“Playing the Game? Reflections on the Lives of Women of Color” will unpack what it takes to succeed and the struggles and hurdles inherent to being the only women of color at a firm, media representations that have real-life impacts, and serving the community.
Featured Keynote Speakers:
Paulette Brown
American Bar Association President Elect
Kimberlé Crenshaw Executive Director, The African American Policy Forum
Join the conversation online! #EmpoweringWoC
Hosted by Empowering Women of Color at Columbia Law, in partnership with The African American Policy Forum and The Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies
Zila Acosta, Synne Chapman, Brittany Hazelwood, Kayasha Lyons, Elena Rodriguez, Alice Wang & Judy Wang Huge thanks to the entire 2014-2015 Empowering Women of Color Board for the support, ideas & encouragement!
The African American Policy Forum team: Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, Rachel Gilmer, and Julia Sharpe-Levine; The Office of Student Services at Columbia Law: Dean Michelle Greenberg-Kobrin, Yadira Ramos-Herbert and Bernice Jusino. We could not have done this without your support!
Stay in touch: www.facebook.com/EWOCatColumbiaLaw | @EmpoweringWoc
This event is made possible by the generous support of our partners & platinum sponsors Shearman & Sterling LLP and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.
SCHEDULE 10:00 AM: Welcome Brittany Hazelwood, President, Empowering Women of Color at Columbia Law 10:15 AM: Opening Keynote Paulette Brown, American Bar Association President Elect 10:35 AM - 11:50 AM: Panel Discussion: “Subverting the Norm: A Discussion on the Extraordinary Attrition Rates facing Women of Color at Law Firms” In 2006, the American Bar Association commissioned the study Visible Invisibility: Women of Color in Law Firms, to explore high attrition rates among women of color at law firms. Based on the study’s findings, women of color face a statistical “expiration date” as soon as they are recruited. Do we think the findings of this study still hold true? If so, how can we mitigate this stark reality? This panel investigates this report and just how attrition affects women of color on the day-to-day. Panelists, which include partners, mid-level associates and recruiters from prominent law firms, discuss this issue in depth and provide additional perspectives on what it is like to be a women of color at a large firm, why the attrition rates among women of color are so high, and ways to overcome these hurdles. Anna Brown, Director of Global Diversity & Inclusion, Sherman & Sterling LLP Jamila M. Hall, Partner, Jones Day Lorraine McGowen, Partner, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP Maria D. Melendez, Partner, Sidley Austin LLP Shanita Nicholas, Associate, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP Michelle Pham, Associate, Pryor Cashman LLP Moderator: Zila Acosta, J.D. Candidate, Columbia Law School 11:50 AM - 12:00 PM: Bathroom Break
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM: Panel Discussion: “The Power of Portrayal: From Media (Re)Production of Caricatures to Real-Time Microaggressions” From barely there, to stereotyped and tokenized, this panel explores how the presence of women of color in the media--or lack thereof--influences our everyday interactions. Women, and women of color in particular, are hypersexualized and fetishized to a point where characters like us are nothing more than plot devices. This panel of leading thinkers of gender, race, and media give a perspective on cultural production and the media. Kara Brown, Staff Writer, Jezebel Professor Frances Negrón-Muntaner, Director, Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, and Media and Idea Lab at Columbia. Professor Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Professor of Law at UCLA Law and Columbia Law School; Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum Jamilah Lemieux, Senior Digital Editor, Ebony Magazine Moderator: Brittany Hazelwood, J.D. Candidate, Columbia Law School 1:20 PM - 2:20 PM: Lunch 2:20 PM - 3:20 PM: In the Media: Artists' Spotlight Women of color artists lend their perspective on media appropriation and misrepresentation as it unfolds in the real world. The panel aims to present a dynamic view of the state of media today from the perspective of creators. Akilah Hughes, Comedian; Writer at HelloGiggles, SheKnows, & Refinery29; Sketch and Improv Person at Upright Citizens Brigade Juliana Huxtable, Performance Artist, Poet, Model & DJ Tiphanie Yanique, Bestselling Novelist and Assistant Professor of Writing at The New School Moderator: Alice Wang, J.D. Candidate, Columbia Law School
