Jordan Ealey is a scholar, artist, and cultural critic who divides her time between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia. Jordan is pursuing a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park and researching Black theatre and performance, Black feminist theories and praxis, musical theatre history, dramaturgy, and Black girlhood studies. Alongside academic work, Jordan is a dramaturg who specializes in new play development and production dramaturgy, working with institutions such as Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Hush Harbor Lab, Theatrical Outfit, Working Title Playwrights, and Synchronicity Theatre. Jordan co-hosts and co-produces of Daughters of Lorraine, a podcast on Black theatre through a Black feminist lens, which is supported by HowlRound Theatre Commons.

Founder of B Posi+ve Productions

Dario is a Chicago comedian and producer, and the co-host of the podcast B Posi+ive: The Chicago Stories and his second collaborative comedy album, “Laughter Is Good for the Soul”, debuted on iTunes at #1!! He’s also the co-founder of We Can Do Better, a community organization aimed at proactively creating positive change. Most recently he is the new co-producer and host of a new show at Zanies Comedy Club, “Wednesdays After Work”.

President Mu Nu Chapter, Omega Psi Phi

Gabe Brown is a highly respected executive with 25+ years in healthcare technology, healthcare operations, and leadership. He served in the United States Navy and retired after 30 years of dedicated, uninterrupted service, during which time he was on 7 deployments and held influential positions to include Deputy Chief Information Officer, Navy Medicine; Officer in Charge (OIC), Chief Operating Officer, Admiral Joel T. Boone Health Clinic, Virginia Beach, VA;  Deputy Chief Information Officer, Joint Task Force National Capital Region - Medical; Chief Information Officer Expeditionary Medical Facility (EMF) Kuwait; Chief Information Officer, Naval Hospital Oak Harbor, WA; and Chief, Market Technology Integration Office, Defense Health Agency. Gabe is a sought-after expert in large information technology transformations and all facets of hospital technology implementation. Gabe currently serves as Chief Executive Officer for Tenacity Solutions, LLC, a Federal Center for Veterans Enterprise (CVE) certified service-disabled Veteran owned small business (SDVOSB). 

Gabe enjoys spending time with family, vacationing, and playing golf. Gabe serves as the President (Basileus) of the Mu Nu Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc, in Montgomery County, MD and leads the chapter through numerous community service activities including academic scholarship activities, an annual talent competition for high school students, and partnerships with churches to minimize the impact of food shortages. Further, Mu Nu is known for the Saturday School Program, The George B. Thomas Sr., Learning Academy, Inc which has provided tutoring and mentoring to thousands f children since 1986. 

Gabe earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Columbia College, a Master of Science in Health Services Administration from Central Michigan University, and a Master of Science in Information Systems Technology from The George Washington University. Gabe is also a graduate of the National Defense University, Federal Chief Information Officer Program. 

Professor and former Chairman of Howard University's Department of Political Science

Dr. Clarence Lusane is a full Professor and former Chairman of Howard University’s Department of Political Science. He is an author, activist, scholar, lecturer, and journalist. For more than 40 years, he has written about and been active in national and international human rights, anti-racism politics, Diaspora engagements, U.S. foreign policy, democracy building, and social justice issues such as education, criminal justice, and voting rights. He earned his B.A. from Wayne State University, and both his Masters and Ph.D. from Howard University in Political Science.

As a scholar, researcher, policy-advocate, and activist, he has traveled to over 75 nations. He has lectured and conducted field research on human rights in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, China, Cuba, Germany, Guyana, Guadeloupe, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Korea, Pakistan, Panama, Rwanda, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam among others.

In addition to his scholarship on global relations, Dr. Lusane has been an official international election observer in Haiti and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He spent two and one-half years living in London conducting research on racism and human rights in Europe, and working closely with European governments and institutions such as the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the Helsinki Commission, as well as many non-governmental organizations and community groups.

He has taught and been on the faculty at Medgar Evers College, Columbia University and American University, and been a visiting professor and lecturer in the France, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea, the UK, and Ukraine. Dr. Lusane is the former Co-chair of the Civil Society Committee for the U.S.-Brazil Joint Action Plan to Eliminate Racial Discrimination, a bi-lateral agreement involving the U.S. and Brazilian governments and civil society in both nations. The venture created collaborative cross-national anti-racism projects in the areas of education, health care, employment, environment, and criminal justice. He has also been a political consultant to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and many elected officials. He is also a former Commissioner on the DC Commission on African American Affairs.

In 2013, he served as a special on-air guest expert for C-SPAN’s coverage of both President Barack Obama’s second inauguration, and the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, and frequently is interviewed and asked to provide commentary on both national radio and TV programs such as MSNBC, CSPAN, Democracy Now!, the Tom Joyner Show, and other popular programs.

His most recent book is The Black History of the White House. The book has been presented on two occasions at the White House. His other books include Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice: Foreign Policy, Race, and the New American Century; Hitler’s Black Victims: The Experiences of Afro-Germans, Africans, Afro-Europeans and African Americans During the Nazi Era; Race in the Global Era: African Americans at the Millennium; and Pipe Dream Blues: Racism and the War on Drugs among others. His next book, $20 and Change: Harriet Tubman, Andrew Jackson, and the Struggle for a Radical Democracy, is scheduled for release in 2021.

