Speakers

aesha rasheed is a Black, Queer, Muslim body worker and healer, ritual worker and spiritual organizer based in New Orleans. she is currently on spiritual and movement assignment as Co-Director of Southerners on New Ground (SONG), a regional web of queer abolitionist organizers across the South working to build and grow liberation in our lifetimes. she has launched and led numerous community building projects related to shared access and responsibility to public school, growing civic engagement, using story telling to remember and venerate Queer ancestors and building public healing rituals to transmute and transform generational trauma. currently aesha is a […]

Shea Cutliff (she/her) is a leader in our trans community with a passion for financial development and economic independence for her community. She serves on Contigo’s Community Board as well as on the Steering Committee for the All Black Lives Fund which launched in response to the racial justice uprising in 2020 to distinctly center and support Black LGBTQ+ communities. She is the founder of the R.I.S.E. Initiative which is a trans-led grassroots group dedicated to economically empowering trans communities, particularly trans women of color.

Joél Junior Morales (they/them) currently serves as Contigo’s Foundation Manager and is a nationally recognized activist and social impact leader. Joél was a frontline responder to the Pulse tragedy and was a founding member of the Orlando United Assistance Center meeting the unique needs of Pulse-affected communities and works closely with Survivors for Safety and Justice national. Joél was also a founding member of Contigo, serving on our Community Board since 2016; QLatinx, an LGBTQ+ Latinx grassroots group, and most recently was the director of operations at the LGBT+ Center Orlando.

Libby Kyles is the former CEO of the YWCA of Asheville and the founder of Changing LENS Consulting, which focuses on racial and educational equity, professional and personal coaching. A graduate of Western Carolina University, Libby spent 20 years in North Carolina classrooms while also earning her National Board Certification and completing her Masters Degree in Educational Leadership from East Tennessee State University. While teaching, Libby co-founded Youth Transformed for Life (YTL) in 2014 and served as the Executive Director until June of 2019. Under her leadership, YTL developed two summer and after school programs, GRACE for Teens and ROSES […]