Jodie Patterson is an award winning and globally recognized author, activist, beauty explorer and mother of 5. She was the first Black person to hold the position of Chair of the Human Rights Campaign Board, our nation’s largest LGBT organization. As a leading activist, she speaks on topics of identity, gender, race and radical parenting.

Patterson’s memoir, The Bold World: A Memoir of Family and Transformation was hailed by Alice Walker as “Marvelous”. Her second book, Born Ready, is one of several children’s books being reviewed in the pivotal Supreme Court Case Mahmoud v. Taylor. 

Previously, Jodie served as Director of PR for fashion designer Zac Posen and was the Fashion Director of Sales for the groundbreaking, urban publication, Vibe magazine.

She works closely with Mount Sinai Hospital on their Transgender Medicine and Health Disparities initiatives. The United Nations recognized Patterson as a Champion of Change.

Jodie Patterson lives in Brooklyn where she co-raises her five children with love, education and family solidarity.

Tamika D. Mallory is a bestselling author, award-winning social justice leader, and movement strategist. A powerful and influential organizer, she has been at the forefront of major justice movements, from fighting voter suppression to advocating for Breonna Taylor.

As the youngest-ever Executive Director of the civil rights organization, National Action Network, Tamika helped create New York City’s $100 million Crisis Management System for gun violence intervention and prevention. She made history as a national co-chair of the 2017 Women’s March, the largest single-day demonstration in U.S. history.

In 2020, Tamika’s impassioned speech during the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis went viral, resonating with millions around the world and becoming the foundation for her bestselling book, STATE OF EMERGENCY: How We Win in the Country We Built, a powerful call to action for systemic change. In early 2025, she released I LIVED TO TELL THE STORY, a coming-of-age memoir that offers a deeply personal reflection on her journey as a curious young girl growing up in Harlem, NY to an internationally known activist.

Now, as co-founder of Until Freedom, she continues her work organizing and advocating for marginalized communities. She also serves as co-host and executive producer of the TMI Podcast (Tamika & Mysonne’s Information) on iHeart Radio’s Black Effect Network.

Named one of Time 100’s Most Influential People and featured on Fortune’s list of the World’s Greatest Leaders, Tamika has received numerous honors, including the Phoenix Award from the Congressional Black Caucus.

Tamika remains relentless in her mission to empower and uplift disenfranchised communities, standing firm on the frontlines for freedom and equality—all while embracing her most cherished roles as a mother and grandmother.

Don Lemon is an award-winning journalist and former anchor of the long-running CNN primetime program, Don Lemon Tonight as well as CNN This Morning.  He has won a variety of distinguished awards for his work which has spanned nearly three decades, including an Edward R. Murrow award, multiple Emmys and a Peabody award, among others. In addition to CNN, Lemon has served as an anchor and correspondent at the NBC and MSNBC television networks, as well as at local stations in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and St. Louis.

Lemon has covered countless global breaking news stories from the anchor desk, as well as on location, including the war in Ukraine (for which he received a Peabody award in 2022), the death of Osama Bin Laden, the inaugurations of the 44th and 45th Presidents of the United States, the school shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Newtown, Connecticut, and the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, George Floyd and Tyre Nichols.  He joined CNN as a correspondent in 2006.

Lemon has been honored with countless awards not only for his journalism, but also for the impact his work and influence have made on society.  He was voted one of the 150 most influential African Americans by Ebony magazine in 2009. In 2014, The Advocate included him as one of the publication’s 50 Most Influential LGBTQ People in Media. In December 2016, Lemon was honored with a Native Son Award, named after James Baldwin, recognizing and to “encourage the increased visibility and impact of black gay men in society.” In 2017, Out named him to its Power 50 list of the Most Influential LGBTQ People in the USA.  And in June 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village, New York, Queerty named him one of the Pride 50 “trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people.”

