SPEAKER AND ORGANIZATIONAL BIOGRAPHIES

Juanita Bell

Student, CUNY-John Jay College

Juanita Bell grew up in New York City. She is a student at John Jay College in combined B.A.-M.A. program in criminal justice.  For her master’s thesis, she is analyzing data from the Social Justice Sexuality Project, a large quantitative study of LGBT people of color, with a particular focus on policing and mobile technology. Once her thesis is completed, she plans to pursue a PhD in Sociology.

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Flor Bermudez, J.D.

Youth in Out-of-Home Care staff attorney, Lambda Legal

Flor Bermudez is the Youth in Out-of-Home Care Attorney for Lambda Legal.  She advocates for adequate treatment and competent, sensitive and informed services for LGBT youth who are involved with child welfare, juvenile justice and homeless services systems. Before joining Lambda Legal in 2007, Bermudez spent four years at Esperanza del Barrio as the founding executive director and staff attorney.  From 2001-2003 Bermudez was a Skadden Public Interest Fellow staff attorney at Mothers on the Move and the Urban Justice Center.  Flor graduated from Rutgers School of Law- Newark in 2000 and clerked for the NJ Supreme Court.  Prior to law school, Bermudez actively participated in several LGBT organizations such as LLEGO, Colectivo Mexicano, Mano a Mano and the Audre Lorde Project.

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The BlackLight Project

The BlackLight Project is a youth led arts activist collective. BlackLight performs, facilitates workshops and leads social transformation initiatives relevant to the well being of young women of color and their communities.

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Antjuanece Brown

Undergraduate Student, Social Work, Portland Oregon

I was born on April 17, 1990, in Portland, Oregon. I was raised in Portland, Oregon with my older sister. I also have two younger sisters and a younger brother. My family moved around a lot when I was a child so I attended more than one elementary and middle schools. I went to Tualatin High, but sophomore year transferred to an alternative school, called Durham Education Center. I worked while I was in school at subway, which was my first job and I was also a personal nanny. I graduated in 2007. After working at Subway I also worked at Kmart, ACS and Randstad from the years 2007-2010. I like football, soccer and MMA. I listen to mostly country and alternative music, but I like all types of music. I enjoy writing(poems) and reading. I am going to college for social work. I want to graduate college, have a successful career and start a family with Jolene. My only goals for me, Jolene and our future children is forever happiness.

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Aimee Meredith Cox, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Performance and African and African American Studies, Fordham University

Aimee Meredith Cox, Ph.D. is a cultural anthropologist and assistant professor of performance and African and African American Studies at Fordham University. Dr. Cox’s research and teaching interests include expressive culture and performance; urban youth culture; public anthropology; Black girlhood and Black feminist theory. She is currently completing a book entitled, Shapeshifters: Black Girls and the Choreography of Citizenship.

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Jessie Daniels, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Urban Public Health, CUNY-Graduate Center and Hunter College

Jessie Daniels is Associate Professor of Urban Public Health at Hunter College (PhD, Sociology, University of Texas-Austin).  She is the author of two books White Lies (Routledge, 1997) and Cyber Racism (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009), and numerous articles about race, gender/sexuality and various forms of media. She is currently at work on research with LGBTQ homeless youth and their use of mobile technology. In addition to her work as an academic, Daniels also worked in the Internet industry. She maintains an academic blog (RacismReview) with Joe Feagin and was recently named one of “20 Inspiring Women to Follow on Twitter,” by Forbes Magazine.

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Kerry Dennehy

Director of Pride Arts, Project U.S.E.

Kerry Dennehy is a professional illustrator and presenter with an eye for bringing out the artist in everyone. He has extensive experience in helping LGBTQ youth use the visual arts to celebrate their identities and sexualities despite the challenges they may face.

