FUTURES

Aleenah Ansari (she/her) is a storyteller, no matter the context or medium. As a writer and video producer for Microsoft Inside Track, she creates blogs and videos about the experts who build, deploy, and manage the tools used by 165,000+ employees at Microsoft. Her stories cover everything from Microsoft’s security training and internal data catalog to the Yammer community used by visa-dependent employees. Her writing has also been featured in GLAAD, Kulfi, CNBC, The Seattle Times and more. Outside of her day job, you can find her helping early-in-career professionals and entrepreneurs feel more confident telling stories about their identity and work, dreaming of being a creative director at Spotify, and writing content about career mentorship and representation in media. Learn more about her work at www.aleenahansari.com.

Amy Char is a Chinese-American San Francisco native and a citizen of the world. Growing up as the child of immigrant parents, she immersed herself in different cultures and languages from an early age. She speaks four languages and is a first generation college graduate who holds a degree in government and German from Georgetown University. (Confused? She has extended family in Germany: her own identity as a woman of color and her relatives’ experiences as women of color in Germany both guide her as she navigates the world.)

After college, she moved to Berlin for a second time to attend Miami Ad School Berlin where her classmates came from almost every continent. This gave her the opportunity to do what she does best: pursue her love of learning, fostering her desire to become a lifelong learner of culture and creativity, which continues to shape everything she does professionally and personally.

Stateside again, Amy is currently a copywriter at Deutsch LA on the Taco Bell account after stints at The Many and in-house at LinkedIn Creative Studio. She is driven by stories that typically stay untold in mainstream media and strives to do disruptive work that everyday people talk about on Reddit, Twitter, and TikTok. Committed to celebrating and uplifting underrepresented voices in the industry, she is a MAIP Coach and a member of Deutsch LA’s Asian Employee Resource Group.

Apshara’s a survivor.

After enduring a brain cyst explosion, numerous chronic illnesses, and brain surgery amidst a global pandemic, she’s never been more ready to make her mark on this world. By candidly documenting her health journey on Instagram, Apshara’s now a major resource for chronically ill individuals all across the globe going through similar experiences.

She’s also a proud daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants, a published author, and an assistant account manager at GS&P. A pivotal member within her agency’s ED&I leadership, she often reviews creative from her uniquely diverse perspective. Outside of work, she was even an instrumental part in the creation of MENA for ADCOLOR after calling out the lack of Muslim representation in the 2019 conference.

Apshara knows all too well how precious our time here is on Earth, so she’s determined to make the most of it.

As an Account Executive at Amazon Advertising, Armando (he/him) believes that advertising’s core purpose is to help people, and uses this compassionate approach for his clients to grow their small and medium sized businesses. He was in the top 5% of 2020 Account Executive performance globally, and he passed on his learnings to over 20 new teammates as one of the first employees in Amazon Advertising’s HQ2 in Arlington, Virginia. Armando became an initial handraiser to develop inclusive mechanisms to scale new hire onboarding as well as start up the first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advocacy group that aims to drive an ongoing DEI dialogue across the North American region.

Being a first-generation college student, Armando deeply knows the importance of championing others and dedicates his time outside of work to connect with young talent. He was selected to join the first We Are Next Advisory Board, where he spearheaded the Brand Ambassador Program, the Young Talent in Tech team, and the widely popular Coffee at a Distance. He also served as a strategy mentor for VCU’s Camp AdVenture and provides consistent support for students at the University of Illinois and for AAF’s Most Promising Multicultural Student cohorts, both of which he is an alumni of.

Armando also loves LEGO, annotating every book he reads, and reviewing movies via Instagram stories. If you ever want to chat, Armando’s virtual door is always open.

Chukwuma “Chima” Egbuzie is a seasoned marketing professional who has worked on several Emmy-nominated series, using an integrated approach to execute across linear, digital, and social media production.

At HBOMax, Chima is a creative marketing coordinator for Max Originals, working across several campaigns and classic tier-A shows such as Zack Snyder’s Justice League and reunion specials: Friends, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and West Wing. Most recently, Chima facilitated the 2021 Gossip Girl Fashion Show premiere event in New York City. For this campaign, Chima spearheaded a successful TikTok lipdub challenge #GossipGirlHere, totaling over 14.5 billion views.

