Ebele Okobi is Facebook’s Public Policy Director for Africa, the Middle East and Turkey. Prior to joining Facebook, she was Global Head of Human Rights at Yahoo, worked in brand strategy for Africa and NikeWomen in Nike’s EMEA headquarters, was a Senior Director of Advisory Services at Catalyst in Silicon Valley and Amsterdam; a consumer rights policy fellow at Consumers Union in San Francisco and a securities and mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, Paris and London. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a strategic advisor of Junior Achievement Africa, on the Advisory Board of Africa Soft Power Project, is an independent member of Council for the City University of London, and is on the Board of Trustees of the Young Vic, in addition to co-chairing its Development Board.

She attended the University of Southern California, Columbia Law School and HEC-Paris.

Ebele is also the mother of dragons. She is the bio mom to three brilliant troublemakers (twins aged 8 and big sister aged 10), and foster mom to the shiniest star in Harvard Law School’s class of 2023.

After her brother, Chinedu Valentine Okobi, was murdered by San Mateo County Deputies Joshua Wang, Alyssa Lorenzatti, John DeMartini, Bryan Watt and David Weidner for walking on the sidewalk, and after San Mateo District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe refused to prosecute the police violence, Ebele has committed herself to partnering for transformative change in San Mateo County.

Yoel Haile is the Director of the Criminal Justice Program at the ACLU of Northern California. In this capacity, he provides programmatic vision and leadership to a team that works to end mass incarceration, criminalization, and police abuse by ending unjust and oppressive laws, policies, and practices that target and disproportionately harm Black, Brown, and other marginalized communities. Prior to that, Yoel led the Hey! Meet Your DA! project for nearly 5 years where he managed a statewide network of local organizations in 11 of the largest California counties to hold elected district attorneys accountable and advocate for an end to mass criminalization and mass incarceration.

Yoel grew up in Asmara, Eritrea, and moved to California in 2006. He attended the University of California, Santa Barbara as an undergraduate, where he received his degrees in Black Studies and political science in 2013. Yoel received his Master’s degree in public policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.

James King is the Campaign Manager for the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. His work focuses on decarceration and improving the living conditions for incarcerated people, with the ultimate goal of creating alternatives to incarceration based upon investing in under-resourced communities. Prior to joining the organization, James worked to build recognition of the value of people who are being held in carceral spaces. In 2016, he organized a symposium at San Quentin, where he and other incarcerated students made specific policy recommendations concerning the implementation of Prop 57. James is also a writer and organizer, having written numerous op-eds, and a weekly blog that gave a first person perspective of the true impact of mass criminalization and living within the prison industrial complex. As an organizer, he founded a think tank of incarcerated people who were passionate about criminal justice policy and built relationships with multiple California criminal justice reform organizations. Upon returning to society in December, 2019, James co-wrote and presented a TEDx Talk called “From Proximity to Power,” at California Polytechnic State University that advocated for recognizing the value and expertise of people who come from marginalized communities.

Sarah Lee is a daughter of Chinese migrants from Hong Kong, Venezuela, and Canada. For the past five years, she has organized with immigrant, faith, and Asian American communities at the intersection of criminal justice and immigrant rights. She currently works at Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus as a Community Advocate in the Criminal Justice Reform program, leading campaigns to disentangle law enforcement from ICE. Sarah's recent work focuses on stopping ICE transfers from county jails and state prisons with the VISION Act (AB 937).

Vonya Quarles Esq. is a native Californian and the co-founder of Starting Over, Inc., a transitional living and reentry service provider. Starting Over, Inc. has been operating for over 10 years, and has helped over 1200 men, women, and children address immediate housing needs while working to address long-term solutions that include systems change. Vonya blends experience, education, logic, and love, into an organic concoction that has helped to organize and lift the voices of people who have been historically marginalized.

Vonya holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management, and a Juris Doctorate. She practices law and is engaged in criminal justice. Vonya is one of the founding members of the Riverside All of Us or NONE Chapter that works to end the discrimination faced by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. She is system-impacted herself, and works to address the complexities and collateral consequences of criminal convictions as they relate to family reunification, housing, employment, and economic development.

Vonya was a 2010 Women Organizing for Justice Fellow, 2012/13 Women’s Policy Institute Fellow, 2013 Eleanor Jean Greer Leadership Academy Fellow, 2015 W. K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) Fellow, and is currently a Rosenberg Leading Edge Fellow working on Family Reunification. Vonya has been working on DA Accountability in Riverside County and is a founding member of the "Justice Table.” Vonya has fused these developmental opportunities with her own lived experiences to become a powerful and competent systems change agent that works within ever-widening circles.

Since 2017, Jared Rivera has served as the Political Director for SEIU Local 2015, California’s largest labor union representing 400,000 nursing home and home care workers throughout California and one of the largest immigrant unions in the country. He began his career as a community organizer with the PICO National Network (now Faith in Action), before becoming executive director of the organization’s Los Angeles affiliate L.A. Voice in 2003. During eight years with PICO, Jared worked to expand affordable housing in Los Angeles and led efforts to promote immigration reform and citizenship across the city. Jared joined SEIU’s California State Council in 2010, where he worked to pass Proposition 30, and coordinated the union’s efforts toward comprehensive immigration reform by organizing press conferences, citizenship workshops and “know your rights” trainings across the state. In 2016, Jared served as labor director of the Hillary Clinton for President campaign for both the California primary and Nevada general election.

Jared was born in California’s Central Valley, before moving with his family to Southern California's Inland Empire at the age of five. He first became involved in Chicano student activism as a member of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano/a de Aztlan (MEChA) in high school, and continued his activism at UC Berkeley, where he earned a bachelor's degree in social welfare in 2000.

Anne Irwin is Founder and Director of Smart Justice California, where she works to elect and educate policymakers who support meaningful criminal justice reform that promotes safety, opportunity, and healthy communities. Anne spearheads Smart Justice’s blended 501c3, 501c4, and electoral engagement strategy for persuading and inspiring California’s elected officials to adopt new approaches to criminalization and incarceration. Anne recently led committees to elect Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, and San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Anne is also Vice President of the JK Irwin Foundation, a family foundation focused on ending mass incarceration and criminalization. Prior to founding Smart Justice California, Anne was a trial attorney in the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office for many years. Anne is a graduate of Stanford Law School and New York University. She has served on the boards of the American Constitution Society, Prison University Project, The Appeal/The Justice Collaborative, and Threshold Foundation. Anne was born and raised in San Francisco, and is raising her two young daughters there.