Meet the Planning Committee
Shemariah J. Arki, MEd
She/Her
Founder of Ellipsis Institute
Instructor of 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
Allison Ragland
She/Her/Hers
Instructor of Teaching and Learning
The Ohio State University
"It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love and support one another. We have nothing to lose but our chains." - Assata Shakur
Cerelia Bizzell
She/Her/Hers
Assistant Director for Campus Engagement
Case Western Reserve University
"When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid." - Audre Lorde
Me'lani Labat Joseph
She/Her/Hers
Director, Engineering, Gelfand STEM Center
Case Western Reserve University
"What counts is not the mere fact that we lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead." - Nelson Mandela
Colette Ngana
She/Her/Hers
Doctoral Student
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 Student, 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
Tiffany Walker
She/Her/Hers
Research Associate
Begun Center
"When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid." - Audre Lorde
Lauren R. Welch
She/Her/Hers
Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences
Founder of the Women's Leadership Guild
Case Western Reserve University
"The more I use my strength in the service of my vision the less I am afraid." - Audre Lorde
Dionne A. Williams
She/Her/Hers
1989
"Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time." - Marian Wright Edelman