2022 Summit Speakers

Trish Lindo is a Sr. digital media executive, content creator, executive producer, and writer. She has several years of digital media and television experience including BuzzFeed/Tasty, Yahoo! Shine, E! Entertainment/Live Events, CNN, and Oprah.com.

Trish is currently a Senior Creator Manager at LinkedIn. She works exclusively with creators/entrepreneurs to empower, nurture, support and develop their content and presence on LinkedIn. Trish holds a B.S in Broadcast Journalism from Florida A&M University. She is passionate about initiatives that empower and support women of color.

Trish is the social ambassador for Made by DWC in Los Angeles. A social enterprise operated by the Downtown Women's Center (DWC) that provides job training, transitional employment in product and retail that supports women transitioning out of homelessness.

Chasity Billingslea is a former high school educator and organizational culture thought leader with a passion for curating meaningful experiences. She currently drives profitability for a luxury auto manufacturer by evolving client-centric experiences through data analytics, disruptive innovation, and strategic risk-taking.

Chasity's favorite quote from Bozoma Saint John is "Bring your whole self to work because that way you can bring full ideas & the wholeness of your unique abilities." She prides herself on championing belonging and truly believes the journey to diversity, equity, and inclusion requires safe spaces for students and professionals to function authentically.

Although she has been recognized as a leader in her field that has held various titles, her favorite title and most fullfilling role is life companion to Michael Billingslea, Jr.. The couple shares one pup, Zoey Lavaughn Billingslea

Eilah Brown is a passionate event professional. Since joining The Atlantic in 2018, and now as Associate Director of Single Topics & Brand Events for AtlanticLIVE—the live events arm of The Atlantic—Eilah has become an indispensable event producer, leader, mentor, and team member. Eilah has led event logistics and client management for dozens of events across AtlanticLIVE’s experiential portfolio, including In Pursuit of Happiness, the Atlantic Brand Partners Annual Summit, and The Atlantic Festival, along with signature single topic events, including Inheritance, Education Summit, Progress Report: The State of the Black Community, Power of Purpose, and our Big Story Series.

She prides herself on being an expert collaborator, master logistician, and an incredible team player and project manager. Eilah’s reputation is lauded in the digital and IRL halls of The Atlantic even being requested by name by many of our clients given her white glove level of management.

Before she joined The Atlantic, Eilah coached community and funding partners and empowered planning teams to achieve positive changes within their communities at the DC-based non-profit KaBOOM. Eilah is a graduate of the illustrious Howard University in Washington, DC.

2020 WomenTech Network “Speaker of The Year” winner and one of Silicon Valley’s most candid and prominent voices, Alexandria “Lexi B.” Butler is an expert storyteller and workplace freedom fighter.

Her expertise in career growth and branding, executive leadership, and workplace equity have graced the world’s most enormous stages, including Stanford University, Anita B. Org’s GraceHopper Celebration, Perspektywy Women In Tech Summit, Facebook, Instagram and many more. A program manager at one of the largest tech companies globally, she is frequently tapped to share her thought-provoking advice and opinions on how to create a more equitable work environment.

In April 2017, Lexi B founded Sista Circle: Black Women in Tech. Today, it is one of the largest virtual communities of its kind to exist, boasting a 10,000+ membership of professional women from over 72 countries in tech and tech-adjacent careers. This international society has been nationally and locally recognized by Instagram, Youtube, Linkedin, Slack, Black Enterprise,Rolling Out, Phenomenally, The Ladders, Built-In, and more.

The Stanford graduate and St. Louis, MO native believes, “people deserve to live the life that caters to their strengths and passions. By truly understanding what they need and offer, everyone can implement tools to realize their path and thrive.” She shares her reflections and views on social media at @lexibspeaks.

