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Speaker Biographies
Afia Asamoah ’ Afia Asamoah is Senior Product Counsel at Verily Life Sciences, formerly Google Life Sciences. She leads the legal, compliance, and regulatory affairs teams responsible for advising all health-related products developed at Verily. She was the first lawyer hired by the Google[x] life sciences team and was the sole lawyer advising on FDA matters across Google. Previously, Afia was a regulatory attorney at Covington & Burling LLP, where she advised on a range of healthcare regulatory and compliance issues. From 2009-2011, Ms. Asamoah was also a Special Assistant in the Office of the Commissioner at the US Food and Drug Administration, where she received four awards, including the FDA Commissioner’s Special Citation. In addition to her Harvard Law education, Afia holds a Masters of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a degree from Harvard University in Psychology.
Werten F.W. Bellamy, Jr. Werten Bellamy is the President of Stakeholders, Inc., a company founded in 2007 that provides training and conference resources directed to the active career management needs of corporations and service firms. Stakeholders works in over 100 global law firms and law departments. Mr. Bellamy launched Stakeholders following sixteen (16) years of practice in both law firms and law departments. He completed his legal career as General Counsel of Celera Genomics. Werten is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Virginia School of Law.
Myma Belo-Osagie LL.M. ’78, S.J.D. ’ Dr. Myma Adwowa Belo-Osagie served as a Managing Partner in Udo, Udoma & Belo- Osagie, a leading Nigerian corporate law firm. Dr. Belo-Osagie has been the Chairman of Africa Opportunity Fund Limited since February 28, 2014 and its Non-executive Director since June 2007. She serves as a Non-Executive Director of FSDH Merchant Bank Limited (Formerly, First Securities Discount House Limited), the African WildLife Foundation and is a member of Harvard University’s International Advisory Committee. She is a member of the New York, Ghana and Nigeria Bars and is a member of the American Bar Association. Dr. Belo-Osagie graduated from the University of Ghana with a LLB degree. She obtained a LLM degree and a SJD degree from Harvard Law School.
Hon. Victor A. Bolden ’ Victor A. Bolden is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. Prior to his appointment to the federal bench, Judge Bolden served as the Corporation Counsel for New Haven, Connecticut, the chief legal advisor of and attorney for Connecticut’s second largest municipality. Before working for the City of New Haven, Judge Bolden was the General Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF). He also practiced with the law firm of Wiggin and Dana LLP in New Haven, Connecticut, served as an Assistant Counsel with LDF as well as a Marvin Karpatkin Fellow and Staff Attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation's (ACLU) National Legal Department. Judge Bolden also has taught as an Adjunct Professor at New York Law School and conducted seminars on constitutional law in South Africa and Brazil. He received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University.
Sheryll D. Cashin ’ Sheryll Cashin, Professor of Law at Georgetown University, is the author of Place Not Race, The Agitator’s Daughter and The Failures of Integration. She is a frequent commentator on law, race, and race relations, appearing on NPR, CNN, ABC News, and MSNBC. Her commentaries have also appeared in the New York Times , Los Angeles Times , Washington Post , Salon , and The Root. She is working on a new book that explores why interracial love was prohibited in the United States and how, since the landmark Supreme Court case of Loving vs. Virginia declared anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional, a new culturally dexterous class of ardent integrators is emerging and will influence politics.
Teresa Clarke ’ Ms. Clarke is one of 15 private sectors leaders in the United States appointed to President Obama’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She serves on the board of Cim Financial Services Ltd, a public company domiciled in Mauritius and Singapore, with over $150 billion under administration. She was named one of the Top 25 Influential Women in Business by the Network Journal, and has been honored twice by the South African government for her contributions to education as the founder of the Student Sponsorship Programme of South Africa.
She earned a BA in economics, cum laude from Harvard College, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a JD from Harvard Law School
Gina Clayton ’ Gina Clayton is Founder and Executive Director of Essie Justice Group (Essie). An award winning social entrepreneur, attorney, activist, and advocate for women, Gina launched Essie (named after her great grandmother, Essie Baily) in 2014 to support and empower women with incarcerated loved ones.
Gina saw the impact of incarceration on women both in her personal and professional life. As a housing attorney, Gina designed and implemented the Housing Defense Practice at The Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem (NDS) to represent women who were facing
Darryl L. DePriest ’ Darryl L. DePriest is the seventh presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed Chief Counsel for the Office of Advocacy.
