Abena Boamah is the founder and CEO of Hanahana Beauty, a clean skincare and wellness brand rooted in sustainability, accessibility, and community. Before stepping into entrepreneurship, she was a 7th-grade algebra teacher and trained therapist, experiences that continue to shape her passion for education and intentional leadership.

Since 2017, Abena has grown Hanahana from a self-funded idea into a multimillion-dollar brand carried by national retailers. Hanahana stands out by paying twice the standard price for shea butter sourced directly from the Katariga Women’s Shea Cooperative in Ghana, creating a transparent supply chain that prioritizes equity and impact.

In 2024, she launched FNDR FWRD LAB, a 4-week immersive program designed to equip early-stage founders with strategy, clarity, and community as they launch, pivot, or scale their businesses. Abena’s work has been featured in Forbes, Vogue, Essence, and more.

Akunna Cook is an accomplished diplomat, strategist, and visionary creator and executive producer. In 2022, Akunna founded Next Narrative Africa, a media production company telling African stories for global impact. And in 2024, she launched the Next Narrative Africa Fund to finance the production of narrative shifting audio-visual content in Africa.

Akunna served in the Biden-Harris Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. In that role, she oversaw the U.S. bilateral relationships with the countries of Southern Africa. Additionally, she led a global State Department team responsible for economic, multilateral engagement, and democracy and governance policy for sub-Saharan Africa. Earlier in her career, Akunna was the founding executive director of the Black Economic Alliance, a non-partisan organization focused on driving economic progress in the black community through policy development, advocacy, and supporting candidates for office. Akunna also practiced law at Covington & Burling LLP, where she advised a variety of clients on public policy and corporate governance.

Before practicing law, Ms. Cook served for almost ten years as a career diplomat with the State Department. Akunna is a graduate of the Yale Law School, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and is a summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Howard University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and business administration. Akunna is first and foremost a mom of two adult children. She is proud of her Abia State, Nigerian heritage and her Somerset, New Jersey roots.

Tiffany Bender-Abdallah is a multidisciplinary producer and creative strategist with hits across tv, digital, and live events. She is the co-founder of Harlem To The Homeland (H2H), a multi-vertical ecosystem built on storytelling, commerce, and kinship. Tiffany currently serves as Head of Special Projects at AfroFuture – Africa’s biggest cultural festival.

She has worked as a strategist at Spotify, Amazon, and the award-winning beauty brand Ami Colé. She also served as Supervising Producer at Condé Nast Entertainment, where she helped pioneer blockbuster digital formats and produced content that garnered millions of views for brands like Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, and Bon Appétit. In addition, she hosted Teen Vogue Take, the magazine’s first digital talk show.

Tiffany holds a Bachelor of Science from Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, where she studied Communication and Rhetoric with a focus on Global Enterprising Technology. She also earned a Master’s in Television, Radio, and Film from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. A passionate community advocate, Tiffany co-founded Y.U.N.G. Harlem, a youth initiative focused on gun violence prevention, and was honored by Black Girls Rock! for her leadership.

Chika Uwazie is a globally recognized writer, speaker, and cultural commentator helping a generation navigate identity shifts, emotional reinvention, and the quiet grief of becoming someone new. Her work lives at the intersection of emotional clarity, soft power, and soulful storytelling, offering language for the feelings so many high-achievers were never taught to name.

She is best known for giving voice to timeline grief—a phrase she introduced to capture the silent mourning that happens when life doesn’t go as planned. Through her reflections on grief, growth, and self-trust, she has become a guide for those learning how to begin again, especially in the midst of transition.

Chika has built a digital platform of over 500,000+ deeply engaged readers, listeners, and followers, with her essays, interviews, and podcast clips reaching millions across the diaspora. She is the co-host and creative force behind The Afropolitan Podcast, one of Africa’s top-ranked shows exploring identity, legacy, and reinvention with iconic voices from across the globe.

Her voice has been featured in Forbes, ESSENCE, HelloBeautiful, WIRED, TechCrunch, and BBC. As a sought-after speaker, she’s shared the stage at Cannes Lions, SXSW, SALT, and World Economic Forum, offering emotionally intelligent insight on reinvention, cultural fluency, and the power of reflection. Whether through her words, or her voice, Chika invites us to stop performing and start remembering you’re not broken, you’re becoming.