Meet Our Umoja Conference XVIII Speakers!
Symone Sanders-Townsend is an author, seasoned democratic strategist and host of “SYMONE” on MSNBC and MSNBC on Peacock. Symone rose to prominence in 2016 as the national press secretary for U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’s then-presidential campaign. At 25, she became the youngest presidential press secretary on record and was named to Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of 16 young Americans shaping the 2016 election. At 29, she published her first book, No, You Shut Up: Speaking Truth to Power and Reclaiming America and served as a senior advisor for President Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign. (Read More)
Born in Maywood and raised in Peoria, Illinois, Brandon Alexander Williams is a poet, MC and DJ. He is the most recent recipient of the Grant Wood Fellowship and is a visiting instructor at the University of Iowa’s School of Music where he teaches courses in Hip-Hop. (Read More)
Dr. Chike Akua is a professor of Educational Leadership at Clark Atlanta University and one of the most sought after speakers at colleges, universities and educational conferences nationally. He has been called "an educational revolutionary" and is recognized as a leading authority on culturally relevant educational materials and instructional approaches. He has lectured and given keynote addresses at a number of colleges, universities and educational conferences around the country including Southern University, Minnesota State University, Tuskegee University, Ohio University Howard University, Georgia State University and Savannah State University, to name a few. (Read More)
