Bonnie Watson Coleman, a long-time public servant and advocate for New Jersey families, was elected in 2018 to her third term in the U.S. House of Representatives. The first African American woman to represent New Jersey in Congress, Watson Coleman is passionate about the issues affecting working families of all backgrounds, including criminal justice reform, building an economy that works for all families rather than a wealthy few, and rebuilding infrastructure to improve this country and support job creation. She focuses on these priorities and other critical issues as a member of the House Committees on Appropriations and Homeland Security

The daughter of legendary state legislator John S. Watson, Watson Coleman has continued a family legacy of public service, fighting for women, economically and socially disadvantaged populations, ad other vulnerable groups in our society. Prior to her election a Representative for New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, Watson Coleman served eight consecutive terms in the New Jersey General Assembly and shattered racial and gender barriers to become the first Black woman to serve as Majority Leader, and as the Chair of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee. During her time as Majority Leader, Watson Coleman convened a year-long series of public hearings on reforms to prisoner re-entry programs while shepherding legislation through the Assembly that the New York Times called “a model for the rest of the nation,” on prisoner rehabilitation and release.

In 2016, Watson Coleman founded the Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls alongside two of her colleagues, the first caucus aimed at bringing both the tremendous challenges and incredible successes of Black women to the fore in Congress’s policy debates. Watson Coleman is an active member of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues, The Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

Watson Coleman is a graduate of Thomas Edison State College, and has received honorary doctorate degrees from the College of New Jersey, Rider University, and Stockton University. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and co-chair of the Girl Scouts of America Capitol Hill Honorary Troop. She resides with her husband, William, in Ewing Township. The two are blessed to have three sons: William, Troy and Jared; and three grandchildren: William, Ashanee and Kamryn.

Ashley Bennett, a lifelong Atlantic County resident, was elected District Three Freeholder in 2017. While attending Egg Harbor Township High School, she became an Emergency Medical Technician and discovered her passion to serve others. She holds a B.A. degree from Rutgers University in Psychology, where she also minored in Organizational Leadership and was a Ronal E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program Scholar. She went on to earn her masters in Community Counseling at Georgian Court University and a Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Clinical Psychology from Fielding Graduate University, where she worked in The Forensic Neuropsychology Research as a Research Assistant. Ms. Bennett has presented original research at both the Association for Psychological Science and the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies National Conferences. She has been in the mental health field for a decade and currently works as a psychiatric emergency screener in a local emergency room, where she conducts mental health assessments and links those in crisis with mental health treatment. She is currently completing two additional graduate degrees in Public Health and Business Administration.

Professor John H. Bracey, Jr., has taught in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst since 1972. He is now serving a second stint as department chair, and is co-director of the department’s graduate certificate in African Diaspora Studies. His major academic interests are in African American social history, radical ideologies and movements, and the history of African American Women and more recently the interactions between Native Americans and African Americans, and Afro-Latinos in the United States. During the 1960s, Professor Bracey was active in the Civil Rights, Black Liberation, and other radical movements in Chicago. Since his arrival at UMass he has maintained those interests and commitments both on campus and in the wider world. His publications include several co-edited volumes, include Black Nationalism in America (1970); the prize winning African American Women and the Vote: 1837-1965 (1997); Strangers and Neighbors: Relations between Blacks and Jews in the United States (with Maurianne Adams, 1999); and, African American Mosaic: A Documentary History from the Slave Trade to the Twenty-First Century (with Manisha Sinha, 2004).

Professor Bracey’s scholarship also includes editorial work on the microfilm series Black Studies Research Sources (LexisNexis), which includes the Papers of the NAACP, Amiri Baraka, the Revolutionary Action Movement, A. Phillip Randolph, Mary McLeod Bethune, the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, and the Papers of Horace Mann Bond. Professor Bracey is a co-editor with Professor James Smethurst and Professor Emerita Sonia Sanchez of SOS: Calling All Black People: A Black Arts Movement Reader (2014).

Cornell William Brooks is Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Social Justice at the Harvard Kennedy School.  He is also Director of The William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at the School’s Center for Public Leadership, and a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School.  Brooks is the former president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights attorney, and an ordained minister

Brooks was most recently visiting professor of social ethics, law, and justice movements at Boston University’s School of Law and School of Theology. He was a visiting fellow and director of the Campaign and Advocacy Program at the Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics in 2017. Brooks served as the 18th president of the NAACP from 2014 to 2017. Under his leadership, the NAACP secured 12 significant legal victories, including laying the groundwork for the first statewide legal challenge to prison-based gerrymandering. He also reinvigorated the activist social justice heritage of the NAACP, dramatically increasing membership, particularly online and among millennials. Among the many demonstrations from Ferguson to Flint during his tenure, he conceived and led “America’s Journey for Justice” march from Selma, Alabama to Washington, D.C., over 40 days and 1000 miles. 