Prior to joining the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, Mr. DePriest was the Senior Consultant for Legal and Regulatory Communications for Hill+Knowlton Strategies, a position he held since 2008. Before joining Hill+Knowlton, Mr. DePriest served as the General Counsel of the American Bar Association from 1988 until 2006. From 1980 to 1988, Mr. DePriest was a litigation attorney at Jenner & Block, where he was named partner in
- From 1979 to 1980, he was a judicial law clerk for Judge Robert E. Keeton of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Mr. DePriest has also served as a fellow, board member, and president of Leadership Greater Chicago, and as chair of the City of Chicago Board of Ethics. Mr. DePriest received an AB from Harvard University.
Jenée Desmond-Harris ’ Jenée Desmond-Harris is a John S. Knight Journalism fellow at Stanford University, studying ways to enrich journalism about race in America. She's worked as a staff writer for Vox.com, covering race, law, and politics in news articles, explainers, and features. Previously, she was an editor at The Root, an African American news site, where she served as White House correspondent, authored an advice column answering race and culture-related ethics and etiquette questions, and hosted “The Confab,” a politics and pop culture podcast. A graduate of HLS, her journalism career began in 2008, when she began freelancing for Time, The Root, and MSNBC while she was still working as an attorney in the antitrust practice of a large law firm.
Thembisa Dingaan LL.M. ’ Thembisa Dingaan is an Executive Director of Skweyiya Investment Holdings and Founder of Theshka Gallery. She is an Independent Non-Executive Director of several companies, including Absa Bank Limited (ABSA), a member of the Barclays Africa Group Limited. She has additional responsibility of being a Board member of ABSA Financial Services, ABSA Fund Managers and she is a trustee of ABSA’s Pension Fund. For the past ten years she has also served on the Board of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, where she has served as chair of the Credit and Investment Committee, member of Audit, Risk and Finance Committee. In addition she is a Non-Executive Director of Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed companies such as Telkom SOC Limited, Imperial Holdings Limited, and Japanese owned company, Sumitomo Rubber South Africa.
Ms. Dingaan is a former member of the Minister of Trade and Industry Standing Advisory Committee on Company Law, as well as a board member of the South African Export Credit Insurance Corporation (ECIC), Royal Bafokeng Resources, Enaleni Cipla Pharmeceuticals and Placecol Holdings (now listed as Imbalie Beauty Limited). She is a former Investment Banker, having had roles at Citigroup in Johannesburg and the local South African Bank, Nedbank Capital. She started her career in the legal profession with White & Case in New York and later moved to their Johannesburg office. She is admitted to the New York State Bar.
She also holds degree from the University of Kwazulu Natal in Law as well as a Postgraduate diploma from University of the Witwatersrand in Tax Law. Thembisa has a keen interest in travel, the arts and design.
Chris-Tia E. Donaldson ’ By day, Chris-Tia Donaldson provides strategic legal advice to top executives at one of the world's largest Fortune 100 companies. By night, the lawyer-turned-businesswoman is inspiring women from the south side of Chicago to South Africa to embrace healthier beauty practices through Thank God It's Natural, her line of natural products for hair and skin, which are now available at Target, Whole Foods, and Sally Beauty Supply stores nationwide. Under Chris-Tia’s leadership, the company plans to expand into healthy snacks, cookbooks, supplements, and fitness apparel in the near future. Chris-Tia has been featured in major media publications such as USA Today , Marie Claire , Essence , Black Enterprise , Ebony , Heart & Soul , and the Chicago Tribune , as well as many other outlets throughout the country. Her book, Thank God I’m Natural: The Ultimate Guide to Caring for Natural Hair is a # Amazon bestseller, and was hailed the “Natural Hair Bible” by Essence Magazine. You can follow her on Instagram @tginceo.
LaKeytria W. Felder ’ LaKeytria W. Felder has been an Assistant Federal Public Defender since 2009, first in the District of Maryland and now in the Eastern District of New York. She has represented indigent persons in every facet of federal criminal litigation from investigation through appeal. Previously, Ms. Felder was a pro bono fellow at Holland & Knight in Washington, DC. In that capacity, her practice focused on 1983 civil rights cases on behalf of prisoners and juvenile pretrial detainees. Those cases challenged unconstitutional conditions of confinement, inadequate medical and mental healthcare, and excessive use of force. After law school, LaKeytria clerked for the Honorable Petrese B. Tucker in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania followed by private practice in New York at Shearman & Sterling.
Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. ’
Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., is President and Chief Executive Officer of TIAA, the leading provider of retirement services in the academic, research, medical, and cultural fields and a Fortune 100 financial services organization.
