Meet the Fellows
Join us in celebrating the 2024-25 Black to the Future Public Policy Institute Fellows! This is our fifth cohort-ever which is a new milestone in our Institute’s history. Get to know the newest cohort joining Black to the Future Action Fund’s powerful network of more than 100 alumni leaders and changemakers who are building Black political power across 21 states and Washington D.C.
This inspiring and talented cohort of 30 members brings together a wealth of experience and knowledge in the areas of democracy and voting rights; the economy and economic security; families, public health and healthcare; structural barriers; and the criminal-legal system.
Every year, we ask our fellows to reflect upon the following question: “What does your Black Future look like?” Scroll down below to learn more about our fellows and to read their responses.
*Illustrations by Alixa Garcia. Follow Alixa Garcia here.
Equity in Education
Georgia
Tiffany Fick
My Black future looks like equal access to quality public education for all.
Casey Ma’at
My Black future involves equal access to quality education, healthcare, economic opportunities, housing, justice, political representation, and environmental resources, ensuring fair treatment and support in all areas of life.
Michaela Shelton
My Black future is defined by empowering marginalized communities to shape their own destinies through civic engagement and equitable education.
Women on the Rise GA
Georgia
Dominique Grant
My Black future looks like endless joy and freedom for my people.
Melodie Jones
My Black future looks like making a change.
Deshaneir King
My Black future looks like a full family photo album — filled with smiles, joy, and freedom for ALL Black folks.
Robyn Hasan-Simpson
My Black Future consists of freedom of my people, my black people, my incarcerated people, my formerly incarcerated people.
Action St. Louis
Missouri
Karissa Anderson
My Black future looks like genuine joy, full health, and self-governance where Black people can create and design their own lives.
Teela Gajewski
My Black future is a future where every Black person has autonomy over their life and body and the resources to exert that autonomy.
Marcel Hagens
My Black future looks like the liberation of all melanated people.
Six Dimensions
Mississippi
Nakeitra Burse
My Black future looks like all Black women having access to the pregnancy, delivery, postpartum, and parenting experiences that they deserve and desire.
Asia Rush
My Black future in Mississippi includes legislators adopting policies that ensure Black women have safe and equitable spaces to have joyful birthing experiences, during and after their perinatal journey.
National Black Women’s Justice Institute
New York
Janaé Bonsu-Love
My Black future looks like Black women, trans, and gender nonconforming people who’ve been impacted by criminalization being able to heal and live in their full dignity.
Khalia Mickens
My Black future consists of joy, freedom, and leisure.
Madina Ouedraogo
My Black future is global liberation from all forms of structural, institutional and systemic oppression for ALL Black people throughout the African & Black diaspora.
One Albuquerque Fund
New Mexico
Dionne Epps
My Black future is rooted in progress, education, love for self and community.
Diale Fomukong
My Black Future envisions a community whereby solutions to their problems are designed by that community.
Timothy Green IV
My Black future looks like Black joy and cultural embodiment rooted in historical knowledge that leads us towards transformative healing through economic, social, and political empowerment.
Billy Jivetti
My Black future is a song I would listen to.
Neema Pickett
My Black Future is Now — my presence in every moment of opportunity to shape the future begins with me.
Mass Liberation Project Nevada
Nevada
Jagada Chambers
My Black future has de-railed the school-to-prison pipeline.
Micajah Daniels
My Black future is a tether to the sacred temporality of life in each season.
Rickie Slaughter
My Black future will bring me back to my community, free from cages, to live in my divine purpose.
Leslie Turner
My Black future is filled with an abundance of love, joy, and peace.
Unite Oregon
Oregon
Eugenie Adamah-Tassah
My Black future is vibrant, led with resilience, shaped by my unwavering commitment to justice, economic liberation, and community upliftment for marginalized groups.
Je Amaechi
My Black future envisions resilient communities built on community-centered systems that ensure safety, wellness, and prosperity for all.
Nuhamin Eiden
My Black future is a bountiful garden where the morning rain meets the soil and the sun shines in the late afternoon.
The E3 Foundation
South Carolina
Audrey Lane
My Black future looks like freedom and liberation for my Black family especially my Black sons, nephews, and nieces.
Craig Logan
My Black future includes equitable pathways to wealth building, quality education, and the dismantlement of systematic oppression for Black and Brown people.
LaTisha Vaughn
My Black future is liberation — freedom to self actualize for all.
Black to the Future Public Policy Institute Trainers and Staff
Katherine Grainger
Jazzelyn Hawkins