3:20 PM - 4:35 PM: Panel III: The Personal Side of Public Interest: Perspectives and Narratives of Social Justice Activists Women of color are currently underrepresented in public interest law, yet they have strong and unique voices and skills to contribute to this work. This roundtable will introduce the work of several leading advocates in different fields of public interest and focus on the challenges that they face as well as how their backgrounds shape their work. Professor Elora Mukherjee, Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Columbia Law Chloe Cockburn, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union Glenda Grace, Chief of Staff and Deputy to the President, Queens College Adelle Fontanet-Torres, Senior Associate, Tribal Justice Exchange, Center for Court Innovation Josie Duffy, Policy Advocate, Center for Popular Democracy Moderated by Marcia Sells, Associate Vice President, Government and Community Affairs, Columbia University 4:55 PM - 5:25 PM: Closing Keynote Professor Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA Law and Columbia Law School; Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM: Champagne Reception Hosted in Case Lounge, Jerome Greene Hall, Columbia Law School
FEATURED KEYNOTE SPEAKER PAULETTE BROWN Paulette Brown, a labor and employment law partner and chief diversity officer with the Morristown, N.J., office of Locke Lord Edwards, is president-elect of the American Bar Association. Brown has held a variety of leadership positions within the ABA. She has been a member of the ABA House of Delegates since 1997 and is a former member of the ABA Board of Governors and its Executive Committee as well as the Governance Commission. While serving on the Board of Governors, Brown chaired the Program, Planning and Evaluation Committee. Brown has served on the Commission on Women in the Profession and was a co-author of "Visible Invisibility: Women of Color in Law Firms.” Brown also chaired the ABA Council on Racial and Ethnic Justice (now Coalition on Racial and Ethnic Justice) and is a past co-chair of the Commission on Civic Education in our Nation's Schools. Brown served on the Section of Legal Education’s Council on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar and its Executive Committee. Brown joined the ABA Young Lawyers Division in 1976. She became active in the Section of Litigation in 1995, which has continued to be her section “home” ever since. She is a former member of The Fund for Justice and Education (FJE), FJE President's Club and a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Brown has held many positions throughout her career, including as in-house counsel to a number of Fortune 500 companies and as a municipal court judge. In private practice, she has focused on all facets of labor and employment and commercial litigation. Brown has been recognized by the National Law Journal as one of "The 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America” and by the New Jersey Law Journal as one of the “prominent women and minority attorneys in the State of New Jersey." She has received the New Jersey Medal from the New Jersey State Bar Foundation and currently serves on its Board of Trustees. Brown has repeatedly been named as a New Jersey Super Lawyer and by US News as one of the Best Lawyers in America in the area of commercial litigation. In 2009, Brown was a recipient of the Spirit of Excellence Award from the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. In 2011, she was honored with the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award by the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession. Brown earned her J.D. at Seton Hall University School of Law and her B.A. at Howard University.
FEATURED KEYNOTE SPEAKER KIMBERLÉ WILLIAMS CRENSHAW
ProgramPANELISTS FEATURED ANNA BROWN
Anna L. Brown is Special Attorney/Director of Global Diversity & Inclusion at Kimberlé Crenshaw, Professor of Law at UCLA and Columbia Law School, is a leading authority in the area of Civil Rights, Black feminist legal theory, and race, racism and the law. Her articles have appeared in the Harvard Law Review, National Black Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, and Southern California Law Review. She is the founding coordinator of the Critical Race Theory Workshop, and the co-editor of the volume, Critical Race Theory: Key Documents That Shaped the Movement. Crenshaw has lectured widely on race matters, addressing audiences across the country as well as in Europe, India, Africa and South America. Crenshaw has worked extensively on a variety of issues pertaining to gender and race in the domestic arena including violence against women, structural racial inequality, and affirmative action. A specialist on race and gender equality, she has facilitated workshops for human rights activists in Brazil and in India, and for constitutional court judges in South Africa. Her groundbreaking work on “Intersectionality” has traveled globally and was influential in the drafting of the equality clause in the South African Constitution. In 1996, Crenshaw co-founded the African American Policy Forum, a gender and racial justice legal think tank, which houses a variety of projects designed to deliver research-based strategies to better advance social inclusion. In 2011, Crenshaw founded the Center for Intersectionality & Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School, which aims to foster critical examination of how social structures and related identity categories such as gender, race, and class interact on multiple levels, resulting in social inequality.