Founder and Executive Director of P.E.N. (Promote, Enrich and Nurture) DMV

David Street is a native of Washington, D.C. and has over 10 years of grassroots organizing and engagement experience.  He also serves as Deputy Director of Grassroots Organizing for Bread for the World. 

Outside of his work in the organizing space, Street also serves as the Executive Director for P.E.N. (Promote, Enrich and Nurture) DMV, a non-profit that specializes in mentoring and social media training with high school students and aspiring leaders living in Washington, D.C., New York and Paris, France.   

Street received his Bachelors in Political Science from North Carolina A & T State University and holds a Masters in Theology from Wesley Theological Seminary.

Among his honors and distinctions, Street is an ordained minister at Mt. Sinai Baptist Church here in Washington, D.C. Street was selected as a 2017 “National Christian Innovative Leader” by Duke University and is a member of the National Minority Quality Forum’s inaugural “40 Under 40” Leaders in Minority Health.  Street has also been featured in Black Enterprises “100 Modern Man” series, is a former member of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Commission on African American Affairs, and is also proud member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc.

Past Vice President, Nu Beta Chapter, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity

Owen Manning is a senior studying Business Administration from Atlanta, GA. Manning is also a candidate for the Masters in Management program at GW. He is studying at George Washington University on a full-tuition leadership scholarship from the Posse Foundation that encourages students to make an impact on student life and improve their campus communities. During his time at GW, he has worked closely with University leadership to do just that. In his role as President of the Black Student Union, he worked closely with the President of the University to improve the student experience for Black students and other students of color at the University. Meanwhile, he executed over 30 large events during his tenure, focusing on mental health, professional development, and various other elements to improve the student experience of his constituents. Manning is a member of the Nu Beta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated and has served as Vice-President of his chapter.  Currently, Manning is a Fellow at Values Partnerships, a social impact agency based in Washington, DC. He also acts as a Project Specialist for NIW Design, an event management company. Owen's plans for the future are to work at the intersection of business and social impact, to improve the lives of underrepresented groups across the country.

Founder and Executive Director, Project GoodMen

For the past 22 years, LeVar A. Jones has worked unapologetically to ensure that young people discover and thrive in their God given purpose. Entering Christian ministry at the age of 14 at Washington, DC’s historic Shiloh Baptist Church, LeVar’s service to youth is based on his philosophy of “Relational and Relevant.”  He currently serves as the Minister of Youth & Young Adults at The New Macedonia Baptist Church in Southeast Washington, DC, under the leadership of Pastor Patrick J. Walker.  In December of 2020, he launched his nonprofit organization, Project GoodMen, an innovative and inter-generational mentoring experience focused on Ensuring the Legacy of Black Manhood.

Through the years, LeVar has served as both youth pastor and nonprofit professional, developing initiatives in the Washington DC and Baltimore areas, most recently and for nearly a decade, with Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington. His impact still registers in the lives of the youth and families, many now who have entered adulthood, graduated college and are living successful adult lives.

A passionate advocate for young people and youth work, LeVar is a mentor to many young people and other youth pastors and workers across the country and abroad.  He has traveled to South America and the Philippines, to minister and help develop youth work in these countries. He serves his community through several other avenues including a board member for Aya, Inc, a nonprofit organization committed to empower young women of color and as a Commission with the District’s Commission on National and Community Service., also known as ServeDC.

A native Washingtonian, lover of the arts and avid chef, LeVar resides in the District of Columbia and lives his life based on Galatians 6:9, “Be not weary in well doing, for in due season, you shall reap, if you faint not!”

Rashayla Marie Brown (RMB) is an "undisciplinary" artist-scholar, creating visually poetic and emotionally engaging artworks with a deeply critical eye towards knowledge, medium and audience. Through installation design, photography, performance, writing, video art and film directing, RMB explores how words and images in art history, religion and popular culture can enact radical thought beyond mere representation. These works have been presented at galleries internationally including INVISIBLE-EXPORTS, New York; Krabbesholm Højskole, Copenhagen; La Becque, La-Tour-de-Peilz; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco; Rhodes College, Memphis; Tate Modern, London; and Turbine Hall, Johannesburg. 

As a writer, RMB's viral essay "Open Letter to My Fellow Young Artists and Scholars on the Margins" was shared over 10K times online as of 2020. A lifelong nomad who has moved 24 times, RMB began an artistic practice as a poet and researcher in London, England and regularly travels to assess the impact of art institutions internationally. RMB's work and words have been featured in Art Forum, Artsy, Chicago Magazine, Hyperallergic, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Performa Magazine, Prospect.4 New Orleans, Radical Presence (CAM Houston), and the cover of the Chicago Reader. Grants include the Artadia Award; NYC's Franklin Furnace; and the Mayor of Atlanta's Film Grant. 