Mr. Ferguson is the former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System. He represented the Federal Reserve on several international policy groups and served on key Federal Reserve System committees, including Payment System Oversight, Reserve Bank Operations, and Supervision and Regulation. As the only Governor in Washington, DC on 9/11, he led the Fed’s initial response to the terrorist attacks, taking actions that kept the US financial system functioning while reassuring the global financial community that the US economy would not be paralyzed.
Prior to joining TIAA in April 2008, Mr. Ferguson was head of financial services for Swiss Re, Chairman of Swiss Re America Holding Corporation, and a member of the company’s executive committee. From 1984 to 1997, he was an Associate and Partner at McKinsey & Company. He began his career as an attorney at the New York City office of Davis Polk & Wardwell.
Mr. Ferguson is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and co-chairs its Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education. He serves on the boards of General Mills and International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. and on the advisory board of Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP.
Kenneth C. Frazier ’ Kenneth C. Frazier is Chairman and CEO of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ. Prior to his current role, Ken held a broad range of senior management positions with the global biopharmaceutical company, including General Counsel. Before joining Merck in 1992, Ken was a partner with the Philadelphia law firm of Drinker Biddle & Reath. He sits on the boards of PhRMA, Weill Cornell Medicine, Exxon Mobil Corporation and Cornerstone Christian Academy in Philadelphia, PA. He also is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the President’s Export Council, The Business Council, the Council of the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association. In addition to his Harvard Law education, Ken holds a bachelor’s degree from The Pennsylvania State University.
Aminu Gamawa LL.M. ’10, S.J.D ’ Dr. Aminu Gamawa is a world-class legal and dispute resolution trainer and practitioner who helps individuals, businesses and organizations resolve disputes. He applies a collaborative approach in providing creative solutions to complex and sensitive disputes, while assisting clients who face barriers in managing relationships to create or structure deals that reach a mutually satisfactory settlement.
He also provides legal and policy advice to wide range of organizations across private and public sectors, including corporations, government agencies, educational institutions, and nonprofit entities. He is a regular commentator on Voice of America, the BBC, CCTV and Aljazeera on legal and international affairs.
Dr. Gamawa is a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. He is a partner at Collaborative Development Partners (CDP), a global consulting firm, and an editorial board member of the newspaper, Premium Times.
Dr. Gamawa holds both a Doctor of Juridical Science and a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School, an LLB from the University of Maiduguri in Nigeria, and a BL from Nigerian Law School, in Lagos. He was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard’s Department of African and African-American Studies.
Haben Girma ’ White House Champion of Change and Forbes 30 under 30 leader, Haben Girma is an accessibility & inclusion advocate. The first Deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School, Haben champions equal access to information for people with disabilities, earning her recognition from President Barack Obama and President Bill Clinton. After law school she worked as a Skadden Fellow at Disability Rights Advocates where she helped achieve a legal victory in National Federation of the Blind v. Scribd , the second case to hold that the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to e-commerce. She now works as an educator providing trainings and presentations around the world to advance the civil rights of people with disabilities. Haben lives in Berkeley, California.
Jeremiah Gordon ’ Jeremiah Gordon is the General Counsel of Google Capital. He manages legal and regulatory affairs for Google Capital and is involved in all aspects of Google Capital, including fund formation, deal execution and portfolio management. Prior to Google Capital, Mr. Gordon served as a senior counsel at Google where he worked with Google’s corporate development team on acquisitions, investments and special projects. Jeremiah holds an AB in Economics from Princeton University and a JD from Harvard Law School.
Allegra Lawrence-Hardy Allegra Lawrence-Hardy focuses her practice on Business and Commercial Litigation and Labor and Employment. She has successfully defended Fortune 100 companies throughout the United States and abroad in numerous trials, arbitrations and other forms of alternative dispute resolution. Allegra is a fellow in the Litigation Counsel of America, which is an invitation-only trial lawyer honorary society and represents less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers. Fellows are selected based upon excellence and accomplishments in litigation, trial work and superior ethical reputation.
Allegra is a graduate of Yale Law School and is a member of its Executive Committee. She received her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude , from Spelman College.
Additional highlights of Allegra’s achievements include: recognized by Chambers USA: Guide to Leading Business Lawyers; repeatedly named to The Best Lawyers in America; selected for inclusion among The Black Lawyers “Top 100”; named to the “Rainmakers” list by Diversity & the Bar; repeatedly selected for inclusion in Georgia Super Lawyers® “Top 50 Female Georgia Super Lawyers” and “Top 100 Georgia Super Lawyers.”
