she has held, she has advocated for racial equity. From prosecutions to police board hearings to her current position, she has fought against disparate treatment of BIPOC.

She is currently the interim deputy general of administration/ethics officer of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS). She is the sole employment/labor counsel for the state agency that administers the Medicaid and the Child Support Enforcement programs. She develops and manages ethics and compliance programs for this $26 billion agency, its 2,200 employees, and its boards and commissions. She manages all department personnel litigation and discrimination complaints and conducts whistleblower and retaliation investigations based on employment discrimination complaints.

Shannon is the HFS Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Taskforce Internal Workgroup co-chair. In this role, she creates and recommends targeted messaging promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion; helps develop a mentoring program to foster more diversity and inclusion in HFS leadership and provides diverse participants exposure to HFS; researches processes to prioritize the hiring, promotion, and retention of diverse candidates; trains hundreds of state employees on DEI; acts as a liaison between HFS and the State of Illinois chief equity officer; and advises HFS leadership on the importance of DEI training and its impact on employment and discrimination complaints. She also drafted the department-wide diversity, equity, and inclusion interview question for all job titles.

Biography

Sierra King is an artist, archivist, and curator currently based in Atlanta. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art  from Valdosta State University.  She is the founder of Build Your Archive, a memory work lab where Black women artists build their archives in real time.

She has presented her work about community archiving at the 2018 American Studies Association annual meeting in Atlanta; the 2021 Memory Work for Black Lives Plenary presented by the University of Oregon Library Archives for Black Lives: A Liberated Archives Exhibition; and the 2023 Art Libraries Society of North America’s 51st conference in Mexico City. 

She made her curatorial debut in 2020 with MINT Gallery in Atlanta and was selected by the Georgia Committee of the National Museum of Women of Arts to curate “New Worlds—Georgia Women to Watch” alongside Co-Curator Melissa Messina. She has continued independently curating with cultural centers, academic libraries, and organizations including the Emory University Schwartz Performing Arts Center’s Chace Gallery in Decatur, Ga.; Westobou Gallery in Augusta, Ga.; and Swan Coach House Gallery in Atlanta.  

King is a recipient of the 2020 Artist Project Fund through National Black Arts Festival (NBAF), 2021 Emory Arts and Social Justice Fellowship, and the 2022 Studio Residency of Remerge Atlanta.

Currently she is earning her master’s in Library Science and Information as a Social Justice for Archivist Scholar at University of Alabama and curating printmaker and muralist Jasmine Nicole Williams’ forthcoming solo exhibition, “kin to red dirt on white carpets.” 

FUTURE FOCUS 

Sierra King (she/her) is documenting artists, cultural workers, and organizers to build their archives in real time. Through ritual and record-keeping practices, she guides them through a data stewardship process that develops a holistic community and narrative-building ecosystem. She is excited to implement the TRHT framework to expand how narratives can be crafted to prioritize their stories and legacies alongside the art and work that they contribute to the world.  

Biography

Stefanie (she/her/ella) is a healing artist and CEO who leads with her passionate heart in service to collective freedom. Sacred storytelling, mindful movement, meditations to self and ancestors, and more—it is all to support well-being. 

Stefanie has been on a journey of accessing this potential through the practice of facilitating yoga since 2008 and through the formation of her 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Yena, in 2017. She is ready to contribute all of her talents toward collective freedom, including her talent and experience as a performing and recording artist–healing herself and her community through the healing arts of writing, storytelling and music while inviting others to join her in this walk.

Stefanie has a past of teaching and presenting at various local studios, festivals and organizations  across the nation, including BRIDGE, Dallas Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation, SXSW, Cara Mia Theatre, No More Martyrs, Driftless Yoga Festival, Yogis Unidos, Sedona Yoga Festival, Amphibian Stage Productions, the Human Rights Initiative and more!

