Michele Barnwell is a Los Angeles-based showrunner, producer and writer/storyteller. She is the founder/CEO of Reel Roost, a transmedia production company specializing in story-driven content creation and production. Her past projects include: America’s Next Top Model (the CW, Show Producer)), Brave New Voices (HBO, Supervising Producer), All American Muslim (TLC, Showrunner, nominated for an NAACP Image Award) and FlintTown (Netflix, Co-Executive Producer) which was nominated for two Critics Choice Documentary Awards and received an IDA Documentary Award nomination for Best Limited Series. Michele delivered BET its highest-rated original series (Tiny & Toya) ever in their then twenty-nine year history, and network executives pointed to the highly adept storytelling ability of Michelle and her team as the key to the series success. Michele regularly presents to audiences around the globe on topics such as storycraft and documentary filmmaking, as well to the tech community on the merits and challenges of storytelling in virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality content. She holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and an M.F.A. in Film Studies from UCLA.

Melvin Bray is an Emmy® award-winning storyteller, social entrepreneur, and author. He lives with his wife, three kids and two dogs in southwest Atlanta, GA. Melvin is an active participant in vanguard networks seeking more beautiful, more just, more virtue-filled ways of showing up in the world. He is author of BETTER: Waking Up to Who We Could Be, and co-editor of Faith Forward (Vol 1 & Vol 2 Copper House, 2013, 2015), which explore ways children and youth can make the dream of beloved community possible. He is also the coordinating author of The Stories in Which We Find Ourselves, online reimaginings of the Biblical narrative that make faith something young people have reason to care about. Melvin is Principal Consultant of Collabyrinth, LLC where he helps communities of goodwill design better systems,structures, policies and practices that transform persistently inequitable outcomes into equitable ones. He is deeply interested in facilitating high achievers’ efforts to build infrastructures for the success of those widely disenfranchised by mainstream systems and structures. Bray brings to bear a unique skill-set that is indispensable in any change-making endeavor. He holds a B.S. in Language Arts Education from Oakwood University.

Cheryl Dorsey is a pioneer in the social entrepreneurship movement and the President of Echoing Green, a global organization seeding and unleashing next-generation talent to solve the world’s biggest problems. Cheryl received an Echoing Green Fellowship in 1992 to help launch The Family Van, a community-based mobile health unit in Boston. She was the first Echoing Green Fellow to head the social venture fund in 2002. An accomplished leader and entrepreneur, Cheryl served in two presidential administrations as a White House Fellow and Special Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Labor (1997-98); Special Assistant to the Director of the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Labor Department (1998-99); and Vice Chair for the President's Commission on White House Fellowships. Cheryl is a board member of the SEED Foundation, and previously on the Harvard Board of Overseers among others. Cheryl has received numerous awards for her commitment to public service, including the Pfizer Roerig History of Medicine Award, the Robert Kennedy Distinguished Public Service Award, and the Manual C. Carballo Memorial Prize. She was also featured as one of "America's Best Leaders" by US News & World Report and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School in 2009, and as one of The Nonprofit Times' "Power and Influence Top 50" in 2010 and 2011. Cheryl earned a medical degree from Harvard Medical School and a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School. She received a B.A. in History and Science magna cum laude with highest honors from Harvard-Radcliffe Colleges.

Su’ad Abdul Khabeer is a scholar-artist-activist who uses anthropology and performance to explore the intersections of race and popular culture. Su'ad is currently Director of the Arab and Muslim American Studies Program & Associate Professor of American Culture and Arab & Muslim American Studies at the University of Michigan. Her latest work, Muslim Cool: Race, Religion and Hip Hop in the United States (NYU Press 2016), is an ethnography on Islam and hip hop that examines how intersecting ideas of Muslimness and Blackness challenge and reproduce the meanings of race in the US. Su’ad’s written work on Islam and hip hop is accompanied by her performance ethnography, Sampled: Beats of Muslim Life. Sampled is a one-woman solo performance designed to present and represent her research and findings to diverse audiences as part of her commitment to public scholarship. In line with this commitment Su’ad leads Sapelo Square, the first website dedicated to the comprehensive documentation and analysis of the Black US American Muslim experience. Su’ad received her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Princeton University and is a graduate from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She also completed the Islamic Studies diploma program of the Institute at Abu Nour University (Damascus).

Tyrha M. Lindsey-Warren has over thirteen years of experience working in marketing and public relations in the health, arts, entertainment and non-profit sectors. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, she joined the faculty at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Marketing where she teaches Advertising and Digital Marketing and serves as an advisor for the Center for Sports, Sponsorship, and Sales (S3) program. Her credits include work with Quincy Jones, David Salzman Entertainment, NBC, Creative Artists Agency and Edmonds Entertainment -- developing television and film ideas and properties. Tyrha has produced the following TV shows: MAD TV (FOX), In the House (UPN), Lost on Earth (USA) and VIBE, and worked as Director of Marketing for the United States Tennis Association and the Associate Director of Public Relations for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She was also the Director of Public Relations at UniWorld Group, the longest-standing multicultural advertising and communications agency in the U.S. As an entrepreneur, Tyrha leads her family’s award-winning marketing/PR consulting company, L.A.I. Communications , which specializes in creating strategic marketing/PR solutions with a focus on cross cultural marketing for media companies, corporations, arts organizations, health nonprofits and small businesses. She is national speaker on cross-cultural marketing, social media, public relations and fundraising. She received a B.S. in Radio/TV/Film and a Certificate in Musical Theater from Northwestern University, a Masters of Business Administration from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University and a Phd in Marketing from Rutgers Business School.

