Jasmine Baker

Jasmine, professionally known as Jouelzy, is a content creator, scholar, and online influencer. She launched #SmartBrownGirl (SBG) in 2014 as an online movement empowering Black women through discussions on complex lifestyle issues, including mental health, education, careers, and more. In 2020, she launched SBG as a digital firm powered by a group of graduate-level Black women …

Dominque Johnson

Dominque is the co-founder and CEO of Daughters Beyond Incarceration (DBI). DBI is an organization that works to enhance the lives of children impacted by their parent’s incarceration through an each-one-teach-one learning methodology. DBI’s vision is for every daughter with an incarcerated parent to live a healthy, stable life and have a strong, positive relationship …

Amanda D. King

Amanda is the founder and co-director of Shooting Without Bullets (SWOB), a Cleveland-based creative agency and production company by and for Black and Brown youth and justice-minded artists. SWOB uses cultural production to amplify bold messages of justice and equity. As a nonprofit creative and social enterprise, SWOB creates artwork, campaigns and products while engaging …

Peta Lindsay

Peta is the founder of the Ida B. Wells Education Project. The Ida B. Wells Education Project is a Black-led, multicultural collective of classroom educators working to create relevant, dynamic, and intersectional tools to empower students and educators in fighting racism and other forms of oppression in our schools, communities and nationwide.

Mutale Nkonde

Mutale is the founding CEO of AI For the People (AFP) a nonprofit communications agency. AFP utilizes entertainment education to reduce racial bias in the design, deployment, and governance of advanced technological systems. AI for the People has two pillars of work: 1) ‘Race, Technology, and the Black Body’ focuses on the civil rights implications …

Christine Enid Nieves Rodríguez

Christine is piloting and implementing a cutting-edge leadership curriculum that trains Puerto Rican youth in a framework called “Climate Courage.” Climate Courage encompasses the cognitive, emotional, collective, and spiritual skills necessary to release ground-breaking solutions and meet insurmountable obstacles with tools that ensure humanity, justice, and compassion are present in moments of great peril and …

Ismail Samad

Ismail Samad is launching Loiter! in East Cleveland, Ohio. Loiter! is a social enterprise community wealth hub that changes the narrative about East Cleveland and delivers spatial, racial and economic justice to East Cleveland residents. Follow @loitereastcleveland for more information.

Trenton Allen

Trenton Allen is developing a climate impact investment product designed to more inclusively fund clean energy projects. The product’s primary innovation is the creation of a diversified pool of clean energy projects (e.g., solar, transportation, energy efficiency, storage) to minimize risk and maximize investor’s return. The product will mobilize not only accredited investors but also retail …

Jocelyn Harmon

Jocelyn Harmon is co-founder and editor of BlackHer, a new media platform that is educating and inspiring Black women to act for progressive change. Her project, the BlackHer Black Woman’s Guide to Building Wealth — is a national policy agenda to close the ever-growing wealth gap facing Black women. The Guide is a practical tool …

Alan Hipolito

SUMA develops a community-based digital transaction model that organizes and secures community data and builds collective purchasing power. Developed together with low-income people and people of color in the Cully area of Portland, Oregon, SUMA’s digital transaction model will utilize technology in order to access environmental services, while simultaneously creating the digital infrastructure necessary to …

Jeffrey Neal

Loop Closing will pilot an on-site composting food waste program replacing trash cans and no longer hauling waste to distant locations. Scaling Loop Closing’s distributed composting model will regenerate our soils in a program led by communities of color. It will eliminate the harms of past practices, benefit community members, and increase our current waste …

Bayeté Ross Smith

Mr. Ross Smith proposes a series of art interventions in law schools and firms, accompanied by public programming, that will engage the local and legal communities in discussions around the salient socio-political issues highlighted by the art. The artworks will address issues such as: unconscious bias, economic justice, and political accountability.

Jackie Summell

The Solitary Garden Project utilizes the tools of prison abolition, art, permaculture and restorative justice to facilitate exchanges between incarcerated people and the outside world. Gardens created through the project are the size of a solitary confinement cell and are constructed from chattel crops, illuminating the connection between slavery and our modern-day criminal justice system. …

Elizabeth White

Through an online curriculum, interviews, and profiles, the Resilience Circles Toolkit will combat shame and provide resources for resilience to one of the most economically vulnerable communities in the U.S. – older black women. The toolkit will serve as a valuable resource by amplifying the voices of older black women who are already successfully customizing …