Hearing the call from COVID-19 and the collective uprising toward racial justice and healing, Stefanie has launched Collective Awakening: an online community that is anti-racist and inclusive, normalizing human courage and truth through movement, historical and contextual education, sacred sound and self-discovery as we relate to this healing and awakening world around us.

Stef is passionate about fueling a future that is free!

Biography

Steph Love, MS Experiential Education, is an international trainer, facilitator, coach, and outdoor educator. She has designed and facilitated workshops and programs for diverse children, youth, and adults in 32 states, as well as Canada, South Africa, Italy, and the U.K. In 2004, Steph co-founded and directed Positive Energy Outdoors, an outdoor education program that provides access to unique outdoor programming, including dog sledding and driving draft horses, kayaking, rock climbing, and Duluth’s first nature-based, after-school childcare program. She has created safe and supportive outdoor experiences for thousands of children and adults of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. Currently, Steph designs and facilitates internationally recognized workshops and certifications on social emotional learning, equity, and Continuous Quality Improvement for the Forum for Youth Investment’s Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality. 

FUTURE FOCUS 

Steph is currently excited about co-creating workshops that explore the cultural and social constructs of empathy and social and emotional learning as a way to dismantle White supremacy culture in camps and out-of-school time programs. Building trust and relationships is a foundation of any effective adult learning experience. She looks forward to the opportunity to expand this education and system building  work into other fields beyond youth development.  

Biography

In 2000, Susan was named executive director of Parents for Public Schools of Jackson, Mississippi (PPS), with a mission to lead collaborative school reform and advocacy initiatives in a school district of 30,000 students—almost 100 percent people of color and 90 percent families living in poverty. Susan started this work because she believes in public education, but she didn’t anticipate how it would transform her and her family. She worked in the trenches with families whose lives were very different from her own middle-class, white, privileged world, but who wanted the same thing for their children that she wanted for hers. Susan came to understand inequities resulting from years of structural racism in ways that were previously unimaginable to her. 

Susan’s commitment to the work grew stronger and took on new meaning as her relationships with families across racial lines grew, and as her own education about social and racial justice expanded. During Susan’s 12-year tenure as executive director, PPS created an unprecedented school-community collaborative to improve student achievement. PPS also employed data-informed decision-making in Jackson Public Schools’ lowest-performing cluster of schools, using teaching and learning through the arts. It mobilized nearly 200 parents as volunteer change agents in 52 out of 60 local schools, and many of the programs it began are still functioning 10 to 15 years later. Success required numerous partnerships with local and statewide people and organizations across racial, economic and political lines. When Susan joined the staff at Millsaps College in 2012, she took her commitment to racial justice with her.

Biography

Syda Segovia Taylor has 25 years of nonprofit experience working with Black and Latino youth and families in Chicago. She is the founder and executive director of Organic Oneness, a nonprofit organization that promotes racial and environmental justice and healing. 

Syda received her M.A. in community development and social justice from Loyola University, and a B.S. in kinesiology: community health/fitness from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Syda also received a Youth Development Practitioner Certification from the Chicago Area Project, and an Advocacy Training Certificate from the Chicago Foundation for Women.

She began her journey as a dancer and education/health teacher, which led to directing programs for children and families at city agencies and high-profile nonprofits. During her time as an education program officer with Local Initiative Support Corporation, she won the Together for Tomorrow award from the U.S. Department of Education under the Obama administration. She was also recognized by the mayor of Chicago for her accomplishments with the national Elev8 initiative. In 2016, she convened the Be the Healing Initiative with Dr. Joy DeGruy and a multitude of organizations to address racism, trauma and violence in Chicago. Syda concluded her institutional role with Chicago Public Schools as the Family and Community Engagement in Education (FACE2) Manager and began her journey with Organic Oneness in 2020. This allows her to nurture the racial justice and healing work she has executed in her spare time since 1998.

