Deirdre Cooper Owens 

Assistant Professor of History,
​Queens College

Power to the People and Radical Black Political History
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Deirdre Cooper Owens is an Assistant Professor of History at Queens College, CUNY. She holds an M.A. in African American Studies from Clark Atlanta University and a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles where she also received a certificate in Women’s Studies.  Cooper Owens has received numerous awards and fellowships including a residential postdoctoral fellowship at the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia and an American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Fellowship to explore medicine, gender and the historical influence of race on each of these categories.  Her forthcoming book, "Medical Bondage:  Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology​", is under contract with The University of Georgia Press, Race and Atlantic World Series.  Professor Cooper Owens has taught at a number of colleges and universities where she focused on classes that emphasized United States slavery, race, gender, and medicine.
ALEJANDRA (ALEX) FRANCO 
​SOLO PRACTITIONER, THE LAW OFFICES OF ALEX FRANCO, ESQ
IMMIGRATION RIGHTS MOVEMENT 
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​Alex Franco is a solo practitioner at The Law Offices of Alex Franco, Esq. where she provides sliding-scale immigration and human rights legal services. She is a member of the National Lawyers Guild New York City Chapter Executive Committee and a founder of the NLG-NYC Immigration Committee.  She works with ICEFREENYC, a coalition in New York City fighting against ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and police violence against immigrants and communities of color.  
ABER KAWAS
YOUTH LEAD ORGANIZER 
MUSLIM CIVIL RIGHTS
Aber Kawas graduated in 2014 from The City College of New York's International Studies Program a concentration Latin American Studies. Aber has interned at CAIR New York, Urban Justice Center's Street Vendor Project and is now the Youth Lead Organizer at the Arab American Association of New York where she previously worked as a Fellow in 2012 registering over 800 voters with the Verazzano Bridge Coalition. She has worked with several organizations in the city around issues such as immigration, police surveillance, racial profiling, ect. and hopes to  work to improve the conditions of immigrants in the New York area by providing programs and services to both them and their children. In addition she has focused her academic career thus far on studying parallels between Latin America and the Middle East.  She hopes, through her works and studies, to bring together several ethnic/religious communities in the future to advocate in unity against social injustices. 
DONNA HOPE
SENIOR FELLOW OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP PROGRAM
Environmental Racism and Standing Rock

Donna will be speaking about the history of environmental justice and will provide an introduction to environmental racism. Donna Hope is a freelance consultant and advisor in New York City, working for energy efficiency and sustainability with a diversity/equity/inclusion lens. Presently she consults for The JPB Foundation’s environment division to assist grantees who address climate change and environmental justice.Donna earned dual undergraduate engineering degrees from Spelman College and Renssealer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), and a M.S. in Environmental Engineering from RPI. Donna is a Senior Fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program, and a LEED Green Associate.

Amy Herzog

Associate Professor,
Queens College
Women's Rights Movement 

Amy Herzog is Associate Professor of Media Studies at Queens College and Coordinator of the Film Studies Program at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she is a faculty member in Theatre, Music, Film, and Women’s Studies. She is the author of Dreams of Difference, Songs of the Same: The Musical Moment in Film (University of Minnesota Press, 2010) and co-editor, with Carol Vernallis and John Richardson, of The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media (Oxford, 2013). She has published essays on film and popular music, philosophy, pornography, gentrification, parasites, and dioramas [for selected work, see her website: http://qc-cuny.academia.edu/AmyHerzog]. Her most recent research project centers on a history of peep show arcades in Times Square, New York.

Autumn Marie

Activist, Black Lives Matter NYC
Power to the People and Radical Black Political History

Autumn Marie has worked extensively with Balanced and Restorative Justice, community diversion programs and community alternatives to policing since the early 2000’s. In addition, she been very active around political prisoners, police brutality, and reproductive justice. She is a former member of Critical Resistance, INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence and Estacion Libre. ​​In her professional work as a publicist and communications professional, Autumn integrates community engagement, artist relations and media coverage to ensure our stories are elevated beyond the traditional spaces. Autumn Marie is a current member of Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and Black Lives Matter NYC.
LYNN ROBERTS 
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR 
Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy 
Lynn Roberts has a BS in human development from Howard University (1984) and a PhD in Human Services Studies from Cornell University (1991). The City University of New York (CUNY) has been her academic home since 1995. Prior to joining CUNY and the GSPHHP, she oversaw the development, implementation and evaluation of several prevention programs for women and youth in NYC. She has also served on the board of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective and is currently co-editing an anthology on reproductive justice. Dr. Roberts’ current activism and scholarship examine the intersections of race, class and gender in adolescent dating relationships, juvenile justice and reproductive health policies; as well as the impact of models of collaborative inquiry and teaching on civic and political engagement.
OLGUIE ROBLES-TORO
FORMER YOUNG LORDS MEMBER
History of the Young Lords Movement