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Gregory Donovan

Ph.D. Candidate in Environmental Psychology, CUNY Graduate Center

 

Gregory T. Donovan is a Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Psychology and certificate candidate in Interactive Technology and Pedagogy at the CUNY Graduate Center.  His research focuses on the political ecology of informational capitalism and operates at the intersection of Urban Studies, Youth Studies, and Internet Studies. His dissertation, MyDigitalFootprint.org,  is a participatory action research project with New York City youth that explores the everyday experiences of youth developing within proprietary digital environments. Gregory is also a Central Instructional Technology Fellow at the Macaulay Honors College CUNY, part-time faculty at Marymount Manhattan College, and founder of the OpenCUNY.org Academic Medium.

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Dana Edell, Ph.D.

Executive Director, SPARK

Dana is an activist-scholar-artist and the executive director of SPARK (Sexualization Protest: Action, Resistance, Knowledge) Movement, a girl-fueled activist movement determined to end the sexualization of girls. She is also co-founder/executive director of viBe Theater Experience (www.viBeTheater.org), a nonprofit performing arts education organization that empowers teenage girls in New York City, through free afterschool arts programs, to write and perform original theater and music about the real-life issues girls face daily. As an adjunct assistant professor, Dana teaches at NYU, Manhattan Marymount College and with the Bard College Prison Initiative at Bayview Women’s Prison. She has a BA with honors in Classics/Ancient Greek from Brown University, an MFA in Theatre Directing from Columbia University and a PhD in Educational Theatre from NYU.

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Michael Hames-García, Ph.D.

Professor, Ethnic Studies Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon

I am a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Oregon. I have written on and taught about issues of race, sexuality, and incarceration for more than a decade.

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Jolene Alycia Jenkins

Portland, OR

I was born on July 31st, 1993, in Portland, Oregon. Born and raised in Portland, I was brought up by both parents and an older brother in Northeast Portland. Growing up my family traveled a lot, and went to Oregon Duck Football games as a family for over 12 years. In 2006 my parents were divorced and my family split up. My brother and myself were under the custody of my father, and would occasionally visit my mother before she got remarried and had my baby sister who is now 3 years old. I have had 3 jobs, and graduated high school in 2011, from Grant High School. After working at Wendy’s and Aeropostale, I took up a job at Fred Meyers, and am currently employed there. I love all kinds of music and love to dance and play lacrosse. When I’m not working I enjoy shopping and writing, and being outdoors. I am taking a year off from college and will continue to attend school in the fall of 2012, and will go on to graduate school and study to become and attorney. I wish to be able to support my family and future children and have an amazing life with Antjuanece until the end of time.

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Kate Kendell, J.D.

Executive Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights

Kate Kendell leads the National Center for Lesbian Rights, a national legal organization committed to advancing the legal and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. Kate grew up Mormon in Utah and received her J.D. degree from the University of Utah College of Law. After working as a corporate attorney she pursued her real love—civil rights advocacy—and became the first staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah. She oversaw the legal department of ACLU of Utah and directly litigated many high-profile cases. In 1994 she accepted the position as Legal Director with NCLR, where she was responsible for strategy and vision for the legal program. In 1996 Kate was named as NCLR’s Executive Director, where she oversees coordination of litigation, litigation and policy strategy, and program initiatives. Major program emphasis includes family law, youth rights, elder law, immigration and asylum, and sports. Some of her most rewarding responsibilities include fostering alliances among other community and advocacy organizations committed to social justice.

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Michelle R. Maher, Ph.D.

Instructor, Counseling Psychology Department, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR

Michelle is an educator, producer, and activist interested in investigating social constructions of difference and power in order to build relationships and alliances in the classroom, in communities and across the continent. She has taught diversity coursework in higher education across 20 years. In regard to the intersection of education, juvenile justice, mental health and everyday life, she is a founding member of the United Coalition of Color and has written and presented juvenile justice resolutions at the National Congress of American Indians and Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians. In addition, she directed and produced the documentary “Unlawful Justice: The Story of Antjuanece and Jolene” a short film discussing the personal consequences of the policing of sexuality and race. 

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Darnell L. Moore

Director of Educational Initiatives, The Hetrick-Martin Institute

Darnell L. Moore is an educator, writer, and activist who lives in Bedstuy, Brooklyn, NY and hails from Camden, NJ. He is the Director of Educational Initiatives for the Hetrick-Martin Institute. He is also a 2011-2012 Visiting Scholar in the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at NYU and a Fellow of the Global Justice Institute. His writings, which have been published in peer-reviewed and popular publications, focus on issues of race and sexuality. He is an Editorial Collective member of The Feminist Wire.

