Biographies of Panelists and Moderators
In order of appearance
Panel #1— Black Women as Purveyors of Change
Elizabeth Salas Evans is the President and Chief Compliance Officer of Cayena Capital Management, LLC, a registered investment firm located in Weare, NH. A native of New Hampshire, Elizabeth received a Bachelor of Science in Business Finance and a Master’s in Applied Economics from Southern New Hampshire University. She has recently been accepted to the American Economic Association (AEA) mentorship program, where she is diligently preparing for this Falls application cycle to a doctoral program to study law and economics.
John Berst is an independent scholar and theatre historian and practitioner, specializing in the fields of musical theatre and actor training. He has presented at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the Mid-America Theatre Conference, the Black New England Conference, the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and the New England Theatre Conference. Berst holds a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from Purdue University’s Professional Actor Training Program and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in music and theatre from the University at Buffalo (SUNY). He has extensive professional experience as a stage director, music director, and actor, and is a proud member of the Actors’ Equity Association and an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
Dottie Morris (Moderator), is Associate Vice-President for Institutional Diversity and Equity at Keene State College. She serves on the president’s cabinet, providing support and direction to the executive, academic, student affairs, advancement, and finance and planning divisions of the college.
PANEL #2 — Body Politics & Movements Towards the Sacred
Courtney Marshal teaches English at Phillips Exeter Academy and teaches Black feminist exercise classes under the title “Jump at the Sun Fitness.” Her classes are rooted in Black feminist teachers and she brings Black feminism to many spaces in New Hampshire.
DeAnn Dorough-Adams, Ed.S. served 21 years for the Department of Justice (DOJ) Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). In March 2018, she was promoted to Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Office of Training at Quantico for recruits. Prior to her assignment at the training academy, she was the Program Manager of the DEA 360 Strategy. DEA 360 is a comprehensive approach tackling the cycle of violence and addiction generated by the link between drug cartels, violent gangs, and the rising problem of prescription opioid and heroin abuse, which launched in Manchester, New Hampshire in 2017. She is the President of the National Association of Black Narcotic Agents (NABNA) which was formed by minority DEA Special Agents in 1986. She is currently employed by Blue Cross Blue Shield Association as a Senior Consultant Investigator in Washington, DC. Her role is to investigate reports of fraud, waste and abuse against the Federal Employee Program (FEP). She holds an Associate’s Degree in Electronic Engineering Technology, a Bachelor’s Degree from William Paterson University in Communication, a Master’s Degree from Seton Hall University, in Education, Supervision & Administration and another Master’s Educational Specialist Degree from Seton Hall University and is a Doctoral candidate at Seton Hall University in Education.
Kabria Baumgartner, Ph.D. (Moderator) is an associate professor of American studies and English at the University of New Hampshire. She is the author of the award-winning book, In Pursuit of Knowledge: Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America (New York University Press, 2019), which tells the story of African American girls and women who fought to democratize public and private schools in the nineteenth-century Northeast. She is currently writing a biography of Robert Morris, one of the first African American lawyers in the United States.
Loretta L.C.Brady, Ph.D., MAC, is a professor in the Psychology department and the Director of Requity Labs at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH. In addition to research on risk and resilience, Dr. Brady has developed a specialty in technology, employee training, diversity and organizational psychology. Dr. Brady is a licensed clinical psychologist with additional certifications in leadership coaching, addiction treatment, infant mental health, and conflict mediation. Her clinical efforts have served returning veterans, chronically ill patients, professional teams, families in crisis, and patients with trauma and addiction.
Lunch Time KEYNOTE Address by Sheryl Lee Ralph
Sheryl Lee Ralph is a multifaceted artist who continues to blaze trails in the entertainment industry. Whether she appears on TV, film, or the Broadway stage. Sheryl Lee Ralph also sparkles as a director, voice and screen actor, author, singer, philanthropist, community activist, wife, and mother.
She can be seen in the Freeform series Motherland: Fort Salem, performing as US President Kelly Wade and closing out the last season of Ray Donovan as Mickey’s love, Claudette. Sheryl recently launched “DIVA Defined,” a podcast featuring powerful women making moves in their various career paths, and a new digital talk series, “DIVAS Simply Quarantined,” on Facebook Live.
