Melody Barnes is a Co-Founder and Principal of MB² Solutions LLC, a public affairs firm. Barnes serves as an Independent Director on the Boards of Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR); Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (NYSE:BHA); Public Policy Advisory Board, Uber; the Marguerite Casey Foundation and Year Up.  Ms. Barnes also chairs the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions and Opportunity Youth Forum.  From January 2009 until January 2012, she was Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.  

As Director of the Domestic Policy Council, Ms. Barnes provided strategic advice to President Obama and worked closely with members of the Cabinet coordinating the domestic policy agenda across the Administration.  Under her leadership, innovative new policies, practices and partnerships were initiated to address significant national challenges, including education, health care and the federal government’s relationship with local governments and communities. 

Until July 2008, Ms. Barnes was the Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress, a progressive research institute and think tank.  From December 1995 until March 2003, Ms. Barnes worked for Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee; she served as his chief counsel from 1998 until she left the Committee in 2003.  Barnes’ experience also includes an appointment as Director of Legislative Affairs for the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and serving as a Principal at the D.C.-based consulting firm, The Raben Group.  Ms. Barnes began her career as an attorney with Shearman & Sterling in New York City.  

Ms. Barnes received her law degree from the University of Michigan in 1989.  In 1986, she received her bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she graduated with honors in history.  Ms. Barnes’ media appearances include This Week with George Stephanopoulos, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Charlie Rose, The PBS NewsHour and Morning Joe.  She currently resides in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, Marland Buckner.

Ebo Barton comes from salt— from the moment before worlds converge. In this world, we are still trying to articulate that mixed Black and Filipino, Transgender and Non-Binary, Queer, Artists and Educators not only matter but are precious. In another world, Barton is loved, safe, and valued. The only difference being that the latter is a path they must make themselves. You may have seen Ebo's work in Natasha Marin's Black Imagination and heard in the audiobook read by Grammy and Tony award winner, Daveed Diggs.  You have also seen Ebo's work online on Write About Now, Button Poetry, and All Def Poetry channels.  In 2016, they placed 5th in the World at Individual World Poetry Slam. In 2017, they co-wrote and co-produced the award-winning play, "Rising Up".  In 2018, they played "Invisible One" in Anastacia Renee's "Queer. Mama. Crossroads" and reprised the role in 2019.  Ebo debuted his first published collection of poetry, Insubordinate in 2020.  In 2021, Insubordinate was named a Washington State Book Award Finalist in the Poetry Category and Black Imagination was named a Washington State Award Finalist in the Creative Non-Fiction Category. A leader in arts and activism, Ebo Barton is committed to creating opportunities for others to organize, heal and rejoice.  From curated shows  to educating across the country at various institutions, 2020 Jack Straw Writing Fellow, Ebo Barton's written, performative, and community work demand societal reckoning.

Sheri Brady serves as the Vice President of Strategy and Program of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) where she guides the organization’s programmatic work, ensuring that CDF’s efforts in policy advocacy, service delivery, and movement building are aligned to maximize impact on children’s lives.

Prior to joining CDF, Ms. Brady was the Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions, managing an emerging and expanding body of work focused on supporting community power-building and equity which included overseeing key partnerships focused on building philanthropic field practices around community-centered grantmaking. She was previously the Director of Policy at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, where she provided foundation-wide leadership on policy and advocacy grantmaking.

She serves on the boards of Everyday Democracy, which works to advance deliberative democracy and improve the quality of public life in the United States; Generations United working to improve the lives of children, youth, and older people through intergenerational collaboration; and Women’s Equity Center and Action Network with the mission to provide women of color with tools and resources to facilitate their engagement in the policymaking that affects their daily lives.

She earned her BA in political science from Wheaton College in Norton, MA and her JD from the University of California at Berkeley Law School.

Miya brings a decade of experience working in public health in the U.S. and globally. She is currently an Associate Director at FSG, a nonprofit firm that partners with organizations working to advance social change. Her work at FSG has centered on multi sector collaboration and foundation strategy development, with a particular focus on advancing physical and behavioral health equity for marginalized and underresourced communities. 

