Charlene A. Carruthers, PhD (she/her) is a writer, filmmaker, community organizer, and Black Studies scholar. A practitioner of telling more complete stories, her work interrogates historical conjunctures of Black freedom-making post-emancipation and decolonial revolution, Black/Native/Indigenous relationalities, Black governance, and Black feminist abolitionist geographies. She is a 2020 Marguerite Casey Presidential Freedom Scholar and Mellon Interdisciplinary Cluster Fellow in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her work spans more than 15 years of community organizing across racial, gender and economic justice movements. Charlene wrote and directed The Funnel, a short film, which received the Queer Black Voices Award at the 35th Annual aGLIFF Prism Film Festival.

As the founding national director of BYP100 (Black Youth Project 100), she worked alongside hundreds of young Black activists to build a member-led organization dedicated to creating justice and freedom for all Black people. Her work has been covered in several publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Chicago Reader, The Nation, Ebony and Essence Magazines. She has appeared on CNN, Democracy Now!, BBC and MSNBC. The Chicago native has also written for theRoot.com, CRISIS Magazine, Teen Vogue, Truthout, Colorlines and the Boston Review. She is recognized as one of the top 10 most influential African Americans by The Root 100, one of Ebony Magazine's "Woke 100," an Emerging Power Player in Chicago Magazine and is the 2017 recipient of the YWCA's Dr. Dorothy I. Height Award.

A believer in telling more complete stories about the Black Radical Tradition using political education, Charlene is a highly sought after speaker at various institutions including Wellesley College, Shaw University, Princeton University, Northwestern University and her alma mater Illinois Wesleyan University. She is author of the bestselling book, Unapologetic: A Black, Queer and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements.

Frances E. Wood is a scholar and educator; her work reflects a profound commitment to justice and the transformative power of ideas. A feminist and womanist thinker with both depth and breadth of knowledge, she brings together intellectual rigor, lived experience, and spiritual insight in ways that shape institutions, communities, and individual lives. Frances has taught at the University of Washington, Agnes Scott College, Spelman College, and Emory University, where she has inspired students through her dynamic engagement with theology, ethics, gender, and social justice. She holds a B.A. in Comparative Religion and an M.A. in International Studies. She has been an active participant in the American Academy of Religion's Womanist Consultation and was a fellow of the Association for Religion and Intellectual Life (now known as the Association for Public Religion and Intellectual Life).

She is the author of "Take My Yoke Upon You: The Role of the Church in the Oppression of Black Women", in the collection A Troubling in My Soul: Womanist Perspectives on Evil & Suffering, edited by Emilie M. Towns; a work that reflects her sustained interrogation of faith, power, and the lived experiences of Black women. Her scholarly work has engaged the thought of Audre Lorde and includes contributions on Catholicism and Anti-Catholicism in the Encyclopedia of Religion.

Her professional experience spans higher education, nonprofit leadership, and public service, including roles as the first Minority Concerns Director of the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle and Program Director for the Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence, collaborating with such organizations as Men Stopping Violence, the National Council of Churches Commission on Families, and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. In addition, she has held managerial positions with the Social Security Administration and the Georgia State University. Across these roles, she has developed personnel policies, implemented institutional procedures, and led initiatives that respond to both individual and systemic concerns. Her work reflects a deep commitment to prevention, accountability, and healing within both secular and faith-based communities.

Jennifer M-F Horn, LCSW, NMCFIT, is a licensed clinical social worker, researcher, educator, and U.S. Navy veteran whose scholarship and practice center Black same-gender-loving women and historically marginalized communities across aging, caregiving, and long-term services and supports. She received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Colorado State University–Pueblo, graduating Magna Cum Laude and inducted into Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology, and her Master of Social Work from Newman University, where she was inducted into the Pi Gamma Mu International Honor Society in Social Sciences. Jennifer is currently a Doctor of Social Work (DSW) candidate at Tulane University School of Social Work, with a projected graduation of May 2027. Her doctoral scholarship critically examines institutional responsibility and interrogates how resilience narratives can obscure structural harm — with particular attention to the communities ZAMI NOBLA serves.

Jennifer has spent nearly two decades conducting community-rooted research on the lived experiences of older LGBTQIA2S+ adults, with the last six years heavily focused on older Black same-gender-loving women, with published co-authorships in The Gerontologist, LGBT Health, and the Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences. Professionally, she serves as a Care Planner at the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments Area Agency on Aging: Family Caregiver Support Center and provides pro-bono mental health services to limited-income residents through Spark by Project Helping. She is the founder of Let's Talk About It! An Educational Journey Series, LLC, an equity-centered educational platform addressing generational trauma, intersectionality, and racial justice. Jennifer serves as Co-Chair of the American Society on Aging's Equity & Justice Advisory Council and was honored with the 2022 DEI Champions of Advocacy Award for the Pikes Peak Region. As Board Chair of ZAMI NOBLA, she is committed to ensuring that the stories, wisdom, and dignity of older Black same-gender-loving women are centered in research, in policy, and in community.