2021 Annual Conference:
Empowered and Connected

Ruby Bridges is a civil rights activist who, at the age of six, was the first Black student to integrate an all-white elementary school in New Orleans. She was born in Mississippi the same year the United States Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision ordering the integration of public schools. Her walk to the front door of the Frantz Elementary School was immortalized in Norman Rockwell's painting The Problem We All Live With, in Robert Coles' book The Story of Ruby Bridges, and in the Disney movie Ruby Bridges.

She established the Ruby Bridges Foundation to provide leadership training programs that inspire youth and community leaders to embrace and value the richness of diversity. Bridges is the recipient of numerous awards, including the NAACP Martin Luther King Award and the Presidential Citizens Medal. She was recently named one of 100 iconic Women of the Century by USA Today. Published in November 2020, This Is Your Time is her first book since the publication of her award-winning autobiography, Through My Eyes.

Mari Copeny, at 13 years old, has never allowed her young age to prevent her from making a significant impact on the dialogue around environmental racism. In May 2016, at the age of 8 years old, Copeny wrote a letter to President Barack Obama challenging him to visit Flint, Michigan to see the water contamination crisis firsthand. The letter was published in the Los Angeles Times and confronted the entire country with the reality faced by victims of state negligence.

Her activism has led her to meet President Obama, President Bill Clinton, President Donald Trump, and a host of other politicians, including Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Her youthful honesty prevents political leaders from being able to ignore the consequences of neglectful leadership. She gives voice to the unheard hardships of Americans trapped by a collapsing and toxic infrastructure. She has taken her voice all the way to the front door of the White House to hold President Trump accountable for breaking his promise to Flint. In 2017, Copeny continued her dedication to justice by becoming a Youth Ambassador to the Women's March on Washington Youth and the National Climate March. Copeny continues to use her platform to not only bring awareness to her community, but give back. She has raised more than $500,000 for her Flint Kids projects, which has donated backpacks and more than one million bottles of water.

Copeny has been featured in Teen Vogue, The Guardian, VICE, TIME, and more for her vocal opposition to the injustices of environmental racism. When Copeny grows up, she plans to run for president.

Dena Simmons, Ed.D., is an activist, educator, and student of life from the Bronx, New York. She is the founder of LiberatED, an antiracist approach to social and emotional learning and healing. She is the former Assistant Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and Associate Research Scientist at the Yale Child Study Center. She writes and speaks nationally about social justice and culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy as well as creating emotionally intelligent and safe classrooms within the context of equity and liberation. She is the author of the forthcoming book, White Rules for Black People (St. Martin's Press, 2021).

Born and raised along the border in a small barrio in Laredo, Texas, Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch is all too familiar with the challenges of poverty, discrimination, and illiteracy. Although she grew up without material wealth, Kickbusch was taught by her immigrant parents that she was rich in culture, tradition, values, and faith. After graduating from college, Kickbusch entered the U.S. Army as an officer and served for two decades. During that time, she broke barriers and set records in the military where she became the highest-ranking Hispanic woman in the Combat Support Field of the U.S. Army. After retiring from the military, Kickbusch founded Educational Achievement Services, Inc. to fulfill her mission of preparing tomorrow's leaders. Her strong dedication to saving the youth of America has led Kickbusch to work with more than one million children and their parents across the United States.

Bernice A. King is a global thought leader, orator, peace advocate, and CEO of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center), which was founded by her mother, Coretta Scott King, in 1968. She was appointed CEO of The King Center in January 2012 by the Board of Trustees. From this position, the same one once held by her mother, this transformative leader steadfastly continues her efforts to advance her parents' legacy of Kingian Nonviolence, which Dr. King rebranded Nonviolence365.

Through her work at The King Center, Bernice A. King educates youth and adults about the nonviolent principles modeled by her parents. In 2012, she created the Camp N.O.W. Leadership Academy, which has engaged youth from New Mexico, South Carolina, Michigan, Alabama, and as far away as the Island of Cyprus. As part of the Center's Nonviolence365 education and training initiative, Dr. King launched Students with King, which enables students to interact with King family members, as well as those who knew and worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King. Under King's leadership, the Center has expanded its community outreach providing Nonviolence365 experiences for ex-offenders and youth and adults in the St. Paul, Minnesota, community that was home to Philando Castile. Further, in an effort to build relationships between community and law enforcement and to decrease incidents of police brutality, The King Center facilitates Nonviolence365 for law enforcement.

King is one of the most powerful, motivating and life-changing orators and speakers on the circuit today. She began her oratorical journey when she spoke in her mother's stead at the United Nations at age 17. Over the years, she has spoken on the steps of The Lincoln Memorial, The White House, for major corporations and universities, and in nations throughout the world, including South Africa, Germany, and New Zealand.

Vijay Gupta shares his vision for transformative community engagement in the form of musical keynote lectures, workshops, and strategic conversations for companies, conferences, universities, and non-profit organizations. He recently delivered the 33rd annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy—a lecture previously delivered by Yo-Yo Ma and Maya Angelou—and was introduced by the Honorable Speaker Nancy Pelosi. To date, his TED Talk, "Music is Medicine, Music is Sanity," has garnered millions of views. Gupta, who currently serves on the Board of Directors of Americans for the Arts, believes that the work of the artist and citizen is to make a daily practice of the connected, creative, and courageous world we long to live in. Hailed by The New Yorker as "a visionary violinist...one of the most radical thinkers in the unradical world of American classical music," Gupta is an esteemed musician and thought leader serving to create spaces of belonging, healing, and wholeness through music.

Emmy Award-winning actor, director, and producer Henry Winkler made TV history as the iconic "Fonzie" on Happy Days for 10 seasons. However, few know of his lifelong battle with dyslexia. In 2003, he began writing the "Hank Zipzer" children's books about a challenged learner whose innate brightness leads to rich adventures. His latest children's book series is called "Alien Superstar." Henry Winkler currently costars as acting teacher Gene Cousineau on the hit HBO dark comedy Barry, for which he has won an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy.