Native New Yorker and educator, Damaris Dunn is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Georgia’s Mary Frances Early College of Education. Her research interests are educational equity and Black girl joy.

Executive Director Tené Howard leads the Sadie Nash Leadership Project, a NYC-based non-profit organization that promotes leadership and activism through programs designed to strengthen, empower, and equip young women as agents for change in their lives and in the world. Tené previously served as the Director of Global Outreach, Service and Sustainability at the Packer Collegiate Institute. She has a deep commitment to engaging youth as leaders and change-makers in their communities and beyond. Before this, she worked at Global Kids Inc, a NYC-based non-profit that develops youth leaders for the global stage. As the Director of Training and Education, Tené built and ran global competency training programs for educators and developing international study abroad programs for youth.

Chair and Commissioner of the NYC Commission on Human Rights, Carmelyn P. Malalis was appointed in November 2014 following more than a decade in private practice as an advocate for employees’ rights in the workplace. Previously, Commissioner Malalis was a partner at Outten & Golden LLP where she co-founded and co-chaired its Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Workplace Rights Practice Group and co-chaired its Disability and Family Responsibilities Discrimination Practice Group; and successfully represented employees in negotiations, agency proceedings, and litigation involving claims of sexual harassment, retaliation, and discrimination based on race, national origin, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, pregnancy, disability, and religion.

Award-winning associate professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz published her first full-length collection of poetry Love from the Vortex & Other Poems (Kaleidoscope Vibrations) in 2020.

Writer, researcher, professor, youth advocate, Nietzschean, and surf monk, Dr. Elizabeth Bishop is the author of two books, Becoming Activist (2015) and Embodying Theory (2018). She lives in Brooklyn with her dog, Messy.