Prior to leading the NAACP, Brooks was president and CEO of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, where he led the passage of pioneering criminal justice reform and housing legislation, six bills in less than five years. He also served as senior counsel and acting director of the Office of Communications Business Opportunities at the Federal Communications Commission, executive director of the Fair Housing Council of Greater Washington, and a trial attorney at both the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the U.S. Department of Justice. Brooks served as judicial clerk for the Chief Judge Sam J. Ervin, III, on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Brooks holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was a senior editor of the Yale Law Journal and member of the Yale Law and Policy Review, and a Master of Divinity from Boston University’s School of Theology, where he was a Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholar. He also holds a B.A. from Jackson State University. He is a fourth-generation ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Rev. Dr. Timothy Tee Boddie is the immediate past General Secretary and Chief Administrative Officer of the Progressive National Baptist Convention in Washington, DC. Prior to his pastoral ministry, Dr. Boddie served for 11 years as University Chaplain and Pastor of the Memorial Church at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. In 2007, Chaplain Boddie was elected to a one-year term as president of the National Association of College and University Chaplains, becoming the first African-American from a historically Black university to serve this capacity in the organization’s then 60-year history. Born in Raleigh, NC, Dr. Boddie was reared in Newport News, VA, and is the product of its public schools. Dr. Boddie majored in English at Morehouse College and also holds a master’s degree from Stanford University. He has done further study at New York University, and he earned his doctorate degree from Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, VA. 

Senator Nia H. Gill has been involved in government and law for more than 20 years, first as a law student and legislative aide tot he late Senator Wynona Lipman and today as a practicing attorney. Gill also served in the New Jersey State Assembly for three terms, being named Democratic Whip, and to the Speaker's Education Funding Task Force and to several committees including, the Assembly Democratic Senior Citizen Task Force, Co-chair and the Assembly Advisory Committee on the Arts, History and Humanities. She is the mother of an adult son, Bradley. 

Ms. Gill currently serves as Senator in the 34th legislative district, which includes Montclair, East Orange, Glen Ridge, Clifton and West Paterson. 

No newcomer to the cause of economic, educational and social change, Senator Gill has championed educational issues and has lobbied for higher education and adequate funding. In addition, she sponsored legislation, signed into law, to strengthen New Jersey's money laundering and check cashing laws and strengthen the ability of municipalities to use public funds for developing low-and-moderate income housing. 

Senator Gill is a sponsor of the measure recently signed into law to criminalize the deprivation of civil rights by public officials, making racial profiling a state crime. She has also sponsored the New Jersey Civil Rights Act, which would give individuals a remedy whenever one person deprives another person of any rights, privileges or immunities or interferes with another civil rights. Additionally, she sponsored a resolution to formally revoke an 1868 effort by the New Jersey Legislature to withdraw New Jersey's support for the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

Senator Gill sponsored legislation that provides a $3,000 income tax deduction for certain families providing home care for an elderly relative, legislation that abolishes the death penalty in New Jersey, and has also sponsored legislation allowing PAAD recipients freedom of choice in selecting a pharmacy and prohibits the imposition of a mail order system. The Senator also sponsored legislation that establishes a central registry of domestic violence orders for use in evaluating firearm permit applications, sponsored legislation to upgrade crimes of the third degree. In addition, Senator Gill is the first African American and the first woman in the history of New Jersey named to serve on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee. 

Senator Gill is a graduate of Upsala College, earned her J.D. from Rutgers-Newark Law School and holds an honorary Doctor of Laws from Essex County College. She also clerked for Superior Judge Harry Hazelwood, Jr., before beginning a five-year term as a trial attorney with the New Jersey Public Defender's office in the Adult Division of Essex and Passaic counties. 

Ms. Gill is currently a partner in the firm of Gill and Cohen, P.C. in Montclair where she is primarily involved with plaintiff and defense trial litigation in state and federal jurisdictions. She is a member of the prestigious Million Dollar Advocacy Society. The national society of membership is restricted to those attorneys who have won damages in the amount of one million dollars or over. 

Senator Gill is also the recipient of numerous awards. She was honored in Selma, Alabama as one of '100 women in the 20th Century' who contributed to the struggle for civil rights, and the New Jersey Business and Industry Association '2003 Woman of the Year Award.' In addition, the Senator received the Outstanding contributions to Women and Families Award and a City News 100 Most Influential New Jerseyans Award and the YWCA North Essex has also recognized her as one of the 'Women You Should Know in 2000.' She was selected as 'Essex County Legislator of the year,' 'State Legislator Woman of Achievement' and had her 'Profiles in Courage' listed in New Jersey Monthly Magazine, the most recent in a long list of honors, including two from her hometown, the Montclair Community Leader and the Montclair NAACP Citizen Award.