Leilani Moten is a proud 2021 HBCU Alumni, she graduated Summa cum laude with her bachelors in Marketing from the Earl G. Graves school of Business and Management Honors program at Morgan State University. Leilani is also a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, Alpha Delta Chapter where she served on the executive board. She currently works for JP Morgan within the Chase Leadership Development program supporting Network Expansion. She first joined the firm as one of the 50 inaugural 2019 Advancing Black Pathways Apprentices and as a ABP Alum she represents the program as a mentor and advocate for it's impact within the firm. Leilani is also a proud entrepreneur and has successfully launched two businesses under LNCM The brand; LNCM gourmet Popcorn, and Lani’s personalized baskets. Leilani Loves life and is passionate about positively impacting the world everyday she is blessed to be on this earth- she takes nothing for granted and is happy to honored to join you today on the panel.

T. Tara Turk-Haynes is VP of DEI and Talent Management at Leaf Group where she oversees Leaf Group’s diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as hiring efforts. She joined Leaf Group in 2016 as Director, People, where she led the company’s employee engagement, talent acquisition and learning and development programs. T. Tara has worked in Editorial at Variety Magazine, serving as a Project Lead for the Rizzoli book, "Variety: An Illustrated History of the World from The Most Important Magazine in Hollywood" by Tim Gray. She has also worked at Metacloud (a Cisco company), Ticketmaster, NBC Universal, Sundance Channel, and Penguin Putnam. She is a first generation graduate from Eugene Lang College at The New School where she studied Social, Cultural and Urban Studies and Sarah Lawrence College where she studied theatre. Her work has appeared in Tamara Winfrey Harris’s “Dear Black Girl” - a letter to young Black girls from Black Women along with Tarana Burke and others. She has also been featured in Lars Schmidt’s “Redefining HR” book as well his podcast. She has been featured on several podcasts, panels, and workshops on equitable workplaces and hiring. She is also a playwright and most recently completed a Geffen Writer’s room fellowship.

Alechia Reese is equal parts warm tea and Hennessy. Transformation coach, international speaker & host, she’s the principal for RGLP Group, co-founder of Tru3 Yoga Agency, and co-host of the Triggered AF & Got Value? Podcasts.

She transformed her life from domestic violence victim to thriver building multiple lucrative brands. She now shows executives and marginalized emerging leaders how to leverage their personal and professional value to increase impact and decrease burnout. Her strategies guide leaders in building strong and strategic professional relationships that lead to upwardly mobile careers, expansive businesses, and lives that not only look good, but feel good.

She’s worked with and spoken for a myriad of organizations and leaders from the entertainment stage to the corporate boardroom including Zendaya Coleman and Soledad O'Brien to UPS, Verizon, Bank of America, Vogue Italia, Essence, Buzzfeed, and more. Stay connected everywhere @alechiareese.

Pamela Capalad is a Certified Financial Planner™ and Accredited Financial Counselor™ and has been in financial services since 2008. She founded Brunch & Budget to help people who felt ashamed or embarrassed about money have a safe place to make real financial progress. Pam has been featured in the Washington Post, Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, Vice Magazine, and was named New York Magazine’s Best of New York 2019.

Pam & Dyalekt host the Brunch & Budget podcast and cofounded Brunch & Budget's group financial planning program for POC called See Change. They regularly keynote on how art, culture, and media are used to perpetuate racial wealth inequality.

Brittany is an educator and strategist, who is also the founder of A Green Legacy – a cannabis marketing and communications consultancy, & A Green Legacy House – an organization supporting underrepresented cannabis entrepreneurs and leaders through programming and community.

Her clients are both people and businesses seeking stability and prominence through opportunity and revenue-generating marketing communities, launches, and personal brands.

She's a freelance writer – whose bylines include Leafly, Weedmaps, and South Seattle Emerald. She tackles the topics of entrepreneurship, the intersections of cannabis and parenting, and the stories of Black and other historically marginalized cannabis OGs.

Her first career as an elementary teacher has been a golden thread throughout all of her career transitions. While her time as a tech marketer working with clients Microsoft, Amazon, and Tableau made it clear she could learn just about anything. When she landed a role as a Brand Partnership Account Executive at Leafly, she realized disparities in cannabis were beyond what she read.

