Ben Jealous is a civil rights leader, community organizer, investor in startups for good, educator, and former investigative journalist. Ben was named the youngest ever National President and CEO of the NAACP at age 35; served as the past president of the Rosenberg Foundation; and was the founding director of Amnesty International’s U.S. Domestic Human Rights Program. As a community organizer, Ben helped lead successful campaigns to abolish the death penalty for children, stop Mississippi’s governor from turning a public historically black university into a prison, and pass federal legislation against prison rape. He is a graduate of Columbia and Oxford University.
Jayes-Green
Jonathan Jayes-Green is the Director and a Co-Founders of the UndocuBlack Network, a Network of directly affected Black undocumented people fighting to transform their own realities. A queer undocumented Afro-Panamanian organizer, he has served as liaison and advocate of the Latinx and Caribbean communities in the office of the Governor of Maryland; won progressive statewide legislative fights like the Dream Act and marriage equality; and supported a women of color-owned small business in its growth and development. He received his Associate’s degree from Montgomery College and his Bachelor’s degree from Goucher College.
Holness
Vice Mayor Dale V.C. Holness is the Commissioner of Broward County, Florida. In this role, he sponsored the resolution for the expansion of Broward County's current Living Wage Ordinance; led the effort for a $20 million economic development package and community improvement programs; started the Lauderhill Chamber of Commerce; and was a leading force and organizer behind the Lauderhill Mall Citizenship Drives, among other accomplishments. Commissioner Holness is the Chair of the Broward Black Elected Officials and is active in the Broward County Children’s Services Board; Haitian American Leadership Organization; HIV Planning Council, among others.
Herrera
Camila Herrera is the integration director at the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, where she works with local community-based organizations and attorneys to leverage and expand existing services and provide access to legal services to low-income individuals across the state. She joined the organization in 2014 and oversees legal services department. She currently serves on two boards and is part of a TN pro bono task force to create initiatives and opportunities to engage private attorneys to do pro bono work for the immigrant and refugee community.
Hernandez
Janet Hernandez is a Senior Civic Engagement Project Manager at UnidosUS. In her current position, Janet develops and implements national civic engagement strategies that positively impact the Latino community. She works closely with affiliates and partners across the country to increase their organizational, leadership, advocacy, and electoral capacity.
Haque
Sameerah Haque is a Youth Organizing Fellow at the HANA Center. While she is not busy with school or doing homework, she is working as a youth fellow at HANA Center, a place where she started off as just a youth in one of their many youth programs. Over several years of learning and growing at HANA Center, Sameerah has become a very outspoken member of the community and has found interest in working with youth. Sameerah is a current junior at Northeastern Illinois University majoring in accounting.
Hafiz
Sameera Hafiz leads the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC)’s advocacy and engagement on federal immigration policy. Sameera brings nearly two decades of experience supporting campaigns and coalitions focused on racial justice, fighting harsh immigration enforcement policies and ending violence against women. Previously, she Sameera was the Advocacy Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance where she led the organization’s anti-trafficking and immigration policy work, as well as the legal team. She also served as the Director of Policy and Campaigns at Rights Working Group.
Hackerson
Emily Hackerson is a Manager in the Corporate Social Responsibility department of Tyson Foods, where she leads development and implementation of Upward Academy, an innovative workplace education program offering daily English, HSE, and citizenship classes to over 1,000 front line team members across 7 states. Previously, Emily served as Program Manager and American Dream Fellow with the Cisneros Center for New Americans, working with stakeholders in the corporate, public and philanthropic sectors to create more inclusive communities. Emily received her Masters in Urban Planning from Cornell University and her BA in International Affairs from The New School in NYC.
Gym
Councilmember Helen Gym was seated in 2016 and is the first Asian American woman to serve in Philadelphia’s City Council. She has led prominent campaigns, including the successful opposition to a proposed stadium and casino in Philadelphia Chinatown, winning a federal civil rights settlement requiring schools to address bullying and racial harassment, and campaigns against the inhumane detention and deportation of immigrants. She has also focused her legislative efforts on economic justice issues, including championing fair scheduling legislation, expanding the city’s living wage laws, and requiring disclosure for businesses accepting city subsidies.
Guernsey
Margo Guernsey, a Film Director, began her film career in 2010 as a producer at WPBT2 (Miami). Councilwoman is her first feature documentary. Over the past 20 years, Margo has worked as a union organizer, non-profit development director, Spanish/English translator and media instructor, always building multi-racial collaborations across class lines to inform the work of building a more just society. She holds an MFA in film (University of Miami), MA in History (UMass/Amherst), and a BA in History (Brown University).