Previously, RMB founded the graphic design firm Selah Vibe, Inc. (2004-2011) and served as the inaugural Director of Diversity and Inclusion at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2013-2017), curating exhibitions and programs. RMB studied Arabic and French through a US Dept. of Ed. fellowship in Rabat, Morocco and holds degrees from Yale, SAIC, and Northwestern, trained by Paul Gilroy (sociology), Barbara DeGenevieve (photography), and D. Soyini Madison (performance) respectively. RMB is Assistant Professor, Adj. at SAIC, while simultaneously producing two films and teaching through Northwestern's Performance Studies Department.

Mei Ann Teo (they/she) is a queer immigrant from Singapore making theatre & film at the intersection of artistic/civic/contemplative practice. As a director/devisor/dramaturg, she creates across genres, including music theatre, intermedial participatory work, reimagining classics, and documentary theatre. Profiled in American Theatre’s Role Call: Theatre Workers to Watch, Teo’s work has toured the U.S. and internationally including Belgium's Festival de Liege (Lyrics From Lockdown, “Truly polished, meaningful and entertaining” -New York Times), Singapore Theatre Festival (Building A Character - Hit List of the Business Times, “Dynamic staging”), Edinburgh International Fringe (MiddleFlight, “Stunning” -Scotsman), M1 Singapore Fringe Festival (The Shape of a Bird, "Superb staging" - Straits Times), INFANT Experimental Theatre Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia, Beijing International Festival (Labyrinth - Top 8 in Beijing News), Dumbo Arts Festival, and the Shanghai International Experimental Theatre Festival (Official Selection - Caucasian Chalk Circle). She has directed and/or developed new work at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Phil Killian Fellow 2015), Goodman Theatre, Public Theater, Berkeley Rep (Ground Floor), Crowded Fire, History Theatre and the National Black Theatre. She directed the world premiere of Dim Sum Warriors by Colin Goh and Yen Yen Woo, composed by Pulitzer Prize winner Du Yun at Stan Lai’s Theatre Above in Shanghai, which went on a national twenty-five city tour in China in summer 2018. 

Teo was the director featured at the MIT’s Symposium Next Wave: The Future of Asian American Theatre, and has presented at national conferences including Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists, Network of Ensemble Theatres, and Arts In the One World. Internationally, she has presented on her work in Italy, China, and Singapore. Teo has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, Jerome Fellowship, and A Blade of Grass Contemplative Practice fellowship. 

Teo was the first cohort for the Hemera Foundation Tending Space Fellowship and ArtEquity Facilitator Training, and has received grants and fellowships from the Center for Cultural Innovation, the Asian Cultural Council, Network of Ensemble Theatres, Performance Project at University Settlement, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

As a filmmaker, Teo directed a short film Let Me Kill My Mother First, inspired by poet Christine Chia’s relationship with her mother, which recently screened at the Singapore Film Festival in November 2018. She directed a short documentary entitled Please Listen To Me about marginalized and at risk youth in Singapore. She co-directed and produced a short film Not Here that received the Singapore Film Commission's Short Film Grant and was screened internationally, including the San Francisco Asian American Festival and the Montreal World Film Festival. She produced Stop All The Clocks (available on Amazon), a feature length documentary about Fatal Distraction – the Pulitzer winning feature by Gene Weingarten. 

As an educator, she served for seven years as the Chair of Drama/Resident Artist at Pacific Union College where she founded a program focused on original ensemble creation and rooted in personal and communal history. She received the Meritorious Service Award for creating "Red Books: Our Search for Ellen White", documentary theatre that KQED called "without a doubt a seminal moment in Adventist History". She has guest lectured at top institutions around the world, like Harvard, Duke, MIT and Shanghai Theatre Academy, and served as the Asst. Professor of Directing and Dramaturgy at Hampshire College. She holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from Columbia University.

Toto Kisaku is an award-winning Congolese playwright, actor, director and producer who studied drama at the National Institute of Arts in Kinshasa. After establishing the K-Mu Theater in 2003, he spent the next 15 years traveling the world to produce and participate in plays. Toto arrived in the United States in late 2015 seeking political asylum, which he was granted in March of last year. Since his arrival, Toto has spent his time learning and redefining his artistic expression based on the tension that both his country of origin and the country which has welcomed him are enduring. In his work, Toto focuses on transcending the constraints of daily life and examining how people living in poverty or under oppressive regimes can recreate their environments and improve their lives through artistic activities. Toto’s pieces invite both spectator and actor to find ways to go beyond the walls of both the performance and living space.  

Toto’s piece Requiem For An Electric Chair premiered at the 2018 Festival with three sold out performances and is his first play to be performed in English. Toto was the recipient of the 2010 "Freedom to Create Prize,” presented in Cairo, Egypt. He was also the recipient of the 2018 Rebecca Blunk Fund award, granted by the New England Foundation for the Arts.

Toto has appeared in festivals around the world including our own Arts & Ideas Festival, TILT, Festival of Limoges, Avignon, Paris Quartier d’Eté, Right About Now, a/d Werf, ICAF, TAZ, Festival sur le Niger, Les Pilotobés, Mantsina sur scène, and Toseka. His current pieces include Rencontre au Pluriel, Basal'ya Bazoba, Surface, and Requiem for an Electric Chair. He has performed as Booth in Topdog/Underdog as directed by Philip Boulay. Toto has contributed to numerous workshops and residencies across the DRC, Africa and Europe.