Shearman & Sterling LLP, a premiere global law firm with 18 offices around the world. Ms. Brown is responsible for the development and implementation of the firm's global diversity and inclusion initiative, and serves as the Executive Director of Shearman & Sterling's Diversity & Inclusion Committee. Before being named Shearman & Sterling's Director of Global Diversity & Inclusion, Ms. Brown practiced for five years in the firm's Capital Markets group. Prior to rejoining the firm, she served for six years as Associate General Counsel of Continuum Health Partners, Inc. -- the parent corporation of a network of New York City hospitals and foundations. Ms. Brown serves on the New York City Bar Association Committee to Enhance Diversity in the Profession and previously served on the Subcommittee on Bioethics. She is a past President, Vice President and former Historian of the Association of Law Firm Diversity Professionals, member of the American Bar Association, the New York City Bar Association, and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Ms. Brown is a frequent lecturer and panelist on topics related to diversity and inclusion in the legal profession; including serving as a guest speaker at the NALP Annual Conference, New York City Bar Association Diversity Conference, NALP Diversity Summit, Minority Corporate Counsel Association Creating Pathways to Diversity Conference, the American Conference Institute, ACLEA Annual Conference, Equal Justice Conference, Women In Law Empowerment Forum, New York Law Journal Diversity Roundtable, and ALI-ABA Professional Development Institute, among other speaking engagements. For the past eight consecutive years, Ms. Brown also has served as the Program Co-Chair of the Practising Law Institute Annual Law Firm Diversity Symposium. Ms. Brown is the co-author of “Diversity in Action: A Manual for Diversity Professionals in Law,” a new publication designed as a resource and
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educational tool for those performing diversity roles in law firms and corporate legal departments.Ms. Brown is a graduate cum laude of Howard University School of Law and is admitted To practice in New York and New Jersey.
KARA BROWN Kara Brown is a Staff Writer for Jezebel where she focuses on pop culture, issues relating to women of color and all of Bravo TV's programming. Her work has also appeared in Vanity Fair, Noisey and NPR. She has given a lecture exclusively about Beyonce's 2014 album at a major American university. Previously, she worked as a public relations account executive focusing on entertainment and film at a firm in New York City. Kara graduated from Tufts University in 2011 with a degree in English. She recently moved to Los Angeles and finally understands the appeal.
CHLOE COCKBURN Chloe Cockburn is the Advocacy and Policy Counsel for the American Civil Liberty Union’s Campaign to End Mass Incarceration, where she has worked to advance state legislative and policy reforms to reduce criminalization and incarceration. Chloe works in close collaboration with national partners, ACLU affiliates, and state advocacy partners. Her policy expertise includes both state-specific substantive criminal law reforms as well as practical, commonsense alternatives to the criminal justice system as a catch-all problem solving tool. Her work is grounded in the principle of racial justice and a conviction that in order to foster safe and healthy communities, we must end our addition to incarceration as the answer to all our social problems. Prior to joining the Campaign, Chloe spent several years litigating civil rights cases focused on police misconduct with the ACLU’s Racial Justice Project and the civil rights law firm of Neufeld Scheck and Brustin. She also served in the General Counsel’s office at the Vera Institute of Justice, and clerked with Judge Sifton of the Eastern District of New York. Chloe is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College.
JOSIE DUFFY Josie Duffy is a Policy Advocate at The Center for Popular Democracy. Josie provides policy support for the development and growth of Local Progress and CPD’s voting rights work. Josie is a recent graduate of Harvard Law School. During her time at Harvard, Josie interned with the Center for Court Innovation, the Advancement Project, and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Education. While in law school, Josie was Training Director of the Harvard Defenders, Political Action Chair of the Black Law Students Association, Executive Editor of the Journal for Racial and Ethnic Justice, and on the Executive Board of the American Constitution Society. Before law school, Josie worked as the executive assistant to the Executive Director of the Bronx Defenders. She graduated from Columbia College and is originally from Atlanta, Georgia.
ADELLE FONTANET-TORRES Adelle Fontanet is a Senior Associate with the Center for Court Innovation’s Tribal Justice Exchange, which provides technical assistance to tribes seeking to develop or enhance their justice systems. Currently, Adelle is working with several tribes to implement federal grants endorsing court improvement projects. She is also helping to develop the Tribal Access to Justice and Innovation (TAJI) project, which is preparing to launch a new website providing in-depth information about innovative programs and practices in tribal courts. Additionally, Adelle works with the Red Hook Peacemaking Program, where she serves as a program administrator and peacemaker. Adelle previously completed a fellowship with the Center, during which she worked at Bronx Community Solutions providing alternatives to incarceration to low-level misdemeanor and adolescent defendants. Adelle has a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a dual bachelor’s degree in English and Anthropology from the University of Florida.