David J. Harris David J. Harris is the Managing Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School. In addition to his overall management of the Houston Institute, David has been involved in the institute’s programmatic activities, including formulation and promotion of the community justice approach to public safety and the Houston Marshall Plan for Community Justice. Prior to assuming this position he served as founding Executive Director of the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston, where he established himself as a leader in fair housing and equity issues. He previously served as a fair housing investigator with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, before which he was a Civil Rights Analyst with the US Commission on Civil Rights, both in Washington, DC, and the New England Regional Office. He holds a PhD in sociology from Harvard University, and a BA from Georgetown University. David serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations, currently chairs the Massachusetts Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights.
Corporate Counsel Awards Finalist by D CEO Magazine and the DFW chapter of the Association for Corporate Counsel and was selected for the 2016 class of 40 Under 40 by the Dallas Business Journal.
Debra L. Lee ’ Debra L. Lee is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BET Networks, a unit of Viacom Inc. and the leading provider of entertainment for the African-American audience and consumers of Black culture globally. Ms. Lee oversees one of the most influential multiplatform media companies in the world, including several cable television networks and digital offerings.
BET Networks is committed to providing its audience with quality entertainment that speaks to where they are in their lives and where they want to go. Under her leadership, Ms. Lee has led the company’s successful reinvigorated brand and successful programming vision that has created hits such as , Real Husbands of Hollywood, Being Mary Jane, BET Awards, Black Girls Rock!, BET Honors, Sunday Best, and many more – resulting in consistent increases in viewership and revenue.
Ms. Lee’s vision for BET’s reinvigorated approach is built on supporting families, embracing and encouraging their dreams, and focusing on the issues that are important to them.
In September 2009, Ms. Lee managed the launch of Centric, a 24-hour music and entertainment network. Under her leadership, Centric was rebranded in 2014 as the first network designed for Black women. She also oversees the company’s current growth initiatives, including international distribution of the brand in Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, France, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.
Prior to her being named Chairman and CEO, Ms. Lee was President and Chief Operating Officer of BET Networks for almost 10 years, during which she guided the company to consistent increases in viewership, revenue and earnings. She first joined BET as Vice President and General Counsel in 1986 after serving more than five years as an attorney with Washington, DC-based Steptoe & Johnson, a corporate law firm.
Named one of The Hollywood Reporter’s 100 Most Powerful Women in Entertainment, Ms. Lee’s achievements in a 25-plus year career at BET Networks have earned her numerous accolades from across the cable industry, as well as recognition as one of this country’s most respected business executives. Ms. Lee was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame, the Washington Business Hall of Fame, and was honored with the Distinguished Leadership Vanguard Award by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. She also serves on the corporate board of directors of Revlon, Marriott and Washington Gas & Light. Her business acumen and strategic approach to management make Ms. Lee a popular speaker and lecturer on a range of business topics.
Ms. Lee earned her JD at Harvard Law School, while simultaneously earning a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government. She graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in political science with an emphasis in Asian politics. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for Brown University and was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters from the University in May, 2014. She resides in Washington, DC.
Andrew Lindsay ’ Andrew Lindsay currently serves as the VP of Corporate Development at Jawbone, a venture-backed consumer electronics and wearable products company. Prior to this role, Andrew advised clients on corporate strategy as a consultant for McKinsey & Company and on corporate transactions as a member of Merrill Lynch's mergers and acquisitions team. Andrew is the Chair of TechSF, the city's technology workforce development initiative, and is a member of the Workforce Investment San Francisco Board. Andrew earned a law degree at Harvard Law School, an MBA at Harvard Business School and a BS in Biology from Howard University.
Kenneth W. Mack ’ Kenneth W. Mack is the inaugural Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law and Affiliate Professor of History at Harvard University. He is the co-faculty leader of the Harvard Law School Program on Law and History. During the 2015-16 year, he also served as co-faculty leader of the Workshop on the History of Capitalism in the Americas at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American history. His research and teaching have focused on American legal and constitutional history with particular emphasis on race relations, politics and economic life. His 2012 book, Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer (Harvard University Press), was selected as a Top 50 Non-fiction Book of the Year by the Washington Post, was a National Book Festival Selection, was awarded honorable mention for the J. Willard Hurst Award by the Law and Society Association, and was a finalist for the Julia Ward Howe Book Award. His is also the co- editor of The New Black: What Has Changed – And What Has Not – With Race in America (New Press, 2013). His articles have been published in a wide variety of scholarly and general interest publications. He is currently working on a book project that examines the social and political history of race and political economy in the United States after 1975.
He began his professional career as an electrical engineer at Bell Laboratories before turning to law and history. Before joining the faculty at Harvard Law School, he clerked for the Honorable Robert L. Carter, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and practiced law in the Washington, DC office of the firm Covington & Burling.
