Sherri N. Blount is a partner at the DC law offices of Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery and focuses on Intellectual Property, Entertainment and Media issues. She represents media clients, including national cable, television radio networks, television and video producers, website operators, wireless telephone companies, new media entrepreneurs, music publishers, recording artists, and authors. Previously, she served as Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Ms. Blount is a frequent speaker on entertainment, intellectual property law, and other legal issues. Her professional achievements were recognized by the Washington Business Journal in 2007, when she was named the Top Intellectual Property Lawyer in Washington, DC and by the Washingtonian magazine when she was named one of Washington’s top intellectual property lawyers in 2006 and again in 2008. She is the recipient of the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia 2011 Women Lawyer of The Year Award. Ms. Blount is also a member of the Ellington School of the Arts Fund Board and a past board member of the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts (WALA).

John Chambers is the founder of BloomBars, an award-winning arts and culture non-profit in Washington, DC founded in 2007. He was born in Turners Falls and raised in Greenfield, MA. He spent the first two decades of his life as a communications executive working with nonprofits, foundations, and civil rights organizations on campaigns designed to raise awareness and change behavior. Work that helped send millions of malaria nets to Africa, got millions of people to wear their seat belts, and engaged the nation in challenging issues like foster care, adult illiteracy, judicial elections and global poverty and police brutality.

BloomBars seeks to unite communities through the arts and nurture artists serving the community. Established in 2008, BloomBars offers programs for all ages and was awarded Best Arts & Culture Non-profit by the Washington City Paper's Readers Poll seven years in a row. John brings more than 25 years of experience in advocacy, communications strategy, media relations, crisis communications, global campaign strategy in the government, nonprofit, and foundation arenas. In from 2001 to 2008, John was a senior vice president at GMMB where he led the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Financial Services for The Poor team, and the foundation’s Global Libraries team. John also managed the Fetzer Institute’s Lincoln Leadership Series Congressional Roundtable, and led the UN Foundation’s Nothing But Nets team.

​

He directed campaigns for clients including, Casey Family Programs; the Air Bag & Seat Belt Safety Campaign’s national Click It or Ticket mobilization; the Fannie Mae Foundation’s Read Out Loud adult literacy campaign; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Faith in Action program; the Justice at Stake Campaign; and the ONE Campaign's Live 8 concert. John has also developed creative, written speeches and scripts, directed radio and TV commercials, and is a published essayist.

Prior to joining GMMB, John was the director of communications for the Presidential Members of the U.S. Census Monitoring Board, an oversight body charged with monitoring and encouraging participation in Census 2000. Prior to his census work, he was the general manager of the Capitol Radio Network, and a senior account manager for Walls Communications. John’s community service work has included serving as President of the Board of Directors for the United Movement to End Child Soldering (UMECS), board of the Black Administrators in Child Welfare (BACW), and the Board of Trustees for Solebury School in New Hope, PA.

Eric Easter is CEO of BlackBox Digital, which produces multiplatform documentaries and a partner in the Chicago-based advertising and content development agency, Super Genius LLC.

The former CEO of streaming channel Black Heritage Network, he advises several startups focused on streaming content, including Kurrent and Kweli TV.

Formerly the head of digital and entertainment for Johnson Publishing (Ebony and Jet magazine, he served as founding editor-in-chief of Ebony.com and spearheaded the company’s push into documentaries and online radio and is responsible for the digitization of the 65-years of archives of Ebony, Jet, Negro Digest/Black World and Ebony Jr, in partnership with Google.

Prior to joining JPC, he directed communications and strategy for Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (Slate, Newsweek, washingtonpost.com) and served as executive director of Lawyers for the Arts, where he worked with content creators to navigate the impact of digital technology on intellectual property.

He is the creator and co-author of the bestselling book “Songs of My People” a historic book and international photo exhibition on the lives of African Americans. In collaboration with actor Edward James Olmos, he co-produced AMERICANOS: Latino Life in the United States a book, exhibition and award-winning documentary which launched HBO Latino.

A political veteran, he has served as media adviser to the campaigns of Sen. Mark Warner and, presidential candidates Howard Dean, Gov. Douglas Wilder and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

He is chairman of the board of WHUT-TV (PBS-DC), a board member of America’s Public Televisions Stations (APTS) and a former member of consumer advisory board of AT&T.

An award-winning photographer, he also writes frequently on media, culture and policy for Washington Post Magazine, Politico and other publications.