Before joining HBOMax, Chima worked for several advertising agencies including Ogilvy, Havas NY Village, and McCann’s production arm, CRAFT NY where he produced digital campaigns for Verizon.

A native to the South Bronx, Chima’s worldview as an immigrant from Nigeria drives his commitment to advocate for people of color against gatekeeping in the entertainment industry and adjacent industries. Chima is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School’s Venture Management Fellowship and a graduate of Clark University where he obtained his B.A in Economics and Film Studies.

In 2020, Chima edited a short film, Nazen, which was an official selection of the Pan African Film Festival. Now residing in Los Angeles, Chima enjoys being a visual storyteller and conversation curator—exploring diverse themes of intersectionality, afro-futurism, and immigration

Clarice Metzger is a Sierra Leonean-American storyteller and strategist passionate about inclusivity, authentic representation, and community. By day, Clarice is a creative strategist at a culture-focused marketing agency, Creative Theory Agency. By night, she is the founder of Kno. Media, a creative platform telling the stories of marginalized minority change-makers with a focus on identity.

A proud graduate of the illustrious Howard University, Clarice got her start in the world of marketing post-graduation and has spent her career conceptualizing and building human-centric, emotionally resonant, story-driven campaigns for brands including Salesforce, Bose, and Dropbox. Through her work with Kno., she has shared countless stories, hosted impactful events, and partnered with inspirational brands such as Ethel’s Club, BABE, and La Colombe.

Still at the inception of her career, Clarice hopes her passion for building community and amplifying misrepresented voices can drive multicultural conversation and create lasting cultural change. In her free time, Clarice enjoys hanging out on a variety of rooftops, trying new beverages (hot, cold, caffeinated, alcoholic, etc.), reading afro-futurism books, and posting frequently on Instagram stories @its_clarice.

Born in Trinidad but based in Florida, Daynah Singh is a Copywriter with a passion for social justice and equality. After accidentally discovering advertising and realizing the industry’s influence on culture and society, Daynah went on to graduate from the University of South Florida in 2019 with her B.A. in Mass Communications and minors in Creative Writing and Women’s & Gender Studies. During her time at USF, Daynah honed her craft through a variety of internships in fields like education, food service, and technology. In the summer of 2019, she joined the Multicultural Advertising Internship Program as a Copywriting Intern at Commonwealth//McCann in Detroit.

Today, Daynah works at 22Squared writing for brands like Amazon Studios, Baskin-Robbins, and Publix Super Markets while serving on her agency’s Diversity & Inclusion Council. In the future, she hopes to help pave the way for other people of color in the industry and create work that reflects people from all backgrounds. Outside of work, you can find her watching the Wheel of Fortune, reading too many books at once, or struggling to figure out if she’s a Millennial or Gen Z.

Devin Spady is an author, an explorer, and currently, a Community Marketing Manager at Bumble. Her professional background spans across project management, program development, social media and partner management. She is passionate about brand mission and voice, and while creative is her absolute strength, that doesn’t limit her when it comes to strategic and analytical planning.

She’s worked at startups and international organizations, having worked both domestically and in Latin America. Devin truly is a connector and cares about building relationships. Prior to Bumble, Devin worked at Facebook where she partnered closely with nonprofit organizations on their social advertising. Prior to joining Facebook, she worked in Santiago, Chile where she developed inclusive professional opportunities for students globally.

Devin loves love, so much so that she’s a published author within the dating and relationship space. Her book Swiping Right: How We Connect, Communicate, and Love is available on Amazon; Chapter 10, “”Fairytales””, was actually inspired by Bumble and focused on women empowerment. Aside from writing, she loves traveling and being immersed in new cultures.

Because of her experiences, you can depend on Devin for one thing–passion. A passion to create, explore, and learn.

A decisive strategist at heart, Elisabeth Apanda leads Worldwide Digital Strategy for Microsoft’s global consumer business, drafting multimillion go-to-market campaigns across the Windows, Xbox, Surface and Microsoft 365 brands for amplification across the globe.

Prior to her current role, she crafted digital launch strategy for Microsoft 365, and worked as a Junior Strategist at GSD&M, executing critical repositioning efforts and rethinking brand strategy for the U.S. Air Force, Pizza Hut, Jeep and ADCOLOR.

