Ebony Adedayo, in 2017, founded the Aya Collective, formerly the Kinky Curly Theological Collective (KCTC), for African American and African Immigrant women, which is focused on writing, education and training, and spiritual practice. Since its inception, the Aya Collective has curated more than a dozen writing workshops for Black women to produce knowledge that is grounded in their experience, expertise and cultural expression. Due to COVID, in 2020 KCTC hosted its first online writing cohort, Fragmented and Whole, as well as well as a summer teach-in series, Talking Back, which featured four Black women scholars and thinkers sharing their work related to identity, politics, culture, and spirituality.
In addition, Ebony works for the City of Minneapolis as a Resiliency in Community After Stress and Trauma Program Manager (ReCAST) within the Division of Race and Equity. As a ReCAST Program Manager, Ebony has implemented community-based models to increase the understanding of community trauma, healing and resiliency, and systems change. This includes but is not limited to programs such as the Capacity Building Institute, the 400 Commemoration, and the Northside Oral History Project. The Northside Oral History project, conceived by the ReCAST Minneapolis Advisory Team in 2017, has focused on capturing the stories of community elders who have lived in the Penn/Plymouth area over the last 50 years. This project wrapped up in October 2020.
Prior to her work at the City, she worked with the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability for nearly six years in various capacities, most recently as the Communications and Capacity Building Manager where she designed an asset-based model to equitable development in the Twin Cities. At the Alliance, she also managed grants for a project in North Minneapolis called the Northside Greenway.
Ebony is currently a faculty member at Bethel University, teaching equity and diversity to social work students. Ebony is a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota in Curriculum and Instruction, with minors in Culture and Teaching and African American and African Studies. She holds a Master of Arts in Global and Contextual Studies from Bethel Seminary and a Bachelor of Arts in Pastoral Studies from North Central University. She is the author of Embracing a Holistic Faith: Essays on Biblical Justice and The Gospel According to a Black Woman. Ebony recently released the Gospel According to a Black Woman in November 2020 in order to center Black women's experiences and lift up pathways towards liberation. These stories of oppression and liberation are told with the premise that when they are heard and validated, Black women get free.
Dr. Tamba-Kuii Bailey (he/him/his) is a faculty member in the Counseling Psychology and Counseling Programs at the University of North Dakota. Tamba-Kuii received his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Georgia State University. Tamba-Kuii’s professional experiences include clinical work in community mental health/school settings, a hospital, and private practice. His teaching and research interests are in the areas of Black psychology, ethics, multicultural psychology, mental health stigma, and community mental health. As a consultant, Tamba-Kuii has presented on exploring cultural privilege, addressing "isms" in clinical work, infusing multiculturalism in courses and navigating conversation related to race in the classroom.
Jerica Coffey teaches English and Ethnic Studies at Coliseum College Prep in East Oakland and is working to grow the next generation of critically conscious educators through City College of San Francisco's Teacher Preparation Program.
Tiffani Marie is the daughter of Sheryll Marie, granddaughter of Dorothy Wilson and Annette Williams, and the great-grandaughter of Artelia Green and Olivia Williams. She comes from a long line of Arkansas educators. She is passionate about learning with and from youth, sewing, music production, and connecting to the natural world.
Noor Jones-Bey is a transdisciplinary educator, researcher and artist from the Bay Area, CA. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY where she is pursuing a PHD in Urban Education at the Steinhardt School and holds fellowships from the Ford Foundation and the Urban Doctoral Research Initiative at NYU. Noor is program director of EXCEL at NYU, a critical literacy and college access program for youth in the South Bronx housed at the Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools. As a scholar deeply interested in the movement between theory and practice, Noor has served as an equity consultant and serves as a founding member of the Radical Listening Project to assist educational professionals. Noor received an M.A. in Sociology of Education from New York University and a B.A. in American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Noor’s interests engage across disciplines of sociology, education, Black and Native studies, and visual culture to examine issues of liminality, identity, space and power as they relate to education. Her dissertation work examines intergenerational knowing of Black womxn and girls navigating in and out of schools. In her spare time, she loves to cook, dance, run marathons, travel, and stir up good vibes.
Dr. Virgil Moorehead Jr (he/him/his), is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and the Executive Director at Two Feathers Native American Family Services in McKinleyville, CA. An enrolled member of the Big Lagoon Rancheria, Dr. Moorehead is the first in his tribe to attain a graduate degree. A graduate of University of California at Davis (BA), Dr. Moorehead received his Doctorate of Psychology in Clinical Psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA in 2015. During his graduate work, he completed his doctoral internship at the University Michigan, Ann Arbor and Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Stanford University. Dr. Moorehead received the 19th Annual Anne Medicine Mentorship award from Stanford University for his work with Stanford Native undergraduate and graduate students.
Jorge Santos (he/him) is a Restorative Justice Coordinator, a special education teacher and grade team leader at MS 839 in Brooklyn, NY. He is part of the school’s Instructional Leadership Team as well as the Culture & Equity Team, which focuses on creating an anti-racist and equitable learning environment. Jorge is a Restorative Justice advocate who focuses on building community and empowering student voices. He encourages social-emotional growth for students experiencing trauma instead of the traditional school disciplinary methods. He believes education and Restorative Justice practices are tools where students can examine social justice issues and become active citizens impacting their communities. Jorge has spoken at various conferences and panels discussing restorative justice, racial equity, decolonizing curriculums, and building an anti-racist school community. Jorge holds Masters Degrees in Criminology and in Special Education from St. John’s University, which influences his work around understanding social and economic inequities.