ANTIBIAS AND ANTIRACIST EDUCATION
Jamilah Pitts is an author, educator, social entrepreneur, and wellness guide whose work centers the liberation, healing and holistic development of communities of the Global Majority. Jamilah has worked and served in various roles and spaces to promote racial justice and healing. Jamilah has served as a teacher, coach, dean, and as an Assistant Principal. She has worked in domestic and international educational spaces. Jamilah partners with schools, communities, universities and organizations to advance the work of racial, social and intersectional justice.
Tiffany Jewell is a Black biracial writer, twin sister, first generation American, cisgender mama, anti-bias antiracist (ABAR) educator, and consultant. She is the author of the #1 New York Times and #1 Indie Bestseller, This Book Is Anti-Racist, a book for young folks and everyone to wake up, take action, and do the work of becoming antiracist.
Dr. Keith is a multi-year fellow and grant awardee from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and Humanities DC for his public and scholarly work about Hip-Hop, spoken word poetry, and racial justice in American education. His writing has been published or is forthcoming in "Centering Possibilities in Black Education", Journal of Black Masculinity, Journal of Negro Education, and Journal of Critical Media Literacy. He is co-author of "Open Mic Night: Campus Programs that Champion College Student Voice and Engagement", which won an outstanding award from the American Educational Research Association.
He is a first-generation college graduate and holds a Ph.D. in Education Leadership from George Mason University, where his dissertation Educational Emcees: Mastering Conditions in Education Through Hip-Hop and Spoken Words won an outstanding award, an M.Ed. in College Student Affairs from Penn State University, and a B.A. in Communication from The University of Maryland College Park. His debut, How the Boogeyman Became a Poet, is a powerful YA memoir in verse, tracing his journey from being a closeted gay Black teen battling poverty, racism, and homophobia to becoming an openly gay first-generation college student who finds freedom in poetry.
Omkari L. Williams has worked as an actor, political consultant, and coach. Though she has an affinity for supporting activists who identify as introverted or highly sensitive, as she does, she welcomes all people into the world of micro activism, a sustainable path to changemaking. As a queer Black woman, she shares her own story of challenging injustice to empower others in making a difference in their communities. She is host of the popular podcast, Stepping into Truth, where she interviews activists from all walks of life. Her book, Micro Activism: How You Can Make a Difference in the World (Without a Bullhorn) is available from Storey Publishing.
Britt Hawthorne (they/she) is the author of the highly-anticipated, New York Times Bestseller, Raising Antiracist Children: A Practical Parenting Guide (Simon Element, 2022). Britt is also an antiracist educator, teacher, speaker, visionary, and advocate committed to raising a generation of antiracist children by centering families of the global majority and fostering equitable learning environments for students and children of all ages and backgrounds.
Joel Christian Gill is the Inaugural Chair of Boston University’s Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Visual Narrative and Associate Professor in the CFA School of Visual Arts. He is also a cartoonist and historian who speaks nationally on the importance of sharing stories. He is the author of the acclaimed memoir Fights: One Boy's Triumph Over Violence, cited as one of the best graphic novels of 2020 by The New York Times and for which he was awarded the 2021 Cartoonist Studio Prize.
Myisha Cherry is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. She is also the Director of the Emotion and Society Lab. She speaks widely on the topics of emotions and race. Cherry’s books include UnMuted: Conversations on Prejudice, Oppression, and Social Justice, The Case for Rage: Why Anger is Essential to Anti-racist Struggle, and Failures of Forgiveness: What We Get Wrong and How to Do Better (released on September 19, 2023).
An award-winning illustrator and scholar of black comics, John is a Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside; he is also the publisher of Megascope, an imprint of Abrams ComicArts dedicated to publishing works exploring the experiences of people of color. He speaks widely on the subjects of Afrofuturism and Black Comix.
Amrita is an award-winning historian, journalist, activist and commentator whose work examines the intersections of race, gender, power, and freedom, specifically focusing on the lives of enslaved and free black women.
Layla F. Saad is a New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of Me and White Supremacy, anti-racism educator, international speaker, and podcast host on the topics of race, identity, leadership, personal transformation and social change.
Lee Hawkins is an American investigative journalist and author who was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2022. His most recent work documents the lives of Black American descendants of slavery and Jim Crow survivors, exploring the intergenerational impact of racial violence and racism on their families.
His forthcoming book, I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free(HarperCollins, January 2025), is an introspective journey into his family history, tracing its roots to pre-Revolutionary America. Mr. Hawkins is the Series Creator, Producer, Writer of the 2024 longform podcast series What Happened in Alabama? for American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio. The series was named a “Best Podcast” by The Guardianand Amazon/Audible and was “Editor’s Choice” among Amazon/Audible’s History genre podcasts.
Kristen Arnett is the queer author of With Teeth: A Novel (Riverhead Books, 2021) which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction and the NYT bestselling debut novel Mostly Dead Things(Tin House, 2019) which was also a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction. Kristen writes a popular column for LitHub and speaks out against book bans. She has a Masters in Library and Information Science from Florida State University and lives in Orlando, Florida.
Allissa V. Richardson, PhD is an assistant professor of journalism at USC Annenberg. She researches how African Americans use mobile and social media to produce innovative forms of journalism — especially in times of crisis. Richardson is the author of Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones and the New Protest #Journalism (Oxford University Press, 2020). The book explores the lives of 15 mobile journalist-activists who have documented the Black Lives Matter movement using only their smartphones and Twitter.
Richardson’s research is informed by her award-winning work as a journalism innovator. She is considered a pioneer in mobile journalism (MOJO), having launched the world’s first smartphone-only college newsrooms in 2010, in the U.S., Morocco and South Africa. She is currently one of the pioneering minds behind The Second Draft Project, which uses ethical AI technology to provide those who have been connected to, or at the center of, our nation’s most pivotal moments in social justice a chance to highlight where the media fell short and offer a fresh testimony.