Leo S. Mackay, Jr. Leo S. Mackay, Jr., is Vice President - Ethics and Sustainability, and an elected corporate officer, of Lockheed Martin Corporation. He is an independent director of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation, a $40B leading global supplier of business and IT services, and strategic advisor to Pegasus Capital Advisors, a private equity fund focused on sustainability and wellness. He was previously Vice President of Corporate Business Development and President of ICGS, LLC, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Dr. Mackay served as Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs from 2001- 2003 receiving the Exceptional Service Medal, the VA’s highest honor, for his service. From 1993 to 1995 he was military assistant to current Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, who was then the Assistant Secretary of Defense - International Security Policy. Dr. Mackay is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Aspen Strategy Group. A Secretary of the Navy Distinguished Graduate of the US Naval Academy, he is a former naval aviator (F-14 pilot, Navy Fighter Weapons School [Topgun] graduate), and a veteran of Operation Earnest Will. He earned a master's degree, and a PhD, in public policy from Harvard University where he was a Harvard MacArthur Scholar and Kennedy Fellow.
investment structuring in the alternative energy, renewable energy, clean technology, water and energy efficiency sectors. Tracy has also acquired, developed and financed 200+ MW of global renewable energy assets. Tracy has extensive transactional experience ranging from mergers and acquisitions, business development, valuation and deal structuring, financial strategy, sustainability metrics, and public policy analysis.
Tracy started her finance career in 2007 at Citigroup Global Markets as Managing Director and Head of Environmental Banking Strategy advising alternative and renewable energy companies and diversified multinational corporations on strategic investments, US and international energy policies and environmental financing alternatives. She was a Member of Citigroup's Alternative Energy Task Force and the Carbon Task Force. Tracy’s public sector experience includes working in several senior level positions including at the White House at the National Security Council as Senior Director of European Affairs and Director of European Economic Affairs and EU Relations. Tracy also worked at the US Department of Commerce where her positions included Special Counsel for International Trade and Investments, as well as Director and Executive Secretariat in the Office of the Secretary of Commerce. Prior to her work in the public sector, Tracy practiced law at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld LLP representing and advising clients on commercial and complex litigation matters, as well as corporate and multinational energy clients on strategic investments globally.
Tracy has served on a number of public and private/nonprofit boards. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Ecolab Inc. (ECL), Imation (IMN), USAA, the New York Power Authority, and Geostellar. Tracy is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a non-partisan organization exploring public policy and corporate interactions across the globe. She has spoken at various international conferences on issues such as renewable energy, water/energy nexus, clean technology and innovation, as well as a United Nations conference on sustainability management. Tracy received her BA from West Virginia State University and JD from Harvard Law School.
ReNika C. Moore ’ ReNika Moore is an advocate for racial and economic justice. She is currently Deputy Bureau Chief of the Labor Bureau in the New York Attorney General’s Office. As Deputy Bureau Chief she supervises the Bureau’s civil enforcement of New York’s labor laws and its representation of New York State in various appeals affecting workers, including workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, and prevailing wage compliance. The NY AG’s Labor Bureau has been nationally recognized for enforcing labor standards in low-wage industries, such as food services, car washing, and construction.
Prior to this role, Ms. Moore supervised and coordinated the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s economic justice litigation, public education, and public policy efforts. Ms. Moore litigated high-impact racial justice cases tackling a variety of civil rights issues, including criminal background checks in employment, discrimination in major federal housing programs, and environmental racism. For example, Ms. Moore was lead counsel for LDF in Cogdell v. Wet Seal , which resulted in a $7.5 million settlement that also provided for numerous compensation, promotion, and personnel changes to ensure fairness and opportunity for current and future African-American retail workers. She served as a faculty member in the Shriver Center’s inaugural Racial Justice Training Institute for legal aid and legal services attorneys from around the country. Before joining LDF, Ms. Moore worked with the employment law firm Outten & Golden advocating for the rights of workers who had been unlawfully discriminated against or had been unlawfully denied their earned wages. Ms. Moore began her career clerking for accomplished civil rights litigator, the late Honorable Robert L. Carter in the US District Court of the Southern District of New York. Ms. Moore received her JD from Harvard Law School and AB from Harvard College cum laude.
Professor Charles Ogletree ’ Charles Ogletree, the Harvard Law School Jesse Climenko Professor of Law, and Founding and Executive Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, is a prominent legal theorist who has made an international reputation by taking a hard look at complex issues of law and by working to secure the rights guaranteed by the Constitution for everyone equally under the law. Professor Ogletree opened the offices of The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice www.charleshamiltonhouston.org in September 2005 as a tribute to the legendary civil rights lawyer and mentor and teacher of such great civil rights lawyers as Thurgood Marshall and Oliver Hill. The Institute has engaged in a wide range of important educational, legal, and policy issues over the past six years.