Micah Hendler (Forbes 30 Under 30 for Music) founded the Jerusalem Youth Chorus in 2012 as a synthesis of years of work in musical community-building and Israeli-Palestinian conflict transformation (including a Yale degree in music and international studies). He has founded, directed, sung with, or played with dozens of musical ensembles of varying global styles, including the Whiffenpoofs and Duke’s Men of Yale. A CARA-nominated vocal arranger, he has studied Community Singing with Ysaye Barnwell and CircleSinging with Roger Treece, and uses these two methodologies and others to open up the concept of what a chorus can do and who should be in it. He has been involved in Israeli-Palestinian dialogue work for more than 15 years and has written and presented in many local and global forums about his work with the chorus, including sharing the keynote presentation of the East-West Philosophers’ Conference with leading Palestinian intellectual and peacemaker Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, as they explored together how sound can be used as a tool to create shared spaces in Jerusalem. Micah has never been more in love with any ensemble than he is with the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, and is grateful to them for their dedication to the chorus and for their love of one another.

The Jerusalem Youth Chorus is a choral and dialogue program for Palestinian and Israeli youth in Jerusalem. Our mission is to provide a space for these young people from East and West Jerusalem to grow together in song and dialogue. Through the co-creation of music and the sharing of stories, we empower youth in Jerusalem with the responsibility to speak and sing their truths, as they become leaders in their communities and inspire singers and listeners around the world to work for peace, justice, inclusion, and equality.

The Jerusalem Youth Chorus is unique in its combination of music and dialogue programming, providing a transformative experience for our singers that yields both friendship and understanding on an individual and collective level across lines of religion, nationality, language, and culture. We go beyond simply singing together, delving deeper into one another’s identities, life experiences, communal narratives, religious traditions, and national histories through dialogue, all within the safe space of the musical ensemble and the strong personal bonds and community it creates.

Musically, the Jerusalem Youth Chorus seeks to reflect the values of equality and inclusiveness upon which we are based, truly making manifest the concept of beauty in diversity. As our members come often from vastly different musical traditions, we draw heavy influences from both East and West in our repertoire and musical style. As such, we seek to innovate and challenge boundaries musically as we do in the non-musical elements of our program.

Evren Odcikin  is a director, writer, and arts administrator. A celebrated new plays director, he has worked at New York Theatre Workshop, Geva Theatre Center, Berkeley Rep, South Coast Rep, the Lark, Kennedy Center, InterAct (Philadelphia), Cleveland Public Theatre, TheatreSquared, Magic Theatre, Crowded Fire, Golden Thread Productions, TheatreFirst, and Playwrights Foundation with such writers as Melis Aker, Kevin Artigue, Guillermo Calderón, Christopher Chen, Jeesun Choi, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Gabriel Jason Dean, Yussef El Guindi, Lauren Gunderson, Prince Gomolvilas, David Jacobi, MJ Kaufman, Hannah Khalil, Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Michael Lew, Mona Mansour, Rehana Lew Mirza, Baruch Porras Hernandez, Betty Shamieh, Caridad Svich, Jordan Tannahill, and Lauren Yee, amongst many others. His productions have been Barrymore and Theatre Bay Area Awards Recommended; appeared on "Best of the Year" lists in San Francisco Chronicle, KQED, Bay Area Reporter, and SF Bay Times; were named as a Critic's Pick for Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and San Francisco Chronicle; and were nominated for numerous Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards. 

As a writer, he is under commission with Leila Buck to create 1001 Nights (A Retelling) inspired by the original tales for Cal Shakes. His adaptation of The Braggart Soldier by Plautus based on a translation by Deana Berg premiered at Custom Made Theatre Company and his translation of Turkish-French playwright Sedef Ecer's On the Periphery received its world premiere in a co-production between Golden Thread Productions and Crowded Fire Theater Company.

Evren serves as the Associate Artistic Director at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and is a founder of Maia Directors, a consulting group for artists and organizations engaging with Middle Eastern stories and beyond. He is a founding steering committee member of MENA Theater Makers Alliance. From 2015-2018, he served as the Director of New Plays and Marketing at Golden Thread Productions, the first American theatre company devoted to the Middle East, where he is now a resident artist. On the administrative side, he was most recently the communications consultant for KQED’s $135 million Campaign 21, and has held high-level marketing and communications positions at American Conservatory Theater and Magic Theatre.

Recognitions include a 2016 “Theatre Worker You Should Know” selection by American Theatre Magazine; a 2015 National Director’s Fellowship from the O’Neill, NNPN, the Kennedy Center, and SDCF; the 2013 TITAN Award from Theatre Bay Area; and being selected as an Emerging Theatre Leader by Theatre Communications Group for their 2012 Leadership Bootcamp. He has served on selection committees for Theatre Communications Group, National Endowment for the Arts, Zellerbach Foundation, NNPN Showcase of New Plays, and Middle East America Initiative. Evren was born and raised in Turkey and is a graduate of Princeton University.