One of the nation’s leading civil rights lawyers, Ryan Haygood became the third president and CEO of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice (the “Institute”) in 2015. In this role, he leverages his national expertise to advance the Institute’s cutting-edge work in empowering urban communities where residents of color are connected to full-time, meaningful jobs, have access to affordable housing and the democratic process, and are treated fairly by the criminal justice system.

Prior to leading the Institute, Haygood served as the deputy director of litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund Inc. (LDF), where he worked for more than a decade.  At LDF, Haygood litigated some of the most important civil rights cases of our time. In two of those cases, he defended a core provision of the Voting Rights Act, widely regarded as one of the nation’s greatest pieces of civil rights legislation, before the United States Supreme Court.

A passionate advocate, Ryan speaks and writes regularly on issues concerning race, law, civil rights, and democracy. He is frequently interviewed by media outlets, including: MSNBC, CNN, National Public Radio, and the New York Times. Prior to joining LDF, Ryan was a litigation associate in the New York office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, LLP, and was a recipient of the prestigious LDF/Fried Frank Fellowship. At Fried, Frank, Ryan represented clients in a variety of complex commercial and civil rights matters before federal courts.

Ryan received his J.D. from the University of Colorado School of Law and B.A. in American History and Political Science cum laude from Colorado College, where he was nominated for the Rhodes scholarship and earned academic and athletic All-American honors as a football player. 

Mr. Johnson formerly served as vice chairman of the NAACP National Board of Directors as well as state president for the Mississippi State Conference NAACP.

Born in Detroit, Mr. Johnson is a veteran activist who has dedicated his career to defending the rights and improving the lives of poor and working people. As State President of the NAACP Mississippi State Conference, he led critical campaigns for voting rights and equitable education. He successfully managed two bond referendum campaigns in Jackson, MS that brought $150 million in school building improvements and $65 million towards the construction of a new convention center, respectively. As a regional organizer at the Jackson-based non-profit, Southern Echo, Inc., Mr. Johnson provided legal, technical, and training support for communities across the South.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Johnson founded One Voice Inc. to improve the quality of life for African Americans through civic engagement training and initiatives. One Voice has spawned an annual Black Leadership Summit and the Mississippi Black Leadership Institute, a nine month training program for community leaders.

Doug Massey is Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, with a joint appointment in the Woodrow Wilson School. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, he is the current president of the American Academy of Political and Social Science and is a member of the Council of the National Academy of Sciences and co-editor of the Annual Review of Sociology. He currently serves as Director of the Office of Population Research. Massey’s research focuses on international migration, race and housing, discrimination, education, urban poverty, stratification, and Latin America, especially Mexico. He is the author, most recently, of Brokered Boundaries: Constructing Immigrant Identity in Anti-Immigrant Times, coauthored with Magaly Sanchez and Published by the Russell Sage Foundation.
 

Rev. Melvin is the Secretary-Treasurer of the 2.5 million members, New York State AFL-CIO.

In 1980, Mr. Melvin started his career as a member of Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Local 427 at the Western New York Developmental Center. CSEA is a Statewide Union representing over 250,000 state, county, municipal and private sector workers throughout New York.

In May 2012, Mr. Melvin was elected unanimously as the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) new president, succeeding William (Bill) Lucy, who had held the position since he co-founded CBTU in 1972. CBTU, which is dedicated to addressing the unique concerns of black workers and their communities, has 50 chapters in major U.S. cities and one in Ontario, Canada. President Emeritus Lucy is a heralded Civil Rights and Labor Leader, marching with Dr. King and working with Nelson Mandela advocating the end of apartheid in South Africa. President Emeritus Lucy has long been a mentor and guidance for Mr. Melvin.
Amongst his various Labor and community roles, Mr. Melvin is a man of devout faith and spiritual belief. He is an ordained Baptist Minister. He serves as Associate Minister and Assistant to the Pastor at Second Baptist Church, Lackawanna, New York.

Mr. Melvin is a graduate of the Rochester Center for Theological and Biblical Studies with a Bachelors Degree in Ministry. He is married to Sonja Marie Melvin, and has three children: Candice, Terrence II and Crystal; and one beautiful granddaughter, Cadence.

Professor Myron Orfield is the Director of the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity. He has written three books and dozens of articles and book chapters on local government law, spatial inequality, fair housing, school desegregation, charter schools, state and local taxation and finance, and land use law. The syndicated columnist Neal Peirce called him “the most influential demographer in America’s burgeoning regional movement.” Orfield’s research has led to legislative and judicial reforms at the federal level and state level reform in Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, California, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington, Oregon, and Maryland.

