.jpg)
ROSELYN AKER-BLACK, Psy.D
Talk Title: Surviving Betrayal
Roselyn V. Aker- Black, Psy.D (affectionately known as Dr. Roz) is a native of Rome, Georgia currently residing in the Washington, DC metro. Dr. Roz received a B.A. in Psychology from Fisk University and completed a doctoral degree in clinical psychology at The American Schools of Professional Psychology at Argosy University.
​
Dr. Roz is an award- winning psychologist and has over 13 years of experience in providing psychological services as a subject matter mental health expert to children, families, and couples in the nonprofit, government, and private industry sectors. Currently, she is the Chief Operating Officer for the Goal Grinders Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides Leadership and Entrepreneurial training with a STEM Focus for at risk middle school girls. She is also a psychology professor at local universities in the DC Metro area.
​
Dr. Roz’s media experience includes psychological consults with the Anderson Cooper Talk Show (2012), the Own’s Network docuseries Unfaithful (2012), Huffington Post, Fox5DC, NBC4 and a regular guest appearance on Howard University’s WHUR 96.3 as a relationship expert. Dr. Roz is the Series Psychologist on TV One’s limited series, For My Woman.
​
Dr. Aker-Black’s work has also been published in International Journals. She is a sought out keynote and commencement speaker, as well as an advice columnist for her advice on healthy relationships, Human trafficking, Intimate Partner Violence, and Organizational Behavior and Management. She is the recipient of Maryland’s Top 100 Women and Maryland’s Leading Women.
​
MICHELE BARNWELL
Talk Title: Scripting Your Own Reality
Michele Barnwell, an executive producer and writer/storyteller, has spent her career working on nonfiction content for television and digital platforms— with an exciting emphasis on authentic story-craft and an
expertise in the same. She is currently growing her content creation company, Reel Roost, which created and produced Party Girls: Exploring Politics Across America (“party” as in political party)— a 6-part road-trip documentarywebseries following six new voters from different political parties in the lead-up to the 2016 Presidential election. Among her past projects as a co-executive producer is the Netflix original documentary series Flint Town (an Anonymous Content production)— named one of the “Best Documentaries on Netflix right now” (August 2019) and nominated for two Critics Choice Documentary Awards, while also receiving a Golden Trailer Award nomination and an IDA Documentary Award nomination for Best Limited Series. Earlier in her career, Michele worked on some of the highest rated cycles of reality series America’s Next Top Model (10x10 Entertainment/the CW) as a Show
Producer— embracing a new form of story craft, episodic “unscripted” story, for the first time. She has produced projects airing on HBO, Lifetime and more. When she was a first-time showrunner/co-executive producer, she delivered BET (Dubose Entertainment) its highest-rated original series, Tiny & Toya, ever in their then twenty-nine year history— by hiring a killer team and emphasizing authentic story-craft from production through post. Michele’s company, Reel Roost, is run out of Los Angeles where she is based.
Currently Michele served as Showrunner Executive Producer of Season 2 "High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America", which is now streaming only on Netflix. This was a powerful work of love, strength and storytelling. Together with my amazing team, meeting and documenting the keepers of our culture was a blessing and a joy. Stepping onboard this series in its second season felt like a sacred trust.
2019 TEDxUStreetWomen Speakers
Bold + Brilliant = Badass: Now What?
December 5, 2019
.jpg)
MICHELLE CHATMAN Ph.D.
Talk Title: Healing the Harm in Schools
Dr. Michelle C. Chatman is anthropologist, artist, and social justice advocate. She works as an assistant professor in the Crime, Justice, and Security Studies program at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC). Dr. Chatman earned her Master’s degree in Applied Anthropology and Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from American University. Also a contemplative educator, she integrates mindfulness, storytelling, and jazz into her instruction to help enhance learning, promote connection and well-being, and inspire social justice activism. She leads the contemplative movement at UDC where she offers mindfulness workshops and a Mindful Monday meditation series. As a Research Fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Program (IRL), she researches mindfulness and restorative justice as an approach to preventing violence and promoting resilience among African American youth. Dr. Chatman sits on the board of directors for the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society and The Mindfulness in Education Network (MIEN).
AVIS JONES DEWEEVER Ph.D.
Talk Title: The Dangers of Division: How Rising Hate and Extreme Divisiveness Threatens the Future of America
Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever, is an Award-Winning Author, International Speaker, Political Commentator, and Race & Gender Empowerment Expert. As a serial entrepreneur, Dr. Avis is the Founder of the Washington DC Boutique Consulting Firm, Incite Unlimited and The Exceptional Leadership Institute. Dr. Avis’ organizations offer diversity & inclusion training and consulting, entrepreneurship train-ng and media training along with communications strategy development. Her clients include major corporations, non-profit organizations, political campaigns and governmental entities based both domestically and abroad. She is also the Co-Founder of Black America Digital Network (launching January 2020). The BAD Network is a new digital streaming platform that provides news and information programming that centers the Black experience.