Curtis is a Senior Associate at the Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC), a consulting practice that builds the capacity of organizations, communities and networks to engage in more effective, equitable and inclusive social change. There, he provides collaborative network building support to initiatives focused on racial/socio-economic equity and sustainability in education, public health and food systems around New England and the United States. He is on the advisory board of EmbraceRace, a member of the Research Alliance for Regenerative Economics (RARE) and the Emerging Networks Governance Initiative (ENGI). Curtis’s expertise as a systems change practitioner has led to his post as a Thomas W. Haas Professorship in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of New Hampshire.

Anas “Andy” Shallal is an artist and social entrepreneur. He is the founder of Busboys and Poets , an environment where racial and cultural connections are consciously uplifted. Spaces to feed the mind, body and soul and where art, culture and politics take center stage and collide. With 8 locations in the Washington metropolitan area, Shallal’s businesses are members of the Restaurant Opportunities Center and the American Sustainable Business Council focusing on sustainable business and employment practices. Busboys and Poets has been at the forefront of environmental stewardship as one of the first businesses in Washington DC to be 100% wind powered. It remains at the cutting edge of the local/sustainable food movement winning many awards and recognitions locally and nationally. Shallal has received numerous awards including the Mayor’s Arts Award, Employer of the Year from the Employment Justice Center and the Mayor’s Environmental Award. He has also founded or co-founded several peace and justice organizations and holds leadership positions in numerous others and is on the board of trustees for the Institute for Policy Studies and a founding member of Think Local First DC. Shallal continues to strive to make his hometown of Washington DC a more livable community.

Akiba Solomon is the Senior Editorial Director of Colorlines . She is an NABJ-Award winning journalist from West Philadelphia. The Howard University graduate has written about culture and the intersection between gender and race for Dissent, Essence, Ebony, Glamour and POZ. Solomon has also been a health editor for Essence, a researcher for Glamour and a senior editor for the print versions of Vibe Vixen and The Source. Solomon recently co-authored “How We Fight White Supremacy: A Field Guide to Black Resistance” (Bold Type Books, March 2019). As a forerunner to the explosion of digital work about race, body image and representation, Solomon’s first book was “Naked: Black Women Bare All About Their Skin, Hair, Lips, Hips and Other Parts” (Penguin Books, 2005).

Archie “AJ” Wilson Jr. Archie currently attends The University of Georgia School of Law and is working on fulfilling his childhood dream of becoming a lawyer. Archie plans to use this degree to continue his work in wealth creation for marginalized groups, entrepreneurship, and public policy. In his free time, Archie enjoys spending time with family and friends. Archie also enjoys speaking and interacting with students, playing pickup basketball, reading, and thinking of new ways to solve problems. As a high school entrepreneur, Archie founded a non-profit youth-serving organization, Dream Chasers. He earned a total of 1.3 million dollars’ worth of scholarships for college as a senior in high school including the Gates Millennium Scholarship and the Ronald McDonald's House Charities Scholarship.

Seitu is an engaging leader, Impact Producer, entrepreneur, and accomplished C-Suite executive with nearly 20 years of experience in the philanthropic, nonprofit, education, business, and entertainment sectors. He most recently served as the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation (WJSFF) /Careers in Entertainment (CIE) a premier social impact initiative undergirded and supported by WJSFF’s over 500M philanthropic footprint. In his role he created an ambitious 33M strategic work & investment plan with an outcome of creating more access, opportunity an inclusion within the global entertainment industry.

Today Seitu continues to work to provide more access, opportunity, and inclusion in the entertainment industry with a particular lens on film & television by currently serving as a Senior Advisor to the International Comparative Labor Studies Program at Morehouse College and beginning to impact produce in the episodic, documentary and feature areas. His work is largely in two buckets: helping to seed and develop narrative change/storytelling while exposing secondary and post-secondary students and their families to careers in front of and behind the camera.

Seitu has worked diligently to support or direct the raising and passing through of over 100 million dollars for a variety of social impact initiatives and enterprises. He is a 2020 Philanthropy 100 Honoree and considers it a blessing to play a role in cultivating a pipeline for the next generation to participate in the creative economy while connecting diverse people and stories in service to community & cultural transformation.

Opal H. Bennett is Co-Producer and Shorts Producer for POV and is a Programming Consultant for The March on Washington Film Festival. Opal is also on the selection committee for shorts at Cinema Eye Honors. She has served on juries for SXSW, IndieMemphis, NewFest, Leuven ShortsFest, New Orleans, Cleveland, and Seattle International Film Festivals among others. She has also participated on selection committees for documentary programming and grants. A Columbia Law grad, Opal holds a Masters in Media Studies from the London School of Economics and received her B.A. from New York University.

Rodney Trapp is the Vice President for Advancement for the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) where he is the institution’s chief fundraising officer and he manages the UDC Foundation. A seasoned business development and philanthropy professional, Trapp has provided senior leadership and fundraising counsel to nonprofit organizations at the forefront of education access, arts education, cultural inclusion, and poverty alleviation for over 30 years. A thought leader, Mr. Trapp has been an adjunct instructor at New York University and a guest lecturer at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, North Carolina A&T State University and UDC. His research on impact investing and the creative industries has appeared in two journal publications: Making Sense of Arts Management: Research, Cases and Practice (2017) and Grantmakers for the Arts Reader (2015). In addition, Trapp presented his research at the 2015 Social and Sustainable Finance and Impacting Investing Conference, SAID Business School, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. He is a graduate of Wake Forest University with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communications and Theatre Arts. Rodney also holds an International Masters of Business Administration from the University of Valencia in Valencia, Spain; a Master of Science in International Business Development & Consulting from Novancia Business School in Paris, France and a Master of Arts in Arts Management from American University in Washington, DC.