Kareem Fahmy is a Canadian-born director and playwright of Egyptian descent. He has directed a number of world premiere productions including James Scruggs’s 3/Fifths (3LD, New York Times Top 5 Must-See Shows), Sevan K. Greene’s This Time (Sheen Center, New York Times Critics’ Pick), Bess Welden’s Refuge*Malja (Portland Stage), Adam Kraar’s Alternating Currents (Working Theater), Nikkole Salter’s Indian Head (Luna Stage), and Victor Lesniewski’s Couriers and Contrabands (TBG Theatre, also co-creator).

His plays, which include A Distinct Society, The Triumphant, Pareidolia, The In-Between, and an adaptation of the acclaimed Egyptian novel The Yacoubian Building have been developed or presented at The Atlantic Theater Company, New York Stage & Film, Target Margin Theater, The Lark, Capital Repertory Theatre, Fault Line Theater, and Noor Theater. Kareem has been a fellow or resident artist at the Sundance Theatre Lab, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Phil Killian Directing Fellow), Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center (National Directors Fellow), TCG (Rising Leaders of Color), Second Stage (Van Lier Directing Fellow), Soho Rep (Writer/Director Lab), Lincoln Center (Directors Lab), The New Museum (Artist-in-Residence), and New York Theater Workshop (Emerging Artist Fellow & Usual Suspect). He has developed new plays at theaters around the country, including MCC, The Atlantic, The New Group, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New Dramatists, The Civilians, Geva Theatre, Pioneer Theatre, Silk Road Rising, and Berkeley Rep. He is a founder of Maia Directors, a consulting group for organizations and artists engaging with stories from the Middle East and beyond. MFA: Columbia University.

​Kareem lives in New York City with his husband, acclaimed fiction writer John McManus.

Dolores Díaz is a Tejana playwright originally from the border city of Laredo, Texas. Her newest play, Rehearsal, runs Oct 21-23 at The Frontier in Chicago with NOMADs Art Collective. The piece premiered August 2019 in the Steppenwolf Garage as part of Bechdel Fest 7 with Broken Nose Theatre (Chicago, IL). The Curse of Giles Corey received a workshop production at Northwestern University as part of their 2019 new play showcase. Man of the People was produced by Three Cat Productions in October 2018. Also in October, Nothing Without a Company (Chicago, IL) premiered Appreciation Day; MOJOAA (Raleigh, NC) presented the play the same month. Performing Arts Studio presented Dolores’s work devised using Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed methodologies as part of their Forum Theatre’s 2018-2019 season (Chicago, IL). Dolores was also a finalist for the 2019/2020 Goodman Playwrights Unit. Dolores’s adaptation of Sir Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle world premiered in 2017 with Three Cat Productions as part of the Holiday Radio Show, which was recommended in the Tribune’s list of top 40 Holiday entertainment for 2017. A Truthful Christmas and Uncomfortable Positions premiered at The Vortex in October 2014 as part of the 14-48 Projects in Austin, TX. Border Grammar was produced by Teatro Chicano de Laredo in 2010. From 2015-2017, Dolores served as Producer for Teatro Vivo’s annual Austin Latino New Play Festival. Dolores is a graduate of Northwestern University’s MFA Writing Program for the Stage and Screen.

Monica Curca serves as the +Peace Interim Director. She is a cultural organizer, peacebuilder, communications strategist, designer, and facilitator, leveraging the power of storytelling and human-centered design to create communities where everyone belongs.

Monica is the founder and director of Activate Labs, a non-profit organization dedicated to building a global creative force for peace and justice. Now based in Washington, DC, Monica’s passion is activating and resourcing leaders and communities to co-create transformative change. Along with the Activate Labs team, Monica has developed the “Peace Design Process” which has trained thousands of participants to lead as peace designers. Through her work at Activate Labs Monica has also pioneered “Peace Activations” which are experiential and art-based public spaces that engage and activate the public towards collective action for peace and justice. Often Peace Activations are linked to social justice and peacebuilding campaigns. Monica is a communications expert and thus has designed, launched, and managed hundreds of campaigns over the last 10 years advocating for immigrant rights, ending mass incarceration, police accountability, a living wage, transparent governance, etc.

Monica brings passion, experience, and skill to her work and has not only fought but also won key policy and narrative change victories. However, Monica knows that the way to change policy or narrative begins with creating a culture peace and thus she foremost sees herself as a cultural peace organizer. Monica is the winner of the 2019 Human Rights Educator O’Brien Award, Seeds of Peace 2019 “Gather Fellow” and was a finalist for the Peace Direct: Tomorrow's Peacebuilders.

She holds two master’s degrees from the Heller School for Social Policy in Management at Brandeis University, in Sustainable International Development and Conflict and Coexistence. While originally from Romania, Monica currently lives with her family in Takoma Park, Maryland.

Jess Kaufman is the Executive Artistic Director and Co-Founder (with Co-Founder Ana Diaz Barriga) of Más Allá del Muro // Beyond the Wall.

