About Vanessa: Culturally inclusive ecosystems are at the heart of what drives this Chicago native. Vanessa has an uncanny ability to enter a room, any room, and come away with new relationships. Learning and teaching are in her DNA and that openness in an ever-evolving world fuels her ability to articulate culture and business.

About Tia: Tia Hopkins has spent more than two decades in the IT and IT Security industry and is currently the Field CTO & Chief Cyber Risk Strategist at eSentire. In addition to her role at eSentire, Tia is an adjunct professor of Cybersecurity, a women’s tackle football coach, and a LinkedIn Learning Instructor. She is also pursuing her Executive MBA and PhD in Cybersecurity.

"My name is Michelle Olomojobi and I am a multifaceted designer, creative and innovator. My biggest influence comes from God, the greatest creator of all time. I find immense joy in exploring unique ways to display the continent of Africa through my brand, LLULO."

Selena Davant: Selena is a creative entrepreneur currently invested in building Made in Color – a creative agency based in Oakland, CA, that provides a nurturing environment for creatives of color to produce mind-blowing work for organizations like McKinsey & Co, Clubhouse, BLCK VC, and many others. With a passion for unlocking innovative solutions and amplifying meaningful, inclusive, intentional stories, Selena is your go-to for all things creative, strategic, managerial, and relational. Together with her co-founder and their team, Selena is dedicated to the art and science of executing work that is impactful and uplifts people.

Jena Dominique: Jena Dominique is the co-founder of Made in Color (MIC), a fully remote, national team of creatives of color that have reached over two million people through momentous social media campaigns and in-person activations. At twenty-nine, Jena is an accomplished anthropologist and creative entrepreneur who has traveled the world and successfully launched three companies- StreetSalad, It’s A Look, and Made in Color. The impressive list of clients she’s secured is remarkable, including Airbnb, the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation, Greystar Real Estate Partners, the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, and the Kapor Center for Social Impact to name a few. As a result of her ambition, vision, and impact she was most recently recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 2023 Marketing and Advertising list. At a human level, she is an empath, a futurist, and a clear and intentional communicator. Her curious and courageous spirit allows Jena to be wildly creative, making no assumptions while manifesting the best outcomes.

Mimo is a mission-led professional that has worked in social impact, public health, and nonprofit engagement for the past 10 years. She has had the opportunity to manage various efforts that lead to social change ranging from violence prevention in Oakland, HIV Research/Prevention in West/Central Africa, and homelessness prevention in Santa Clara county. She is the co-founder of Coco Coalition, a nonprofit that addresses emotional, mental, and social health by creating experiences and mobilizing women of the African Diaspora.

In 2020, she ventured to entrepreneurship by inheriting her mom's Ethiopian coffee business and rebranding to Mimo's Coffee!

Currently, she is working in DEI at Google Play Partnerships in addition to running her business with her husband and mother.

Noemie Marguerite is a Congolese Photographer and Filmmaker focused on work that helps people accept their grey area. In the words of Savannah Saint Juste, Noémie is a revolutionary artist with the grand ability to grasp the raw emotions and beauty of everything that she captures, whether it is in the form of photos or videos. It is almost as if Noémie’s eyes are capable of visualizing what’s not there and internally has structures in which she can turn anything into a visual escapade.

Angela Brown is currently a Director of Marketing at RCA Records under Sony Music Entertainment where she uses cultural and strategic thinking to create relationships with Artists, Managers and internal RCA teams to manage and lead rollouts and campaigns for projects for emerging and established music artists across the RCA roster.

In her previous ad agency life, she was behind breaking the internet with the Popeyes Chicken “...y’all good?" chicken sandwich campaign of 2019 and was a speaker at Adweek’s 2019 Brandweek. Angela has been featured in several publications including AdAge, Adweek, The Root, Essence, The Daily Dot’s Internet Person Of the Year, blacklist100.com, Campaign Magazine and Digiday – as well as several podcasts like 'We Got Next' and ‘The Reset Podcast.’

You can always find her digging into new creative interests – especially design (interior and fashion) and artwork — dissecting and sharing cultural innovations and trends, listening to new artists and connecting with people offline. Her happy place is growing her curiosity about the world, meeting people over good food, movie and TV plots/characters, beautiful visuals and getting lost in the rabbit hole that is deep and existential conversation. You can find her at @angelairl on Twitter and @angela_irl on IG.

