ALICIA GARZA KIMBERLÉ CRENSHAW BARBARA LEE

Principal of Black Futures Lab and co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter and the Black Lives Matter Global Network

New York Times best selling author of Finding My Voice; senior advisor to Barack Obama, the Obama Foundation and ATTN

Democratic US Representative, California; co-chair of House Democratic Leadership Team; human rights advocate ganizer, writer, and speaker. She founded Black Futures Lab to make Black communities powerful in politics. She is a co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter and the Black Lives Matter Global Network, an international organizing project to end state violence and oppression against Black people. Garza is strategy and partnerships director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance and co-founder of Supermajority, a new home for women’s activism. The author of a forthcoming book tentatively titled How to Turn a Hashtag Into a Movement, her writing has appeared in The Root, Cosmopolitan, The Guardian, TIME, Mic, and Vox. Garza has been recognized on The Root’s 2016 list of 100 African American achievers and influencers, among other honors.

She previously served as the senior advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama and assistant to the president for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs from 2009 to 2017. Before that, she served as a co-chair of the Obama–Biden Transition Project. She has been the CEO of the Obama Foundation since October 2021 holds degrees from Mills College and the University of California, Berkeley. She started her career by working on the presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm and was later involved with the Black Panther Party. After working as chief of staff for U.S. Representative Ron Dellums, Lee served in the California State Assembly from 1990 to 1996 and in the California State Senate from 1996 to 1998.

In addition to being senior advisor to the president, Jarrett held other leadership positions and completed further duties. Among those included chairing the White House Council on Women and Girls and co-chairing the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. In March 2014, she participated as a speaker on Voices in Leadership, an original Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health webcast series, in a discussion entitled, “Leadership in the White House,” moderated by Dr. Atul Gawande.

Lee was elected to the House of Representatives in a 1998 special election to succeed Dellums. A noted progressive, she chaired the Congressional Progressive Caucus from 2005 to 2009 and the Congressional Black Caucus from 2009 to 2011. She has played a major role in the antiwar movement, notably in her vocal criticism of the Iraq War and for being the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization of use of force following the September 11 attacks.

Comedian, actress, writer, producer; founder of Smart Funny & Black Entertainment; author of Small Doses: Potent Truths for Everyday Use; host of Small Doses with Amanda Seales podcast

Award-winning human rights defender; co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter; founder of the new digital digest Diaspora Rising; one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Women of the Last Century

Award-winning writer, activist, and director of communications for Ms. Foundation public speaker and media maven. Originally from Augusta, GA., she graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in journalism in 2013 and hasn’t stopped writing since. Since graduation, she’s worked in media through newspapers and online publications.

Amanda Ingrid Seales (born July 1, 1981), formerly known by the stage name Amanda Diva, is an American comedian and actress. Since 2017, she has starred in the HBO comedy series Insecure. In 2019, HBO released her first stand-up comedy special I Be Knowin. Then, in 2020, Seales launched Smart Funny & Black, a comedy gameshow that showcases Black culture, history, and experience. Seales was also one of the co-hosts of the syndicated daytime talk show, The Real, alongside Loni Love, Tamera Mowry, Adrienne Bailon, and Jeannie Mai.

On January 26, 2019, HBO debuted her first stand-up comedy special I Be Knowin’. Bring the Funny is a comedy competition series that premiered on July 9, 2019 on NBC. Seales hosts, alongside judges Kenan Thompson, Chrissy Teigen, and Jeff Foxworthy.

Opal Tometi is a writer, strate gist, community organizer and co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement. She is currently the executive director at Black Alliance for Just Immigration, the leading Black organization for immigrant rights in the United States.

The daughter of Nigerian immigrants, Tometi grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and a Masters of Arts degree in communication and advocacy from the University of Arizona. She is a former case manager for survivors of domestic violence and still provides community education on the issue.

Tometi has been active in social movements for over a decade and has collaborated with a number of civil rights groups in the United States and around the world. She has presented at the United Nations and participated with the UN’s Global Forum on Migration and Commission on the Status of Women.

Her writing has been featured on The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Autostraddle, Medium’s Cuepoint and ForHarriet. She really wants to use her voice and talents to inspire and uplift marginalized individuals, particularly trans women of color. Her local activism work includes trans advocacy and working with the Solutions Not Punishments Coalition to alleviate the issues of mass incarceration and police brutality in Atlanta.

SOURCE: FORBES.COM