Jamilah Pitts is an author, educator, social entrepreneur, and wellness guide whose work centers the liberation, healing and holistic development of communities of the Global Majority. Jamilah has worked and served in various roles and spaces to promote racial justice and healing. Jamilah has served as a teacher, coach, dean, and as an Assistant Principal. She has worked in domestic and international educational spaces. Jamilah partners with schools, communities, universities and organizations to advance the work of racial, social and intersectional justice.

Myisha Cherry is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. She is also the Director of the Emotion and Society Lab. She speaks widely on the topics of the role of emotions and attitudes in public life including self care and community care. Cherry’s books include UnMuted: Conversations on Prejudice, Oppression, and Social Justice, The Case for Rage: Why Anger is Essential to Anti-racist Struggle, and Failures of Forgiveness: What We Get Wrong and How to Do Better (released on September 19, 2023).

Layla F. Saad is a New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of Me and White Supremacy, anti-racism educator, international speaker, and podcast host on the topics of race, identity, leadership, personal transformation and social change.

Omkari L. Williams has worked as an actor, political consultant, and coach. Though she has an affinity for supporting activists who identify as introverted or highly sensitive, as she does, she welcomes all people into the world of micro activism, a sustainable path to changemaking. As a queer Black woman, she shares her own story of challenging injustice to empower others in making a difference in their communities. She is host of the popular podcast, Stepping into Truth, where she interviews activists from all walks of life. Her book, Micro Activism: How You Can Make a Difference in the World (Without a Bullhorn) is available from Storey Publishing.

Priya Huq is a Bangladeshi Texan cartoonist living in New York who speaks widely on issues related to the comics industry, art, race, culture, identity and their intersections. Her appearances include the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, Emerald City Comic Con, and New York Comic Con. In her talks, Priya focuses on practical advice for marginalized artists and cartoonists.

ee Hawkins is the author of I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free (HarperCollins, January 2025), a critically acclaimed memoir that traces 400 years of his Black American family’s history through slavery, Jim Crow apartheid, and the intergenerational trauma that followed. A Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2022, Hawkins is a nationally recognized investigative journalist and former staff member ofThe Wall Street Journal, where he served for 19 years as a reporter, on-camera host, and editor. Mr. Hawkins was a 2023–2024 Rosalynn Carter Fellow for Mental Health Journalism and the 2024 Josephine Albright Fellow of the Alicia Patterson Foundation. He also received the 2024 McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism and was the 2022–2023 O’Brien Fellow for Public Service Journalism at Marquette University. He is a six-time winner of the National Association of Black Journalists' "Salute to Excellence" Award and was a 2018 USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism National Fellow, for reporting on child well-being. He was also named a finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, in 2025 and 2021. A versatile journalist, Hawkins has reported across print, audio, and video, and conducted high-profile interviews with influential newsmakers. He uses DNA analysis, genealogical research, and oral history to investigate America’s buried truths, and his work blends historical inquiry with cultural and emotional clarity. He now uses his experience to teach leadership skills and lessons from business and journalism.

Jezz Chung is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores personal and collective change through the lens of race, gender, trauma, disability, and neurodivergence. They’ve been recognized internationally by Spain’s El País, Portugal’s Público, Vogue, Teen Vogue, Logo TV, and Made of Millions. You can listen to their podcast with Deem Journal titled Dreaming Different and read their debut collection of poetry, prose, and practices titled This Way to Change: A Gentle Guide to Personal Transformation and Collective Liberation. Jezz has lived in Georgia, Texas, California, and is now based in Brooklyn, New York.

Award-winning journalist Danyel Smith is author of the critically-acclaimed Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop. Danyel is also creator/host of the popular Black Girl Songbook,  a podcast that centers the sounds and stories of black women (Spotify Original). Danyel’s CV includes being a producer and writer at ESPN, a Knight fellow at Stanford University, an arts fellow at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, and a 2021 Yaddo fellow. She was editor of Billboard,  and the first woman and first black person to serve as editor-in-chief of VIBE. She has written two novels — More Like Wrestling and Bliss, and Danyel’s recent work appears in the New York Times, LitHub, The New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and at NPR. Danyel lives in Southern California.

Tony Keith Jr., PhD is an award-winning Black American gay poet, spoken word artist, and Hip-Hop educational leader from Washington DC. Or, you can just call him an “Ed Emcee”. He is the debut author of How the Boogeyman Became a Poet and Knucklehead (February 2025), both published by HarperCollins.

A multi-year fellow of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Tony has featured performances at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington National Cathedral,  Historic Lincoln Theatre, Bus Boys & Poets, and in schools and communities around the world including South Africa, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago and many more.  He is a former cultural center director at Penn State University and University of North Carolina Charlotte, and served as an adjunct professor and academic advisor at the University of the District of Columbia and the University of Maryland College Park (UMD). Tony is co-author of the award-winning book Open Mic Night: Campus Programs that Champion College Student Voice and Engagement. He holds a BA in Communication Studies from University of Maryland College Park, an M.Ed. in College Student Affairs from Penn State University, and PhD in Education Leadership from George Mason University. His dissertation received outstanding recognition and awards from the American Education Research Association and Humanities DC. Currently, Tony serves as founder and CEO of Ed Emcee Academy, is on the board of Directors at Shout Mouse Press, and teaches English Language Arts for adult learners at Academy of Hope in his DC hometown, where he resides with his husband, Harry Christian III.

Gloria Muñoz is a Colombian American writer, translator, and advocate for multilingual literacy. She is the author of This is the Year, Your Biome Has Found You, and Danzirly, which won the Ambroggio Prize and the Gold Medal Florida Book Award. Her other honors include an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate Fellowship, Hedgebrook Fellowship, being a Macondista, Highlights Foundation’s Diverse Verse Fellowship, Lumina’s Multilingual Writing Award, and a part of Las Musas. She is proud to be St. Pete's first Latina poet laureate. Through Moonlit Música, a bilingual media company she co-founded, she writes narrative scripts and songs for children, adolescent, and adult programming. Notable clients include The New York Times, Comedy Central, hulu, Rebel Girls, Apple tv, Google, FX, and Hatch, for which she has developed beloved sleep story characters, including Mari Mariposa, a bilingual butterfly with a passion for community building.

Annabelle Tometich went from medical-school reject to line cook to journalist to author. She spent 18 years as a food writer and restaurant critic for The News-Press in her hometown of Fort Myers, Florida. Her first book, The Mango Tree: A Memoir of Fruit, Florida, and Felony (2024, Little Brown) was called “sweet, sharp” by The New York Times and won the 2025 Southern Book Prize for Nonfiction. She helps audiences navigate nontraditional career paths and find the courage to embrace their true selves.