Lemon is also a best-selling author. In 2011, he broke barriers by revealing that he was gay in his auto-biographical book Transparent.  A decade later, in 2021, his book This is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism, debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list.  It was inspired by what he saw, learned and felt about the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.

Lemon graduated from Brooklyn College with a BA in broadcast journalism.  He lives in New York City with his partner and their three dogs.

Dr. Timnit Gebru is DAIR’s founder and executive director. Prior to that she was fired by Google in December 2020 for raising issues of discrimination in the workplace, where she was serving as co-lead of the Ethical AI research team. Timnit also co-founded Black in AI, a nonprofit that works to increase the presence, inclusion, visibility and health of Black people in the field of AI, and is on the board of AddisCoder, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching algorithms and computer programming to Ethiopian and Jamaican highschool students. She has received a number of accolades including being named one of Nature’s Ten people who helped shape science and one of TIME 100’s most influential people. She is currently writing The View from Somewhere, a memoir + manifesto arguing for a technological future that serves our communities instead of one that is used for surveillance, warfare, and the centralization of power by Silicon Valley.

Born and raised in Elyria, Ohio just west of Cleveland Tianna Madison was a nine-time state champion, tied with Jesse Owens for most state titles. She earned a full academic and athletic scholarship to the University of Tennessee where she was a 2x South Eastern Conference Champion (SEC) and a 2x NCAA champion. Tianna is also a two-time Olympian and three-time Olympic gold medalist. She won her first gold medal by leading off the world record-setting women’s 4x100m relay team at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, while also taking fourth in the women’s 100-meters in London.

Four years later at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Madison added two more gold medals to her collection. She set a new personal best with a mark of 7.17m/23-6 to win the women’s long jump competition and made it back-to-back Olympic titles by again leading off the women’s 4x100m Olympic champion relay team.

Madison is also a three-time World Champion in the long jump, taking home the title at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, and again at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, China. She also won the 2006 World Indoor Championship in the long jump in Moscow, Russia. She also has earned three bronze medals at world championships during her career.

In addition to her successes on the field Tianna is a trauma-informed yoga and meditation teacher, advocate for various social justice initiatives, and has a social work degree from the University of Tennessee and now uses the full range of her education as a track and field coach at San Jose State University.

She is passionate about using her lived experience and education to help others become high- performing individuals and teams while safeguarding their mental health.

Tianna speaks in front of both domestic and international audiences. Most notably a panel during Super Bowl weekend on behalf of women in sports, the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta Georgia, in Oslo Norway, for a SHE Conference on the topic of resilience before hundreds of attendees, and at the Cannes Lion Festival France on a panel for disparities in healthcare and the black maternity health crisis. Tianna is a passionate advocate for Black maternal health, driven by her personal experience. She nearly died during childbirth, and her son was born at just 26 weeks, requiring 73 days of care in the NICU.

Tianna is a credible thought leader having been called upon by the United States Olympic Committee to discuss racial bias on a year long committee in addition to being published in the Yoga Journal, The Telegraph(UK), The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Irish Times, and Newsweek on a variety of subjects. She is also author of her riveting memoir Survive and Advance a tale of a life spent running.

Now that Tianna is retired from athletics, she channels the same energy, lived experience, and social work background into making impactful change in the communities she is a part of. Tianna is dedicated to leveraging her platform and expertise to advocate for equitable healthcare, social justice, and mental health awareness. Her commitment to creating positive change and uplifting others remains unwavering as she continues to inspire and lead by example.

Heather Dowdy is a globally recognized tech leader, storyteller, and accessibility advocate who bridges innovation with inclusion—connecting disability, race, and faith. She has spent the last 20 years in leadership roles at Netflix, Microsoft, and Motorola driving accessible innovation across mobile, web, streaming TV and AI. Heather is reshaping how the world thinks about accessibility – not as a compliance checkbox, but as a catalyst for creativity, equity and impact. A trusted voice in the disability community and a U.S. Access Board presidential appointee, she leads with vision, empathy, and action.