Born in the building that houses WHUT when it was Freedman’s Hospital, John W. Franklin retired from the Smithsonian Institution in 2019. His specialty is the culture and history of French-speaking Africa and the Caribbean. He lived in Senegal for eight years teaching English and working for the Smithsonian. Over his 32-year career at the Smithsonian he developed programs on Senegal, Cape Verdean Culture, The Bahamas, Washington, D.C. and Mali. From 2005-2019 he developed relations with universities, museums and potential donors for the National Museum of African American History and Culture across the United States, the UK, France, Canada, Brazil, West, East and Southern Africa and the Caribbean. Recently his focus has been researching and speaking about his family’s legacy. His grandfather, Attorney Buck Colber Franklin, survived the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and represented Black homeowners and business owners to have their insurance claims honored. His father, historian John Hope Franklin grew up in Tulsa when it was rebuilding. John Hope and John W. Franklin edited My Life and an Era: The Autobiography of Buck Colbert Franklin. With his wife Karen Roberts Franklin, John W. is Managing Member of Franklin Global LLC, a speaking and consulting firm. Since 2023 he has served on the Board of Trustees of the University of Tulsa.

Nancy Gist is an independent consultant. Her work has focused primarily on developing, executing and supporting strategies for providing people who have been marginalized with access to quality legal services, and on criminal legal system reform. She has worked to establish, and managed, legal services programs and delivery systems for members of the United Auto Workers and United Food and Commercial Workers. As part of this work, she led the establishment and operation of a single national telephone intake system. As Deputy Chief Counsel of the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services, the statewide public defense agency, she was Deputy Chief Counsel, leading the private assigned counsel delivery system. Nominated by President William J. Clinton and confirmed by the United States Senate, she served as Director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s largest grantmaking agency, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). There, she oversaw the development of the Department’s first end-to-end Internet-based grant application and award system. She was responsible for as much as $2billion in grants to state, local and tribal justice systems as well as non-profits focused on crime prevention

Nancy has co-chaired an endowment making grants to grassroots social justice organizations across DC, and served on the boards of numerous non-profit organizations, including the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, the Invisible Institute, and the Institute for Community Peace. She has also served on the Community Advisory Board of WHUT, Howard University’s PBS station; and the American Bar Association’s Special Committee on Prepaid Legal Services and Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and Yale Law School.

In the Fall of 1956, Jenkins was recruited as a four-year scholarship student to Howard University in Washington D.C. majoring in Political Science and Philosophy. In his senior year, Jenkins was elected student body president and joined the intercollegiate debate team which was co-led by prize-winning writer, Toni Morrison. At Howard, he was significantly influenced by his fortuitous one-one interactions with the University's leading lights such as scholar-poet Sterling A. Brown, theologian-orator Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, historian-Africanist Rayford Logan, and philosophy professor William Banner.

With a keen interest in international affairs, Jenkins spent his sophomore and junior year summers abroad at no expense in France and Yugoslavia understanding global conflicts and cultural diversity under the program, Experiment in International Living. In 1960 he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and graduated magna cum laude.[3] Thereafter, he was elected by unanimous membership acclamation to the office of National Affairs Vice President of the United States National Student Association (USNSA), comprising some 400 college and university government associations. After his year in office, he enrolled at Yale Law School, where he obtained a Juris Doctor in 1964. In his last year of law school, he won the school's senior Thurman Arnold Prize for appellate advocacy.

After graduating from law school, Jenkins took the Pennsylvania bar exam and fulfilled required apprenticeship at the prominent Black law firm of Norris, Schmidt, Green, Harris, Higginbotham and Brown. Thereafter, he detoured from legal practice to become the Head of Government Contracting at the international pharmaceutical company, Smith, Kline, and French Laboratories now known as GlaxoSmithKline in Philadelphia.

Mr. Mokhiber is an attorney in the Washington, D.C. area with an extensive background in government affairs, political consulting and public relations.

A partner in the law firm, Mokhiber & Moretti, LLC, Mr. Mokhiber has an international practice dealing with individual and corporate clients concentrating in the areas of administrative, corporate, international and immigration law.

Mr. Mokhiber previously served as national president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) where has represented ADC in public and private forums across the United States, Europe and the Middle East on issues ranging from civil rights at home, to human rights abroad.

As a young attorney, Mr. Mokhiber joined the ADC staff where he counseled thousands of members. He represented ADC before the United States Supreme Court in the landmark decision of St. Francis College v. Al-Khazraji which held that Arab-Americans were entitled to full protection under the Civil Rights Act.

ADC, under Mr. Mokhiber's direction was also successful in obtaining Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for foreign nationals in need of a safe haven until conditions in the home country allowed for their return. TPS has since been granted to nationals of many countries including Lebanon, El Salvador, Kuwait, Somalia, Honduras, Haiti, Syria, Ethiopia, and Afghanistan. He was also active in obtaining Deferred Enforce Departure for Palestinians in 2024.

