Thandiwe Abdullah is a student and Black Lives Matter activist who helped to form BLM Youth Vanguard, an offshoot of Black Lives Matter that focuses on children. Thandiwe and the Youth Vanguard have worked to protect students in their community and have successfully removed random searches from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).
Amanda Gorman is a poet and current student at Harvard University. She delivered a powerful reading of her poetry at President Joe Biden’s inauguration and Super Bowl LV. She has a new book of poetry, The Hills We Climb, coming out this fall.
Amariyanna Copeny is an activist from Flint, Mich., best known for her organizing that helped bring the Flint water crisis to the attention of millions of Americans. Copeny’s work focuses on encouraging young people everywhere to embrace their power and wield it to make a difference.
Brittany Claybrooks serves as Councilwoman for the 2nd ward of East Orange, New Jersey. Councilwoman Claybrooks has also worked in the Office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and at Young Invincibles, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports young people in higher education, health, economic development, and young parents’ initiatives.
Martese Johnson is an activist working to raise awareness about implicit bias and police brutality by sharing his story of being subjected to an unjust and unnecessarily violent arrest in Virginia. Johnson’s arrest trended nationwide on social media, helping to spark a new age of social media activism around police brutality and police accountability. Johnson is currently a J.D. Candidate at the University of Michigan Law School.
Brea Baker is a writer, communications strategist, and organizer who works as a strategist for leading changemakers, helping influencers, advocacy organizations, and media companies execute their social impact strategies. Previously, Baker served as the youngest national organizer of the 2017 Women’s March and helped organize national walkouts against gun violence in 2017.
Nancy Metayer is an environmental scientist and former member of the Broward County Soil and Water Conservation District. She is currently serving as Commissioner in Coral Springs, Fla., where she works towards making the city a leader in sustainability.
Corey Arvinger is the founder of Support Black Colleges, a clothing brand whose mission is to uplift, inspire, and encourage others to Support HBCUs. Arvinger started the brand on the Howard University campus and has built the company into one of the top HBCU brands in the world.
Mariah Parker was elected county commissioner in Athens-Clarke County Commissioner at only 26 years old. In addition to her work as a political figure, she is a successful, openly queer hip-hop artist. Parker also co-hosts Waiting on Reparations, an iHeartRadio show that covers the intersection of hip-hop and politics.