Olguie is an articulate, humane, and inspirational woman. She is a dynamic motivational speaker on the ills of poverty and on behalf of the multi-national working class. Her focus has been on the plight of Latinos, Blacks, Women, and children in particular. Olguie was born in the ghetto of Harlem in NY and raised in the South Bronx which has inspired her to fight against the conditions of poverty: injustice, oppression, and exploitation. Her passion for fighting injustice motivated her to join the Young Lords movement at the age of 16. Her last few positions have included Senior Substance Abuse Counselor at Project Samaritan Inc. (PSI) with HIV/Aids Patients, VIP at their
Methadone Maintenance Program, and working with Albert Einsteins next steps programs. Currently, she is disabled and not working but independently supports people who request support and direction. As a mother and grandmother, Olguie shares what she has learned through all of her experiences.
CARLITO ROVIRA
FORMER YOUNG LORDS MEMBER
History of the Young Lords Movement

Carlito was born in New York City's Lower East Side during the height of the Puerto Rican migration to the United States. His parents came from Puerto Rico in the late 1940's. Growing up in the 1950's and the 1960's was a challenge consiering the racist stigma and violence posing a threat to Puerto Rican families in New York during this period. Carlito benefited from the mentorship of community activist school teachers involved with the Black Panther Party. In 1969, Black Panther leader Bob Collier encouraged Carlito to be part of adelegation of young Puerto Ricans to attend the first Chicano Moratorium in Denver, Colorado. Carlito met Cha Cha Jimenez, leader of the Young Lords, at this historical event and Iris Morales, who would eventually become a woman leader of the Young Lords as well as a historian of that period in U.S. history. Carlito was 14 when he joined the Young Lords in the organization's Defense Ministry. His tasks among others was the physical protection of the organization.
ANNE SPICE
NYC STANDS WITH STANDING ROCK COLLECTIVE
Environmental Racism and Standing Rock

Anne Spice, will lead a session speaking on Standing Rock. Anne Spice is a Tlingit member of Kwanlin Dun First Nation, a doctoral student in anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center, and a member of the NYC Stands with Standing Rock Collective.This session will explore the historical context for the Indigenous resistance at Standing Rock. As Indigenous peoples face increasing threats from the oil and gas industry, we will consider how Standing Rock provides a model for alternative relations to the land and water in the shadow of state violence and global climate change. Using the #StandingRockSyllabus, we will provide space for participants to learn about Indigenous struggle and to share their knowledge with others.  
MONICA SIBIRI
NEW YORK FELLOW FOR IGNITE
Immigration Rights Movement 
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​Monica Sibri is an independent consultant, Monica is currently the New York Fellow for IGNITE, a national nonpartisan nonprofit organization founded by Dr. Anne Moses that seeks to empower college-aged women to become the next generation of political leaders. She also serves as a close adviser to CUNY DREAMers, an undocumented student-led organization she founded in 2013 to help advance equal access to higher education and build a network of support for thousands of undocumented students at the City University of New York, the largest urban university in the United States.
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DJIBRIL TOURE
ACTIVIST, ORGANIZER, EDUCATOR 
POWER TO THE PEOPLE AND RADICAL BLACK POLITICAL HISTORY
Djibril Toure is a member of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) and co-coordinator of the People’s Self Defense Campaign, which addresses issues of police misconduct in Central Brooklyn, New York. Djibril became active around this issue after directly experiencing and witnessing New York Police Department’s (NYPD) selective stop and frisk policy firsthand. His work has included conducting “Know Your Rights” workshops/activities for the larger New York City community as well as organizing CopWatch, which is a volunteer based program aimed at observing and reducing illegal stop and frisk activity. In addition, MXGM has provided individual assistance in filing complaints/lawsuits and offered legal clinics to the community at large. As a member of Communities United for Police Reform, Djibril has helped coordinate a working group to develop community leadership.

CUNY CLEAR

Muslim Civil Rights Movement


The CLEAR (Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility) project primarily aims to address the unmet legal needs of Muslim, Arab, South Asian, and other communities in the New York City area that are particularly affected by national security and counter-terrorism policies and practices.CLEAR is rooted in CUNY School of Law's relationship with community-based organizations whose members wish to shape and respond to national security and counter-terrorism policies and practices affecting them. It is a cross-clinical project that began as a collaboration between the Immigrant & Non-Citizen Rights Clinic, and the Defenders Clinic. Today, CLEAR is staffed by law students from across the clinical program, including the Immigrant & Non-Citizen Rights Clinic, the Defenders Clinic, the International Women's and Human Rights Clinic, and the Economic Justice Project.

Yael Rosenstock 

Director of Programming, CERRU
Co-Founder, QC Sexploration and Information Group
Allyship: Actively Showing Up for Our Shared Liberation

 Yael has spoken at conferences on issues of health and taboo surrounding sex work and commercial sexual exploitation and led workshops on consent. She is completing an MA at the CUNY Grad Center in Psychology and Public Health and hopes to pursue a PhD or DrPH in public health with a focus on sex. Her research
interests include mental, reproductive, and sexual health with a specific focus on sex workers, victims of sexual exploitation, and addressing and dismantling rape culture and issues of consent through education surrounding desire and pleasure.

At CERRU, Yael began two participatory action research (PAR) projects: Student-Teacher Communication and Perceived Student Social Support with students at Robert F. Kennedy High School, and QC Sexploration and Information Group, with QC students, which seeks to address gaps in sex programming at Queens College. She sees PAR as active allyship because it creates spaces to raise up often marginalized voices through the belief that those with lived experiences are experts of their own lives, and therefore, best suited to solve issues facing their communities.