Ifeoma Ebo is an urban designer and strategist who transforms urban spaces into platforms for equity and design excellence. She is the founding director of Creative Urban Alchemy LLC and a founder and board member of the BlackSpace Urbanist Collective.

Sekou Cooke is an architect and assistant professor at Syracuse University’s School of Architecture and principal of sekou cooke STUDIO. His research centers on the field of Hip-Hop Architecture, a theoretical movement reflecting the core tenets of hip-hop culture with the power to create meaningful impact on the built environment and give voice to the marginalized and underrepresented within design practice.

Mario Gooden is principal of Huff + Gooden Architects, whose practice is dedicated to the creation of architecture as an exploration of culture and knowledge. He is a professor of practice at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation of Columbia University, where he is the codirector of the Global Africa Lab (GAL).

J. Yolande Daniels is a cofounding design principal of studioSUMO in New York. The work of studioSUMO ranges from institutional and cultural projects in education and the arts to housing, to research-oriented installations and exhibitions. Daniels is an assistant professor at USC’s School of Architecture.

Felecia Davis is an associate professor at the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at Pennsylvania State University and is the director of SOFTLAB@PSU. This lab is dedicated to developing soft computational materials and textiles for Penn State students and faculty and industry and community partners engaged in collaborative research projects.

Peggy Shepard is cofounder and executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice. She serves on the Executive Committee of the National Black Environmental Justice Network and the Board of Advisors of the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and was the first female chair of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council to the US Environmental Protection Agency.