Bah, Adama

Adama Bah

Adama Bah (she/her) is an immigrant rights advocate and works with the African Bureau of Immigrant and Social Affairs. She came to the U.S. in 1990, at the age of two. She lived in the States and attended public schools. Then, at 16, her whole world changed. The FBI raided her apartment and handcuffed her, along with her father. She was detained and told she was “illegal.” Her father was deported. Adama was allowed to stay but forced to drop out of school and support her family. Now Adama tells her story.

Ash, Nazanin

Nazanin Ash

Nazanin Ash (she/her) is the CEO of Welcome.US. She most recently was the vice president of Global Policy and Advocacy at the International Rescue Committee, which serves people in crisis in over 40 countries and resettles refugees in 25 U.S. cities. Previously, Ash served as deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the Department of State, leading the Middle East Partnership Initiative and working to advance political and economic reform in the Middle East. From June 2007 to April 2012, she served on the secretary of state’s policy planning staff, designing initiatives to strengthen U.S. government aid effectiveness and approaches to political and economic development. Ash also served as principal advisor and chief of staff to the first director of U.S. foreign assistance and administrator at USAID, designing strategies for U.S. foreign assistance reform and policies for allocating foreign assistance. Prior to this, Ash worked for ActionAid–Kenya, one of the largest rights-based NGOs in Kenya and a leading advocacy and local capacity-building institution. She holds an MPP from Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a BA in political science from Bryn Mawr College.

Ali, Ishraq

Ishraq Ali

Ishraq Ali (he/him) Organizing Director for MPower Change. He has worked in faith-based and online organizing initiatives on both coasts of the United States. Prior to MPower Change, Ishraq was the Membership Manager at the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, where his love for urban cycling and advocacy for equitable mobility came together. He got his start in grassroots work through MAS Boston (the Muslim American Society of Boston), then organized with the Industrial Areas Foundation in Illinois, came back to New York and organized with New York Communities for Change on GOTV campaigns, tenant organizing, foreclosures, and school reform issues. He was a 2016 Fellow with the New Leaders Council deepening his commitment to work towards a more inclusive city in Los Angeles. Ishraq previously served as a fellow and later a facilitator for Bend the Arc’s Community Organizing Residency program in 2011, a fellowship that trained and guided grassroots organizers at nonprofits nationwide. He was also a fellow at the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute in 2013, a program that trained Muslim leaders on effective leadership development and civic growth. Ishraq seeks to implement the Prophetic model in his organizing.

Akomolafe, Bayo

Bayo Akomolafe

Bayo Akomolafe (he/his) is the Chief Curator of The Emergence Network, a speaker, author, fugitive neo-materialist com-post-activist public intellectual and Yoruba poet. But when he takes himself less seriously, he is a father to Alethea and Kyah, and the grateful life-partner to Ej as well as the sworn washer of nightly archives of dishes. Bayo was born in 1983 into a Christian home, and to Yoruba parents in western Nigeria. In 2014, Dr. Akomolafe was invited to be the Special Envoy of the International Alliance for Localization, a project of Ancient Futures (USA). He left his lecturing position in Covenant University, Nigeria to help build this Alliance. Bayo has been Visiting Professor at Middlebury College, where he taught on his own formulated concepts of ‘transraciality’ and postactivism. He has also taught at Sonoma State University (CA, USA), Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, Canada), and Schumacher College (Totnes, England) – among other universities around the world. He currently lectures at Pacifica Graduate Institute, California and University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont. He sits on the Board of many organizations including Science and Non-Duality. The convener of the concepts of ‘postactivism’, ‘transraciality’ and ‘ontofugitivity’, Bayo is a widely celebrated international speaker, teacher, public intellectual, essayist and author of two books, These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home (North Atlantic Books) and We Will Tell our Own Story: The Lions of Africa Speak. He is also the Executive Director and Chief Curator for The Emergence Network and host of the online postactivist course, ‘We Will dance with Mountains.’’

Agostini-Bostic, Saida

Saida Agostini-Bostic

Saida Agostini-Bostic (she/her) is the Executive Director of Funders for LGBTQ Issues. A longtime cultural organizer, activist, and seasoned nonprofit leader. She has guided statewide  advocacy efforts promoting the rights of LGBTQ youth in foster care, education, and juvenile justice, winning critical new protections, and directed national art actions uplifting the visibility of Black girls, women, and LGBTQ communities. Founder of the Rooted Collective, a gathering of Black LGBTQ healing justice activists in Baltimore, Saida is dedicated to building radical healing spaces that move us towards freedom. Saida is the President of Funders for LGBTQ Issues, a philanthropic support organization ​​working to increase the scale and impact of philanthropic resources aimed at enhancing the well-being of LGBTQ communities, promoting equity, and advancing racial, economic and gender justice. She comes to Funders from YWCA USA, where she served as Vice President of Member Services, directing a department responsible for stewarding a national network of over two hundred local associations serving 2.3 million women and girls annually. Prior to YWCA USA, Saida was Chief Operating Officer for FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, an artist collective dedicated to ending rape culture. During Saida’s tenure, she guided critical coalition building efforts to ensure the success of key organizational projects, most notably, the display of the Monument Quilt on the National Mall, a collection of over three thousand quilt squares crowdsourced from survivors over several years.

Agarwal, Nisha

Nisha Agarwal

Nisha Agarwal (she/her) is a Deputy Executive Director at the International Refugee Assistance Project, where she oversees Policy, Communications, and Legal Strategy, and is building IRAP’s new climate refugee movement. Previously, Nisha served as Commissioner of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs in the de Blasio Administration, building landmark initiatives like IDNYC and Cities for Action. In de Blasio’s second term, she served as Senior Advisor to the Deputy Mayor to boost civic engagement, build DemocracyNYC’s efforts on immigration, people with disabilities, and justice involved communities. A child of immigrants from India, Nisha became a public interest lawyer out of Harvard Law School, leading the Health Justice Program at the NY Lawyers for the Public Interest. She is also the former deputy director and co-founder of the Center for Popular Democracy and the executive director of the Immigrant Justice Corps.