Panelist Bios

Naomi Gedey is a recent 2019 graduate of South Saint Paul High School. During her high school career she co-lead the school’s Black Pride Organization, participated in Women Society, Communidad De Latinos Unidos, Track & Field, Basketball, Soccer, and Upward Bound. Naomi’s time with BPO taught her to embrace the color of her skin while learning how to advocate for herself as a Black woman in a predominantly White community. She found that her voice mattered and was significant when standing up for issues of inequality, injustice and bringing awareness to controversial issues or events. Naomi will be continuing her education at Saint Thomas University through Dougherty Family College and hopes to major in Engineering or Criminal Justice.

I am a YoUthROC research team member, YoUthroc is important to me because it is my first time directly working for and in a community that my family and I have always been a part of. My favorite song right now is “Pretty Ugly” by Tierra Whack. Something about the experience I have had in youth groups geared in social action is the short term-ness of them; I have worked with a lot of youth in my high school and middle school career and there was a consistent pattern of short-lived time with the people I worked with. I would love to see more sustainability in future work I do and people I work with. I am a student at the University of Minnesota.

California born and Minnesota bred poet, Cypress Kenney, has been embracing her love for poetry and youth activism since 2015. She was a part of her high school’s Spoken Word club all four years of high school, attended Black Student Union, and attempted to start a peer counseling program her senior year. She organized with her peers and the adult leaders of Minneapolis’ chapter of Black Lives Matter in her high schools to educate her peers on what was/is happening in our streets to black and brown folks, and how to demand change. Having open dialogue with educators about equity in the classroom and giving youth the platform to be heard by their school administrations and their government are some of her deepest passions, and she hopes to make a real difference in schools everywhere.

Oubeida Ouro-Akondo is a student leader at Hamline University.

My name is Dynasty Reed. I am 18 years old and currently enrolled at Century Community College. The Equity club helped me through one the hardest times in my life and created a passion for continuing the work so that I can help others who feel the way I did. I know how important this work is and why it’s needed. It helped me gain the voice I have now, and because of that, I along with a few other peers created the first Black Student Union in the Forest Lake school district. We also hosted the first ever Black History Celebration in Forest Lake. The BSU has became a second family for me and my safe space in a place where I felt I wasn’t welcomed. I am finally able to step up and use my voice for the minorities not only at our school but across the Forest Lake District. It is my dream that this work can spread through other districts because I know I am not the only student who who feels this way.

This year I will also work as a para with the Forest Lake school district so that I can continue the Equity work we started. In addition to attending the Infinity meetings for families of African American children in our district, I will also serve as member on the Equity Framework Board.