Marques Armstrong is cofounder of Black Pearl LLC, a multifaceted consulting firm focused on racial equity. He is also CEO and founder of Hope & Healing Counseling Services and a trained community organizer and public-policy advocate.
Sharon Betcher is an independent scholar and writer, specializing in the area of disability theology. She is the author of Spirit and the Politics of Disablement (Fortress Press, 2007) and Spirit and the Obligation of Social Flesh (2013).
Bethany Bradley was a cofounder of the Women’s March on Washington: MN March and continues to serve as a member of the Steering Committee for the Women’s March Minnesota organization. She has a background in nonprofit event planning, branding, and media coordination.
DeWayne Davis is senior pastor at All God’s Children Metropolitan Community Church in Minneapolis. He serves on the Public Policy Team of the MCC’s Global Justice Institute, representing the denomination’s public-policy advocacy initiatives at the federal level. He also recently served as the domestic policy analyst in the Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations and worked as a congressional aide before his ministry career.
Christopher Zumski Finke is a freelance journalist and reporter for Yes! Magazine, covering culture, justice, and citizen engagement. He is editor of The Stake, a pop culture and politics website. He worked in public policy for Wind on the Wires, an advocacy group specializing in renewable energy.
Sonja Hagander is university pastor, director of ministries, and associate director of the Christensen Center for Vocation at Augsburg University, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s most diverse college.
Jaylani Hussein is executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN). In 2013, he created Zeila Consultants to develop and offer cross-cultural training workshops on East African cultures.
Jim Bear Jacobs is a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation. He is a cultural facilitator in the Twin Cities, working to raise the public’s awareness of American Indian causes, and currently serves as an associate pastor at Church of All Nations in Columbia Heights, Minnesota.
Nekima Levy-Pounds is an attorney, scholar, and national expert on issues of race. She was a professor of law at the University of St. Thomas for 13 years and also served as an adviser to Black Lives Matter Minneapolis before starting her own consulting company, Black Pearl LLC. She ran for mayor of Minneapolis in 2017.
Dee McIntosh is pastor of LightHouse MPLS, a Covenant Church plant in Minneapolis. She is a founding member of Black Clergy United for Change, a collective of Black clergy committed to racial justice and social transformation.
Kellie Rock is coordinator of refugee arrival services for Arrive Ministries, a Christian nonprofit organization dedicated to the cause of the refugee and immigrant.
Javen Swanson is associate pastor at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in St. Paul. He has previously worked as a community organizer with OutFront Minnesota and the Minnesotans United for All Families campaign, and was the interim faith work director for the National LGBTQ Task Force.