Dr. Jay Bhatt (Bhangara)

Dr. Jay Bhatt is an otolaryngologist who treats full-spectrum of eye, ear, nose and throat disorders in infants, children and teens in Orange County. He specializes in pediatric otology, cleft lip and palate, complex surgical pediatric sleep disorders, and advance airway reconstruction. Dr. Bhatt graduated from the integrated engineering and medicine program at The George Washington University in Washington, DC with honors. He completed otolaryngology residency at UC Irvine School of Medicine. He served his fellowship in pediatric otolaryngology at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Denver. Dr. Bhatt returned to Orange County and joined CHOC Children’s and UC Irvine as a faculty member.

Xiomara Forbez

Xiomara Forbez is a Ph.D. Candidate in Critical Dance Studies at the University of California, Riverside. Born and raised in Miami, FL, she completed her B.A. in Linguistics and French Language and Literature at Boston University and proceeded to work in Research Administration for four-and-a-half years. Her dissertation research focuses on bad dancing as it relates to identity and representation. Some of her dance interests include hula, ballet, bachata, and kizomba. She is a recipient of the Chancellor's Distinguished Fellowship and five Gluck Fellowships for the Arts. In 2017 she was a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship Honorable Mention and Alternate.

Kenya Aissa

Kenya Aissa, MS, is a Diversity Trainer, Holistic Empowerment Coach, and yoga instructor. Kenya spent 20+ years as a social worker, working within the foster, adoptions, and corrections systems. In 2018, she published her first book, “Sacred Girl: Spiritual Life Skills for Conscious Young Women”, and she is a contributing author to “Coffee & Conversations: Warm Cups of Self-Care”, a self-care book by women, for women. She has been featured on various podcasts, and currently serves as a co-host on the weekly web series "Taking Control of Your Health”. Kenya continues to work in the family court system as a consultant specializing in transracial adoption and interracial co-parenting. She can be followed on social media:

Instagram & Twitter: @rubyenvy Facebook: Ruby Envy LinkedIn: Kenya Aissa

Francisco Escobar

Francisco is a multi-disciplinary artist (photographer, painter, filmmaker, writer) working in the New York entertainment industry as a cinematographer, art director, and a development producer. His current projects include an animated feature film that addresses grief experienced by young children resulting from the death of a family member; a dramatic series about the struggles of formerly incarcerated addicts; a documentary series on the history of American psychiatry; and a docu-drama centered around the political implications of artificial intelligence in the information age. Working alongside journalist and photographer, Katrina Morrison, in Ireland as part of a project to boost American tourism in the western and southern regions of the country.

Dina Shafey Scott

Dr. Dina Shafey Scott is a first-generation Arab-American whose research seeks to understand how Arab Americans intersectional identities have an impact on future schooling and educational choices. She currently works as a Training Director creating an inclusive curriculum for the Legal Services Corporation, an organization whose mission seeks to flatten the justice gap by providing low-income Americans with access to high-quality legal aid.

In the image, Dina is belly dancing, a traditional Middle Eastern dance to a song that speaks about her home city, Alexandria, Egypt, or in Arabic, Eskinderaya.

Myrish Spell

A native of Richmond, VA, Myrish is the first musician of her family. She has a Bachelor of Music in Music Business and a M.S. in Entertainment Business. She has performed with artists including India Arie, Ari Lennox, Erykah Badu, and Common via Black Girls Rock. Myrish’s passion for music and education has allowed her to create safe spaces for students to unleash their creativity. Students receive private lessons with Myrish followed by a meet-and-greet with a professional musician. She currently works as a high school band director in Baton Rouge, LA, birthing new opportunities for students to reach their full potential.

Lenaé A Harris

Born and raised on the Southside of Chicago, IL, Lenaé was exposed to music at an early age by several relatives who were accomplished musicians. Lenaé A. Harris aka Cataclysmicsounds, draws inspiration from a wide circle of collaborators, past and present composers, life experiences and family influences. Her multi-faceted, genre-transcending career is a testament to her artistic ingenuity. Lenaé maintains a balance between her performance engagements as a cellist with work as composer and producer. Her career has seen her do everything from play with symphony orchestras, perform with Rock, Pop, Gospel, R&B artists to composing for film. Lenaé possesses a natural gift. She has the inherent ability to tell a story through her performance and music compositions to draw in any audience. In December 2019, she began a new journey with the self-release of #Stand - Anthem for Taking a Knee to address 0the ongoing social injustices taking place in communities in the US and around the world, with the idea of creating awareness and as a catalyst to engage with the public to have continuing dialogue around themes that connect us all from police brutality, gun violence, economic inequality, and mental health reform.

Lisa Ho

Lisa Ho is the Academic Director of the Master of Information and Cybersecurity degree program in the School of Information at the University of California, at UC Berkeley. Her previous roles include campus privacy officer and IT policy manager at UC Berkeley, and technology strategy officer at San Francisco State University. Lisa holds an MBA from SF State and studied ethnomusicology at UCLA. Lisa is performing Golek Ayun-Ayun, a classical central Javanese dance choreographed by her former teacher and Yogyakarta court dance master Rama Sasmintadipura. Golek dances depict the graceful movements and inner joy of a young woman grooming and adorning herself. The Golek Ayun-Ayun dance costume is recognizable by its distinctive pink-feathered headdress called a jamang elar. 