Before FSG, Miya taught Public Narrative with Professor Marshall Ganz at the Harvard Kennedy School and worked with students on grassroots organizing efforts, such as organizing with hotel workers to secure their rights to fair labor conditions. She continues to coach and organize with community organizers and leaders across the country. 

Previously, Miya worked in Washington, D.C. as a political appointee for the Obama Administration at the Department of Health and Human Services and as a White House Associate in the Office of the Vice President. She also worked as a Supply Chain Analyst for Partners in Health in rural Rwanda, where she helped improve the management and distribution of essential medicines and medical supplies, worked to improve care for premature babies, and streamlined services at an HIV clinic for youth. 

Miya received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology-Behavioral Neuroscience from Yale University and her Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. She was born and raised in Miami, Florida and feels at home anywhere by the ocean.  

Rahwa Ghirmatzion was born in Asmera, Eritrea in the middle of a civil war. She came to Western New York as a refugee at the age of eight with her family, after living in Sudan. She was educated in Buffalo Public Schools and SUNY at Buffalo.In 2018, Rahwa became executive director of PUSH Buffalo, a community organization that works at the grassroots to create and implement a comprehensive revitalization plan for Buffalo’s West Side, with more than $70 million invested in affordable housing rehabilitation, solar installation, green jobs training, weatherization and green infrastructure. Ghirmatzion oversees the organization’s programs and day-to-day operations, which have grown to include housing construction, weatherization, solar installation, job training, and a youth center on Grant Street, as well as outreach and advocacy on public policy on climate justice, housing justice and social issues facing urban communities.Ghirmatzion’s greatest accomplishment to date is being a mom to a beautiful and joyful Black boy.

Curtis Lovell is an artist born and raised in Buffalo New York, who writes and records music as if each musical piece is its own journal entry, and each performance is an opportunity to sing about what she knows. Influenced by the likes of Jill Scott, Nina Simone, Nat King Cole, and Patsy Cline, Curtis manages to form a new sound that signifies bravery, growth, and authenticity. Curtis Lovell began singing at the ripe age of 4 years old when her mother realized that her child had the gift of perfect pitch. Once she was entering high school, she began to take her hobby seriously as she pulled from her life experiences, wins, and losses, to find her signature sound and style.

Tatewin Means is from the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota, Oglala Lakota and Inhanktonwan nations in South Dakota. Ms. Means grew up in her Oglala homelands where her father is from. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Stanford University in Environmental Engineering with a minor in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity; JDwith a concentration in Human Rights Law from the University of Minnesota Law School; and Master of Artsdegree in Lakota Leadership and Management from Oglala Lakota College. A longtime advocate for human rights, survivors, children,and families,Tatewin Means served as the Attorney General for the Oglala Sioux Tribe in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation from 2012-2017.In 2018, Tatewin sought the Democraticnomination for South Dakota Attorney General—the first ever Indigenous woman to seek the office of a state Attorney General in the United States. Tatewin served as a German Marshall Fund Marshall Memorial Fellow in 2015 and a 2020 fellow in PolicyLink’s Ambassadorsfor Health Equity fellowship.Currently, Tatewin is a 2022 RockwoodLeadership Institute’sLeading from the Inside OutFellow. Tatewin is the Executive Director of Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, an Indigenous grassrootsorganization in Oglala Territory, seeking liberation for Lakota people through language, lifeways and spirituality.

Dallas Nelson is a citizen of the Oglála Lakȟóta Nation. He was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation. His wife Emily Charging Crow-Nelson and him have four children and reside within the Red Cloud Community near Pine Ridge, South Dakota. He holds a Bachelors in both Sociology and American Indian Studies from Black Hills State University along with a Masters in Lakota Leadership & Management at Oglala Lakota College. He is an advocate for Indigenous Education, Language & Lifeways Reclamation, and the ongoing movement to create systemic change within all Indigenous Communities.