Más Allá del Muro // Beyond the Wall creates binational art programs with giant puppets that explore cultural identity with young borderlanders. The giant puppets amplify their voices, offering a positive, authentic counterpoint to negative narratives about life in the borderlands. We know there is more to life at the border than the wall. Our projects, which always culminate in free, family friendly public performances, offer young participants a chance to make their voices heard, and offer audiences an invitation to reconsider their perspective on life at the border. Based in Nogales AZ/SON, we are non-profit through fiscal sponsorship, and are run by a coalition of local and international artists and educators across North America. 

Jess Kaufman is a creative producer making thoughtful, playful, ambitious theater that helps young people and families cross boundaries. In addition to her work with MADM||BTW, she is currently developing her D/deaf and hearing accessible play, Mathilda and the Orange Balloon, as a 2019-2020 New Victory LabWorks artist. Mathilda... premiered in London and toured the UK with The DH Ensemble in 2019. Other work includes Hereville: The Musical (co-bookwriter), Martha & the Event Horizon (Camden People's Theater, London), and 7 original musicals as “Steph and Jess!”; she is a founding member of SubSublime, an international performance collective. Her writing about theater has been published in ArtsPraxis and Theater and Performance Design, and she co-edited Embodied Cognition, Acting and Performance (Routledge, 2017). She has a BFA from the University of Miami, two certificates from the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia, and an MA from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. As a queer, Jewish artist she is particularly interested in the intersection of social justice and identity. www.jesskaufman.net

Oscar Lancaster is a teacher and cultural promoter with more than 15 years of experience working arts and education in both the public and private sectors. Oscar lives and works in his hometown, Nogales SON/AZ, on the US/Mexico border. Oscar has taught arts, literature, English and social studies, as well as different workshops involving Human Skills and communication, Identity, Sexual health among other topics, to students going from middle school up to high school and university at local schools including Preparatoria Municipal (Nogales city highschool), Colegio Miranda, Conalep, Universidad de Sonora, Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, CEUNO, among others. He has experience working in Mexican state and municipal cultural and educational institutions as the Instituto Sonorense de Cultura (Sonora´s Institute of Culture), Consejo de Educación Media Superior y Superior (Middle and High Level Studies Council) and he was deputy director and program developer in the IMFOCULTA (Nogales Institute of Culture and Arts). He founded and manages Koncepto7: cultura con sentido, a nonprofit arts association since 2007, producing original theater for young people and educational projects involving arts in other school subjects, as science, social studies or math. As well as Community Art Projects for kids and teens, as Zagal Teatro (drama companies for youngsters in disadvantaged city areas. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Communication and Diploma in Theater from the Universidad de Sonora and a Diploma in Cultural Management from CONACULTA (National Art and Culture Council) and the Universidad de Sonora.

Megan Sandberg-Zakian is a freelance theater director focusing on the development of diverse new plays for the American stage, and a co-founder of Maia Directors, a consulting group for artists and organizations engaging with stories from the Middle East and beyond. Her first book, There Must Be Happy Endings: On a Theater of Optimism and Honesty is available from The 3rd Thing press. Megan has previously served as the Associate Artistic Director of Underground Railway Theater (Cambridge, MA), the Providence Black Repertory Company (RI), and The 52nd Street Project (NYC), and as Director-in-Residence at Merrimack Repertory Theatre (MRT) in Lowell, MA. Megan is a recipient of the Princess Grace Theater Award and the TCG Future Leaders fellowship, an alumna of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and a proud member of SDC. She is a graduate of Brown University and holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College. 

Recent directing projects include the world premieres of Madhuri Shekar's House of Joy at Cal Shakes, Nathan Alan Davis' Nat Turner in Jerusalem at New York Theatre Workshop, and Eleanor Burgess' Chill at MRT. Other favorite projects include: Skeleton Crew at The Huntington Theatre Company, The Royale at MRT (IRNE Award, Best Production & Best Director), The Convert at Underground Railway Theatre (Elliot Norton Award, Outstanding Production; IRNE Award, Best Production & Best Director), the world premiere of The Broken Record at FringeNYC (Overall Excellence Award), the Boston premiere of The Brother Sister Plays at Company One in Boston (IRNE Award: Best Production), and the RI premiere of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Perishable Theatre/Trinity Repertory Company (Motif Awards: Best Production, Best Set Design, Best Actor). 

As an educator and consultant, Megan has taught classes and workshops at Brown University, Yale University, and Northeastern University. She was a participant in the first ever TCG Diversity and Inclusion Institute, and continues to be part of the national conversation on creating a more equitable theater ecology. In addition to her first book, There Must Be Happy Endings, publications include "The Ferguson Theater Syllabus" in American Theatre magazine (co-authored with Claudia Alick), and the forwards to Lydia Diamond's Harriet Jacobs (Northwestern University Press, 2011) and Chantal Bilodeau's Sila  (Talonbooks, 2015). She is also the creator/admin of a resource for identifying diverse theater designers and technicians. 

Megan was born and raised in Seattle, and now lives in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston with her wife Candice. She enjoys keeping orchids alive, bird-watching, and searching for outstanding gluten-free baked goods.