Sheryl is a fierce voice in the activation of citizens to vote and has designed her own line of ‘VOTE’ and ‘POWER’ Activism Apparel at www.shopwithsheryllee.com. Ralph also produces the annual benefit concert, DIVAS Simply Singing! which raises awareness for HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases, hunger, poverty, and the health disparities in communities of color exposed by COVID-19. This year will mark the 30th year of the event and 31 years of her foundation, The DIVAFoundation. The week-long events will be held virtually during the first week of December and will culminate with the 30th Annual DIVAS Simply Singing! Televised concert on KTLA 5 Los Angeles and on www.diva.foundation.
Sheryl Lee Ralph has received numerous community awards for her commitment to service. In February 2020, Sheryl Lee was one of seven creative legends honored for her contributions to the arts and entertainment in the City of Los Angeles. Ralph was inducted as an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. in July 2004 for her HIV/AIDS activism at the 47th National Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. She was also awarded the first Red Ribbon Award at the UN for creating “The Red Ribbon DIVA” T-Shirt for HIV/AIDS awareness.
Ralph was awarded Honorary Doctorates in Humane Letters for her HIV/AIDS activism from Houston Tillotson University and Tougaloo College. Sheryl resides in Los Angeles and Philadelphia with her husband, Senator Vincent Hughes.
PANEL #3 — Black Women’s Present-Day Leadership & Activism
Erin Corbett, EdD is a senior research analyst at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP). Her research interests include higher education in prison as well as higher education policy for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals. With experience in independent school admission, enrichment programs, and postsecondary financial aid, Erin’s commitment to expanding postsecondary opportunities for all populations served as the foundation of her professional endeavors. While pursuing her doctorate, Erin launched a nonprofit that provides not-for-credit, postsecondary level courses in two correctional facilities in Connecticut and also taught in two correctional facilities in Rhode Island. Corbett holds a BA in Psychology and Education from Swarthmore College. She earned her Master of Business Administration from Post University (CT) and her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.
Bahiyyah M. Muhammad, Ph.D., Franklin Fellow, is an assistant professor at Howard University’s Department of Sociology and Criminology. Dr. Muhammad received her Ph.D. from Rutgers University’s School of Criminal Justice, where she specialized in families and communities affected by mass incarceration. Dr. Muhammad has spent the last decade of her criminal justice career conducting ethnographic work about children ages seven to 18 years old living in urban communities throughout New Jersey, who experienced the loss of one or both parents to the prison system. She is currently founding a non-profit organization to address the dynamic concerns faced by children of the incarcerated.
Chaquanzha Stephenson, originally from Stamford CT, is a community activist and youth advocate. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2013 with a dual degree in Political Science and Justice Studies. Chaquanzha birthed DOPE INC. (Don’t Oppress People, Educate!) in 2014. DOPE INC. is a youth advocacy and empowerment organization that educates and mentors youth domestically and internationally. She has traveled to Ghana, Jamaica, and the Ivory Coast to empower youth around the topics of leadership & individuality, self-love, higher education, financial & investment education, suicide prevention, corporate etiquette, goals setting, and more. Chaquanzha is very passionate about community building and engaging the younger generation because they bring forth the future. www.dopeinccs.com
Dr. Breea Willingham joined the criminal justice department in the fall of 2014. Prior to beginning her academic career in 2005, Dr. Willingham worked as a newspaper reporter for 10 years covering crime, murder trials, and school board meetings in the Carolinas and upstate New York. She also taught journalism at St. Bonaventure University and sociology and criminal justice at the State University of New York at Oneonta. Dr. Willingham earned her Ph.D. in American Studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Dr. Lowell C. Matthews (Moderator) joined Southern New Hampshire University in 2012 and currently serves as Director of the University Honors Program, Associate Professor of Global Business and Leadership, and team lead for Project AIM. Matthews currently serves on the board for the Endowment for Health, Granite State Gay Men Association, Names Project, and volunteers as a “Big Brother” for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Manchester.
EVENING KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY SUSAN TAYLOR
Susan Taylor is founder & CEO of National CARES Mentoring Movement and Editor- in- Chief Emerita of Essence Magazine as well as best-selling author of four books, and editor of eight others.
Susan is a fourth-generation entrepreneur, who grew up in Harlem working in her father’s clothing store. At 24, she founded her own cosmetics company, which led to the beauty editor’s position at Essence, the publication she would go on to shape into a world-renown brand with more than 8 million readers.