Biography

Syrretta Martin is a fibromyalgia warrior, runner, wanderlust(er), social entrepreneur, and founder of Collective Healing. She received her Master’s in Social Work with a clinical focus from Fordham University. Her interest in health equity began at Stony Brook University where she studied health sciences. Syrretta’s professional career in health and human services led to an increased awareness of the inequities in our system impacting vulnerable communities and underserved populations. Her various roles prior to completing her master’s included serving as a case manager, counselor, health educator, and advocate, while providing trauma-informed psychotherapy, linkage to community resources, and culturally responsive programming in support of the health and well-being of the diverse communities in which she served.

As a woman of color who has lived with a chronic illness for over 20 years, Syrretta experienced firsthand the ebbs and flows of disability and disease impacting her quality of life. Out of her own desire to heal herself her way, she founded Collective Healing, a health and wellness community for Women of Color (WOC) journeying toward healing.

Guided by her personal and professional expertise, Collective Healing supports, moves, and inspires through the power of sisterhood and shared experiences. It promotes healing through kinship by curating affordable and accessible healing spaces centered on traditional healing practices of WOC. We address the socioeconomic and interpersonal impact that WOC face while navigating life with a chronic illness or disability through partnerships and collaborations.

Biography

Teresa Coleman-Wash is a producer, playwright, and founding artistic director for the Bishop Arts Theatre Center (BATC). She earned a master’s degree in Arts Management from Goucher College and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Albany State University. Wash is a National Arts Strategies fellow, having studied at Harvard Business School. She is the 2019 recipient of the Theatre Communications Group’s Peter Zeisler Memorial Award, and in 2018, she received the National Guild for Community Arts Education’s Milestone Award. Mrs. Wash has also earned several Irma P. Hall Awards, including the 2020 Irma P. Hall Theatrical Excellence Medal. She is the recent recipient of the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce’s Quest for Success Award and Broadway Dallas’ Leah and Jerome Fullinwider Award. Teresa was elected to the Dramatists Guild of America Council in 2017, representing the Southern region, where she also served on the steering committee.

In 2005, BATC was the recipient of a 10,000-square-foot dilapidated building near the Bishop Arts District in Dallas. Wash led her team in securing $1.2 million to renovate the blighted facility. Construction began in 2006 and, despite a downward spiraling economy, was completed in 2008. Today, BATC is an intimate 170-seat proscenium theater with dressing rooms, an art gallery, executive offices, a learning lab, two skyboxes, and an arts business incubator center. The theater receives critical acclaim and has been nationally recognized for its banned book festival, world-class jazz series, and impactful arts education programs for youth and adult learners.

Biography

Dr. Tia Sherèe Gaynor is an associate professor in leadership and management at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Prior to joining the UMN faculty, Dr. Gaynor was an associate professor of political science and founding director of the Center for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation at the University of Cincinnati. 

Dr. Gaynor is a community-engaged scholar immersed in equity and inclusion. Her work explores the intersection of social justice, local government and identity. More specifically, focusing on the ways identity-based narratives, negative social constructions and decision-making lead to inequitable outcomes for people of color, those who identify as LGBTQIA, and people at the intersections of these and other identities. Her most recent work sits at the nexus of mindfulness, intergroup dialogue and racial healing to explore avenues toward equity and justice. In its entirety, Dr. Gaynor’s scholarship offers a critical analysis of hegemony and argues against the normative assumptions embedded in the traditional theory and practice of public and nonprofit administration. 

As co-founder of Praxis Matters LLC, a consulting firm that supports organizations that meet their equity and justice goals, Dr. Gaynor pairs empirical knowledge with practical solutions to center equity within organizations. She has designed and delivered a host of trainings, executed equity-centered strategic plans and conducted equity assessments. Dr. Gaynor brings with her more than 20 years of professional experience in nonprofit administration, research and evidenced-based curriculum development.

