Dr. S Ama Wray
Dr. Wray is a TEDx speaker, the inventor of Embodiology®., an Award winning scholar, choreographer and director, and an integral member of AI 4 Afrika. She serves as director of the Africana Institute for Creativity Recognition and Elevation and an Associate Professor of Dance at UC Irvine. Her creative collaborations include theatrical work with LGBTQ activist Mojisola Adebayo, technology-driven collaborations with disabled composer Sonia Allori, and dance performance with luminaries Wynton Marsalis and Bobby McFerrin through JazzXchange. She is an advocate of environmental justice matters, critiquing the decimation of indigenous peoples’ land and rights through ‘Hire’ Knowledge”.
Dr. Jackie Berry
Dr. Jacquelyn H. Berry, Ph.D. is a cognitive scientist and Fulbright Scholar who uses video games as an investigative tool and recently returned from Egypt where she studied human-computer interaction in Arabic-English biliterates. Dr. Berry is co-founder of AI for Afrika (AI4A), a coalition of scholars, scientists, and artists and was co-presenter on the United Nations AI for Good “Cosmo-Ubuntu, Machine Translation and Cognitive Code Switching” Panel where she presented on the relevance of code-switching within the African diaspora. Dr. Berry is Chief Science Officer and co-founder of Better Technology, an all person-of-color Tech Firm in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Kishau Rogers
Kishau has a deep background in Computer Science, over 25 years of experience leading the development of enterprise technology solutions and more than 15 years of entrepreneurial leadership. She is the Founder & CEO of Time Study, Inc., a high-growth startup offering solutions for using machine learning, advanced natural language processing, and data science to automatically tell a story of how enterprise employees spend their time. The Time Study platform already serves some of the largest health organizations in the US and currently supports tens of thousands of enterprise employees daily. As an active & awarded technology leader, Kishau is featured in many national publications including the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Black Enterprise, and NFIB.
Nicole Washington
Nicole Washington, M.S., owner of Micro Biz Coach®, works with micro and small businesses to identify strategies for successful business start-up or boost veteran businesses. She has nearly 20 years of systems integration experience from her time as a management consultant with firms including Ernst & Young. Nicole is a member of the Ohio TechAngel Fund, the 2nd largest Angel Investor Network in the United States, and currently serves as Chair of the Academic Committee and Trustee of the Board of Education for Samueli Academy, a STEM high school serving a large population of underserved youth.
Professor Hanétha Vété-Congolo
Professor Hanétha Vété-Congolo is Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Bowdoin College, Maine and President of the Caribbean Philosophical Association. She is affiliated to Africana, the Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx and the Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies Programs of her institution. Her scholarship focuses principally on Caribbean and African thought, philosophy, literature, culture and orality and on discourses by and about women of the Caribbean and, West and Central Africa. She is author of L’interoralité caribéenne: le mot conté de l’identité (Vers un traité d’esthétique caribéenne) and editor of Léon-Gontran Damas : Une Négritude entière.
Dr. Benis Egoh
Dr. Benis Egoh is an assistant professor at the Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine (UCI). She holds a PhD in Zoology from Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Before joining UCI, she worked for the Joint Research Center, European Commission in Italy and CSIR in South Africa. Benis is a C1 rated researcher in South Africa, a lead author of the IPBES African Assessment and a member of the executive committee of the Ecosystem Service Partnership (ESP).
Professor Kaaryn Gustavson
Professor Kaaryn Gustafson is Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Community Engagement at UC Irvine School of Law. She is also Director of the law school’s Center on Law, Equality, and Race (CLEAR), which generates programming and research on racial justice. Gustafson’s publications examine the ways that law can be used both to reinforce and dismantle gendered, racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic inequalities. Her work in criminal law and procedure analyze ways that benevolent arms of government (e.g., the welfare system) have become intertwined with the punitive arms of government, with data sharing as a growing area of overlap.
Christian Epps
Mr. Epps’ career in lighting and production spans more than four decades. He has worked on Queen Sono (Netflix) and Lovecraft Country (HBO); music videos for Michael Jackson and Alicia Keys; corporate work for Nike and Cadillac, and work with directors including Spike Lee and Ava DuVernay. Working in Nigeria, he designed the lighting rig and coordinated many of the technical departments for the concert series known as ‘This Day! Festival’ (4 years) featuring Beyoncé, Snoop Dog, and John Legend amongst others. He has worked with Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and The White House.