Before that, she developed creative content strategy for Bumble, driving downloads and in-app purchases worldwide and drafted social media strategy campaigns for game studios and NGOs in southern China and Congo.

Elisabeth studied Advertising and Business at The University of Texas at Austin, where her love for cross-cultural representation in the advertising industry led her to become a longstanding mobilizer in the Stan Richards Equity Council, housed in the nation’s most recruited ad program. She now enjoys leading growth strategy for Black at Microsoft: Early-In-Career as a founding member and mentoring diverse talent.

Born to a family of native francophones in the American Midwest, Elisabeth is all at once Congolese, American and francophone and lives at the intersection of the three, informing a unique cross-cultural fluency and innate curiosity for how cultural nuance affects human behavior. She wields this power to create divergent ideas that challenge brands and the tech industry at large to be better.

Emily Kubicek is a Data Scientist in Disney Advertising Sales at The Walt Disney Company. Born and raised in Southern California, she earned her Ph.D. from Gallaudet University, the only university in the world for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. She is forever grateful for the opportunity to visit this culture, learn their language, and gain valuable insights into this one-of-a-kind Deaf world. Notably, this experience helped her see the parallels between the Deaf community and her own Mexican culture, thus creating a catalyst for her future personal and professional goal of creating opportunities for all historically excluded groups in tech. Emily has worked closely with many STEM-related Diversity and Inclusion organizations and has most recently teamed up with Deaf Kids Code, a non-profit organization that promotes technology, computer science, and design thinking skills to empower deaf and hard-of-hearing students socially and economically.

Emily aims to partner her two passions of diversity and technology to make the AdTech space a truly accessible and representative place for all of the people it ultimately aims to impact, with a special interest in sharing the message that without disability and accessibility, true diversity cannot exist.

Erynn Hughes is a multi-hyphenate strategist, straddling her intersectional identity as a bi BIPOC suburbanite of New York to bridge divides across individuals and chart sustainable paths of progress for brands.

She began her career in advertising unearthing insights through identity work on Nike’s Jordan brand before launching The Vanguard Group’s first-ever omnichannel media campaign. Erynn is currently developing her brand strategy craft at Wolff Olins creating transformative brands.

During her summer as a 4A’s MAIP fellow at Mindshare, Erynn won a mock pitch team competition for Seventh Generation’s new product line launch. She influenced agency leadership at Forsman & Bodenfors to transform their approach to DE&I. Additionally, her thoughts on how brands can navigate today’s polarizing media landscape were published in Advertising Week in 2020. And Erynn was selected to be a member of the first We Are Next Advisory Board to bring new resources and events programming to young advertising professionals.

Erynn takes a thoughtful approach to strategy, balancing her curiosity with her tenacious spirit to encourage inclusive, courageous endeavors in herself and others.

My name is Hung Lang, a strategist based in Chicago with Chinese and Vietnamese roots. After two years in ad sales, I pivoted to complete a portfolio program at the Miami Ad School, then joined as a strategist at Blue Chip Marketing Worldwide.

Being a POC in a creative space, I believe that it is important to voice my unique perspective and support other POC/individuals from different marginalized communities to project their own voices well. I feel incredibly blessed to be provided the instruments and people to help me live my dream role and to pave it forward, and I am planning to push this momentum to the next level via the ADCOLOR Futures program.

Jahcelyne is a versatile and established marketing professional with work published in esteemed publications and five successful years as a content creator and storyteller. She has always had a passion for mentorship, documenting and sharing her life online to encourage, support and guide the next generation of women emerging in their careers. Currently working on Forbes’ Brand Marketing team, Jahcelyne focuses much of her efforts on the commitment to equity and representation in business by co-leading ForbesBLK – an employee led resource group concentrated on improving diversity and inclusion for Forbes employees that identify with and support the African diaspora and working alongside her colleagues to promote the success of doers and leaders in today’s world of business.

Jahcelyne owes much of her success to her parents who deeply invested in her at an early age. As she continues in her career, she is committed to sending the elevator back down to bring Black professionals up as she was taught to do by those who came before her.

Jamal Parker is a writer, poet, teaching artist, performer and ever-evolving creative. His work explores race, masculinity, mental health, spirituality, and more while also platforming Black resilience and joy.

