Through a competitive process, 15 women were chosen to shape the vision, and mission and lead the work of the Women of Color (WOC) Initiative. These women are called THOUGHT LEADERS because they are the informed opinion leaders and the go-to people in their social justice field. They are trusted women who move and inspire people with innovative ideas; turn ideas into reality, and care deeply about their community and our state.
TAMIEKA ATKINS (CONVENER) is the Executive Director of ProGeorgia, Georgia’s state-based non-partisan voter engagement advocacy organization. Before working at ProGeorgia, Tamieka was the founding director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance-Atlanta chapter. She built a base of Black domestic workers advocating for respect, recognition, and inclusion in labor protections for all domestic workers. Tamieka has a Bachelor’s degree in Multicultural Literature from Hunter College and a certificate in Professional Fundraising from NYU.
MALIKA REDMOND (ProGeorgia Board Chair) is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Women Engaged, an initiative based in Atlanta, GA. Women Engaged works to inspire Black women and young adults to become impactful leaders, key decision-makers, and effective agents for social change through voter engagement, reproductive justice advocacy, and leadership development. She holds a B.A. from Spelman College and an M.A. from Georgia State University. Ms. Redmond also served as co-host of the WOC retreat weekend in June 2019.
MARIA AZURI is the Senior Director of Impact & Sustainability at Network for Good. She works in a unique role that brings together the regional grantmakers' movement to provide diverse nonprofits with the integrated tools, plan, coaching, and technology required to build the fundraising capacity to diversify revenue, sustain programs, and impact. One of her main goals is to connect BIPOC- and diverse nonprofit leaders to equitable support- and capacity-building opportunities. Maria previously served as Regional Director of Candid South, formerly known as Foundation Center South. She received her B.S. in Social Work from Georgia State University and an M.S. in Social Work from Columbia University.
LATOSHA BROWN is the co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, an organization that serves as a partner to the community and provides civic engagements, capacity-building grants, strategic planning support, and training support to Black-led groups. She wants to ensure that everyone has access to quality education, safety, security, and happiness. She also works with the Southern Black Girls and Women Consortium and is the Saving OurSelves Coalition founder that helped families after Hurricane Katrina. She has received various awards for her work in the community, including the White House Champion of Change Award and Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award.
HELEN BUTLER is the Executive Director at Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda in Atlanta, convened by Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, and comprises sixty statewide organizations in multiple sectors throughout Georgia southeastern states. The Coalition aims to push initiatives that increase citizen participation and public policy changes for communities of color and provide training and technical assistance to nonprofit organizations. She serves on the boards and committees of various organizations on a local and state level, and she has received a significant number of awards for her community work. She has a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Georgia.
STEPHANIE CHO is the Executive Director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice- Atlanta. She brings over 15 years of experience in labor and community organizing, strategy planning, and fundraising at the local and national levels. After University, she started her career in organizing and movement work. She has been a community organizer, program director for LGBTQ youth programming, director of training for a national fellowship program, a labor organizer, and organizational consultant. She believes in creating more space for new leadership, developing healthy and sustainable ways of working towards justice for all, and is moved by transnational forms of expressions of solidarity and movement building.
REV. VICTORIA FERGUSON-YOUNG is the former Project Coordinator for The DeKalb County Ending Abuse in Later Life Project. As coordinator, she was responsible for managing the project tasks to make the DeKalb County system more accessible to senior domestic violence victims while improving seniors' services by law enforcement, victim service offers, and the legal/criminal justice system. Victoria has worked in the field of ending domestic violence for 12 years. Previously, she worked for The Women’s Resource Center as a chaplain and women’s advocate, The Fulton County Solicitor General’s Office as the Family Violence Counselor, and Victim Advocate DeKalb County Magistrate Court as a Compliance Officer monitoring respondents of temporary protective orders.
KWAJELYN JACKSON is the Executive Director of the Feminist Women’s Health Center in Atlanta, a Black women-led reproductive health, rights, and justice organization committed to reproductive health care and access in the South. The Feminist Women’s Health Center uses an intersectional reproductive justice approach to cater to the needs of people of color, low-income, immigrant, refugee, and LGBTQIA+ clients. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Spelman College and a Master of Science in Urban Policy Studies from Georgia State University.
MONICA KHANT is the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence. The Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence is a national resource center on domestic violence, sexual violence, trafficking, and other forms of gender-based violence in Asian/Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. Previously she was the Executive Director of the Georgia Asylum & Immigration Network in Atlanta. Monica has a rich background in legal work as an attorney and an adjunct professor in the Political Science department at Georgia State University. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Rutgers University and a Juris Doctor Degree from New England School of Law. She has received various awards for her legal work.
MARISSA DODSON MCCALL is the Public Policy Director for the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta. She is responsible for developing and advocating for legislation that furthers SCHR’s mission, including reforming harsh sentence laws, enhancing alternatives to incarceration, abolishing the death penalty, strengthening the public defender system, and ending the criminalization of poverty. She received her B.A. in Political Science from Spelman College and her J.D. and Bachelors in Civil Law from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisana State University. She is a member of the Georgia bar.
FALLON MCCLURE is the Organizing and Elections Director for the Georgia Working Families Party where she oversees the organizing and electoral work across the state. During the runoff, she coordinated the field program with over 200 canvassers across the state who knocked on over 230,000 doors.
Prior to the Working Families Party, Fallon served as the Senior & Georgia State Director for Spread the Vote/Project ID. As State Director, Fallon managed all Georgia state operations, recruited and trained volunteers, managed grants and fundraising, and more. Building the Georgia operations from scratch, Fallon oversaw the creation of 10 chapters across the state of Georgia, recruitment of over 75 volunteers, and the procurement of over 400 IDs. Additionally, she has been a guest speaker and panelist for various voting rights panels, presentations, and events at Georgia State University, Emory University, & Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School.
ADELINA NICHOLLS currently works as the Executive Director for the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights in Atlanta. The organization aims to build immigrant communities' capacity and power through education and training for social action and challenge local enforcement to deport community members. Since 2000, Adelina has aided in developing grassroots leaders and organizations within Georgia’s Latino immigrant communities to defend and advance Latino civil and human rights. She has studied and taught sociological courses at the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM). She has received recognition and various awards.
ANANA HARRIS PARRIS is the founder of nonprofit initiatives, the AfriSalsa Cultural Organization, the Self Care Day Campaign, and the SisterCARE Alliance. The SisterCARE Alliance teaches Self Care Planning Strategies to survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence, and the everyday working professional. Ms. Parris authored her first book, Self Care Matters: A Revolutionary’s Approach. She has won numerous awards for community service.
GILDA (GIGI) PEDRAZA is a social entrepreneur and the founder and Executive Director of the Latino Community Fund in Georgia. Her organization is a grant-making public charity dedicated to catalyze investment and promote collaborative work in the Latinx community. Her goal is to amplify the Latinx community's diverse voice through advocacy, research, and leadership development. Pedraza sits on several boards and has won various awards for her work in the Hispanic community. She earned a B.A. from the College of Tourism in Peru, a Masters in international Tourism Planning from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in Spain, and several Executive Certificates.
DEBORAH SCOTT is the co-founder and inaugural Executive director of Georgia Stand-Up, a community development organization in Atlanta whose mission is to provide information and resources to help create healthy neighborhoods and ensure protection for pre-existing residents. She is also the founder of TRADE-UP, a national model for skills training and workforce development. Ms. Scott has received numerous awards, including the Rainbow Push Innovation Award, the National Black Women’s Roundtable “SiStar” Award, and the Labor Leader of the Year award. She serves on the boards of various organizations dedicated to social justice, community inclusion, and economic and racial equity. She is a Clark Atlanta University graduate.
RENITTA SHANNON is a part of the Georgia State House of Representatives, representing the 84th district. She utilizes her impactful public platform to fight stigmas and create legislation for marginalized communities. Her focus areas are economic, racial, and gender justice, and she travels and speaks on reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights. Her work has earned her numerous awards, including Most Valuable Legislator for her efforts on sexual assault policy. Shannon is the co-founder of Her Term, a Georgia-based initiative committed to targeting, recruiting, and electing progressive women into office. She has a degree from the University of Florida.
MARILYNN WINN serves as the Executive Director at Women on the Rise in East Point, GA. Her organization is a grassroots organization led by formerly incarcerated women of color who the criminal legal system has directly or indirectly impacted. They work to educate, heal and empower one another and the community to achieve justice and liberation for those impacted by the criminal justice system. She has previous experience in grassroots organizing with 9to5, Atlanta Working Women, and The Center for Working Families, Inc.