Professor Ogletree is the author of several important books on race and justice. His most recent publication is a book co-edited with Professor Austin Sarat of Amherst College entitled Life without Parole: America's New Death Penalty? (NYU Press, 2012). Other publications include, T he Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Race, Class, and Crime in America (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). With Professor Sarat, he has also co-edited, The Road to Abolition: The Future of Capital Punishment in the United States , and When Law Fails: Making Sense of Miscarriages of Justice (2009) and From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State: Race and the Death Penalty in America (2006). His historical memoir, All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown v. Board of Education (2004), was published by W.W. Norton & Company. Professor Ogletree also co-authored Beyond the Rodney King Story: An Investigation of Police Conduct in Minority Communities (1995).
Professor Ogletree earned an MA and BA (with distinction) in Political Science from Stanford University, where he was Phi Beta Kappa. He also holds a JD from Harvard Law School.
In 2009 Professor Ogletree was awarded the prestigious ABA Spirit of Excellence Award in recognition of his many contributions to the legal profession. In 2008, the National Law Journal named Professor Ogletree one of the 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America. Every year since 2006, Professor Ogletree has been named by Ebony Magazine as one of the 100+ Most Influential Black Americans. He was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for the National Black Law Students Association, where he served as National President from 1977-1978. Professor Ogletree also received the first ever Rosa Parks Civil Rights Award given by the City of Boston, the Hugo A. Bedau Award given by the Massachusetts Anti-Death Penalty Coalition, and Morehouse College’s Gandhi, King, Ikeda Community Builders Prize. He has also received honorary doctorates from several universities and colleges including Cambridge College, Wilberforce University, the University of Miami, the New England School of Law, Lincoln College, Tougaloo College, Mount Holyoke College, and Amherst College.
Professor Ogletree has been married to his fellow Stanford graduate, Pamela Barnes, since 1975. They are the proud parents of two children, Charles Ogletree III and Rashida Ogletree, and grandparents to granddaughters, Marquelle, Nia Mae, Jamila Ogletree, and Makayla George. The Ogletrees live in Cambridge and are members of St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Ory Okolloh ’ Ory Okolloh is currently a director of investments at Omidyar Network Africa, a philanthropic investment firm. Prior to joining Omidyar Network, Ory was Google's Policy Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa. Previously, Ory was at the forefront of developing technology innovation as a founding member of Ushahidi. She served as the organization's executive director from inception until December 2010. Ory is also the co-founder of Mzalendo, a website that tracks the performance of Kenyan Members of Parliament. She is a
Natosha Reid Rice ’ Natosha Reid Rice currently serves as the Associate General Counsel for Real Estate and Finance at Habitat for Humanity International where she initiates and manages financing programs and strategies to generate sources of capital that enable Habitat affiliates to provide decent, affordable housing to families throughout the country. In addition to her work at Habitat, Natosha also serves as an Associate Pastor, Women’s Ministries at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia and founder of Fresh Rain for Life Ministries, a non-denominational ministry that provides a “sanctuary for women in the midst of life” through worship services, retreats, bible studies, workshops, and mission outreach.
Prior to joining Habitat, Natosha practiced law in the commercial real estate practices of Alston & Bird LLP, in Atlanta, Georgia and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison in New York City. While at these firms, she specialized in commercial real estate development transactions, acquisitions, dispositions and leasing.
Natosha is passionate about providing a voice to the voiceless and opportunities to communities that have been historically disadvantaged. She is a frequent speaker and facilitator for community/civic organizations, churches, colleges and corporate events on topics such as the intersection of faith and justice, race and gender justice, leadership development and community empowerment. In addition, Natosha is a past Board Chair for Georgia Women for a Change and currently serves on the boards of the YWCA of Greater Atlanta and Invest Atlanta’s Atlanta Emerging Markets, Inc. which is a community development entity that seeks to spur job creation, economic development and neighborhood revitalization in under-served parts of the City of Atlanta. She has been actively involved in efforts to pass legislation and policy to protect victims of human sex trafficking in Georgia and provide for a fair workplace for women.
Natosha has received recognition and several awards for her work and leadership in the community. Recent honors include the YWCA Academy of Women Achievers, the Circle of Friends Pearl Award and the Church Women United (Atlanta Unit) Outstanding Young Woman. Natosha was also a member of the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2014.