Molly Josephs

Molly Josephs is a project-based educator who, with an inspiring team of teenagers, founded and runs the youth dialogue and podcasting program This Teenage Life, found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. It features episodes about topics that are particularly resonant with teens, preteens, parents, and educators. 

Molly has spent the past decade teaching middle and high school biology and computer science, and designing project-based curricula. Since studying biology at Brown University, and school leadership at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, she has worked in independent, public district, and public charter schools including High Tech High, The Dalton School, Codman Academy, and The Healey School. She also spent three years on a team working to start a new kind of in-district, project-based high school called Powderhouse Studios. Molly has been a part of the Seeds of Peace community over the past eight years as an American Delegation Leader and a GATHER Fellow.

Meenakshi Chhabra

Meenakshi Chhabra serves as an Associate Dean in the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences at Lesley University in Massachusetts's. She has been a scholar-practitioner in the field of Peace and Conflict Studies for more than two decades and has been recognized as Fulbright scholar and Fulbright Specialist in the field. In addition to her teaching and research, Meenakshi is passionate about working in and with communities and in collaborative partnerships. She has been associated with the Seeds of Peace since 2001. She is a trainer with the Eastern Mennonite University's, STAR Program (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience) and is on the national team of the Center for Restorative Justice at the University of San Diego.

Naissa Isaro

Naissa Isaro is the co-founder of CivilTEA Discourse, a network of dialogue programs being implemented across public high schools on the East Coast of the US. In these dialogue programs, participants engage in extended dialogue on politically or socially charged topics in order to build respect and empathy for differing opinions, beliefs, and experiences

Naissa has been part of seeds since 2015. She started off as a camper, than a PS (paradigm shifter), an intern for the the educators summer program to finally a 2019 Gather fellow. 

The idea for the program came in 2016, shortly after Naissa’s second summer at the Seeds of Peace Camp and her sister Pricillia’s first. It was a time when America was beginning to experience a type of divisiveness they hadn’t witnessed since arriving in the U.S., and it hit extremely close to home for Naissa. Her mother had always made sure that her children paid attention to what was going on around them—from gentrification changing the composition of neighborhoods in Portland, to politics happening in both their home and their adoptive country.

It took hard work, but the events eventually it became part of the curriculum at their school, with regular dialogues on whatever the students wanted to talk about—racism, identity, beauty norms, immigration, religion, sexual orientation. Before long, other schools began to take notice, and CivilTEA blossomed from there.

They currently have four schools that are fully signed onto the program, which includes schoolwide dialogues (including faculty) every other month and panels on relevant topics. They are also working with a number of schools and universities on providing facilitation training. The goal of the program, Naissa said, is not to reach consensus or implement a certain agenda, but to create a platform where underrepresented voices could be heard and participants build empathy by listening to perspectives different from their own.

 Read more about  wish for CivilTea to be a part of curriculums nationwide https://www.seedsofpeace.org/follow-the-fellows-in-the-business-of-spreading-empathy/

Daniel Noah Moses

Daniel Noah Moses is the Director, Educator Programs at Seeds of Peace. His work explores the types of education people need in order to be active citizens, to create a better, more peaceful future–one based on respect, on cross-cultural understanding, on dialogue, on creative peaceful responses to the challenges that we face today.

Daniel has taught American Studies at Al Quds University in Abu Dis as well as Social Studies at Harvard University. He has been a CEP (Civic Education Project) Fellow and AFP (Academic Fellowship Program) Fellow in History, Anthropology, Political Science and American Studies at Yerevan State University and at Brusov State University in Yerevan, Armenia. In the late 1990s, he lived in a little cabin on Garnet Hill in the Adirondack mountains in upstate New York, worked on his doctoral dissertation, did some editing, and washed dishes at a local hotel restaurant. He spent the 2010-2011 academic year as a Jerusalem Fellow at the Mandel Leadership Institute.

Daniel has a Ph.D. in American History from the University of Rochester and a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He published his first book, The Promise of Progress: The Life and Work of Lewis Henry Morgan, in 2009. Although the topic of a pioneering anthropologist might seem removed from his work with Seeds of Peace, there is actually a very close connection.

Seeds of Peace is a leadership development organization committed to transforming legacies of conflict into courage to lead change, they transform conflict by developing leaders and accelerating their impact in their communities. "As an organization, we affirm our opposition to dynamics, institutions, and structures that are obstacles to peace, including Racism, Sexism, Classism, Political Violence, Colonialism, Military Occupation, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia. We support our alumni as they work to end these obstacles."

Nicole A. Watson is Jamaican by birth. New Yorker by choice. Nicole A. Watson (she/her/hers) is a freelance director and educator with an interest in new play development and plays that deal with the past. A former history teacher, Nicole started directing in 2008 and works in NYC as well as universities and theaters throughout the US. She is currently the Associate Artistic Director at Round House Theatre.

