Chardonnay Arends first generation South African Law Graduate. She attended the University of Pretoria. In 2020 she was elected as the chairperson of the Democratic Alliance Student Organization. During her term in office, she successfully managed multiple campaigns to address issues that affected students, including campaigns centered on student safety and gender-based violence.
Kyla Rose Bates, is a poet, author, and motivational orator. The beautiful world of visual and performing arts was introduced to her at a very young age by her mother.
It is through the arts that Kyla has found her passion that is fueling her purpose. She believes that it is through art that one can tell their whole, authentic story. Kyla believes that the future is not something that we can just live to see. The future is something that we must proclaim and manifest.
Rachel Appiah is a bright, young entrepreneur and student currently studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics. At age 16 Rachel founded her online store, Amanthis Stationery. Her mission is to provide school supplies at accessible prices for youth. Rachel has created a best-selling planner for students looking to manage their time and lead a goal-oriented life.
Cynthia Nwajiobi is a seasoned content writer, script writer, filmmaker, and 2022 GLOW Global cohort member. Cynthia is passionate about making an impact and inspiring people, and she believes that the right stories can change the world. She is the CEO of Trendy Media Production, a Nigerian movie production company that is focused on addressing social issues through film.
ICFJ Knight Fellow Catherine Gicheru is a driving force behind innovative storytelling, investigative journalism, fact-checking and cross-border reporting on underreported issues. A trailblazer in Kenyan journalism, she has built networks of female journalists who have become innovators in their newsrooms, bringing new techniques and more diverse voices to news coverage.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gicheru launched the Africa Women Journalism Project (AWJP). It brings together female journalists and data analysts to produce data-driven coverage of underreported health, gender and economic issues. Stories have focused on a range of vulnerable groups from school children to street vendors, and on medical services available to victims of the disease. They have shed light on marginalized groups and communities, who suffer the worst impacts of the pandemic.
As director of AWJP, Gicheru leads a team of editors, mentors, data specialists and designers who work with journalists in five countries -- Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.
Melissa Carnegie is a community connector. After founding her lifestyle blog MelissaChanel in 2011, she parlayed a bustling influencer career into a professional brand that connects people to communities and puts products in the hands of those who need it most. After crafting social media strategies for brands like Rug & Home and Girl Scouts USA. Carnegie locked in an influencer partnership, turned ambassadorship with Cantu Beauty that ultimately grew to her career as the Global Head of Community & Communications.
At every touchpoint of her work Carnegie is focused on cultivating relationships. Relationships between product and consumer and from consumer to consumer, because the community always comes first. Her ear is always to the ground listening to what the people actually want, because, “if you commit to serving the community, the customers will come.”
Amber Wynne is a recent Cum Laude graduate, with departmental honors, from Hampton University. At Hampton, Amber obtained her Bachelors of Science degree in Health Sciences, with a concentration in policy and administration, with a minor in criminal justice. Amber’s passion for activism extends into the healthcare policy and social justice fields. In undergrad, Amber had the privilege of serving as the President of Hampton University Generation Action, where she organized, advocated and educated through a reproductive justice lens. Her advocacy work includes voter education, immigration reform, Black-centered health education, as well as founding “The Period Project'' which aims to distribute free menstrual products to students at Hampton University.
Fatimata Cham serves as an activist, poet, and gender equality advocate. She is a first-generation Gambian college student majoring in Government and Law and Women and Gender studies.
Fatimata is passionate about advocating for her community and does so through her writing. In high school, Fatimata published a short book of poetry titled Perfectly Imperfect. She uses the intersection between poetry and activism to talk about issues related to environmental injustice, gender inequity, racism, islamophobia, and a plethora of issues she is passionate about.
Recently, she was casted in Dear Season 2 on Apple TV alongside Malala Yousfzai. She hopes to build a more just and equitable world through her work.
Dana A. Williams is Professor of African American Literature in the Department of English and Dean of the Graduate School at Howard University. Dean Williams earned her B.A. in English from Grambling State University in Grambling, LA in 1993, her M.A. in 1995 from Howard University, and her Ph.D. in African American Literature from Howard University in 1998. As a recipient of the Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Scholar award in 1999, she was a visiting research fellow at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, where she completed extensive research on her dissertation author Leon Forrest. Before returning to Howard as a faculty member in 2003, Dr. Williams taught at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge for four years. In 2008-09, she was a faculty fellow at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, and she assumed chairmanship of Howard's department of English in 2009. In 2019, she was named interim dean of the Graduate School, and in 2021, she became the Graduate School's first permanent female dean.