Eno Oduok might be somewhere between a virtual architect and a digital alchemist but overall she’s human. She’s a dream chaser, your favorite hustler, a typical Aquarius, passionate storyteller & writer, social entrepreneur, community advocate, and an award-winning multidisciplinary creative who is passionate about amplifying the voices and stories of people in the community, especially overlooked ones.

At 22, she was named a 2022 Forbes 30 under 30 list honoree in the Media category and Youngest category. At 23, she was named a 2022 Houston Business Journal Outstanding Diversity Champion. Eno’s work and advocacy has been featured on Forbes, Business Insider, Ad Age, AfroTech, BellaNaija, Muse by Clio, Houston Chronicle, and more. She has been a guest speaker on various platforms, notably The Peers Project (Australia's only BIPOC, female-led podcast agency – powered by Shopify).

She is the founder & CEO of Naija Comm. Naija Comm is the first-ever online community to connect and empower Nigerian creatives & professionals in overlooked fields, such as communications, film, and more. NC is a community-based media platform & creative hub here to break barriers and challenge social & career stigmas in the community. A global space that provides resources, opportunities, and highlights diverse representation while empowering Nigerians in creative industries worldwide, such as America, London, Canada, Amsterdam and more. It started in late 2020 and has been growing since. NC has had various guest speakers, such as Olympian Erica Ogwumike, Bel-Air actor Olly Sholotan, 3x best-selling author Enitan Bereola II (cofounder of FLOURYSH - partnered with The Shade Room), Josef Adamu (founder of Sunday School; Creative Director of Megan thee Stallion’s Nike Yardrunners photoshoot), etc. Also, NC has collaborated with various impactful brands, such as HBO, I Am An Immigrant, WhatsApp, Primedia, etc. One of her notable works for NC was collaborating with HBO to amplify their documentary, The Legend of the Underground.

Ashley has 12+ years of experience in digital marketing, brand and product growth, and product management at top tier CPG companies, Google, CapitalG, and Amazon Music. In her new role at Amazon Music, she is responsible for global engagement and retention for the Amazon Music app and platform. Prior to Amazon, Ashley worked at CapitalG, Google’s growth stage venture capital firm where she supported their B2C & B2B portfolio companies to help them build critical partnerships, drive user acquisition and retention, and support their top line revenue growth efforts as they prepared for IPOs. While at Google, she was a lead on the Growth Lab team leveraging Google’s owned and operated properties to drive product engagement, user retention, and new user acquisition for products like YouTube, Google Search, Chrome, Pixel, and Google's Privacy & Security products.

Previous roles at other companies include innovative product and brand management at Kraft-Heinz, ConAgra Foods and PepsiCo as well as various strategic marketing consulting projects for top food and beverage, retail, and healthcare companies. Ashley also has extensive entrepreneurial experience, serving as an investor and VP of Marketing for NYC restaurant startup Mrs. Dorsey's Kitchen and CEO/Founder for the tall women's apparel brand Alyssa Vermell Apparel, building partnerships with a number of WNCAA and WNBA teams.

As an angel investor and mentor for startup founders, Ashley is a strong advocate for increasing minority and women representation in the startup and venture capital world and in her free time she consults with small business owners and budding entrepreneurs looking to grow their businesses and mentors MBA grads interested in transitioning into tech. When she's not working, you can find Ashley traveling the world, spending time with her family and friends, and managing her growing real estate investment portfolio. Ashley received her B.S. of Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and her MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Chavonne Hodges is an award-winning wellness entrepreneur and mental health advocate who is passionate about learning, meditation, and creativity. In 2016, she launched GrillzandGranola, a company that curates and creates fitness experiences for underrepresented women, starting with their signature TrapAerobics class. Through her entrepreneurial endeavors, she has garnered various features from publications like Forbes, Google, Yahoo! Lifestyle, and won multiple grants from Amex, Upworthy, and more for her wellness work in the BIPOC community.

Outside of her entrepreneurial Endeavors, Chavonne is a seasoned learning & development + DEI professional with roots in the advertising industry. Currently, she works in tech supporting moms and women of color and is studying to become a licensed mental health and rehab counselor for creatives and entrepreneurs.