Marcia Campbell
Ms. Campbell started her career with “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” before landing a spot at ABC. Her hard work paid off when BET brought her onto “Comic View” as Showrunner, where she managed a multimillion dollar budget and increased ratings by 34%. Since leaving BET, Marcia has been nominated for an Emmy, overseen the launch of viewer created content series “Your LA” for NBC, and spent several seasons on “Big Brother”. She was the Supervising Producer on the indie Film “She’s Got A Plan” and is currently Producing “Your Attention Please” for Hulu.
Viveen Wray
An accomplished Vocalist, Wray has been part of the London music scene since the late 90’s. The charismatic voice of N-Trance and the featured vocal on the International Dance hit Stayin’ Alive, she was also lead singer of the widely successful band Driza (formerly Drizabone). Throughout her career she has been both Lead Vocalist and Backing-Singer, touring, appearing on TV, Radio, Video and Feature Film. Artists she has worked with include Tom Jones, Al Green, Lionel Richie, Robbie Williams, and many more UK acts. Her abilities to sing, write, produce, arrange and coach make her a natural and outstanding collaborator.
Dr. Hiram Powell
Dr. Hiram C. Powell currently serves as Director of the Dr. La-Doris McClaney School of Performing Arts and Communication at Bethune-Cookman University. He previously served as Provost, Vice president for Advancement, and Dean of the Graduate School. Powell has served on the boards of institutions including Atlantic Center for the Arts, Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and the Pabst-Steinmetz Foundation. Powell is a three-time Associate Artist at Atlantic Center for the Arts, and served as a Distinguished Adjudicator for Festival Disney. His awards and recognitions include The Silver Knight Award, Faculty Member of the Year, and Outstanding Musicianship Award.
Dr. Dele Olajide MD. PhD. FRCPsych. FRSA.
Dr. Dele Olajide is an Emeritus Consultant Psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital, London. Until his retirement, he was Associate Medical Director for Clinical Informatics at the South London and Maudsley NHS foundation Trust, and Academic Health Sciences Centre. While on secondment as a Senior Medical Officer, Department of Health, Dr. Olajide was involved in mental health policy with special reference to ethnic minority mental health, advising health ministers from both political parties. With an interest in the arts, Dr. Olajide has collaborated with a professional actor cooperative to produce a play by psychiatric inpatients based on improvisational methodology.
Dr. Theresa Tanenbaum
Dr. Tess Tanenbaum is a game designer, artist, and assistant professor in the Department of Informatics at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California-Irvine, where she is a founding member of the Transformative Play Lab. Dr. Tanenbaum is a transgender woman, whose work is engaged with issues of gender, identity, and narrative. Tess’s work is playful, provocative, and interdisciplinary, frequently straddling the line between art, design, and research. Her work was showcased at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and later incorporated in the City of Vancouver’s “Greenest Cities Conversations” program.
Dr. Jasmine McNealy
Dr. McNealy is an Associate Professor of Telecommunication at the University of Florida, where she teaches courses on regulation. She researches media, technology, and law with an emphasis on privacy, surveillance and data governance. She is also the Associate Director of the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project at UF, and a Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society.
Ben Loeterman
Ben Loeterman is an accomplished writer/producer/director of public affairs and historical documentaries. He founded Ben Loeterman Productions, Inc. (BLPI) in 1996. His NEH-funded film, 1913: Seeds of Conflict, traces the origins of today’s Israeli/Palestinian conflict (PBS). His previous NEH-funded film, The People v. Leo Frank broadcast nationally to critical acclaim (PBS).
Loeterman’s work appeared on the first eighteen seasons on PBS/FRONTLINE. His films also appeared on PBS/AMERICAN EXPERIENCE including Golden Gate Bridge, Public Enemy #1 and Rescue at Sea. Loeterman has won national Emmys for directing and investigative journalism, Amnesty International’s Media Spotlight Award and two duPont-Columbia Journalism Awards.