Biography

Tirzah is a mixed-race/Indigenous/queer community organizer who has been at the forefront of racial and queer justice initiatives in the rural Southwest for over 20 years. They were born in the Bay Area, California. Their family was an active component of the Urban Indian community there, where activism and intertribalism flourished. They have found that the way in which they were introduced to activism and movement-making (American Indian Movement leaders, Alcatraz occupation, etc.) came with a directness and fierceness many were not accustomed to in rural “Colorado.” Organizing people, resources and ideas for change has always been the center of Tirzah’s daily life, exhibited by the intentionality of where they apply their energy and labor: be it civic engagement (leading the Community Relations Commission for the City of Durango and building and mobilizing subcommittees), queer youth organizing, building out a mutual aid network, or local policy change. Over the last three years, they have had the occupational opportunity to apply their organizer background to their immediate community via philanthropic support/a large private foundation. That positionality came with its own challenges and insights, and they are in a place now seeking healing and support from that learning. Tirzah deeply understands the depths of systemic racism where they live, and has been supported in that analysis. Now,, the framework in which they were operating has shifted around them, but the severity of the work remains the same. They desire only to advance their organizing skills, networks and practices for communal and personal/emotional sustainability. Tirzah knows that change will only ultimately come with Indigenous involvement, real historical analysis/narrative ownership, healing practices, decolonization and revolutionary reimagining. 

Biography

Treasure Sheppard, EdD, is responsible for strengthening and growing a collective impact, collaborative model for the community of Watts, Calif. (Watts Rising). Highly skilled in developing structures, policies, and practices for grant implementation and management, she shepherds a variety of infrastructure and capital projects through concept to completion. She oversees a spectrum of projects focused on sustainability, public and environmental health, mobility and transportation, small and large infrastructure, and affordable housing construction.

As an analyst for the Los Angeles County Development Authority (LACDA), Treasure managed reporting on Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG), HOME Investment Partnerships, and Fair Housing programs. As a program specialist at the LACDA, she managed the county’s project-based voucher program. Before entering urban development, Treasure worked as an operations manager at Lake Avenue Church, leading initiatives around racism and social injustice within mass incarceration, housing, education, economics, health, and emergency preparedness. Her professional efforts have helped connect hundreds to resources, while her research has produced data that has supported organizations in servicing thousands.

Treasure serves her community as a Recreation and Parks commissioner in the City of Pasadena, board member of the Pasadena Continuum of Care, and president and CEO of the Pasadena Recreation & Parks Foundation. Lastly, Treasure earned an EdD in Organizational Leadership at Northeastern University, where her research focused on intersectoral collaboration’s impact on community resilience and health equity and how organizational development can improve that impact.

Biography

Vayong Moua leads advocacy to advance racial and health equity (RHE) in policies and structural determinants of health. His philosophy and action focus on integrating RHE equity into governance across sectors, issues, and cultural communities. Moua applies cross-cultural power and equity analysis into advocacy approaches, community engagement, and upstream solutions. He has worked on myriad COVID-19 equity, commercial tobacco control, healthy food systems, community design, and cultural leadership issues. Moua championed Blue Cross’ Health in All Policies investment and co-founded the Minnesota Complete Streets Coalition that led passage of Minnesota’s state Complete Streets law. Moua chaired (2015–2019) the legislated Cultural and Ethnic Communities Leadership Council (CECLC) that catalyzed the Department of Human Services’ agencywide policy on equity. Currently, he’s the first chair of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association’s Health Equity and Public Policy workgroup. At BCBSMN, Moua leads Racism as Public Health Crisis and racial equity in policymaking efforts.

Moua received his BA with a triple major in Philosophy, Sociology/Anthropology, and Asian Studies from St. Olaf College. He received his MPA from Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Moua was a Public Policy/International Affairs Fellow, Humphrey Policy Fellow, and Bush Fellow. Outside of work, you’ll find him outdoors disc golfing, fishing, one wheeling, and snowboarding with loved ones. He celebrates his Hmong refugee identity, and along with Pha Chia, enjoys raising Ishii, 8, and Ishua, 4.