During the first presidential campaign of Jesse Jackson, Mr. Mokhiber was the staff person responsible for outreach to the Arab-American community. Mr. Mokhiber has also served as a co-chair of the Ethnic Affairs Committee of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the National Advisory Committee of the National Arab American Museum and as an international observer team for the 1997 elections in Yemen. Currently he serves on the Citizen Advisory Board of WHUT Television of Howard University.

Esteban Olivares is a seasoned higher education professional, parent and advocate for equity in education and developing opportunities for DC metro area youth and adult learners. He has worked with many local and national organizations and institutions of learning to advance college access and student success for both pre-college and undergraduate students. He has led and participated in a number of major collaborative projects that combine investigating students’ learning, development and retention in general education and new student orientation courses with the development and evaluation of new curriculum materials, academic advising models, learning technology, and educational programs for students and educators.

He has worked at American University’s School for International Service and assisted in the development of the Community of Scholars program for high school students. At the University of the District of Columbia, he developed nationally recognized summer bridge and retention programs and then served as the Director of Pre-College Programs for the George Washington University. Currently, Mr. Olivares is the Assistant Dean of High School Programs at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies. As a community member, educator, researcher, and administrator Esteban focuses not only on assisting institutions to develop holistic student experiences to maintain vitality, but also to engage learners for success, cultivating free civic-minded individuals, leaders, graduates, and lifelong learners. Esteban is a graduate of the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA and The School for International Training, Graduate Institute of World Learning in Vermont.

Jocelyn Sigue is an award-winning film and television producer, director, and writer.   

Currently an independent professional focused on documentary film, Jocelyn began her career as a news reporter and anchor for network television affiliates across the country, including in her home city of San Francisco. Her television producing credits include the Emmy Award-winning globally syndicated television program Teen Kids News, which is currently in its 22nd season, and the long-running network program America’s Most Wanted.

 Jocelyn produced the documentary Chautauqua at 150: Wynton Marsalis’ All Rise, which premiered on PBS in 2025, with Black Robin Media. She was also responsible for conceptualizing and producing documentary film content for Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures the award-winning exhibit at the National African American Museum of History and Culture.

In addition to her documentary work, Jocelyn specializes in creating branded content for corporate and non-profit clients including Audi, AIPAC, the Human Rights Campaign and Jobs for the Future (JFF). She continues her work as on camera and voice talent, hosting videos and narrating commercials for various clients and political candidates.

Kathy McCampbell Vance is an Emmy Award winning television producer and director, and a former TV Executive. Currently an independent producer specializing in documentaries and short form productions, she spent most of her career at NBC4 Washington, an NBC Network Owned and Operated TV station. During the course of her more than twenty years there, she served as Writer, Producer, Executive Producer, and ultimately Director of Programming, Community Affairs and Broadcast Standards. She was responsible for the production of a range of programs, including live broadcasts, awards shows, documentaries, weekly entertainment and children’s programs, as well as news, talk and other topical programs, some of which were broadcast nationally, internationally and in syndication. Her executive duties included program development, syndication, community outreach, marketing, and overseeing adherence to the station’s broadcast license. After leaving NBC as Program Director, she continued to produce special feature pieces for the station; fundraising videos for various non-profit organizations; and high profile interviews broadcast on BET Network, for L.A. based Jesse Collins Entertainment,

Recently, Ms. Vance Produced and Directed an award-winning documentary for PBS, “Hollywood’s Architect: The Paul R. Williams Story.” The one-hour program was broadcast nationally on more than 400 PBS stations, and has garnered an Emmy Award, a Golden Mike Award from the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California, a Best Documentary Award from the L.A. Press Club, and a Silver Telly Award for General Biography. The film has also placed in multiple film festivals, both nationally and internationally, and continues to stream on the PBS SoCal website. This was Ms. Vance’s third Emmy Award; other awards include recognition by the National Black Media Coalition, an Ohio State Journalism Award, and a CEBA Award for Communications Excellence to Black Audiences.

Ms. Vance lives in Washington, D.C.

Joanne Williams, Principal, Barrington Associates is a seasoned strategic communications professional and content creator. Her experience as a Black business owner, seasoned messaging problem solver, innovator, activist and collaborator has successfully served a diverse national and international client base. Engagements have ranged from developing and producing the first major gospel music events sponsored by KFC at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to building membership for newly formed healthcare organizations in Philadelphia, PA and Wilmington, DE to managing the brand reboot of a national Black women’s organization’s philanthropic arm, to developing media strategy for the first-to-be-held International Dragon Boat races held in the USA, to name a few. Commitment to her community has included board service on the WHUT Community Advisory Board; CentroNia (DC); Wider Opportunities for Women (DC); The Painted Bride Art Center (Phila., PA), and founding member of the Black Public Relations Society of DC.