Determined, after her time at Leafy was cut short due to layoff, she began freelancing and eventually launched A Green Legacy.

She's worked with WA state Legislators to help develop the state's Social Equity in Cannabis legislation and has had her medical marijuana consultant certificate from the Academy of Cannabis Science since 2019.

She's a wife and mom to a 4-year-old and is passionate about mental health, nature, and learning from others' stories.

Ericka brings 10+ years as a leader, entrepreneur and coach whose published content can be found on Forbes.com, Black Enterprise.com and Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global platform.

Because Ericka understands the challenges women face while navigating organizational culture, she’s committed to providing principles and strategies that help women: self-advocate, increase their visibility, go further faster in less time and ultimately stop sitting on their ask. She also positions women to excel at work as well as know their worth by leveraging interviewing skills to increase their salary. This notion has not only resulted in at least 80% of her clients securing their desired role; but has also allowed clients to experience mobility by designing their individual path to promotion.

Chelsea S. Duffy is the CEO of Local Modiv, a woman-owned cannabis company based in Jersey City, NJ, founded in 2018. Chelsea comes to us seasoned in NJ's medical and recreational cannabis market. As a 2019 medical dispensary applicant and recent 2022 tier 5 license applicant, Chelsea's become well versed in all-things cannaprenuership.

Speaking from experience, Chelsea will share insight on what it's been like working at a state and local level to obtain a dispensary license. Furthermore, what's required, what to look out for and how to simply get started in the industry. While pursuing a career in cannabis, Chelsea has become deeply rooted in her community and was recently elected Vice Chair of the Jersey City Women's Advisory Board.

Previously, Chelsea worked in corporate sports for teams like the NY Jets, the NY Yankees, the NY Rangers/Madison Square Garden, and NASCAR. Jumping from one male dominated industry to the next, Chelsea wants to see women and minorities rule the cannabis space.

Strategic - Visionary - Leader

Bernita Dillard, MBA is a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion leader and change agent with 10+ years of experience in revolutionizing hiring and talent management programs to attract and retain top diverse talent. She has dedicated her career to creating inclusive work environments to ensure underrepresented minorities have equal access to career opportunities.

She has successfully created strategic partnerships between corporations, government agencies, and community organizations to expand talent pipelines and develop support frameworks to improve retention rates.

Bernita has been able to deliver industry-leading results for the world’s largest tech firms, such as Facebook and Google, through the development of comprehensive DEI strategies. By designing inclusive frameworks beyond talent acquisition to incorporate learning and professional development, employee resource groups, and compensation and advancement, she has successfully driven increases in diverse representation in talent pools and reversed attrition patterns.

An award-winning hybrid creative, Courtney Richardson is currently Creative Director at Droga5 where she leads creative direction for iconic brands and icons including Sean Combs, Combs Enterprises, The Africa Center, Hennessy and Chase Sapphire. Courtney credits her early beginnings watching her uncle direct music videos for the Wu-Tang Clan, Snoop Dogg, Master P & No Limit Records with igniting her passions and birthing her creative intuitions.

Formerly Creative Director at PAPER Magazine, it was there she led original ideas and disruptive thinking for brands like Nike, Samsung, American Express, GAP, Target, Hulu, HBO, VH1 and more; while working with celebrities including Lena Waithe, Taraji P. Henson, Tiffany Haddish, Zendaya, Laverne Cox, Michaela Coel and others. Recognized as a 'Culture Shifter' by The Creative Collective NYC and inducted into their 2022 Creative Class of Black thought leaders and creatives, Courtney is also 2021’s 'Creative of The Year' by ADCOLOR and The One Club.

Courtney has been featured by outlets, including AdWeek, Ad Age, PopSugar, Bustle, Refinery29, EBONY Magazine, XONecole, CBS Morning News and more. Her creative thinking has also been praised and sought after by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. Driven and focused, Courtney’s life goal is to always uplift humanity, particularly Black women.

