Andrea Jenkins is a writer, performance artist, poet, and transgender activist. She is the first African American openly trans woman to be elected to office in the United States. Jenkins moved to Minnesota to attend the University of Minnesota in 1979.She worked as a Vocational Counselor for Hennepin County government, for a decade. Jenkins worked as a staff member on the Minneapolis City Council for 12 years before beginning work as curator of the Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota's Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies. She holds a Masters Degree in Community Development from Southern New Hampshire University, a MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University and a Bachelors Degrees in Human Services from Metropolitan State University. She is a nationally and internationally recognized writer and artist, a 2011 Bush Fellow to advance the work of transgender inclusion, and the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships. In 2018 she completed the Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University.

My name is Christen Smiley and I am an avid seeker of truth, inspiration and self. I am a deeply spiritual being actively working to navigate my human experience and my spiritual existence in the ways that feel good to me and serve my family, loved ones, community and higher purpose. I am a light worker in both my personal and professional life. I am an initiated Osun priestess within a traditional ATR and am relishing in the lessons and journey along the way. By day I work in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and in between and beyond that I am on my lifetime journey as a light worker determined to discover and live out my Divine purpose through Ancestor veneration, healing and constant evolution and growth. I have had the opportunity to learn how to create home in a myriad of places as a military child and now have the privilege of learning to create home and foster foundation within self on this journey. .

Katelyn Johnson is Executive Director of Blackroots Alliance and has nearly two decades of valuable outreach experience including leadership development, civic engagement, and community organizing. Katelyn grew up in Beaver County, PA, as the only child of Robert and Marlene Johnson. Her father, who was a home childcare provider and talented vocalist, taught her the power of music and imagination to shape the world. Her mother, who taught her the value of kindness and meaningful work, also introduced her to the world of broadcast communications as her mother ran the local access tv station. She left small town life for college and came to Chicago to graduate from North Park University. After participating in community building initiatives related to racial reconciliation and student leadership development, Katelyn began her career in community organizing. Since then, Katelyn has overseen a range of social justice initiatives in and around Chicago, including six years as the executive director of Action Now, a community-based organization focused on engaging low-income communities of color. Katelyn’s work has informed and organized campaigns related to affordable housing, public education reform, public safety, criminal justice reform, and drug policy reform. Katelyn has also completed academic studies in Diversity and Inclusion at Cornell University, furthering her commitment to build a system that works for everyone. When she is not out working towards justice, she is practicing her own Black liberation which includes lots of meditation, riding her bike along Lake Michigan from her neighborhood in South Shore and playing video games.

Yolande Clark-Jackson is an author, speaker, and educator with over twenty years teaching experience. She coaches writers of all ages and hosts a writing social for adults called Wine Down and Write. Yolande writes memoir essays as an offering to her ancestors. She believes stories are legacies and often works to weave spirituality, tradition, and history into her literary nonfiction work. Her award-winning children’s book, Rocko’s Big Launch was written to inspire and encourage children to persist in pursuit of their dreams, and her workshops are designed to encourage self-awareness and healing. If she is not working on a creative writing project or hosting a writing event, Yolande works as a content writer for corporate clients and various online publications. Her nonfiction writing can be found in The Huff Post, Mashable, Sisters Newsletter from AARP, The Write Life, Mayvenn, RADICAL: An Unapologetic Anthology by Women & Gender Non-Conforming Storytellers of Color, Midniight&Indigigo, Miami Legacy Magazine, and the Chicken Soup for Soul: I’m Speaking Now anthology. You can follow her on Instagram @mrs.Jacksons_class or on Twitter @YClarkjackson