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Kara Tucina Olidge , Ph.D.

Director of HMI: Newark for The Hetrick-Martin Institute (HMI)

Kara Tucina Olidge provides managerial oversight for the development of its Newark programs and services. Kara earned B.A. in Philosophy/Art History from Spelman College, received her M.A. in Arts Administration, and recently completed her doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy at The State University of New York at Buffalo.

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Andrea J. Ritchie, J.D.

Co-Coordinator, Streetwise and Safe

Andrea Ritchie is a police misconduct attorney and organizer who has engaged in extensive research, writing, speaking, litigation, organizing and advocacy on profiling, policing, and physical and sexual violence by law enforcement agents against women, girls and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people of color in the US and Canada over the past two decades. She currently coordinates Streetwise & Safe (SAS), a leadership development initiative aimed at sharing “know your rights” information, strategies for safety and visions for change among LGBT youth of color who experience of gender, race, sexuality and poverty-based policing and criminalization in the context of “quality of life” initiatives and the policing of sex work and trafficking.

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The Safe OUTside the System (SOS) Collective

SOS is an anti-violence program led by and for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans, and Gender Non Conforming people of color.  We are devoted to challenging hate and police violence by using community based strategies rather than relying on the police.  Utilizes community members as key organizers and decision makers. Relies on volunteer work from community. SOS is a working group of the Audre Lorde Project. The Audre Lorde Project is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non Conforming People of Color center for community organizing, focusing on the New York City area.

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Charisa Smith, J.D.

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Children’s Studies Program at CUNY, Staff Attorney, Advocates for Children of New York

Charisa Smith hails from Lawrenceville, NJ.  She has worked in juvenile justice for ten years, after being fundamentally affected by a film about the mental health needs of youth in detention.  Charisa works to empower youth, families, and communities, to keep children away from courts and jails, and to bring resources and opportunities to disadvantaged neighborhoods.  She is a graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, and acts as a Staff Attorney at Advocates for Children of New York, Inc. in the Probation Initiative.  Charisa provides educational advocacy to families with youth on probation; offers trainings for such families, youth, probation officers, and various other professionals; and collaborates with government officials and advocates to improve the system.  Charisa is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Children and Youth Studies Program at the City University of NY (CUNY), Brooklyn College, and looks forward to exploring academia further. Her first book, Blending Colors From Life: Trenton’s Own Watercolorist, Tom Malloy—is an award-winning biography (NY Book Festival, 2010) of the late African American watercolor artist Tom Malloy.

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Streetwise and Safe

Streetwise and Safe (SAS) is a group of LGBTQQ youth of color and adult allies who are activists, poets, youth motivators, orators, bloggers, leaders, actors, divas, family members, and comedians who want to achieve the inspiration of creating change by spreading helpful knowledge to the youth and LGBTQ people who have been targeted by police enforcement and miseducation. We are dedicated to achieving world youth uprising against police brutality, misuse of power, and promotion of education about queer youth of color’s rights.

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Sarah Valentine, J.D.

Associate Dean of Students and Professor, CUNY School of Law

Sarah Valentine practiced law for many years including representing juveniles in Family Court. Her previous work on queer youth includes Supporting Queer Youth, in Justice for Kids:  Keeping Kids Out of the Juvenile Justice System (Nancy Dowd, ed. N.Y.U. Press 2011); Calling Them Out:  Preliminary Thoughts On Ensuring That Attorneys Provide Effective Representation For Queer Youth, 19 Columbia J. Gender & L. 773 (2010); Traditional Advocacy For Nontraditional Youth: Rethinking Best Interest For The Queer Child, 2008 Mich. St. L. Rev. 1053; Assimilating Our Children: The Problems and Dangers of Identity-Based Reform for Queer Youth (2011). http://harvardcrcl.org/crcl-colloquium-feat-libby-adler/

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