Biography

Velisa L. Perry is a highly organized and dedicated executive director of the United Health Organization. Working closely with many social foundations and community organizations, she tackles key issues related to oral health that will improve overall health, counter racism, and eliminate social determinants of health. Velisa believes that a healthy nation mustn’t choose who needs help.
Velisa always says, “When the world gets a cold, Detroit gets pneumonia.” For example, African Americans and other people of color in Detroit were disproportionately affected by COVID-19 because of a lack of resources and reliable information.

At the United Health Organization, one of Velisa’s key achievements was to continue to be a supportive force in bringing the initiative Project Healthy Living (PHL) to the communities, a nine-county mobile “pop-up” service offering comprehensive preventative health screening events. The service was provided at over 45 requested locations in approximately 10 weeks.

A very significant program to Velisa is when she partnered with a like-minded organization to create an initiative of the three-year run program Helping Our oWn (HOW). The HOW program aims to bring healthcare, dental care, showers, hot food, clothing, barbers, beauticians, nail technicians, local entertainment, and over thirty other organizations offering resources to those who are homeless. Velisa believes we are responsible for the least of them.

Biography

For most of her life, Veronica has been an observer and recipient of the impacts of racial injustice. Born in Alabama at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, she could identify the words “colored” and “whites only” before she could spell her name. Her parents migrated from Anniston, Alabama, to Chicago with Veronica and her six siblings shortly before Veronica’s 8th birthday—leaving behind red dirt roads, fruit trees, family and friends, and Monsanto’s poisoned environment. 

They landed in the Altgeld Gardens public housing community, surrounded by steel mills, docks and landfills, known as the “toxic doughnut”. Her childhood innocence was further tested as she learned the words “cancer,” “asthma,” “miscarriage,” and “birth defects,”all wreaking havoc on her community. Community activists—block leaders, social workers and teachers—became her role models. She has since done racial, gender and social justice and transformation work all her adult life, around the U.S. and internationally.

Some of Veronica’s journey:

• Co-founded EcoWomanist Institute to create a new paradigm for women of African descent and affirm their roles in healing impacts of the legacy of systemic racism.
• Current seventh term as EJ commissioner, Illinois Environmental Justice Commission and adjunct professor at Garrett-Evangelical and McCormick theological seminaries.
• 12 years in the Caribbean and South/southern Africa with Common Global Ministries developing programs for underserved communities with a gender/racial-equity focus.
• 13 years Illinois statewide outreach director for Faith in Place, developing/implementing programs addressing environmental injustice/environmental racism.
• B.A. in religion/women’s studies (Vermont College/Norwich University), M.A. in gender/development studies (University of the West Indies).

Biography

Vincent is an associate professor of political science, provost-awarded transformative faculty member, and Dean’s Outstanding Teacher at Ohio University. He teaches a wide range of courses on the politics of race, democratic theory, law and society and American politics. Most of his teaching involves courses he created about 10 years ago, when he wrote a politics of race curriculum for his department. It is crucial to teach concepts and engage in storytelling that brings transformative narratives to students, which they will in turn take into the wider society after they leave university. Some of these courses include: “American Whiteness,” “The Politics of Race,” “Critical Race Theory,” “Race, Violence, and Human Security,” “The Politics of Visibility” and “The Politics of Rights.” He works with his students to create a community in our classrooms, from which they will leave the courses as not just citizens, but friends who have compassion, and commitment to equality. His academic writing always combines theory and practice, in which he theorizes about how we can challenge privilege through practices that bring the spotlight to voices that have historically not had a seat at the table of our society. Such publications have appeared in some of the top journals in political science; including “Deliberate Silences” in the Journal of Public Deliberation; “Ignorance, Innocence, and Democratic Responsibility: Seeing Race, Hearing Racism” in The Journal of Politics; and “Dismantling Whiteness” in Contemporary Political Theory. Finally, he is engaged in directly challenging dominant and damaging narratives by giving public talks, writing op-eds, and giving interviews to national and international media. This includes an op-ed in The Washington Post titled, “Who’s Afraid of Critical Race Theory?” 