​
As a prolific writer, Dr. Avis is the author or co-author of numerous publications, including her award-winning book, How Exceptional Black Women Lead along with The State of Black Women in the U.S. 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019; Beyond Broke: Why Closing the Racial Wealth Gap is a Priority for National Economic Security; and You Mad? Black Women, Work, and the Normalcy of Disrespect, among many others. Her distinct perspectives have been shared through a variety of media platforms, including CNN, Fox News, PBS, C-Span, TV One, BET, BBC, NPR, Sirius XM Radio, the Washington Post, USA To-day, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, Essence Magazine, Ebony Magazine, Glamour Magazine, Black Enterprise, NBC BLK and many more.
LORIE HOOD, Ph.D.
Talk Title: You Gotta Have a Victim to Have a Bully: How to Break the Power/Trauma Cycle
Lorie Hood is a traumatologist, researcher and expert on the intersection of power, trauma, and human potential. Her clinical work, scholarship and lived experience as an individual with diagnosed PTSD has led her to develop a body of work called High Stakes Performance. Lorie teaches individuals how to function in high-stress environments consistently and predictably while maintaining access to their minds, bodies, and their full range of abilities. She does this by helping people understand, access, and process their stress and trauma, identify where they have been potentially victimized, and guiding them to reclaim their power.
Lorie is the founder of The Hood Group; a Washington, DC based firm devoted to human potential and High Stakes Performance. She is also the CEO of Responders First and created a training curriculum that teaches first responder’s techniques that help them access their abilities at will, focus in critical situations, use a greater percentage of their brain's problem-solving capabilities. This helps them do their jobs more effectively, lowers their risk of PTSD, depression, and burnout.
She holds a B.A. in Psychology, an M.S. in Counseling Psychology, an Ed.S. in Curriculum and Instruction and is a Ph.D. candidate in Organizational Development and Transformation. She is board certified in forensic traumatology (Diplomate Credential), emergency crisis response, domestic violence, and is certified by the International Coach Federation as a Master Certified Coach. Lorie shares her life’s work through speaking, coaching, workshops, trainings, retreats, and performance art.
_JPG.jpg)
BRIANNA R. MCGOWAN
Talk Title: Know Your Value in the Age of Automation
Hello World! I'm Brianna McGowan, a developer, poet, data scientist, advocate, and dancer passionate about intersecting worlds. I encourage people to boldly envision a future that defies the status quo. I code to move women and people of color into tech, and change the face of the industry. We challenge the bias in our data and demand integrity. Humans don’t need big data, big data needs humanity. I am committed to projects that promote social responsibility and community vibrancy. I volunteer for Black Girls Code. and am a Python Director for Women Who Code DC. I attend hack-a-thons, write poetry, teach modern dance, and advocate for D.C. Statehood and my community. I am endlessly curious, goal-driven, and lead through service.
.png)
KIMBERLY QUINN
Talk Title: No Need to Fix Me: I'm Not Broken
As a professor at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, Dr. Kimberly Quinn teaches cognitive and positive psychology. She’s also a workshop facilitator, who frequently speaks on a variety of topics related to positive psychology, well-being, trauma-informed education, and mindfulness training for schools (students and/or faculty), human services agencies, and business organizations. Her recent research is on the influence of social media on the well-being of college students.
Prior to teaching, Kimberly was a child and family therapist, specializing in working with those with ADHD. She said, “ADHD is a misnomer: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder should be ASHG (Attention Surplus High-energy Gift). ADHD is a gift due to one’s enhanced ability for divergent thinking – creativity and innovation.” Kimberly also proclaims that it is not the ADHD that is problematic, but the underlying shame that does the real damage. Kimberly and her husband are the recent empty-nesters of five children, living in northern Vermont with three goats and their golden retriever, Giovanni. She enjoys skiing, really good chicken wings, and watching “I Love Lucy.”
SHANNA B. TIAYON, Ph.D
Talk Title: How to Live in an Unkind World
Shanna, also known as “The Wellbeing Dr.,” is a writer, speaker, and trainer working in the area of wellbeing. She defines wellbeing as a sense of enjoying life, happiness and optimism. She works to foster wellbeing and elucidate the ways we may infringe upon the wellbeing of others.
Currently, Shanna is the owner of Shanna B. Tiayon Consulting, which provides individual and corporate wellbeing tools in the form of diagnostic surveys, trainings and coaching.
Shanna has a Ph.D. in Sociology with a specialization in Social Psychology. While in academia, her research focused on physical and mental health, with a focus on minority populations. She’s a former National Science Foundation and Ford Foundation fellow and a published scholar. She also writes on the topic of wellbeing for popular magazine outlets. Her work has been featured in Greater Good Magazine, Yes! Magazine and Longreads.
Shanna was a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon, she’s lived and worked in three countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, travelled to various other countries for work and speaks French. As a result Shanna’s interest in wellbeing aims to have a global reach, tackling concepts and strategies that are relevant for multicultural audiences.
When she’s not writing, speaking or training on wellbeing, she’s managing her own wellbeing through her family’s homesteading lifestyle.
.jpeg)
NIC COBER, Esq.
Talk Title: How to Recover from Loss Like a Boss
Nic Cober, Esquire, recently appointed to the National Women’s Business Council, is the Principal Managing Partner of Cober Johnson and Romney (CJR), an award-winning multi-million dollar legal and business consulting firm. She is also an author, a media influencer and contributor, and an advocate for women’s empowerment and small business growth in her community. No matter the platform, Nic is regarded as an expert on business matters and personal success strategy.