Nicole is a member of the New Georges Jam and has worked with New Dramatists, the Lark Play Development Center, the Fire this Time Festival, the New Black Fest, the Women's Project Theater, The 52nd Street Project, Signature Theater, and Working Theater. Credits include Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play, Eleanor Burgess’ The Niceties, Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House Part 2, Lynn Nottage’s Sweat, Robert Schenkkan's The Great Society, the world premiere of Kevin R. Free’s Night of the Living N-Word (NY Fringe Festival), a workshop of Lenelle Moïses Merit (New Black Fest), Katori Hall's The Mountaintop, the world premiere of the opera Approaching Ali, (Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center), and the world premiere of Johnna Adams’ World Builders at the Contemporary American Theater Festival.

http://www.nicoleawatson.com/

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Marc Bamuthi Joseph | Vice President and Artistic Director of Social Impact, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Marc Bamuthi Joseph is a 2017 TED Global Fellow, an inaugural recipient of the Guggenheim Social Practice initiative, and an honoree of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship. He is also the winner of the 2011 Herb Alpert Award in Theatre, and an inaugural recipient of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. In pursuit of affirmations of black life in the public realm, he co-founded the Life is Living Festival for Youth Speaks, and created the installation “Black Joy in the Hour of Chaos” for Creative Time. Joseph’s opera libretto, We Shall Not Be Moved, was named one of 2017’s “Best Classical Music Performances” by The New York Times. His evening length work, /peh-LO-tah/, successfully toured across North America for three years, including at BAM’s Harvey Theater as a part of the 2017 Next Wave Festival. His piece, “The Just and the Blind” investigates the crisis of over-sentencing in the prison industrial complex, and premiered at a sold out performance at Carnegie Hall in March 2019. Bamuthi is currently at work on commissions for the Perelman Center, Yale University, and the Washington National Opera as well as a new collaboration with NYC Ballet Artistic Director Wendy Whelan. Formerly the Chief of Program and Pedagogy at YBCA in San Francisco, Bamuthi currently serves as the Vice President and Artistic Director of Social Impact at The Kennedy Center.

J.J. Johnson | Actor, Playwright, Screenwriter

James J. Johnson (J. J.) is an actor who was last onstage as “Wynton” in 1 st Stage’s co-production of The Royale (with Olney Theatre). Other regional theatre credits include: Les Deux Noirs (Mosaic Theatre Company); Ruined (Arena Stage); Hero’s Welcome (1 st Stage); Stick Fly (UVA Department of Theatre); Our Suburb (Theater J); The Member of the Wedding (Ford’s Theatre); The Unmentionables (Woolly Mammoth Theatre); Kingdom, Wedding Dance, Buffalo Hair (African Continuum Theatre Co.); Twelfth Night, Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare Project of Frederick); Stonewall Country, Macbeth (Theatre at Lime Kiln); Anna Lucasta (Rep Stage); Jungle Book (Adventure Theatre MTC); Zomo the Rabbit, P. Nokio, Lyle the Crocodile (Imagination Stage); Homer P. Figg (Kennedy Center). FILM: Too Saved, Nocturnal Agony and The Henchman’s War. EDUCATION: BFA, Virginia Commonwealth University. J. J. is also a founding member of Galvanize DC, a support network for Black DMV theatre artists.

Janet Standford | Founding Artistic Director, Imagination Stage

Janet Stanford is the Founding Artistic Director of Imagination Stage and the 2017 winner of the Harold Oaks Award for Innovation in Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA). Since 1993 Janet has heightened the profile of professional theatre at IStage by commissioning over 50 new works, and by employing union artists. Janet has brought many distinguished artists to the theatre including artist/activists Rebecca Rice and Anu Yadav and playwrights Charles Way, Karen Zacarias, Miriam Gonzales and Psalmayene 24. Under her leadership, the theatre has created educational plays about Biotechnology, introduced Theatre for the Very Young to audiences in the USA, co-produced and co-commissioned with other top TYA theatres both in the USA and abroad, and partnered with Health & Human Services organizations to bring theatre experiences to non-traditional audiences. Janet has traveled on grants from S. America, to Europe and Asia in search of inspiration for IStage programs. She has twice been nominated for Helen Hayes Awards for Best Director and has written several plays for children including The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe and Sleeping Beauty: Time Traveler.

Jennifer L. Nelson | Director, Actor, Playwright, Educator

Jennifer L. Nelson is the former Producing Artistic Director of the African Continuum Theatre, which she led for eleven years. She has worked in professional theatre for thirty-six years as an actress, administrator, educator, playwright, producer and director. She served two terms as President of the League of Washington Theatres and is currently a board member of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national association of not-for-profit theatres. For African Continuum Ms. Nelson produced twenty-six plays, including several world premieres. In addition to extensive directing for African Continuum, she has directed at many theatres throughout the Washington DC area, including Ford’s, Round House, Woolly Mammoth, Everyman (Baltimore), Rep Stage, Theatre of the First Amendment, Source, Imagination Stage, Young Playwrights and Tsunami. Ms. Nelson has also directed at Manhattan Class Company in New York City, the Mark Taper Forum and LATC in Los Angeles, Penumbra in Minnesota, Oregon Shakespeare and the Fulton in Pennsylvania. She has also directed at University of Maryland at College Park, University of Maryland Baltimore County and University of South Carolina.