Priya Parker is helping us take a deeper look at how anyone cancreate collective meaning in modern life, one gathering at a time. She is a master facilitator, strategic advisor, acclaimed author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters​, and executive producer and host of the​ ​New York Times​ podcast, ​Together Apart​. Parker ​has spent 15 years helping leaders and communities have complicated conversations about community and identity and vision at moments of transition. Trained in the field of conflict resolution, Parker has worked on race relations on American college campuses and on peace processes in the Arab world, southern Africa, and India.

Parker is a founding member of the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network, a member ofthe World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Values Council and the New Models of Leadership, and a Senior Expert at Mobius Executive Leadership. She studied organizational design at M.I.T., public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and political and social thought at the University of Virginia.

Parker’s ​The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters ​(Riverhead, 2018) has been named a Best Business Book of the year by Amazon, Esquire Magazine, NPR, theFinancial Times, 1-800-CEO-READS and Bloomberg. She has spoken on the TED MainStage, and her TEDx talk on purpose has been viewed over 1 million times. Parker’s work has been featured in numerous outlets including the ​New York Times​, the ​WallStreet Journal​, NPR, TED.com, Forbes.com, Real Simple Magazine, Oprah.com, Bloomberg, Glamour, the Today Show and Morning Joe. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, ​Anand Giridharadas​, and their two children.

Sarah Shanley Hope is the VP of Brand + Partnerships at The Solutions Project following seven years as the organization’s first Executive Director. Under Sarah’s leadership, the organization transformed its mission and culture to center racial and gender equity, launched the field’s first and only award-winning intermediary climate and equity fund, and grew a celebratory, collaborative and inclusive movement for 100% clean energy. Sarah has held executive or leadership roles at the Alliance for Climate Education (now renamed Action for the Climate Emergency), Green For All, Cargill and Best Buy over her 15+ years of experience in brand strategy and social change. She has raised and helped deploy more than $75 million in support of a racial equity and climate solutions agenda over her tenure in the field.

Shanley Hope graduated with an MBA from the University of Minnesota and a BA in political science from Vassar College. She grew up in Buffalo, NY and lives with her husband, daughters and dog in Oakland, CA, where she also sits on the Board of Native Renewables. Sarah’s work has been featured in a range of outlets including the NY Times, People Magazine, and the Daily Show. She has spoken about the vision, strategies and stories of change at the intersection of climate solutions and equity as part of TEDxMidAtlantic, Climate One, the Social Venture Network, Climate Week, and Bioneers.

The Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson is president & CEO of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), pursuing the vision of a nation where marginalized children flourish, leaders prioritize their well-being, and communities wieldthe power to ensure they thrive. Since 1973, CDF has been leading the movement to build power for child-centered public policy, informed by racial equity and the lived experience of children and youth.

Dr. Wilson is board chair for the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) and vice chair of the Forum for Theological Exploration (FTE). He also serves boards for CDF Action Council, Duke Divinity School, the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference and Sojourners.

From 2011 through 2020, Rev. Wilson was president & CEO of Deaconess Foundation, a faith-based philanthropy for child well-being and racial justice in St. Louis. Under his leadership, Deaconess constructed and established the Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being, a community action tank engaging more than 15,000 citizens annually. From 2008 through 2018, Dr. Wilson also pastored Saint John’s Church (The Beloved Community), an inter-racial, inner-city congregation related to the United Church of Christ.

After the police killing of Michael Brown, Jr., Wilson and the church hosted the #BlackLivesMatter Freedom Ride to Ferguson and served as the welcome center for #FergusonOctober. In service of community healing, Wilson co-chaired the Ferguson Commission. In 2015, they released the ‘Forward Through Ferguson: A Path Toward Racial Equity’Report, calling for sweeping changes in policing, the courts, child well-being and economic mobility.

Dr. Wilson earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Xavier University of Louisiana, Master of Divinity from Eden Theological Seminary, and the Doctor of Ministry from Duke University. For his public theology, he was awarded Doctor of Public Service and Doctor of Divinity degreeshonoris causaby Saint Louis University and Eden Theological Seminary, respectively. A member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Starsky is married to Dr. LaToya Smith Wilson, a dentist and child advocate. They are raising four children.

Follow Dr. Wilson’s activism, philanthropy, and ministry at @RevDrStarskyand @ChildDefender.