Graduating from Temple University with a degree in African-American Studies, Jamal is a two-time TEDx Speaker / Performer and 2017 Philly Pigeon Grand Slam Champion. He’s also a two-time International Poetry Slam Champion — formerly winning both Brave New Voices (2015) and the College Union Poetry Slam Invitational (2016).

A newfound copywriter amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, his first freelance clients were Ciara and Russell Wilson to write the anthem for their company, The House of LR&C. He has since written and worked on campaigns for the likes of AT&T, AT&T Dream in Black, the 2021 NBA & Farm Sponsorship, Kaiser Permanente, and more at Translation LLC.

He is a graduate of the One Club For Creativity’s ONE School Program, where he graduated with honors as one of the top 3 students in the east coast. He was featured as a guest speaker at the 2020 Most Contagious Conference, and was named a finalist for the One Club’s first ever international ‘COLORFUL’ portfolio competition.

He has been featured in Adweek, Journeys, WHHY and has had his poetry / writing appear in Forbes, Dryland Lit Press, L’Éphémère Review, and more.

While all this is cool, nothing matters more to him than his family and his homies, superhero movies, anime and his Nintendo Switch.

For more, visit www.jamalparker.com

Jennifer Chocolate knew she had a love for Graphic Design at an early age. After discovering her passion in high school, she became a Graphic Design major at the University of Central Florida. During her junior and senior year, she worked as the Graphic Design Intern for the School of Visual Arts and Design. Other accomplishments her senior year include: joining the Graphic Design Student Association board as the External Relations Officer and being chosen to be in the AIGA Orlando Mentorship program. Jenn recently became a MAIP (Multicultural Advertising Internship Program) Alumna for the Class of 2021 in which she got experience being a part of the Advertising world. She aims to be a voice in the advocacy for young diverse talents who want to work in the creative field.

Jochebed Fekadu is a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Project Manager at Omnicom Precision Marketing Group. In this role, she leads seven workflows for the OPMG family of 12 agencies to align efforts and internal management for an inclusive culture and equitable workplace. In addition to this work, Jochebed is dedicated to continue to contribute to the experience within Omnicom and sits on the board for OPMG BLQ and Black Together, ERGs within the company landscape.

Prior to Omnicom, Jochebed was a Digital Marketing Manager at Wpromote. At Wpromote, Jochebed led a portfolio of 25 clients across various business sectors by driving strategy and marketing efforts across Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Ads & Search Engine Optimization. She also aided in the establishment of the first Black ERG in agency history, Black Voices, and was elected as sitting president. Jochebed graduated from The University of Texas at Austin and received her Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations. She was selected as an Outstanding Graduate in 2019 and sat on the DE&I Council of her college.

Jochebed is a proud alumna of The IRTS Foundation, where she actively speaks on panels and mentors summer fellows. Bringing people, ideas and inspiration together has helped her embrace her disruptive nature across companies and groups. Her passion for equity, quality and progress lights a fire beneath everything she does, enabling her to create lasting impacts along the way.

Kahlita is a digital marketing aficionado who specializes in developing innovative solutions and driving business results. From nine-to-five, Kahlita is a Client Solutions Manager at Facebook where she leads strategy for top automotive brands. She’s developed trusting relationships with key stakeholders to drive exceptional performance, adoption of innovative products and YoY revenue growth. Outside of her core role, she leads a variety of cultural and community-building initiatives for her team and beyond.

Kahlita graduated from Temple University with a degree in Advertising and began her career with internship positions at companies, such as BET Networks, Turner Broadcasting, etc.

From growing up in PG County, Maryland to going to college in North Philadelphia and now living as a Harlemite, Kahlita is always a servant to every community she lives in. She is passionate about uplifting, educating, and empowering communities of color. When not at work, Kahlita can be found frequenting neighborhood small businesses, mentoring young women of color, or volunteering with community organizations.

She is an active member of the professional organizations, She Runs It and Brown Girls Dream and a proud alumna of the Louis Carr Internship Foundation, T. Howard Foundation, and the IRTS Fellowship program.

Kahlita brings three things to every opportunity: a fresh perspective, fun attitude, and fierce approach. She loves to travel and is striving to visit 30 countries by 30 years old. She is an aspiring sommelier, wellness enthusiast and a loyal member of Beyonce’s Beyhive.