By day, Tennessee is a marketing manager at Google focused on racial equity. By night, she is an inclusive marketing specialist, DEI consultant and public speaker.

Tennessee is driven by the opportunity for brands to make the world a better place. She enjoys using strategic communications as a lever for social change, community engagement and economic opportunity.

Tennessee has several years of marketing and corporate strategy experience working with clients such as Visa, Natwest Bank, Rent the Runway, Estée Lauder, Comic Relief, TikTok, and Nokia. Additionally, she holds a Master of Science in Management from Imperial College London, during which she studied innovation and sustainability in five global cities: London, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Rennes, and Prague. Tennessee also earned a First Class Honours BSc in Business Management and Finance from BPP University.

Outside of work, Tennessee is an avid mentor, keen traveller, foodie and photographer.

Breanna is a Product Marketing Manager at YouTube, the #1 ad-supported streaming TV video platform across reach and watch time, where over 2 billion monthly logged-in users come to share their voices and experience the world around them.

Her commitment to redefining the status quo in advertising and media industries through storytelling, experiences, and authentic communications has helped brands and businesses reflect the world more accurately, resonate with today's diverse consumers, and drive results for their bottom line.

As a leader, Breanna uses shared empathy to motivate and inspire those around her; confidence and charisma to break through and bring people with different viewpoints together, and determination and vision to make magic moments in culture happen

Felicia's bold curiosity is humbly fearless. After four years at Amazon in retail customer service, Felicia was selected for the company's first cohort of UX Design and Research apprentices. In the process, she's caught the company's attention, being featured in "UX Design and Research Apprenticeship program | Article," "Upskilling 2025 Pledge | Annual Report," and "Amazon expands free employee upskilling programs | Amazon's LinkedIn Article."

Felicia's turned her talent for helping customers into a talent for designing for them. Her vigorous growth continued as a panel moderator for a live & pre-recorded session of HireBlack's 2021 Summit and Amazon's Design 2021 Conflux.

Felicia is a member of Amazon’s Black Employee Network (BEN) Design Committee and is currently producing her first podcast, Design Reflections (coming soon).

Brian "Dyalekt" Kushner has been a hip-hop MC, theater maker, and educator for nearly 20 years. He’s the director of pedagogy at Pockets Change, where he uses hip-hop pedagogy to demystify personal finance and help students take control of their relationship with money. He is the recipients of Jump$tart’s 2022 Innovation in Financial Literacy award. He’s rocked (performed/taught/keynoted) everywhere from conferences like AFCPE and Prosperity Now, to stages like SXSW and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, to classrooms that range from Yale to your cousin’s living room.

Crystle Johnson is a data-driven, organizational architect who leverages inclusive process design to create spaces where underestimated talent can grow and thrive. Going beyond traditional and superficial means, she is laser-focused on building relationships across diverse communities and removing barriers in everyday processes in the pursuit of equity.

Polly Irungu is a multimedia journalist and founder. In July 2020, Polly launched Black Women Photographers, a global community, directory, and hub of over 1,000 Black women and non-binary identifying photographers. In under two years, BWP has helped hundreds of photographers receive free education, training, software, portfolio reviews, and so much more. In 2021, BWP established an annual $50K grant fund in partnership with Nikon Inc. and other grant initiatives with Getty Images and Flickr.

As a multimedia journalist and founder, Polly’s work has been published in numerous publications, including OkayAfrica, OkayPlayer, The New York Times, Reuters, Global Citizen, NPR, BBC News, Refinery29, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, CNN, among other publications.

In 2017, Polly completed a degree in Journalism from the University of Oregon. Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Polly has lived across various cities, from Nairobi to Topeka, Kansas to Eugene, Oregon to Washington, D.C., Little Rock, Arkansas, and ultimately to Brooklyn, New York.

Currently, Polly is a 2022 fellow for the International Women's Media Foundation and an instructor at the International Center of Photography. Most recently, she was a creator for Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, and was selected as one of 20 journalism innovators a part of CUNY’s entrepreneurship program.

Allie Joy Tsahey is a Ghanaian-American entrepreneur, career strategist, and DEI in tech advocate. She is the Founder and CEO of tech career platform Baddies in Tech. At the age of 22, Allie founded BiT as her first business venture, and she has since dedicated her career to cultivating spaces that empower women of color around the world to start and advance fulfilling careers in the tech field.

LaShawnda Rodgers is a resident of Cary, North Carolina where she resides with her loving husband and her 3 amazing boys. She has obtained a Bachelor’s in Science of Business Administration, MBA, and a Scrum Master Certification. LaShawnda is currently the Founder and CEO of Rodgers Global Leadership Consortium. RGLC partners with medium-large organizations to equip new and experienced leaders with the necessary skills to excel in their role, increase diversity, encourage growth, support, and create equitable environments. LaShawnda is highly sought for IT Consulting, Project Management, Developmental Training, Program Management, and Customer Experience Projects. LaShawnda currently serves on the board of Blacks in Technology as the VP of Community Outreach for their Raleigh Chapter. She provides resources, coaching, and mentoring to those interested in growing in their tech career. LaShawnda is also a well sought Thought Leader, Speaker, and Facilitator. Some topics she speaks about are Leadership, Mindset, Diversity, Team Building, Marriage, Confidence, and Communication Skills. As a Certified Transformation Coach, she inspires others to walk confidently in every area of their life, set healthy boundaries, relinquish negative ties, and love themselves entirety.

Born and raised in Miami, FL, Antwan McKenzie-Plez A.K.A.Twan the Counselor is a proud south Floridian who is committed to serving the needs of the most marginalized in his local community, and now the global community through mental health education.

Antwan is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, with National certification. He is also a Certified Grief Professional. His private practice, located in Fort Lauderdale, FL, is named It's All Grief, LLC. Through his practice, he works as a specialist in treating trauma and grief through groundbreaking techniques including MDR, Cognitive Processing Therapy, Trauma-Focused CBT, and Brainspotting. He specializes in treating pre-teens, adolescents, and adults with issues related to grief, trauma, PTSD, stress management, anxiety, depression, and life transitions, and isLGBTQIA+ proficient.

Antwan is also considered an expert on issues related to Neurodevelopmental Disabilities, including AutismSpectrum Disorder, due to his 15+ years of training and experience working with this population. He is a self-proclaimed“Neuroscience Nerd” with a love for the human brain and its natural capacity to access true healing. He calls himself, “a counselor by profession, but a healer by calling”.

Sonal Patel is the Director of Brand Marketing and Communications at theSkimm, a digital media company dedicated to succinctly giving women the information they need to make confident decisions, making it easier to live smarter. In her current role, Sonal works to elevate theSkimm’s brand and company spokespeople through PR, thought leadership and brand campaigns, in addition to helping spearhead theSkimm's #ShowUsYourLeave initiative-turned-viral-movement.

In her previous roles, she created and executed strategies focused on public relations, brand marketing, partnerships, event management, influencer marketing, and social media – working in-house for brands including EdTech platform, Sawyer and British lifestyle brand, Joules, as well as clients like Hotel Chocolat, Rebecca Minkoff, K-Swiss, and Hanky Panky

Brittinee Phillips is a brand marketer with 12+ years of experience cultivating authenticity among marketing strategy, creator programs, and scaling women-owned businesses. Brittinee's career includes working in a wide variety of environments — including ad agencies, in-house teams, and startups — where establishing healthy boundaries and always advocating for her and her team's mental wellness has allowed her to navigate tough territory and become the influential leader she is today. Brittinee models integrity by living into her truth and sharing her brilliance with those around her — high skilled and justice minded she provides a lens that organizations can learn from.

Shayla Cabrera is fueled by a love of plants, entrepreneurship, and community.

I am the Founder & CEO of Tia Planta, a woman owned and operated, Jersey City plant shop. Alongside my tiny plantshop, we provide educational plant workshops, industry seminars, plant repotting and plant styling services and more.