A native of Buffalo, New York, and a graduate of the Syracuse, New York public school system, he received his Bachelor of Arts (Summa Cum Laude) from Livingstone College, Master of Arts in Pastoral Care and Counseling from Ashland Theological Seminary, a Clinical Pastoral Experience Diploma from Western Reserve Psychiatric Habilitation Center, a Juris Doctor from The Ohio State University College of Law, and a Doctor of Ministry (Samuel D. Proctor/Otis Moss Fellow) from the United Theological Seminary. He was inducted into Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia. He was honored by his Alma Mater to receive the Doctor of Divinity from Hood Theological Seminary and Livingstone College. He was a featured lecturer at the prestigious Hampton University, Hampton Minister’s Conference. He was appointed by the University to be the Conference Historian, becoming the first Methodist to serve as an officer in the organization’s history. In addition, one of his sermons is published in the book of “Outstanding Black Sermons Volume 4″ Judson Press, and a contributing author in “Doing Church Vol.2” New Seasons Press.

He has served as a Fellow to Study the Presidency of the United States, a North Carolina Legislative Intern, North Carolina Institute of Political Leadership Fellow, Clerk for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, Lt. Governor of American Bar Association Law Student Division, President of The Ohio State University Black Graduate and Professional Student Caucus.

He is the Founding President of the Congress of National Black Churches, Baltimore Affiliate. He served on his denomination’s Connectional Budget Board, Overseas Missions Board and co-authored Christians Under Construction.

Bishop Proctor has held three pastorates: St. James A.M.E. Zion Church in Massillon, Ohio, where he led the congregation in the building of a new church and purchased a parsonage. His second pastorate was the St. Luke A.M.E. Zion Church of Wilmington, North Carolina. There he led the congregation in remodeling the church, purchasing a new parsonage and commissioning a life size mural. His last pastorate was the historic Pennsylvania Avenue A.M.E. Zion Church in Baltimore, Maryland. Remodeling the facility, acquiring additional property, creating a full-time ministerial staff and implementing over twenty ministry areas are among his many accomplishments there. Each of his pastoral appointments accepted the challenge of technological development and biblical stewardship as a means of financing the work of Kingdom building.

In Atlanta, Georgia, during the 48th Quadrennial Session of the A.M.E. Zion General Conference, the Rev. Dr. Dennis V. Proctor was elected by the world church and consecrated the 97th Bishop in succession of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and assigned to the Western Episcopal District. At the 49th Quadrennial Session of the A.M.E. Zion Church’s General Conference he was assigned to the Alabama- Florida Episcopal District and serves as the Presiding Bishop. With the passing of Bishop Roy A. Holmes the Board of Bishops assigned him to to preside over New York, Western New York, and the United Kingdom.

He is a fifth generation preacher and the son of the late Rev. Emory C. and Rosie T. Proctor. He is married to the former Deborah Diane Wilson, and they are the parents of four children.

In her capacity as Executive Vice President with the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), Ms. Rice oversees the resource development, public policy, communication and enforcement divisions of the agency. NFHA works with over 200 member organizations across the country to eliminate barriers in the housing markets and expand equal housing and lending opportunities. Prior to joining NFHA, she was the President and CEO of the Fair Housing Center of Toledo, Ohio and the Northwest Ohio Development Agency where she created the state’s only anti-predatory lending remediation program. Ms. Rice has served on the state of Ohio’s Housing Trust Fund Advisory Board, State Farm Bank Consumer Advisory Council, and Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council. She is a current member of the JPMorgan Chase Consumer Advisory Council, Mortgage Bankers Association's Consumer Advisory Council, Freddie Mac Affordable Housing Advisory Council, and America’s Homeowner Alliance Advisory Board. 

William Spriggs serves as Chief Economist to the AFL-CIO, and is a professor in, and former Chair of, the Department of Economics at Howard University. Bill assumed these roles in August 2012 after leaving the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government. Bill was appointed by President Barack Obama, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, in 2009 to serve as Assistant Secretary for the Office of Policy at the United States Department of Labor, taking a leave of absence from Howard University to do so. At the time of his appointment, he also served as chairman for the Healthcare Trust for UAW Retirees of the Ford Motor Company and as chairman of the UAW Retirees of the Dana Corporation Health and Welfare Trust; and on the joint National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Public Administration's Committee on the Fiscal Future for the United States; and, as Senior Fellow of the Community Service Society of New York.

Bill's previous work experience includes roles leading economic policy development and research at the Economic Policy Institute, the National Urban League, positions at the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress and the independent federal National Commission for Employment Policy.

While working on his PhD in Economics from the University of Wisconsin, Bill began his labor career as co-president of the American Federation of Teachers, Local 3220 in Madison, Wisconsin. He is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and the National Academy of Public Administration.