Biography

Wilfredo (he/they) is an interdisciplinary artist, cultural producer, nonprofit consultant, and leader. He is the founder/CEO of Communitas Arts & Culture, LLC, (a national consulting/producing lab) and founder/executive producing director of the Drag Arts Oral History Project (a new social impact project documenting the artistry of drag performers in the U.S.). He most recently served as interim executive director and CultureTrust president at CultureWorks Greater Philadelphia, where he drove organizational development, staff/board/policy overhaul, and capacity-building strategy in support of over 100-plus fiscally sponsored arts/culture projects in Philadelphia—ranging across the disciplinary spectrum with over $7 million in annual financial holding and management activities. 

He has worked with and consulted for several notable institutions over his 20-year career, including the Institute for Contemporary Art at UPenn, Disney Theatrical Productions, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. He received his Master of Arts in Producing and Directing Theatre from NYU and is a graduate of Race Forward’s Racial Equity in the Arts Innovation Lab, PISAB’s Undoing Racism for Community Organizers, and the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office on LGBT Affairs’ LGBTQ Leadership Program. Hernandez was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Cultural Fund in 2023 and was recently chosen as member of the inaugural cohort of queer leaders for the American-German Institute’s queer community-building exchange between the US and Germany at Johns Hopkins University. He recently completed a certificate in Education for Philanthropy Professionals from the Stanford Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society.

FUTURE FOCUS 

Wilfredo is looking forward to having the opportunity to build upon and advance the work of the Drag Arts Oral History Project (DAOHP), a multimedia social impact project, where he serves as founder and executive producing director. The DAOHP’s mission is to document and highlight the lived experiences, views, needs, and histories of drag artists in the United States, with an emphasis on documenting the history and work of QTGNC BIPOC artists. His team has worked with the local drag and queer community in Philadelphia to document 17 full-length oral history interviews to date and continually move resources directly into the hands of artists who are typically producing work outside the spheres of institutionalized philanthropy and arts/culture sector support.

Biography

Xochicoatl Bello (they/she/amor) is a deindigenized queer healing practitioner, cultural worker, educator, earth steward, and good ancestor-in-training. Xochicoatl focuses on cultivating cultures of healing by restoring our connections to the sacredness of self, each other, Earth, and ancestors through ceremony, circle practice, Indigenous technologies, and agricultural traditions. They have co-created healing spaces for over a decade in Boston Public Schools, community gardens, the Hudson Valley with Kite’s Nest & Sweet Freedom Farm, and across Turtle Island through their virtual learning herbal programming explicitly for queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (QTBIPOC).

Their work invites community into herbal medicine making, growing foods with all of our relations in mind, ceremony, and circle practice. Xochicoatl believes that these Indigenous technologies have kept our people healing for generations, and are how we find our way back from the violences of colonization, and transform the wounds of oppression into more healthy, harmonious, and justice-filled connections with ourselves, community, and the Earth.

Xochicoatl comes from Afro-Indigenous, Portuguese, and Spanish bloods via love and colonization rooted in Central & Southern Mexico, from a people recovering their memory, from a people in treaties with peoples and lands alike reclaiming their sovereignty. They hold healing spaces in relationship with the Earth with the prayer that when we heal the soils that sustain us, tend to the seeds, tend to our hearts, and tend to our relations, we remember our bodies as sites of wisdom, we heal our souls, and we awaken ancestral memory that we have always been free.

Biography

Dr. Yolanda Lewis-Ragland is a double-board-certified physician in pediatrics and obesity medicine, owner and CEO of Family Fitness and Wellness for Community Health, and founder of Dr. Yolanda Cares Foundation, her nonprofit organization focusing on reducing health disparities in at-risk communities at home and abroad.