Katie is a leader and change-maker who currently works as an Associate Product Marketing Manager for Grow with Google, a team that helps millions of Americans develop skills to find jobs, advance their careers, and grow their businesses. There, Katie has worked with Black-led organizations to help up-skill thousands of Black women job-seekers, and now partners across Marketing, PR, and Policy teams to develop Google’s annual Economic Impact Report, which features diverse stories of businesses that are growing with the help of Google tools.

As a first-generation college student, Katie saw first-hand how inequitable access to education can hinder one’s professional outcomes and sought every opportunity to rectify these injustices at Vanderbilt, her undergraduate institution. In response to a perceived disparity in access to resources, Katie founded “Peabody Bridges” – a student organization designed to “bridge” the gap in access between minority and non-minority students.

Through internship experiences with Teach for America, the House of Representatives, and, ultimately, Google, Katie developed a passion for the intersection of tech, education, and entertainment: three industries that have a disproportionate impact on shaping culture and amplifying opportunity for people of color. Outside of her work at Google, Katie is passionate about empowering the next generation of women leaders. She is Co-Founder and CEO of Building Opportunities in Support of Sisters, a nonprofit organization that provides professional development to young women in her hometown.

My copywriting origin story.

It’s mid June and eleventh grade just ended. I’m out with friends walking to nowhere when we decided to stop in a restaurant we had never been to before. We sit down, I scan the menu, and order what I think sounds good. We’re all just chatting and having a good time when, like magic, our food arrives. Beautiful wisps of smoke and a tantalizing aroma exude from the plates, I’m ecstatic. I grab my silverware and dig in but, to my dismay the food just wasn’t seasoned. Now by no means was this meal awful, it was just…okay.

As members of a society it’s our civic duty to leave reviews. If it sounds mundane, it’s because it is. Spending time with friends should be easy and carefree. And, not unlike spilling ketchup on a white shirt, a bad experience can really dampen the mood. It was at that moment, when my fork brought that morsel of unseasoned food to my mouth, I knew Yelp needed a hero. Someone who would review anything, no matter how trivial; like which McDonalds gives you extra sauces or which bottomless brunch actually understands a mimosa needs a little champagne.

So, when I found out about this profession called copywriting, where every detail matters, I was immediately attracted like pineapples to a pizza. And as the 2021 4A’s Foundation MAIP Fellow of the Year, I can’t wait to see where Yelp takes me next. Stay tuned and keep an eye out for this Yelper’s reviews near you.

A master’s educated, always caffeinated Colombiana, Laura currently works as a strategist at BBDO Atlanta helping brands find their purpose and connect with new audiences.

Laura challenges teams to think with empathy and nuance about which truths are uncovered and whose stories are told through the work. A researcher turned creative storyteller, Laura strives to foster understanding across cultures, and through research, insight and execution. She tackles client challenges with a passion for insights, a knack for problem-solving, and enthusiasm for creative partnership. She believes that if done well, strategic communication and a well-developed message can have a powerful impact on personal perceptions, and on society and culture.

Outside of work, Laura is an active MAIP alumna and coach. She sits on the University of Tennessee’s AdPR Advisory Board where she works to amplify the voices and experiences of diverse students and faculty. Last year, Laura partnered with fellow alumni to pilot the VOLs Remote Internship program – a paid, virtual internship experience designed to benefit UT students who may not have the means to afford a traditional internship in a major city. Volunteerism aside, when Laura steps into a sports arena she’s a Tar Heel at heart.

Len Sheth (he/they) is a half-Indian, half-Maltese first-generation trans-masculine senior copywriter on the Kellogg’s account at Leo Burnett. Since graduating from the University of Florida in 2018, he’s trusted with launching new products such as Cheez-It Snap’d, and Kellogg’s Jumbo Snax, and re-launching beloved brands, such as Nutri-Grain and Club Crackers.

For 2021 Pride, Len shaped the campaign and packaging for a collaborative cereal between Kellogg’s and GLAAD, which featured pronoun education on-box. The cereal was picked up by 9 retail chains across the country, resulting in a $150,000 donation to GLAAD. And—the campaign featured a TV spot starring the first openly trans person to ever appear in a Kellogg’s ad.

He also co-led Trans Lifeline’s inaugural campaign and total brand refresh, which quadrupled their following and increased donations by 50%. The campaign shortlisted at Jay Chiat in communications strategy in 2021.

