Meet the Planning Committee

Dr. Shemariah J. Arki​

​

She/Her/They/Them

Founder + Program Director 

Inaugural Post Doctoral Scholar in Intersectional Feminisms, Case Western Reserve University 

Adjunct  Professor, Pan African Studies, Kent State University

​

“I raise up my voice-not so I can shout but so that those without a voice can be heard...we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.” - Malala Yousafzai

Dr. Heather E. Burton

​

She/Her/Hers

Director of NSF IDEAL-N and Partner Institutions Faculty & Student Development

Case Western Reserve University 

​

"Success is not measured by the position one has reached in life, rather by the obstacles one overcomes while trying to succeed." - Booker T. Washington

Colette Ngana

​

She/Her/Hers 

Doctoral Candidate

Case Western Reserve University 

​

"...no person is your friend (or kin) who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow and be perceived as fully blossomed as you were intended." - Alice Walker

Erin Phelps

​

She/Her/Hers

Doctoral Candidte, President of QGrad: The LGBTQIA+ Graduate and Professional Student Association

Case Western Reserve University 

​

"Only the black woman can say "when and where I enter, in the quiet undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole...race enters with me." - Anna Julia Cooper