Valarie Kaur. Social Justice LEADER. LAWYER. 

AWARD-WINNING FILMMAKER. EDUCATOR. BEST-SELLING AUTHOR. 

RENOWNED SPEAKER. SIKH AMERICAN. MOTHER. WOMAN WARRIOR.​

Valarie Kaur is building a movement to
reclaim love as a force for justice, healing, and transformation in America.

She believes the love ethic is essential to birthing a multi-racial democracy and sustainable future. She declares “Revolutionary Love is the call of our times — the choice to leave no one outside our circle of care.” Today she leads the Revolutionary Love Project.

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W. Kamau Bell is a Peabody and Emmy Award-winning host (CNN’s “United Shades of America”), comedian and Celebrity Jeopardy! champion. Currently, Kamau hosts a weekly podcast, writes a weekly Substack newsletter, and is on a nationwide comedy tour. All of which are named Who’s With Me? His first children’s book, Rock Paper Scissors Cheese, releases in October 2026.

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Andrea Gibson was one of the most celebrated and influential spoken word poets of our time. Gibson authored five full-length poetry collections, an illustrated book of their most memorable quotes, and released seven albums. Gibson and their wife, Megan Falley, are the subjects of the Sundance Festival Favorite–winning, Peabody-winning, and Academy Award–nominated documentary Come See Me in the Good Light, which follows the couple through the final year of Gibson’s life.

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Standing on the shoulders of my ancestors, Dr. Coach (JuanCarlos Arauz) is one of the most sought-after speakers and facilitators, inspiring and captivating audiences internationally through his creative storytelling approach. He has mastered the art of addressing the delicate topics of education, equity, immigration, and Black/Brown male youth development. He has written academically on the intersection of Social-Emotional Learning & Equity, as well as personal testimonials, and is featured in a documentary that focuses on contemporary civil rights activists. His fresh and compelling vision cultivates collaboration between various sectors, providing solutions to humanize the educational process for every student and educator.

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Wendy MacNaughton is an artist, graphic journalist and educator whose wide-ranging, boundary-pushing work is rooted in a conviction that drawing, and the careful attention it requires of us, is an essential tool for creating human connection. Wendy is the author-illustrator of the books How to Say Goodbye and Meanwhile in San Francisco. She has also collaborated as an illustrator on Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat andThe Gutsy Girl by Caroline Paul. Wendy is the the Creator and “Drawer-in-Chief” of DrawTogether, a participatory drawing web series for kids DrawTogether Classrooms, which provides free social-emotional-learning and art curriculums to nearly 300,000 learners worldwide. Since setting up one-day DrawTogether Strangers installations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and a handful of other cities, and by invitation at the National Gallery in Washington, DC.

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Stephanie Garma Balon, LMFT (she/her/siya), 2nd-generation Pinay mama settled on Ramaytush Ohlone land (SF/Daly City) with Ilocano & Visayan roots, draws from over 25 years of experience in health & human services and social justice advocacy, particularly around creating equitable access to mental health services for strategically undervalued populations. As a Legacy Co-chair of the Filipino Mental Health Initiative of San Mateo County and an Expressive Arts Therapist, her heartwork includes practices grounded in decolonization& the transformative healing power of the arts. She is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Kapwa Kultural Center & Café a social enterprise located in Daly City offering culturally attuned intergenerational healing spaces and youth programming, which includes leadership and workforce development, ethnic studies-based offerings, and mental health support.

Author of How We Show Up and founding Executive Director of Next River, Mia Birdsong is a pathfinder and futurist who reconnects us with our forgotten wisdom and practices of our collective liberation. 

She brings her contagious curiosity to her writing, interviews, and public conversations. Mia champions the inherent worthiness of people in both her podcast series More Than Enough and her TED talk on The Story We Tell About Poverty Isn’t True. Her most recent work, Freedom’s Revival: Research from the Headwaters of Liberation, charts the interconnected nature of “freedom.”

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Kate is a feminist author, educator, and public speaker. She's the New York Times-bestselling author of the "Rad Women" book series; the novel Where the Girls Were; the 33 ⅓ book Rid of Me: A Story; and Do the Work: An Anti-Racist Activity Book, co-written with W. Kamau Bell. She lives in the Bay Area with her wife, three children, and pets. In all she does, Kate is committed to sharing radical histories that shine light on the marginalized people who've truly made America (and the world) great: the people of color, the immigrants, the queers, the punks, the weirdos, the artists, the workers, and the women.

Farmer Alfred Melbourne is the founder and director of Three Sisters Gardens and a long-time resident of West Sacramento. Three Sisters Gardens is a nonprofit organization bringing community members together to grow food and lives. Their mission is to teach at-potential youth how to grow/harvest/distribute organic vegetables and engage the community to get involved in supporting the at-potential youth population in Yolo County.

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Sarah Rich and Alexis Madrigal are co-founders of Local Economy, a community resilience hub and event space in North Oakland bringing people together around civic issues, art, and ideas that we need for the future. Since launching in October 2025, Local Economy has hosted more than 200 events, as well as serving as a meeting place for community organizers and culture makers. In addition to running Local Economy, Sarah is a writer, editor, and founder of the narrative change project Department of Invisible Labor; and Alexis is the co-host of KQED’s Forum and the author of The Pacific Circuit.

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Nurjahan Boulden is a storyteller and gun violence survivor, sharing belly dance the way she grew up with it. She is widely recognized across social media platforms for her advocacy in decolonizing belly dance, deconstructing cultural myths, and promoting bodily autonomy as a Muslim-American woman. Her story has been featured in Women's Health, Cosmopolitan, The Guardian, and other news publications, podcasts, and shows. She speaks at colleges and universities across the country, and has online and in-person belly dance programs. She shares tutorials, stories, and dance videos, inviting people around the world to release shame and trauma, get silly, and celebrate their bodies no matter what they've survived.

Garrett Bucks is an organizer, writer and dad, originally from Montana, now living in Milwaukee. The founder of the Barnraisers Project, he has trained thousands of people across the world, most of whom never considered themselves activists, to build community and make a difference with their neighbors. He is also the author of the popular weekly newsletter, The White Pages, with tens of thousands of readers in over 140 countries across the world.

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