Professor Melissa Harris-Perry is the Maya Angelou Presidential Chair at Wake Forest University. There she is founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Center and co-director of Wake the Vote. Harris-Perry is editor-at-large of Elle.com and a contributing editor at The Nation. From 2012-2016 she hosted the television show “Melissa Harris-Perry” on weekend mornings on MSNBC and was awarded the Hillman Prize for broadcast journalism. She continues to create and direct programs with the goal of creating diverse, quality American media. She is an award-winning author and sought after public speaker, lecturing widely throughout the United States and abroad.Together with her husband, James Perry, she is a principal of Perry Partnership, offering both political and private consulting.

Jamie Crockett Tchakoua, MPA was raised by her loving mother, Phyllis Crockett, in East St. Louis, Illinois. She holds an MPA and graduate certificate in nonprofit management from the MU Truman School of Public Affairs, and is currently pursuing her master’s in journalism from the Missouri School of Journalism.

As an entrepreneur, Jamie builds her vision of illuminating individuals and organizations' work in and for the community through her public relations and multimedia consultation venture: Shining Light Media (SLM). Specifically, she assists with storytelling, strategic communication consultation, photography, videography and marketing services.

Candace King is a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her work examines portrayals of Black women in television. Prior to her enrollment in graduate school, she worked for NBC News and MSNBC in New York. Candace received a News and Documentary Emmy award for her contributions at “The Rachel Maddow Show” to expose the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. A Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar, she studied Journalism and Politics at Ithaca College in upstate New York. During her senior year at IC, she co-founded and co-executive produced a sociopolitical news show titled, “The RoundTable.” Candace was a member of the 2018 BLACK ON CAMPUS cohort with AJC Center and The Nation.

Mariana Stavig is a graduate student in the Department of Psychology at Wake Forest University and a research assistant at the Anna Julia Cooper Center. She created a girls’ group in the Tampa Bay area aimed at helping young Latinas realize their intelligence, strength, beauty, and potential. She continues this work and scholarship in her current graduate studies.

Senior Reporter, Immigration Rewire.News

Tina Vasquez is the immigration reporter at Rewire.News. Previously, she was a freelance writer and editor with almost ten years of experience, focusing on intersectional feminism, racial justice, and immigration. She is the former associate editor at Black Girl Dangerous and she has contributed to the Guardian, Truthout, Jezebel, Bitch Magazine, and Al Jazeera. She is a 2014 VONA/Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation alumna and the winner of the Media Consortium’s 2015 Impact Award

Senior Writer, National Review Online

Mr. Dougherty has a well-earned reputation as a thoughtful, creative conservative thinker and writer. He will serve as the primary professional liaison to National Review and assist with securing other conservative journalists for student training sessions throughout the project.