For 20 years, Yolanda has lived and practiced in one of the poorest and most traumatized communities in the nation’s capital, gaining the trust and respect of residents and, more recently, actively addressing heart disease in African Americans through her annual Heart-to-Heart Red Carpet Affair that educates families about the signs and symptoms of heart disease, and introduces practical and sustainable ways for families to address the stress of systemic racism, poor health outcomes driven by social determinants of health, and unconscious bias in healthcare delivery that contribute directly to hypertension, heart attacks, strokes, and death.

Yolanda began her postdoctoral learning in public health as a PEACE CORPS health extensionist in West Africa, and completed her training at Howard University College of Medicine and Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C. She is a proud mother of three children and mentor to several youth organizations and trainees that she engages in community advocacy through her medical missions and health fairs throughout the Caribbean territories. Her most recent labor of love is a series of published writings on BIPOC healthcare workers in the pandemic, called Navigating a Triple Pandemic: Healthcare Workers of Color Confront Racism in America, Health Disparities in Medicine, and the Trauma of COVID-19.

Biography

Yvonnie DuBose is a JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion) educator, coach and circle keeper, and just as importantly, mom to three free, Black children. Having earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Management and a Master’s in Nonprofit Management, Yvonnie worked for 15 years in corporate accounting and international marketing management. She left this arena after recognizing that she spent too much time defending her Blackness. She went on to independently coach and consult small nonprofits for 10 years. Meanwhile, she found great joy working for 30+ years in the healing arts and 12+ years in youth education, where she fine-tuned her skill and ease in communicating with and training audiences of all ages. Today, she uses her intuition, knowledge, and people skills to create spaces for difficult conversations, lessons, and efforts at inspiring and attaining a vision of equity for communities and organizations worldwide.

Yvonnie studied with knowledgeable instructors and coaches, such as Dr. Gail Christopher, Dr. Joy DeGruy, Monica Haslip, Yakini Ajanaku, Imani Barberousse, The People’s Institute of Survival & Beyond, and University of Illinois’ James D. Anderson. As a JEDI Educator, Coach, & Circle Keeper, she sub-contracts with The Evanston YWCA’s Equity Institute, National Collaborative for Health Equity, and other clients. For TRHT Chicago, she serves as a Trainer & Community Builder. As co-founder of New Roots, she develops workshops and curricula, and coaches organizations in developing their own de-colonized curricula and inclusive strategic plans.

Biography

Zainab Abbas is the founder and CEO of SciTech2U. She received her Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology from Knoxville College and her Master of Science in Developmental Biology from the University of Cincinnati. Throughout her career, she has worked as a scientist with Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and other research institutions. But her life’s passion for teaching began when she taught biology at Fortis College in Maryland. Her experience at the college led her in 2011 to found SciTech2U, an organization that rose from the ashes of a shattered dream of a promising African American student who was hauled out of her classroom in handcuffs. Now, she devotes all her time to her family and to the organization that she founded to disrupt the pre-school-to-prison pipeline.

She is motivated primarily by her faith in God, doing good deeds to make this world a better place, and positively influencing the lives of young people of color. She enjoys reading, traveling, and working out. Zainab is a smiling parent of two young women who are the first of her children to graduate college, and she currently lives in Maryland with her husband and four other children.

FUTURE FOCUS 

Zainab Abbas addresses the problems and barriers youth experience in educational settings. Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) continue to experience disparities in healthcare. The children are the most vulnerable to poor health, academic, and resource outcomes. BIPOC communities are historically disproportionately represented in the penal system. She teaches youth to be the solution to the problem by cultivating interest in STEAM fields. She feels unless greater access to low-cost and free STEAM programs is afforded to these students, they will continue to miss out on opportunities that may expose them to STEAM fields and keep them trapped in the preschool-to-prison pipeline. She strongly feels exposure to STEAM fields using experiential learning and culturally relevant teaching pedagogy will bring us closer to TRHT.