GLENDA GRACE Glenda G. Grace joined the Queens College family on August 28, 2014, as Assistant Vice President, Chief of Staff, and Deputy to President Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. Ms. Grace brings to the college important expertise in higher education, organizational development, and project management. She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (BS in Economics, The Wharton School; BA in Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences) and Columbia Law School. Ms. Grace most recently worked at Hostos Community College, where she was executive counsel to the president and labor designee. She spent several years as a visiting assistant professor at Hofstra Law School. Previous to this, she served more than ten years as special counsel with the New York State Capital Defender Office, representing clients and advising on all facets of New York's capital statute and its operation. Before that, she was a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Ms. Grace's career began with a human rights internship in Nairobi, Kenya, and as a law student clinician for the AIDS Law Clinic at Columbia Law School, where she obtained one of the highest damage awards in state division history. She clerked for the Honorable U. W. Clemon of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama. Born and raised on Long Island, Ms. Grace has served on various boards, including the Girls Scouts of Nassau County, the World Foundation for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, Inc., and Legal Outreach, Inc.
JAMILA HALLL Jamila Hall is a former federal prosecutor who represents businesses and individuals in significant government investigations, complex civil lawsuits, and at trial. She has experience protecting client interests in cases that have received national attention. She regularly conducts internal investigations on behalf of public companies or their audit committees, often relating to anti-corruption and compliance inquiries, accounting issues, alleged securities law violations, and employee misconduct. She has extensive experience working on global matters for Fortune 500 companies. This work has included legal and factual investigations in South Korea, Latin America, the United Kingdom, Belgium, & Central Europe. While serving as an Assistant United States Attorney, Jamila successfully prosecuted more than 100 criminal cases and was lead counsel in numerous jury trials including nationwide, multidefendant white-collar crime cases. She managed parallel and multi-agency investigations involving the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Internal Revenue Service, Federal Trade Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Jamila is a member of the Criminal Justice Act panel and has accepted court appointments defending federal fraud matters in the Northern District of Georgia. She also has represented pro bono clients in connection with federal criminal appeals and habeas petitions. She is the immediate past chair of the Criminal Law Section of the Atlanta Bar Association and sponsorship chair for the Leadership Institute of Women of Color Attorneys. Jamila is also a member of the Women's Solidarity Society, an advisory and fundraising arm for the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta.
AKILAH HUGHES Akilah Hughes is a writer, comedian, and YouTuber originally from the Kentucky-side of Cincinnati. She's been featured on MTV, Fusion, Refinery29, Glamour, Bustle, Jezebel and pretty much every other place on the internet. Feel free to follow her sass on YouTube on her channel "smoothiefreak" and on Twitter @AkilahObviously.
SHANITA NICHOLAS Shanita Nicholas is a second year associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in the Corporate M&A Group. Prior to this group, she worked in the Derivatives Group at STB and was on secondment at Barclays in their equity derivatives legal team. Ms. Nicholas graduated from Columbia Law and Business schools with a JD/MBA in 2013, where she focused on private equity and entrepreneurship. Prior to attending Columbia Law School, Ms. Nicholas was an IT consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton in Washington, DC. She obtained her B.S. in chemical engineering from the Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science in 2009.
JULIANA HUXTABLE
Born and raised in Texas, Juliana’s path to New York started with a teenage passion for the art and music emerging from the club scene. A former legal assistant for the ACLU's Racial Justice Program and now a DJ with her own party (Shock Value), Juliana’s personality, her selfies, and her prolific attitude have already left an indelible mark on NYC’s underground queer club scene. She is subject and author, in turn, for several works in the New Museum's Triennale, "Surround Audience." She is also a poet, writer, painter and photographer. Her poetry has been featured in BOMB Magazine, at New Agendas, and the New Museum Triennial.
JAMILAH LEMIEUX Chicago-born, Howard-trained and Brooklyn-made, our heroine is a writer, editor, feminist, mom, troublemaker, provocateur and proud millennial gamechanger. She says "millennial" a lot because it's buzzy and makes her sound young. Which she totally is, of course. An outspoken champion of Black women and girls, Jamilah is also a fierce advocate for racial equality, social justice and LGBT rights/acceptance. Race, gender and sexuality are her passion. You can check out a whole lot of her clips here. Oh! And she's also the Senior Digital Editor for EBONY, the magazine of record for AfricanAmericans since 1945. Jamilah is one of the small-but-mighty team that led the reimagining of the magazine's sister publication in 2012. She has also written for a host of print and digital properties, including EBONY, Essence, JET, Clutch, Medium, Jezebel and her now-defunct, award-winning blog, The Beautiful Struggler. Jamilah is a frequent guest on MSNBC (The Reid Report, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, So Popular with Janet Mock, etc.), Huffiington Post Live and Al Jazeera America, and has also done more radio interviews than she can keep up with, including ones with NPR, the BBC and the CBC. In 2014, she was named to The Root 100 list of the nation's most influential African Americans, as well asFortune's list of the most infleuntial women on Twitter. Jamilah also appeared on Comedy Central's The Nightly Report with Larry Wilmore for a spirited conversation about Bill Cosby that got her gif-ted on Tumblr (very millennial, people.) She's also a ghostwriter. Shh...