In addition to an annotated bibliography, Contemporary African American Female Playwrights: An Annotated Bibliography (Greenwood, 1999) which she completed as her M.A. thesis at Howard, Dr. Williams has co-edited August Wilson and Black Aesthetics (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2004) with Dr. Sandra G. Shannon, edited African American Humor, Irony, and Satire: Ishmael Reed, Satirically Speaking (Cambridge Scholars, 2007), Conversations with Leon Forrest (UP of Mississippi, 2007), and Contemporary African American Fiction: New Critical Essays (Ohio State UP, 2009). She is also the author of the first and only book-length study on Leon Forest, In the Light of Likeness--Transformed: The Literary Art of Leon Forrest (Ohio State UP, 2005). She currently completing a book-length study on Toni Morrison's editorship at Random House Publishing Company (forthcoming in 2023 with Amistad/Harper Collins).
In addition to her book projects, Dr. Williams has published articles in CLA Journal, African American Review, Bulletin of Bibliography, Langston Hughes Review, Zora Neale Hurston Forum, Studies in American Fiction, International Journal of the Humanities, Profession, and PMLA. She is the past president of the Association of the Departments of English Executive Committee, former chair of the Black American Literature and Culture Forum and former member of the Executive Council for the Modern Languages Association, and past President of the College Language Association--the oldest and largest professional organization for faculty of color who teach languages and literatures. She currently serves as President of the Toni Morrison Society, as a member of the Board of Directors for the American Council of Learned Societies and a board member of the Hurston/Wright Foundation, the Judge Alexander Williams Center at the University of Maryland, the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University, and the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College.
Born and raised in DeSoto, Texas, Karen began an interest in media and advocacy at 19, after an internship working with the Dallas Public Defenders office. The next year, Karen spent a summer learning Spanish in Spain, an experience that sparked what would become a lifelong interest in international journalism, social justice, human rights. Karen is a former Fulbright Scholar to Ghana, and has reported from Curacao, Nigeria, Germany, and other countries. Her work has appeared in Voice of America, Al Jazeera, Associated Press, Haitian Times, and other international publications. She has made television and broadcast appearances on CNN, MSNBC, BBC, NPR, and the CBC. She became the Washington Post’s founding Global Opinions editor in 2016, where she commissioned op-eds on global topics from prominent writers around the world. In 2021, she was named an Opinions columnist. Her writing focuses on race, gender, culture, human rights and international affairs. She has won numerous awards and recognitions for her writing and commentary, including Washingtonian Magazine’s 2021 “Star to Watch” award, the 2019 George Polk Special Award, and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Freedom Writer Award. Karen was the winner of the 2019 Journalist of the Year Award from the National Association of Black Journalists, was named to the 2019 Root 100 list, and was featured in Essence Magazine’s ‘Woke 100’ list for 2019. She is the author of the forthcoming book “Say Your Word, Then Leave”, about murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Karen currently spends her time between Washington D.C. and Dallas, Texas.
A marketing professional with almost two decades of experience, Dametria Kinsley is a visionary, activator and connector who sees things differently.
Her background includes international marketing, product development and brand management having successfully launched products and high-impact initiatives that have resulted in increased sales and growth for leading beauty companies. With an entrepreneurial spirit and unwavering passion for beauty, Dametria brings a unique perspective to any brand she touches.
Serving as the Global Marketing Vice President at PDC Brands, she leads the overall go to market strategy for the Cantu Brand globally and is the head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. In her tenure, she has launched multimillion dollar SKUs in both the U.S. and high-volume global markets.
Prior to PDC Brands, Dametria served as the Senior Sales and Global Marketing Manager at Astral Brands, a health and beauty company where she lead global growth for the cosmetics division. Previous sales and marketing roles include Newell Brands, Advanced Beauty Inc. and HBO.
Hailing from rural Oklahoma, Dametria is a University of Tennessee alumna who also holds a Master of Business Administration from Emory University. An avid traveler, lover of the arts, she currently resides in Marietta, GA with her husband, 14 year old nephew, 3-year-old son and 1 year old daughter.
Denia Smith (she/her) is an nationally recognized activist, researcher, political organizer, and aspiring human rights attorney.
She is known for organizing a #BlackLivesMatter march garnering 1,000 attendees; reaching over 5,000 students through local and national initiatives pertaining to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; and co-founding the WW-P POC Advocacy: a youth organization focused on education reform.
Her research on Black girls' self-perception as leaders inspired her to create The She Shall Speak Series, a podcast and empowerment community inspiring Black women and girls to be leaders in 12 U.S. States and 8 countries.