AK Wright is a first-generation activist-scholar pursuing their doctorate degree in Feminist Studies with a minor in African American studies at the University of Minnesota. Their dissertation, The Body is Where Freedom Begins: Towards a Black Feminist Abolitionist Healing Justice Praxis investigates how Black individuals currently and intimately live, resist and care amid carceral forces. Situated in Black feminist thought and carceral studies, their research explores communal healing justice approaches to carceral abolition, centering the care, spiritual, and life flourishing practices of Black folks by tracing Black Feminist genealogies of healing through literature, podcasting, and interviews with healing justice practitioners in Minneapolis. They were awarded the Leadership in Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Fellowship in 2020 and will be a Ford Fellow for the next academic year after winning the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship. AK has also organized LGBTQ prison pen-paling through the Midwest Prison Penpal Program.

Taylor Dews (she/her) is a junior sociology and anthropology major with a Spanish minor from Chesapeake, Virginia. This past summer, as a member of the 2020 UNCF/Mellon Fellow Cohort, Taylor participated in the UNCF Mellon Mays Summer Research Institute. During the virtual UNCF/Mellon Programs Summer Institute, Taylor drafted her research prospectus, which focuses on pairing film studies and cultural ethnography to map the ways Black women across the African diaspora forge transnational identity politics and solidarity.

Julien Serrano-O'Neil is a graduating Senior Political Science Major and Bonner Scholar at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. He currently serves as the Civic Engagement Coordinator for the College and as the Second Vice President for the United Foundation of Central Florida, Inc. A 501 C3 Nonprofit Organization in Central Florida. Previously, he served as the Founding President of Orange County, Florida Government’s Community Action Divisions (Pine Hill Community Center) Youth Advisory Committee creating community programming ranging from Public Safety/Health, Financial Literacy, Knowing Your Rights forums, and College Readiness, to name a few.

Through Julien’s many years of service, he has identified what works, increasing resources for under-served communities. His focus is on but not limited to education, job creation, infrastructure development, community relations, crime reduction, and affordable and equitable housing.

Sean Lim (he/him/his) is a 21 year old community organizer graduating from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, with a dual degree in Environmental Sciences, Policy, Management (ESPM) and Political Science. Sean is currently the Lead Campus Organizer at UMN for the non-profit Minnesota Youth Collective. MNYC is an organization which leverages electoral work and issue advocacy as tactics to create a more equitable and just state for all people.

Since the Minneapolis Uprisings last summer, Sean has been actively engaged in protests, rallies, marches, and other direct actions across the Twin Cities Metro Area. Recently, he has helped facilitate UMN campus signature collection for the Yes 4 Minneapolis campaign, which seeks to replace the Minneapolis Police Department. Sean has also been a part of various mutual aid projects, namely St. Paul Camps Support - a mutual aid collective meeting the needs of unhoused neighbors.

Andrew Darling is a criminal defense and civil rights attorney. He is also a high school head football coach and native of Orlando, FL. He spent over seven years in the U.S. Army and deployed to Iraq twice. His wife is still serving on active duty. They have been married for 12 years and have two children. Andrew is a former candidate for Orange County Sheriff, former Assistant Public Defender, and now runs his own law firm. Andrew has worked in multiple political roles supporting local and statewide candidates in Florida. After graduating from the University of Miami School of Law he was the Campaign Headquarters Operations Manager for the Andrew Gillum for Governor campaign and worked as the assistant to the campaign manager.

Robin Wonsley Worlobah is a 29 year old Chicago native who moved to Minneapolis in 2014, and has since lived in Prospect Park, Como, and Cedar-Riverside. Upon moving to Minneapolis, she began her role as Program Coordinator for the University of Minnesota’s Women’s Center. Robin’s passion for equity, justice, and movement building eventually led her to join 15 Now MN as the Fundraising and Outreach Director, to help build a diverse movement of community partners, workers, and Black, Brown, and Indigenous residents to win a $15 minimum wage in Minneapolis, which came into fruition in 2017 after a tumultuous 4 year campaign, and in St. Paul that following year. Robincurrently works for Education Minnesota.

Zahara Green is the Founder and Executive Director of TRANScending Barriers, a trans-led group whose mission is to empower the transgender and gender non- conforming community in Georgia through community organizing with leadership building, advocacy, and direct services. Zahara is the board President of Black & Pink Inc a prison abolitionist organization supporting LGBTQ and HIV-positive prisoners. Zahara is the Deputy Director of Witness to Mass Incarceration, where she works to improve the PREA auditing process to eliminate sexual abuse in confinement. Zahara is a formerly incarcerated trans women of color who spent 5 years incarcerated with most of her time in solitary confinement. Zahara’s experience inspired her as an advocate, as executive director of TRANScending Barriers, Zahara specializes in reducing the harms of the criminal punishment on transgender people. She’s working towards the liberation of her people.