It was that enterprising spirit wedded to a deep love for her community that led to the founding of the National CARES Mentoring Movement in 2005 as Essence CARES. With local affiliates in 58 cities, National CARES has recruited, trained, and deployed more than 150,000 mentors to schools and youth-support and mentoring organizations like Big Brothers, Big Sisters, as well as to its own culturally rooted, academic, and social-transformational initiatives. A community-mobilization movement, National CARES is the only organization dedicated to providing mentoring, healing, and wellness services on a national scale for Black children.
Susan is a recipient of more than a dozen honorary doctorates and hundreds of awards, including the Phoenix Award, which is the highest honor given by the Congressional Black Caucus. A lifelong activist who has worked to ensure people across the globe, from South Africa to those who struggled in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Susan says that securing our vulnerable children is her highest calling and the big business of our nation and Black America today.
PANEL #4 — Art SPEAKS: ACTIVISM THROUGH THE CREATIVE
CaShawn Thompson is a proud third-generation native of Washington, D.C. She is an early childcare development expert, working as a Head Start teacher at Bright Beginnings, in addition to being a trained doula. CaShawn is a well-known social media influencer in D.C. and across the country. She is a writer who first got her start about beauty and lifestyle topics on her award-winning blog, Little Dirty Pretty Things. CaShawn is also a Black cultural pioneer, creating the concept of “Black Girls Are Magic,” which sprung from her life as a little girl growing up with her mother, grandmother, and aunts. Black Girls Are Magic became wildly popular in 2013 after CaShawn began using the phrase online (which was later shortened to the hashtag #BlackGirlMagic) to uplift and praise the accomplishments, beauty, and other amazing qualities of Black women.
Dorothy Clark is a journalist and historian, and editor of Historic New England magazine, an independent researcher, and an adjunct history instructor at the Boston Architectural College, where she is a member of the Presidential Advisory Council for Social Justice. She is a fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society and a member of the board of directors of the Loring Greenough House in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and Girls Rock Campaign Boston. Ms. Clark holds Master of Arts degrees in historic preservation and American history and a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
Karen McLean Dade is a full professor in secondary education at Western Washington University in the fields of creative intelligence and multicultural education. Her doctoral dissertation from the University of Massachusetts and subsequent related book publications and journal articles focused on combating racism through the eyes of students. She is recognized as a leading scholar in multicultural education and has held significant positions in academic professional associations. She is the founder/director of Multicultural International Development Company and focuses on consulting in areas of equity and diversity, social justice art education, and women of color empowerment. To date, she has traveled, worked, and presented in over 40 countries. She is available for cross-cultural and women’s empowerment education consultancies, speaking engagements, and curriculum development.
Shari Robinson (Moderator) is the Director of Psychological and Counseling Services (PACS) at the University of New Hampshire. Her professional interests include counseling, diversity, multiculturalism, first-generation college students, spirituality/religion, Student Veterans, and mentoring people of color. Shari considers herself a social justice change agent working toward equity, inclusion, and diversity in all of her professional and personal settings. Shari Robinson earned her Ph.D. at West Virginia University.
PANEL #5 — FIRED UP & READY TO GO: Black Women AND Electoral Politics
Andrea Jenkins is an American policy aide, politician, writer, performance artist, poet, and transgender activist. She is known for being the first black openly transgender woman elected to public office in the United States, serving since January 2018 on the Minneapolis City Council. Besides a Master of Fine Arts degree from Hamline University, Andrea also earned a Master of Science in community economic development from Southern New Hampshire University. (SNHU Alumn, ’02G)
Senator Patricia Ann Spearman has served in the Nevada Senate since November 2012, representing District 1. After her re-election to a second term in 2016, she became part of the Democratic leadership as co-majority whip. She was the first openly lesbian member of the Nevada legislature. She currently serves as Chair of the Commerce and Labor Committee, Vice-Chair of Health and Human Services Committee, and member of the Growth and Infrastructure Committee. Senator Spearman has introduced multiple bills including bills that provide equal pay for women and minorities, support for LGBT rights, and support for veterans. She also supported gay marriage and abortion. In 2016, she was named a member of the New Energy Task Force newly created by Governor Sandoval. Patricia volunteered for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008 and was a member of advisory boards for Harry Reid and Steven Horsford. In 2016, she supported presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Kiah Morris lives in Bennington, Vermont on the southwestern end of the Green Mountain State where she served in the general assembly as a State Representative from 2014-2016 and 2016-2018. She is the first African American and person of color elected from Bennington County and the second African American woman to be elected to the legislature in Vermont history. In that capacity, she served on the House Judiciary Committee and Vermont Judicial Nominating Board and is co-chair of the tri-partisan Legislative Women’s Caucus. Her story of success and struggle have been covered in over four dozen media outlets including CNN, The Huffington Post, New York Times, Washington Post, The Hill, Essence Magazine, Canadian Broadcasting Company, British Broadcasting Corporation, and Vice Media.
