Ash is a disabled Black trans person from so-called Fayetteville, North Carolina. Since 2012, Ash’s work includes theorizing dance and performance art as tools for understanding reproductive oppression within Black queer trans resistance movements in the US; leading rapid response and guerilla actions, particularly as architect of Charlotte Uprising, which followed the murder of Keith Lamont Scott, and abolitionist organizing at the intersections of reproductive justice and criminalization. This work has included co-leading a successful statewide campaign (#EndShacklingNC) to end the practice of shackling pregnant incarcerated people in North Carolina, as well as a successful campaign (#TransferKanauticaNow) to transfer Kanautica Zayre-Brown, a Black Transwoman, from a correctional facility designated for men to a women’s facility in 2019. Ash is the founder of ADT (Abortion Doula Trainings), an abortion doula training ecosystem, and for the last 7 years, Ash has been vigorously fighting to expand abortion access by funding abortions and training other people to become abortion doulas.

Executive Director Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network Catalina Velasquez is a trailblazing transgender refugee, Colombian-Latina, feminist scholar, social impact executive, and movement builder. She is the Executive Director of the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN), the largest immigrant-led coalition in Washington State. Her work embodies intersectional feminism, decolonial methodologies, and transformative justice, making her a luminary in immigrant rights advocacy and beyond. Under her leadership, WAISN independently grew and cemented critical movement infrastructure and mutual aid initiatives, such as Washington’s only Deportation Defense Hotline and its sole Fair Fight Bond Fund, to bond immigrants out of detention. Catalina also led the equitable disbursement of over $400 million in COVID-19 relief for undocumented immigrants and spearheaded legislative advocacy that secured over $60M in funding for immigrant healthcare, housing, and education. Catalina’s career spans leadership roles across progressive organizations. She previously served as the Executive Director of People for the American Way Foundation’s Young People For (YP4), where she restructured programs to fund fellowships for over 200 young leaders within a popular education model. Catalina also co-founded Megaphone Strategies, one of the most diverse PR firms in progressive politics.

Devin is a community organizer invested in the liberation of Black and trans people from the constraints of capitalism, white supremacy, and cis-hetero-patriarchy. He has a passion for moving resources to his community and is committed to helping create a world where Black trans people are not just seen but respected, protected, supported, and valued. With an understanding of the need to center the most marginalized and for trans masculine people to work in communal solidarity to support Black trans women, Devin Lowe is the founder & Co-Director of the Black Trans Travel Fund.

Jaz, also known as Thee King of Thee South, is a Mississippi–based non-binary baddie, cultural worker, Earth steward, and co-founder of The Sweet Magnolia Fund. As Magnification Director, they support the health, wellness, and creative abundance of Black Trans and Queer artists through mutual aid, crisis support, and community-centered programming. Rooted in Black queer futurism and ancestral practice, Jaz approaches their work as both ceremony and strategy with the belief and deep knowing that Black Trans and queer people in Mississippi are more than service recipients or mascots for any movement, but actually the north star and vanguard for how resources should flow, freedom is realized, and our existence in the future. 

Kari is a community organizer with over a decade of management, advocacy, policy analysis, fundraising, and grant writing experience. Most recently, Kari launched and directed the Open Society Foundation’s $20 million post-Hurricane Maria investment and worked to weave connections between advocacy and organizing groups in Puerto Rico and in the diaspora. Before joining the Foundation, Kari worked at the New York City Council, where they served as Senior Director for Community Engagement. From 2008 to 2014, they were a staff person at Make the Road New York (MRNY), where they oversaw its LGBTQ Justice Project. They also helped open MRNY’s new office in Brentwood, Long Island, where they supervised its immigration, housing, civic engagement, and leadership development programs.   Kari is currently directing La Tejedora, a Puerto Rican-led organization that is building an infrastructure for movement leaders on the archipelago to fight alongside allies in the diaspora and globally for Puerto Rican self-determination, decolonization, and climate justice. Kari grew up in Puerto Rico and earned their BA from the University of Puerto Rico.

Max comes from a lineage of curanderas rooted in the northwest side of the archipelago of Borikén (Puerto Rico). They are a trans and intersex organizer, nurturer, connector, artist, and resource mobilizer whose work envisions a liberated Puerto Rico, free of colonialism, ableism, and capitalism. Drawing on 17+ years in community and cultural organizing and working in the non-profit sector—including 6 years in philanthropy, Max is the Founder and Executive Lead of SylC – The Sylvia Rivera & Christina Hayworth Project. As a Resource Mobilizer, Max is committed to cultivating material, collective, and spiritual abundance, connecting the resources, relationships, and conditions that enable liberation to flourish in Borikén now and for generations to come.

Oluchi is a Minnesota-born Trans organizer of Igbo descent who still lives and organizes in Minneapolis, Minnesota today. Oluchi has more than 10 years of organizing work, starting with statewide LGBTQ advocacy in Minnesota. Oluchi is a co-founder and founding steering committee member for the Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project, or BLMP, where they now serve as a Co-Director. BLMP is focused on bringing the most marginalized folks together to work toward liberation. Oluchi is also co-founder and Founding Core Team member of Black Visions, a black-led local organization that centers Black Queer and Trans folks in Minnesota. Black Visions Collective has existed for only 3 years and has already made interventions in city, national, and global politics. Together with other abolitionist organizations, they diverted more than $ 1 million from the police budget in 2018. In 2020, Black Visions called to Defund Police after the brutal murder of George Floyd, which catapulted the conversation around safety and abolition to a global stage. In all their organizing work, they center Transformative Justice and the voices of those who are not heard.  When not busy organizing, Oluchi loves watching YouTube unboxings and religiously watches anime. 

Tobi is currently the director of Programs and Operations at the Trans Income Project (TIP). Before joining full-time, they designed and ran TIP’s weekly food program and digital communications. Tobi was instrumental as a thought partner and founding board member of TIP. Tobi’s dedication to the care of trans folk has also allowed them to work directly with trans bodies as a dancer, designer, and facilitator. In their work, they focused on building movement from a disabled trans experience. Tobi holds an MFA in Performance from the Norwegian Theatre Academy.

Toni-Michelle is a cultural power strategist, pageant queen, host, and somatics practitioner based in Atlanta. She is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative (SnapCo), where she leads community-centered safety, political education, and cultural strategy for Black trans communities. Rooted in embodiment, performance, and storytelling, Toni-Michelle’s work blends pageantry, entertainment, and somatic practice to transform care into infrastructure and culture into power.