LORRAINE MCGOWEN Lorraine McGowen is a partner in the international law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, resident in the New York office, where she focuses on restructurings. Her clients include leading financial institutions, syndicated lender groups, creditor committees and other parties seeking to maximize recoveries in complex bankruptcies, out-of-court restructurings and creditors’ rights controversies in the U.S. and internationally. She advises on all aspects of bankruptcy and creditors’ rights litigation, prepares and negotiates complex corporate and finance documents, and represents investors in and acquirers of financially distressed companies. Ms. McGowen has been involved in many prominent bankruptcy and out-of-court restructuring matters including Indiana Toll Road, South Bay Expressway, City of Detroit, Lehman Brothers, MF Global, Tronox, Chemtura and General Motors. She is the chair of Orrick’s firmwide Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives and recently completed two terms of service on the firm’s 11-member Board of Directors. She previously chaired Orrick’s Restructuring Group. She is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute and the American College of Investment Counsel. She serves on the Board of Legal Advisers for Legal Outreach, a non-profit college-bound program for students in disadvantaged neighborhoods in New York City and on the Advisory Committee for the Vance Center for International Justice of the New York City Bar Association. She is also on the Board of Directors for the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. Ms. McGowen is admitted in New York and District of Columbia. She is also admitted to the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, United States District Court, Eastern District of New York and Southern District of New York
MARIA MELENDEZ Maria Melendez is a litigation partner in Sidley’s New York office. Her practice focuses primarily on complex commercial litigation representing U.S. and non-U.S. clients in state and federal courts throughout the U.S. and in domestic and international arbitration matters. She litigates cases and handles arbitration proceedings involving allegations of fraud, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and other business torts. Her litigation experience includes defending public companies, investment banks, broker-dealers, directors and officers, and corporate issuers in actions arising under the federal securities laws and pharmaceutical companies in products liability cases. Her practice also includes representing entities and individuals in investigations conducted by regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
PROFESSOR ELORA MUKHERJEE Elora Mukherjee joined the Columbia Law School faculty as an associate clinical professor of law in July 2014. She previously served as a clinical teaching fellow and lecturer-in-law and was an instructor in the Mass Incarceration Clinic with Professor Brett Dignam. Mukherjee is director of the Law School’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, which provides highquality legal representation to immigrants detained at two New Jersey detention centers. In addition to representing individuals, students in the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic collaborate with local and national immigrants’ rights organizations on regulatory and legislative reforms, impact litigation, grassroots advocacy, and strategic planning. Mukherjee also advises students participating in a Law School partnership with Kids in Need of Defense, a nonprofit that provides legal representation to unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings. Before joining Columbia Law School, Mukherjee was a staff attorney at the ACLU Racial Justice Program. In that capacity, her work included serving as lead counsel in a suit that successfully reformed Nebraska’s ballot access laws; serving as lead counsel in a class action suit challenging racial profiling and abuse of civil asset forfeiture laws in east Texas; organizing a multi-faceted litigation and advocacy campaign in Michigan to challenge debtors’ prisons; challenging Michigan’s failure to provide adequate indigent defense services; challenging the failure of a Louisiana parish to provide adequate indigent defense services; working on Sheff v. O’Neill, a Hartford-region desegregation case; serving as counsel in cases challenging anti-immigrant state laws in Alabama, Georgia, and Utah; and helping to coordinate efforts to reduce racial profiling nationwide. From 2006 to 2007, Mukherjee served as the Marvin M. Karpatkin Fellow at the ACLU Racial Justice Program, working on all aspects of investigating, litigating, and settling suits for immigrant children detained under prison-like conditions at the T. Don Hutto detention center in Texas, among other matters. Mukherjee is a founder and director of the Refugee Reunification Project, which provides grants to help refugee families purchase plane tickets to safety in the United States; a director of the Fair Housing Justice Center, which seeks to build open and inclusive communities; and a director of Warm Heart, a community-based, development organization serving rural northern Thailand. From 2007 to 2010, Mukherjee was an associate at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady where she litigated a broad range of civil rights cases, including dozens of cases involving police misconduct, prisoners’ rights, and housing and employment discrimination. She served as a law clerk for the Honorable Jan E. DuBois in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 2005 to 2006.