Melanie Levesque, (moderator), has been a member of the New Hampshire State Senate, representing Senate District 12 since 2018. She is the first African American to serve in that body and currently the only senator of color. Melanie serves on the following committees: Election Law and Municipal Affairs Committee, chair, Judiciary Committee, member, Transportation Committee, member. Melanie earned her Master of Business Administration from Southern New Hampshire University.
Lunch Time Keynote Address by Ayanna Pressley
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley is an activist, a legislator, a survivor, and the first woman of color to be elected to Congress from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Throughout her career as a public servant, Congresswoman Pressley has fought to ensure that those closest to the pain are closest to the power – driving and informing policymaking. Throughout her first term in Congress, Congresswoman Pressley has been a champion for justice: reproductive justice, justice for immigrants, consumer justice, justice for ageing Americans, justice for workers, justice for survivors of sexual violence, and justice for the formerly and currently incarcerated. Currently, Congresswoman Pressley serves on two powerful Congressional committees – the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the House Committee on Financial Services– both of which have remained focused on legislatively addressing issues of care, concern, and consequence to the American people.
PANEL #6 — MOVING IT FORWARD: THE NEXT GENERATION OF BLACK FEMALE ACTIVISTS
Ronelle Tshiela is co-founder of Black Lives Matter Manchester and a student at the University of New Hampshire. An activist since high school, Ronelle serves as a public member of the Governor’s state-level Commission on Law Enforcement, Accountability, Community, and Transparency.
Tanisha Johnson is a powerful advocate for empowering Black lives. In July 2020, Tanisha cofounded with another seacoast resident the Black Lives Matter Seacoast Chapter. BLM’s mission is to dismantle anti-Blackness, fight against racial injustices and police brutality.
Tanisha serves on the Racial Unity Team Board and is the Program Chair for the organization. The Racial Unity Team is a racial justice organization that identifies and works to dismantle systemic and individual racism. The Racial Unity Team facilitates these changes by working with government, schools, businesses, and our communities.
As a mother of a 14-year-old daughter and 8-year old son, her mission is to provide education and awareness about the lives of People of Color, and most recently, the lives of Black individuals in the state of New Hampshire. She is honored to bring her energy and passion to the pursuit of equity, justice, and inclusion throughout the Seacoast and beyond.
Julian Maduro is a senior at the University of New Hampshire pursuing a bachelor’s degree in English and Justice Studies. In the past two years, she conducted research on the importance of multicultural children’s literature and involved herself in advocacy work at the University of New Hampshire. She has a passion for social justice and once she graduates, plans to work on prison reform.
Sonja Moffett is currently an Early Engagement Partner at Southern New Hampshire University. Her role includes the creation and facilitation of business cases and management training programs for our MBA learners. She serves on the DEI Core Team Community of Practice and has been awarded a grant for her leadership training “DEI700: Leading Beyond the Conversation.” An agent of change, Moffett routinely facilitates information sessions domestically and internationally – recently facilitating training in collaboration with the SNHU’s Global Education Movement (GEM). She not only makes an international impact on others, her domestic work to influence change is evident in her political passion outside of work. Moffett is the founder of www.Bolitical.com, a politically-motivated site (not affiliated with SNHU) that informs people about how politics work, basic civics, historical relevance of voter rights, and the civic responsibility of African American citizens to impact voter outcomes.
Victoria Adewumi is an equity communicator and a public health network leader, supporting neighborhood-based interventions for community health and wellbeing. Victoria works to link New Hampshire residents with greater social, physical, and environmental supports to facilitate residents’ self-empowerment.
Victoria led numerous community-strengthening initiatives and currently serves on the board of the Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success and the NH Health & Equity Partnership. A New Hampshire native, Ms. Victoria holds Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees in Political Science and International Affairs from the University of New Hampshire. Victoria is a member of the Bloomberg Fellows Program 2020 and a current Master in Public Health candidate in the focus area of Adolescent Health at Johns Hopkins University.