Natosha received her JD from Harvard Law School and her BA in Government with honors from Harvard/Radcliffe College where she was a Harvard/Radcliffe Class Marshall and awarded the Captain Jonathan Fay Prize (Radcliffe’s Highest Honor) and the E.P. Saltonstall Prize. Natosha lives in metro Atlanta with her husband Corey Rice and their children, Kayla, Malachi and Caleb.
April Reign April Reign practiced law for over twenty years, honing her talent for public speaking and persuasive writing, but it wasn't until she walked away from her legal practice that she found her true passion. Now, as Managing Editor of BroadwayBlack.com and Editor at Large of NU Tribe Magazine, Reign is able to capitalize on her strengths and pursue her calling, using her voice to spark dialogue and explore issues of race, politics and culture.
As the Creator of the viral hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, April Reign challenges the lack of representation of marginalized communities in Hollywood and beyond. Reaching out to her engaged network of over 25,000 digital media followers worldwide, Reign sustains a movement that has resulted in the most systemic change ever seen in the over 80-year history of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. April Reign owned her opportunity, the results of which are reverberating throughout the entertainment industry.
Reign is an influential and sought-after digital media presence, having built an organic following of over 25, worldwide. April Reign now travels the country speaking at academic institutions.
Christopher P. Reynolds ’ Chris Reynolds is a Managing Officer of Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC). As a Managing Officer of the global automaker, Reynolds functions as General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer, responsible for all legal matters of the company in its design, manufacturing and sales operations worldwide including litigation, regulatory, transactional and legal compliance matters. Reynolds also serves as TMC's Deputy Chief Officer of the General Administrative & Human Resources Group. In that function, he is responsible for Human Resources matters related to "high potential" executives outside of Japan. As Chief Officer for the Governance Management Group, Reynolds is responsible for co-managing the governance practices of TMC.
Previously, Reynolds was General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer of Toyota Motor North America, the holding company of Toyota's North America operations, and before that Group Vice President, general counsel, chief environmental officer and corporate secretary of Toyota Motor Sales, USA (TMS), Inc., Toyota's sales and distribution arm in the United States.
Before joining TMS in 2007, Reynolds was a partner and trial lawyer at the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in New York City. While at the firm, Reynolds served as manager of the New York office's employment law group, a member of the firm's advisory board and chair of the firm's diversity committee.
Earlier, Reynolds served from 1989 to 1994 as an Assistant United States Attorney in the criminal division of the US Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York. Before his stint with the US Attorney’s Office, Reynolds worked from 1987 to 1989 as a litigation associate at the law firm of Hughes Hubbard & Reed in New York City, and as a law clerk for the Honorable Damon J. Keith, US Court of Appeals, 6th Circuit in Detroit, Michigan from 1986 to 1987.
Reynolds grew up amid the auto industry in Detroit as the son of a Ford Motor Company River Rouge plant worker and a registered nurse. He attended Detroit Public Schools and entered Kalamazoo College in 1979. In 1981, he was named a Harry S. Truman Scholar. After a junior year abroad at the Universite de Strasbourg in France, Reynolds received his bachelor’s degree in political science with honors from Kalamazoo College and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1983. He received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1986.
Reynolds is a member of the American Bar Association and the National Bar Association. He serves as a trustee of Kalamazoo College and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Married with three children, he currently lives in the Los Angeles area.
Brooke J. Richie-Babbage ’ Brooke Richie-Babbage is the Founder and Executive Director of the Resilience Advocacy Project (RAP), a New York City-based youth leadership organization working to empower youth to become leaders in the fight to end poverty. Brooke has over 15 years’ experience in the social justice arena. She has worked as an anti-poverty attorney and advocate for numerous organizations, including the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, the Children’s Defense Fund-NY, the Center for and Urban Future, and the Center for Law and Social Policy, and has taught the history of social welfare law and policy at Tufts University. In addition to serving as the ED at RAP, Brooke is also an Adjunct Professor at the Baruch School of Public Affairs, and she sits on the Board of Directors of the Community Resource Exchange and Forstdale, Inc. in NYC.
Brooke has been a speaker and presented papers at Harvard, NYU, Fordham, and Brooklyn Law Schools, and has published articles and presented papers at conferences and trainings throughout the country on child care policy, welfare
For five years, between 2008 and 2013, Ms. Robinson was Political Commentator for the Tom Joyner Morning Show where she spoke to between 9 and 10 million people weekly, offering her perspective on the day’s most pressing social and political issues.