In his spare time, he speaks on panels about intersectional identities, watches anime, and is a staff writer and co-star of a sci-fi audio drama, scoped for release in 2022.

Marlon Beck II is a Senior Project Manager at Kith, a luxury lifestyle brand and retailer, from the Washington D.C. area. At Kith, he oversees product collaborations and works with renowned partners to create some of the most sought after goods including Calvin Klein, Disney, BMW, Wilson, Team USA, and Coca-Cola in addition to many others.

Prior to joining Kith in New York, Marlon earned his Master’s at Georgetown University where he founded the AIM Sports Conference, an event catered to helping his colleagues and local community discover job opportunities within the sports industry. He previously worked at Under Armour where he managed a noteworthy footwear collaboration with Stephen Curry while also serving as a leading member of the Diversity & Inclusion Action Team.

Matt is a Brand Marketing Manager at Google Brand Studio, located in San Francisco. He’s been a west coast kid his whole life, from growing up in Los Angeles, to attending college at the University of California, Berkeley, to now living in San Francisco. In college, he studied Media and Human-Centered Design, with the hopes of joining the media or marketing industry to tell more diverse stories.

Matt is now finishing up his third year at Google, with experience in both brand and product marketing for campaigns like ADCOLOR-nominated “Most Searched” Black History Month 2020, Google Year in Search 2020, Black Trans Lives Matter, Pride, and the launch of 6 Google hardware products. Furthering his interest and dedication to creating diverse and inclusive campaigns, he is an Inclusive Marketing Training Facilitator where he leads sessions to teach Google marketers inclusive marketing principles and how to apply them to their work.

To fuel his passion for advocating for students and underrepresented communities, Matt led programming for Google’s 2019 Marketing interns and is an active member of employee resource groups for the Latinx, Asian, and LGBTQ+ communities. Outside of work, Matt loves to spend time outdoors, cook, write down ideas for his podcast he always talks about but never produces, and sing/dance – what he lacks in skill, he sure makes up with enthusiasm.

Melisa Seah is an Associate Product Marketing Manager at Google and an Inclusive Marketing Consultant. She co-led the Global Cross Sell program on the SMB Ads Acquisitions team, managing end-to-end campaign development processes and driving acquisitions through email and direct mail campaigns. Her work on operationalizing the internal Inclusive Marketing Consultants program systematized the project intake process and organized DEI insights and actionable feedback across hundreds of Google campaigns at YouTube, Pixel, Google Maps, Google Assistant, and more. She currently serves as an inclusive products workshop facilitator, distilling insights on crafting inclusive teams and products for Google for Startups’ accelerator cohort of entrepreneurs. Prior to Google, Melisa founded a community-based non-profit in Shanghai, incubated a startup in the Harvard Innovation Labs, and worked at a handful of early-stage consumer startups in virtual reality and e-commerce.

As a Malaysian American, Melisa grew up in Manila, Bangkok, and Shanghai and is passionate about providing access to technology in South East Asia. She earned her B.S. in Business Administration with a minor in Communication Design at the University of Southern California and now resides in San Francisco. In her spare time, she works on a creative collective aimed to provide diverse communities access to the arts, raises mutual aid funds for the AAPI community to support local Chinatowns, and gives talks on diversity, equity, and inclusion in technology to students and founders across the nation.

Natalie Alcide is a native Brooklynite, art director, and rule-breaker on a mission to tell stories that often go untold. She’s helped create stories for brands like P&G, Discover & Hennessy, and is currently an art director at Grey NY.

Paula Ngon is a publicist, journalist, digital content creator, marketer and strategist with a passion for communications and storytelling. As a Publicist for iconic and trusted brands, she spends her days generating widespread and impactful coverage for leading print and digital content as well as exclusive events.

As a first generation American, her passion for diverse storytelling and positive representation of people of color in media and entertainment drives her desire to push for advancements in the industry. She works to connect, amplify and celebrate the notable contributions of Black people in the media industry – and for the culture – because she believes #RepresentationMatters.

Raised in Arizona, Paula got her start in Public Relations working in film promotions at Allied Global Marketing. After pursuing a degree in Journalism and Political Science, and deciding she was keenly passionate about the influence of media and storytelling, she packed her bags and moved to New York City to begin work in media communications at PEOPLE.