Grill
Harry Grill is the Political Director of the Las Vegas Culinary Union Local 226, which is the largest local of UNITE HERE, a union representing 270,000 primarily women and immigrant members in hospitality, food service, and gaming. Previously, he led the Culinary Union’s electoral work, widely recognized as playing a pivotal role in the mobilization of Latino, African American, and union voters and the ongoing transformation of Nevada politics. In 2018, Culinary Union canvassers helped to defeat incumbent Republican Senator Dean Heller and elect Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak, among others.
Gordon
Arusha Gordon serves as Counsel on the Stop Hate Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, where she focuses on responding to hate crimes by working with local community leaders and using a wide range of tools, including public education, advocating for policy change, and litigation. Arusha also works on the organization’s Voting Rights Projecte. Previously, she worked at the Women’s Rights Project of the ACLU and served as the Early Vote Director for the 2012 Obama campaign in Ohio. Arusha is a graduate of Berkeley Law (Boalt Hall) and Wesleyan University.
Gonzalez
Melina Gonzalez is the LSA Immigration Outreach Organizer/We Lead Navigator for the LSA Family Health Service, which she joined in 2003. She also works with the New York Immigration Coalition & Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs in NYC. Melina is passionate about her work and believes in furthering the economic, civic, and social integration of immigrant New Yorkers by facilitating access to justice and advocating for continued immigration reforms at all levels of government.
Ghazal
Ghada Ghazal is the Associate Director of Research at Karamah, Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights and is an asylum seeker from Syria, a scholar and an interfaith leader. She has spoken and facilitated groups in the field of interreligious and intercultural dialogue around the world, including in Egypt, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Iran, Indonesia, Denmark, Cyprus, Turkey, Italy, Spain, and Jordan. Ghada has a Master’s Degree in Comparative Religions from Hamad Bin Khalifa University, a Master’s Degree in English Language Teaching from the University of Warwick in the UK, and an undergraduate degree in English Literature from Homs University in Syria.
Gendi
Tiara Gendi is an Advisory Board Member for Trans and Intersex Rising Zimbabwe and currently working towards building Stronger and Visible communities for Black LGBTQ+ Migrant Project (BLMP) as their DC Network Program Associate, where she helps strengthen the visibility of the Zimbabwean Trans diverse community through lobbying, advocacy and supporting capacity strengthening projects in line with gender identity and expression. Previously, she has worked on Trans Equality as an International and Immigration Fellow in the US with Trans United and as a Youth Fellow at SMYAL (Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders).
Garcia Maximiliano
Adriana Garcia Maximiliano is the Manager of Alumni Programs at New American Leaders, tasked with developing NAL alumni to be successful candidates and campaign leaders. She serves as a Board Member of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Phoenix Alumni Chapter. She was previously a member of the Community and Police Trust Initiative Task Force at the City of Phoenix. She is an alumna of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Valle Del Sol’s Hispanic Leadership Institute, New American Leaders, Center for American Progress’ Leadership Institute, and Grand Canyon University.
Gallegos
Juan Gallegos is the Director of Civic Engagement & Legal Services for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC). He immigrated to the United States from Mexico on the 4th of July 2001 when he was 12 years old. Juan attended the University of Nebraska at Kearney and graduated with a Bachelors of Art-Multimedia, and double minored in Spanish and Visual Communications and Design in 2011. In 2009, Juan started volunteering with United We Dream, an immigrant youth-led organization. His work focused on passing the DREAM Act, a fight that is still ongoing today.
Gallagher
Natalie Gallagher is a WE Lead Navigator with Michigan United based out of Detroit. Natalie is moved by art, activism, and academia; pulling all three together she mobilizes both locally and abroad. From political freedom to the permanent protection of immigrant rights, Natalie has capitalized on nonviolent civil resistance to shift moral narratives and build political power. She is completing her Masters in Peace and Conflict Studies at Wayne State University.
Fine
Marjorie Fine is a fundraising and philanthropic consultant helping nonprofits and their funders – particularly those who use community organizing as a way to effect social change – to move from surviving to thriving. Current clients include the Four Freedoms Fund, Jewish Voice for Peace, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Anti-Trafficking Fund, National Partnership for New Americans, NEO Philanthropy and Mi Familia Vota among others. She serves on the boards of the Center for Constitutional Rights and the North Star Fund.
Enriquez
Miriam Enriquez is the Director of the Office of Immigrant Affairs for the City of Philadelphia. In her role, she is responsible for providing overall strategic advice on the administration’s immigration policy agenda, recommending and developing policies and programs to integrate immigrants into the social, economic and civic fabric of the City, and representing the administration on immigration matters on a national level. She has previously worked as a legislative aid on Philadelphia's City Council. She received her B.A. with distinction from George Mason University and her J.D. from The Dickinson School of Law.