PROFESSOR NEGRÒN-MUNTANER Frances Negròn-Muntaner is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, curator, and scholar. Among her books and publications are: Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture (CHOICE Award, 2004), and The Latino Media Gap (2014), the most comprehensive examination to date of the persistent marginalization of Latinos in Englishlanguage mainstream media. Her films include Brincando el charco: Portrait of a Puerto Rican (Whitney Biennial, 1995), Small City, Big Change (2014) and the upcoming War for Guam (2015). For her work as a scholar and filmmaker, Negròn-Muntaner has received Ford, Truman, Scripps Howard, Rockefeller, Pew, and Chang-Chavkin fellowships. Major funders such as Social Science Research Council, Andy Warhol Foundation, and Independent Television Service have also supported her work. In 2008, the United Nations' Rapid Response Media Mechanism recognized her as a global expert in the areas of mass media and Latin/o American studies; in 2012, she received the Lenfest Award, one of Columbia University's most prestigious recognitions. At present, Negròn-Muntaner is the director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, and the Media and Idea Lab; she is also curator of the Latino Arts and Activism archive at Columbia University.
TIPHANIE YANIQUE Tiphanie Yanique’s first novel, Land of Love and Drowning was published by Riverhead/Penguin in 2014. Land of Love and Drowning won the 2014 Flaherty-Dunnam First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction. Tiphanie is also the author of How to Escape from a Leper Colony, published by Graywolf Press in 2010 and the picture book I Am the Virgin Islands, published by Little Bell Caribbean in 2012. BookPage listed her as one of the 14 Women to watch out for in 2014. Tiphanie has won the 2011 BOCAS Prize for Caribbean Fiction, Boston Review Prize in Fiction, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Award, a Pushcart Prize, and an Academy of American Poet’s Prize. She has been listed by the Boston Globe as one of the sixteen cultural figures to watch out for and by the National Book Foundation as one of the 5 Under 35. Her writing has been published in Best African American Fiction, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, More Magazine, American Short Fiction and other places. Tiphanie Yanique is also the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship. Tiphanie grew in the Hospital Ground/Round da Field neighborhood of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. She graduated from All Saints Cathedral School and the Rising Stars Youth Steel Orchestra program. Both her mother and grandmother were librarians in the Virgin Islands. Tiphanie is now an assistant professor in the MFA and Riggio Honors programs at the New School in New York City. She lives with her husband, son and daughter. They split their time between Brooklyn and St. Thomas.
MICHELLE PHAM Michelle Pham is a member of Pryor Cashman’s Corporate and Investment Management group and counsels public and private companies on a broad range of domestic and crossborder corporate transactions and general corporate matters. Experienced in mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactions, Michelle manages due diligence reviews, drafts complex commercial agreements, counsels on corporate governance issues, advises on securities matters and prepares U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Before joining Pryor Cashman, she spent two years as a corporate associate at Clifford Chance. Michelle is currently a provisional junior board member of the New York Foundling, a not-for-profit organization providing educational, support and juvenile justice programs to youth in New York City and Puerto Rico.Michelle is a 2012 graduate of Columbia Law School where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and a member of the boards of the Latino/a Law Students Association and Empowering Women of Color. She studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina and was a Student Editor for The American Review of International Arbitration, earning the Parker School Recognition of Achievement in International and Comparative Law. Michelle also served as a research assistant to Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw and the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies.
MARCIA SELLS Marcia Sells is Associate Dean in the Office of Community Outreach for the School of the Arts at Columbia University. She also serves as Associate Vice President of Progarm Development and Iniatives for the Office of Government and Community Affairs at Columbia University. Marcia started life in New York as a ballerina with the Dance Theatre of Harlem before going to college. After receiving her Law Degree, she spent five years as an Assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn, trying rape and child abuse cases, and moved from there to Chadbourne and Parke as an Associate in the Litigation Department. After leaving the law firm, Marcia returned to Columbia and was appointed Dean of Students at the Law School. She left Columbia to work for the National Basketball Association as Vice President of Organizational Development and Human Resources for 4 years before leaving the NBA to join Reuters America as Vice President of Human Resources. Marcia is a graduate of Barnard College and Columbia University School of Law.