Paula Chirinos, a proud immigrant from Peru, has sought roles which encompass her passions for advocacy, global awareness and raising diverse voices since her family made the brave decision of moving to the United States.

Paula applies these passions in her current role as an Associate for Weber Shandwick’s healthcare practice, where she provides account management, multicultural consulting and program support for global clients such as Novartis, Amgen and Danone. Key client achievements include an FDA approval, regulatory and data milestones, and the execution of multiple branded and unbranded integrations across all her accounts. She is also a core team member of OneWeber, Weber New York’s DEI Committee, and regularly coordinates events, company newsletters and social content around anti-racism and cultural awareness.

Prior to joining Weber Shandwick, Paula held roles at the Meredith Corporation, Cheddar, Pollock Communications and the United Nations Foundation, where she helped launch the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund in partnership with the World Health Organization to provide resources to medical professionals globally at the peak of the pandemic. She also recently graduated from Hofstra University (Class of 2020) where she earned a B.A. in Public Relations and Global Studies.

As part of her continued commitment for advocacy, Paula serves as a subcommittee chair for the Public Relations Society of America’s National D&I Committee and a Contributor for the PR Nation Podcast.

Shanae Dixon is a Partner Solutions Manager for Instagram Sports Partnerships. She leverages her creativity, product expertise, analytical skills, and operational excellence to help Sports partners successfully drive their business objectives on Instagram.

Shanae’s work, both within and outside of Sports, displays a commitment to driving well-being and equity. She built and leads #SeeMe, a campaign on @instagram designed to democratize storytelling and increase visibility for Black women. She co-manages the Playmakers Black Creative Network, a program designed to extend meaningful paid opportunities to Black creatives to create content on behalf of top Sports partners.

When not working from home, she is planning her next travel experience or creating food content. She loves to cook, bake, and explore different food cultures and plans to be the Black and Boujee Anthony Bourdain.

It is my career and life purpose to empower every person to perform in color. I have been a performer since the age of five when I first fell in love with the art of dance. Throughout my life dance has empowered me to express myself to the world, to push myself physically, and to work with others toward a common goal. I carry those same lessons into my life as an advertising professional, an entrepreneur, and most importantly a storyteller.

To be at the top of your game as a performer, you work hard to play hard. Every day I wake up at 7 a.m., get dressed for the day, and make a pot of tea. From the moment my laptop opens I am working non-stop on Aurora Tights, my athletic apparel and hosiery startup that builds gear for all shades and sizes, and on my client work at Facebook’s Global Business Group.

This tenacity, combined with my desire for transformative change, has enabled me to perform and produce great impact at Facebook and Aurora Tights. While supporting 35 Fortune 100 business clientele, I have also secured $75,000 in Facebook-funded ad credit for Black-owned businesses. During the past three years of business, Aurora Tights has raised over $160,000 in startup funding and $15,000 in donations for our non-profit partners. Performing to the best of my ability has enabled others to perform at the top of their game too, to perform in color.

Vanessa Santana is an Afro-Latina marketer, culture enthusiast, and self-proclaimed New Jorker (from NYC/NJ). She is fueled by purpose-driven work where she can exercise her passions for people, storytelling and community. Vanessa is a proud Baruch College alumna, where she earned her B.A. in Corporate Communications. Her professional experience has been within CPG (consumer packaged goods) marketing and media.

Vanessa recently joined Unilever as an Associate Brand Manager for Dove Haircare Innovation. Her post-graduation career started at General Mills in shopper marketing then she led media promotions, partnerships and social content strategy for beloved snack brands (i.e. Gushers, Fruit Roll Ups, Chex Mix, and more). Before General Mills, she interned at NBCUniversal and Nielsen in client services and corporate social responsibility.

As a purpose-led marketer, Vanessa is keen on leveraging media, tech and culture to build brands while relentlessly advocating for amplification and representation of marginalized communities. Her social impact spans beyond her day job. She is a community leader through service as a nonprofit board member of HandsOn Twin Cities and she mentors Black/Brown youth as a Girl Scouts Troop Leader. When she’s not marketing big brands, attempting to dismantle oppressive systems or fuel the next generation, Vanessa enjoys traveling, sports, and spending quality time with family.

She aims to continue disrupting and humanizing the industry through storytelling, representation, and driving empathy.