St. Clair Detrick-Jules is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer, author, and activist. She captures personal stories and intimate moments centering Black liberation, immigrant justice, and women’s rights. An Afro-Caribbean artist who remains rooted in her community, St. Clair grounds her work in radical love, joy and the knowledge that a more just world is possible.

St. Clair has a BA from Brown University in French and Francophone Studies. She has been featured in The Washington Post, Washington Magazine, BuzzFeed News, Allure Magazine, Byrdie, and NPR’s Strange Fruit, among others. Her debut book, My Beautiful Black Hair: 101 Natural Hair Stories from the Sisterhood (Chronicle Books, September 2021), showcases the photographs and stories of Black women embracing their crowns. St. Clair resides in her hometown of Washington, DC.

Dr. Caleb Stephens is a LMSW (Licensed Master Social Worker) and an LMAC (Licensed Master’s Addictions Counselor) and has a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas Department of Theatre and Dance. He graduated from Bethel College, Kansas, in 2011, and graduated from the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare in 2014. Caleb worked in Child Welfare as a Reintegration Case Manager and then an Intensive In-Home Therapist, from 2011 through 2014.

He is an activist for Social Justice and specializes in Intrapersonal Conflict, Identity, and the different intersectionalities of Race, Substance Abuse, Coping, and Hope; he implements those through his company called IdentiFight. Consequential to Caleb's formerly noted foci he is competent in specialized work encompassing the Black narrative. His emphasis centers around the understanding of Safety, Truth, and Hope. He utilizes various sources of strength and connection, to create safe spaces to empower authentic, intentional Truths. This past fall, Caleb also served as a Keynote speaker during KSUnite; an annual program that joins the entire K-State university family together to uphold the value of human diversity and inclusion for community.

Lawrence Ross attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he was initiated into Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. in 1985, and the University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in History. Ross also has a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in screenwriting from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television.

Ross’s first book, The Divine Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities, was the first book written about all nine African American fraternities and sororities, the Divine Nine is a Los Angeles Times, and Essence magazine best seller. As a result, Ross has lectured at over 600 colleges and universities, speaking on issues of fraternalism, student development, and fraternity and sorority hazing. He’s written commentaries, and has been interviewed, by The Root, The Grio, Los Angeles Times, the BBC, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, MSNBC, CNN, and other publications.

Ross has written a total of seven books on the African American experience, including Blackballed: The Black & White Politics of Race on America’s Campuses, published by St. Martin’s Press. Blackballed explores the present and historical issues of racism on hundreds of American college campuses, and how that ties into today’s #BlackLivesMatter campaign.

Since it was published in February 2016, Ross has lectured at over 100 colleges and universities, including UCLA, Michigan, LSU, and the University of Oklahoma.

Website: https://thelawrenceross.com/

Rae Lewis-Thornton is an Emmy Award winning AIDS Activist who rose to national acclaim when she told her story of living with HIV/AIDS in a cover story to Essence Magazine. She is credited with changing the face of HIV/AIDS for African-American women. In the past twenty- eight years, she has traveled worldwide in an unending crusade challenging stereotypes and myths around HIV/AIDS.

Rae Lewis-Thornton has been featured in countless magazines such as, Glamour, O-The Oprah Magazine, Woman’s Day, Essence, Jet, Ebony, Emerge, Black Excellence, Heart and Soul, WOE, HIV-Plus, Positively Aware, Poz and The Crisis, as well as, many newspaper outlets, such as The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun times, to name a few.

Rae received an Emmy Award for an on-going series of first-person news reports on her life of Living With AIDS, for CBS-Chicago.

She has been featured on national television shows such as, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Huffington Post Live, Nightline with Ted Kopel in a news article Rae’s Story, AIDS the next Wave and AIDS 25 years in review with Ted Kopel. She has also been on Dateline, Black Entertainment Television (BET) CNN, HLN News, and the Montel Williams Show as well as, countless other news and radio shows around the world.

Rae Lewis-Thornton received the Distinguished Alumnae Award from her alma mater Northeastern Illinois University in 2011, as well as countless other awards for her work around HIV/AIDS. She has lived with HIV for 37 years.

In 2009, global media covered Maggie Anderson, Congressman John Lewis’ former aide, President Barack Obama’s former law student, and a successful corporate executive, as she lived out her public pledge to “buy Black” only for an entire year. Her family was threatened, and her mother was dying of pancreatic cancer. She took this stand raising two babies and with no Black owned grocery store. Maggie’s historic year AKA “The Empowerment Experiment” (“EE”) resulted in an unprecedented amount of mainstream media, university, and corporate attention specifically on Black owned businesses, systemic racism in the American economy, and economic inequality; tens of millions in revenue for and deposits into Black businesses and banks; a landmark Kellogg study proving 1 million jobs could be created if Black firms received a small increase in support; and her critically acclaimed book, Our Black Year.

Since EE, Maggie has given thousands of speeches and interviews hosted by the most respected corporations, universities, trade/ professional/ faith/ civic and rights institutions, and media. Millions have shed tears while taking notes as she teaches the victorious yet violent history of Black businesses and Black economic unity; preaches about economic justice and empowerment; and shares EE, and how it has since changed and ‘saved’ her life, effectively curing her muscular dystrophy.

Website: https://authormaggieanderson.com/

Website: https://tamikadmallory.com/