Nikole Hannah-Jones is the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of The 1619 Project and a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine. Both the book version of The 1619 Project and The 1619 Project children’s book, Born on the Water, were instant #1 New York Times bestsellers. Her 1619 Project is now a six-part docuseries on Hulu.

Hannah-Jones has spent her career investigating racial inequality and injustice, and her reporting has earned her the MacArthur Fellowship, known as the “Genius Grant,” a Peabody Award, two George Polk Awards and the National Magazine Award three times.

She also serves as the Knight Chair of Race and Journalism at Howard University, where she founded the Center for Journalism & Democracy. Hannah-Jones is also the co-founder of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, which seeks to increase the number of investigative reporters and editors of color, and in 2022 she opened the 1619 Freedom School, a free, afterschool literacy program in her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa. Hannah-Jones holds a Master of Arts in Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned her BA in History and African-American studies from the University of Notre Dame.

Nneka Allen is a Black Afro-Metis woman, a Momma and a daughter of the Underground Railroad. As a descendant of African survivors of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade, her ancestors helped build North America. Over centuries these African freedom seekers developed a historic relationship with the First Peoples of Turtle Island. This is her connection to the Cherokee and the Lumbee part of her ancestral legacy. They are her relations.

Nneka is a relationship builder, a stone-catcher, a freedom fighter, a storyteller and a leadership coach. As a lover of justice, Nneka studies the causes of racial marginialization in philanthropy for the purpose of restoring relationships and improving the realities of racially oppressed people and their teams. As the Founder of The Empathy Agency Inc., Nneka partners with multiracial leaders and groups to help them cultivate environments where everyone belongs.

As founder of Orange Shirt Day and ambassador for the Orange Shirt Society, Phyllis Webstad facilitates dialogue around the Indian Residential School system and creates space for healing. Orange Shirt Day, recognized annually on September 30, is a day for people to reflect, educate themselves and commit to Truth and Reconciliation.

When Phyllis was just six years old, she was forced to attend St. Joseph's Mission Residential School near Williams Lake, British Columbia. Her grandma gifted her an orange shirt to wear on her first day of school, but upon arrival, her shirt was forcibly removed. No matter how much Phyllis cried or protested, her special new shirt was never returned. That cruel action resulted in Phyllis feeling unimportant and as if she did not matter. The colour orange became a symbol of the effects of Indian Residential Schools and a physical symbol for ‘Every Child Matters’.

The Orange Shirt Society was created as a legacy to Phyllis’ Orange Shirt Day. The society works to further the message of Indian Residential School survivors. The non-profit organization is located in Williams Lake, British Columbia, and the board of directors consists of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous members. Phyllis works full-time with the society.

Over Phyllis’s career she has acquired diplomas in both Business Administration from Nicola Valley Institute of Technology and Accounting from Thompson Rivers University (TRU). She received the TRU Distinguished Alumni Award in 2017 for her unprecedented impact on local, provincial, national and international communities through the sharing of her orange shirt story.

A published author, Phyllis has three books that share her story in her own words – Orange Shirt Story; Phyllis’ Orange Shirt; and Beyond the Orange Shirt Story. Due to Phyllis' work, a simple orange shirt has become a conversation starter for all aspects of Indian Residential Schools across the country and beyond its borders.

Phyllis is Northern Secwépemc (Shuswap) from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation (Canoe Creek Indian Band), and she currently resides in Williams Lake, British Columbia with her husband.

Finding comfort in the outdoors, Phyllis can often be found in nature or going for walks outside as it allows her to feel grounded and connected to the land.

Accomplishments:

• Distinguished Alumni: Community Impact Award
  https://www.tru.ca/alumni/distinguished_alumni_awards/2017_Recipients_Distinguished_Alumni.html
• Moritorious Service Cross (Civil Division) recipient
  https://canadagazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2022/2022-01-29/html/gh-rg-eng.html