Ms. Robinson is a nationally recognized expert on issues relating to social policy, women, race, family, and electoral politics. She was featured as one of the 30 Young Leaders of the Future in Ebony Magazine and was profiled in the book As I Am: Young African American Women in a Critical Age , by Julian Okwu. She is a frequent speaker expressing her views in countless media outlets including the Associated Press, The Washington Post, C-Span, NPR, The Baltimore Sun, CN8, and Fox News. As a political and legal analyst, Ms. Robinson has spoken on a wide variety of topics including faith and policy, international conflict, race and society, political participation and voting trends of African Americans and women.
Ms. Robinson, a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Maryland and the Harvard Law School, is a native of Steubenville, Ohio. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two sons. She, along with Harvard Law Professor and husband, Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., are the first black Faculty Deans in the history of Harvard University.
Kim K.W. Rucker ’ Kim Rucker is the Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary of Tesoro Corporation, a Fortune 100 company that is an independent refiner and marketer of petroleum products. There she is a member of the Executive Leadership Team responsible for executing the strategic direction for the Company. She is directly responsible for providing effective advice and counsel to the Board and its committees, officers and business leaders.
Kim serves on the Board of Directors of Lennox International Inc., a $3.5 billion global leader in the heating, air conditioning and refrigeration markets. She also is a member of the Board of Trustees of Johns Hopkins Medicine, a $6 billion nonprofit which includes Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins International.
Prior to joining Tesoro in 2016, Kim was the Executive Vice President, Corporate and Legal Affairs, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, for Kraft Foods Group, Inc. (now The Kraft-Heinz Company). During her tenure, the company had a market cap of approximately $32 billion. Its iconic brands include Kraft, Maxwell House, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Planters, Velveeta, Capri Sun, Lunchables and JELL-O.
Prior to joining Kraft, Ms. Rucker held the position of Senior Vice President, for Avon Products Inc. Before that she was the Senior Vice President, for Energy Future Holdings Corp., in Dallas, Texas, and also worked as a partner at the Chicago office of Sidley Austin LLP.
In addition to her Harvard Law School degree, she earned a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She received her BA with highest honors in Economics from the University of Iowa in 1989, and was also named a Harry S. Truman Scholar.
Kim has received numerous accolades for her achievements, and has been interviewed and noted in publications in the legal, corporate governance and compliance areas. She is a sought-after speaker on a variety of topics including corporate governance, corporate reputation, leadership, ethics and compliance and managing for value.
Ms. Rucker was born and raised in the Chicago area, and now lives in the San Antonio with her husband and two children.
Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell ’ Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell is serving her third term as the US Representative of Alabama’s 7th Congressional District. She is one of the first women elected to Congress from Alabama in her own right and is the first black woman to ever serve in the Alabama Congressional delegation.
Congresswoman Sewell sits on the House Committee on Financial Services and the distinguished House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence charged with the oversight of our national security. She is the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on the Department of Defense Intelligence and Overhead Architecture, a key subcommittee on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
In her short time in Congress, Sewell has held several leadership positions, including Freshman Class President in the 112th Congress. This term, she was selected by Democratic leadership to serve as a Chief Deputy Whip, and sits on the prestigious Steering and Policy Committee which sets the policy direction of the Democratic Caucus. Congresswoman Sewell is also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
A proud product of Alabama’s rural Black Belt, Congresswoman Sewell was the first black valedictorian of Selma High School. She is an honors graduate of Princeton University and Oxford University in England and received her law degree from Harvard Law School.
Bryan Stevenson ’ Bryan Stevenson is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. Mr. Stevenson is a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. Under his leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill and aiding children prosecuted as adults. EJI recently won an historic ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court holding that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger are unconstitutional. Mr. Stevenson’s work fighting poverty and challenging racial discrimination in the criminal justice system has won him numerous awards. He is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and the Harvard School of Government, and has been awarded 22 honorary doctorate degrees. He is the author of award winning and New York Times bestseller, Just Mercy. In 2015, he was named to the Time 100 recognizing the world’s most influential people. Recently, he was named in Fortune’s 2016 World’s Greatest Leaders list.
Carter M. Stewart ’ Carter Stewart is a Managing Director at Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation. He supports investment selection, builds portfolio support, cultivates fund development and drives strategic and operational leadership. Stewart comes to Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation from the US Department of Justice where he served as the presidentially-appointed United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. In this role, Stewart was responsible for prosecuting federal crime in a district comprised of 5.5 million people, which included Columbus, Cincinnati, and Dayton. Stewart also served on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee and chaired the Attorney General’s Child Exploitation Working Group. Stewart previously served as an Assistant US Attorney in San Jose, CA, and he was a litigator at Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP in Columbus, OH and Bingham McCutchen LLP in San Francisco, CA.