Sameer Nizamuddin

Sameer has an undergraduate degree in Social Development and Policy from Habib University in Pakistan. He is currently associated with the Bioethics Group at the Aga Khan University in Karachi. His interests lie around transnationalism, refugee crises, and mental health issues of forcibly displaced persons. He is a poet and also a voluntary language teacher in the underprivileged areas of his community.

Allyson Ross

Allyson Ross is an artist and educator based in NYC. She is currently creating the Dance/Movement program for a NYC Charter School Network for students in grades K-5. She is a performer with General Mischief Dance Theatre, Leah Glenn Dance Theatre and has recently worked with choreographers Stacie Cannon, Angel Kaba and Bobby Morgan as well as filmmaker Chris Disla. She also has performed with The Gathering Harlem’s “For the Culture” series and was a performer with Complexions Ballet at the 25th Anniversary Gala performance at the Joyce Theater. She has worked with The Francesca Harper Project, BalaSole Dance Company, Mary Carbonara, Kara Davis, Dexandro Montalvo, Sandrine Cassini, Alonzo King and Robert Moses.For the past 5 years, she has been exploring her own choreography with Allyson Ross/ SouthernBelleStories and has presented work across NYC including Dixon Place, Downtown Arts, Mark Morris Dance Theater and Bronx BAAD! Allyson is a graduate of The College of William and Mary (BA) and Harvard University (Ed.M). She received her dance training from several amazing teachers in Norfolk, VA, Boston, MA, Philadelphia, PA, Las Vegas, NV, New York, NY and San Francisco, CA. She studied more formally in the Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Professional Training Program and the Alonzo King Lines Ballet Training Program. She is grateful to be living out her professional dream of being an artist and educator. 

Leaping in front of the Brooklyn Bridge and A Dance in Central Park

Dr. Van Bailey

As the inaugural director of two LGBTQ+ student centers, Dr. Van Bailey uses practical on-the-ground knowledge to inform strategies for organizational change. Van is a student affairs educator, international speaker and diversity consultant. With over thirteen years of experience in higher education and nonprofits, His speeches and workshops relate to LGBTQ+ student leadership, pedagogical practice, and intersectionality. He has been noted for his work in higher education by being listed in Business Equality Magazine’s 40 under 40 LGBTQ Leaders, Trans 100 and the National Black Justice Coalition’s 100 to Watch LBGTQ/SGL Emerging Leaders. He was the co-chair for the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals, in which he assisted in the restructuring of the leadership board, mission, vision, and goals. Dr. Bailey, a collective member of bklyn boihood, are Lambda Literary award finalists, and his published work has been featured on NPR, the Boston Globe, the Huffington Post, the Feminist Wire, and Buzzfeed. As a diversity specialist, Van has worked with constituents internationality in addressing equity and inclusion on college campuses. Currently, he is the Assistant Dean/ Director of Diversity and Inclusion at George Mason University.

Dawn Jewél Fraser

Dawn J. Fraser is a storyteller, public speaker and a nationally acclaimed communications coach based out of San Jose, California. She is the Creator/ Host of the ‘Barbershop Stories’ live show and podcast, which features storytellers performing true tales in barbershops and salons around NYC, and the Founder/ CEO of Fraser’s Edge, LLC, which offers programs for businesses, nonprofits, and college students the opportunity to develop their leadership potential through storytelling. Past clients have included companies like Spotify, Vox Media and Google as well as celebrities including the rapper Common. Dawn currently serves as a Lead Instructor with The Moth and was featured amongst some of the nation’s top change makers at TED@NYC. She loves being a twin, a Trinidadian, and Instagramable @dawnfraser.

Shauna Miles

Shauna Miles is an actor/singer originally from Long Island, NY. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Boston University’s School for the Arts (now the College of Fine Arts) and a Master of Fine Arts from the National Theatre Conservatory at the Denver Center for Performing Arts. While an undergraduate, she was the Region I winner of the Irene Ryan Award for the American College Theatre Festival. She advanced to compete nationally at the Kennedy Center, where she ultimately won the Bill Everett Scholarship to the Williamstown Theatre Festival. She has performed regionally at The Denver Center, Baltimore Center Stage and Hartford Stage Company, among several others. Her work has also been seen at Radio City Music Hall in the historic Christmas Spectacular and Off Broadway with The Play Company. Her TV credits include co-starring on The Good Wife, Law & Order: SVU, Elementary, Luke Cage and The Following. She also appeared in the feature film Bachelorette. Shauna also collaborated with Zipped Lips (the NYC- based electro-pop outfit led by producer PGBoo) on their recently released cover of the 80’s hit “We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off.”  

Facebook: www.facebook.com/shauna.miles  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shaunajmiles/  IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2656639/  Spotify (We Don’;t Have to Take Our Clothes Off): https://open.spotify.com/track/1YbgAeKmOsBftCjxJdOuch?si=1kaXo0bgShWCo38JApcL0g

Allyson Ross

Naniette Coleman

Shelby Condray

Shelby Condray, bass, has performed with Central City Opera, Lyrique en Mer in Belle Ile, France, Palm Beach Symphony, Music Academy of the West, and Yale School of Music. After a hiatus to pursue a master’s degree in theology and sing jazz, Shelby recently made his return and performs regularly with the San Diego Opera.

Picture is from performance of “All is Calm”