Laura Sanders-Morris
Advisor, Cultural Strategies and Strategic Partnerships
Email: laura@sanders-morris.com
Dr. Laura Sanders Morris serves as a cultural strategist and collaborator bridging internal and external partnerships to promote the mission of RJI. Sanders Morris develops experiential curation for public outreach initiatives as a form of synthesizing scholarly research into accessible spaces. With a Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership, Sanders Morris offers a data-driven, research-backed approach to growing organizations. Her academic research focuses on the experiences of Black professional mothers.
Dr. Laura’s diverse experience as the inaugural director of policy and programs for the California Partners Project (a nonprofit fighting for gender equity and child well-being), public affairs consultant, and trusted advisor (Kat Taylor, impact investor and co-founder Beneficial State Bank) to government and nonprofit leaders (consultant, cultural strategist and executive coach to CreaTV San Jose a Knight Foundation-funded nonprofit), KQED (non-profit public media outlet), ImmsSchool (immigrant-led non-profit organization that partners with K-12 schools and educators to support undocumented students and families by transforming schools into safe havens for all schools), First Place for Youth (non profit organization committed to building skills needed for foster youth to make a successful transition to self-sufficiency and responsible adulthood) and early career in client relations at a Fortune 100 investment management and financial services company, Morgan Stanley enables her to nimbly lead complex projects and teams.
As a trained mediator, she harnesses the power of Indigenous conflict resolution to forge powerful and lasting relationships with colleagues, executive peers, strategic partners, and communities. Her human-centered leadership style, blending strategy with tactical execution has earned her a solid reputation for delivering successful outcomes.
Her passion for traveling and spending family time with her husband and two teenage sons feeds her soul.
Antonio David Lyons
Director of the Racial Justice Institute’s EnActors
Email: al1883@georgetown.edu
A multi-disciplinary artist whose storytelling often fuses poetry, music, and embodied movement. An Applied Theatre Practitioner who manages to maintain a thriving career as a professional artist in tandem with his activist and scholarly pursuits.
He has been an Art and Social Justice Fellow at Emory University. a Fulbright Awardee, an Oregon Shakespeare Festival Producing Fellow, and a Scholar in Residence at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). He is the creator of “We Are Here”, a social activism campaign birthed in South Africa that utilizes discoursive play to engage men and boys in themes of identity, Masculinity, relationships, gender-based violence, and HIV/AIDS. We Are Here has implemented programs and toured in South Africa, Namibia, and the USA. Writings about We Are Here, appear in Performance and Politics in Africa; University of Michigan Press.
Some of his producing credits include: Recipes, Remedies and Rumors; Community Producer, La Comedia of Errors (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Beautiful Struggle (US Consulate Commission/Market Theatre, Johannesburg); Back2Back Thursdays; We Are Here (premier/ Joburg Theatre) **this poetry based solo show became a multi-person play produced in collaboration with TX Theatre at the Soweto Theatre; Culturefest (Oregon Shakespeare Festival)
Some of his Film/television credits include: Sherman’s Showcase, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Star Trek: Picard, Seal Team, Bosch, Person of Interest, The Book of Negroes, Avenger, Generation Kill, False Prophets, Hotel Rwanda, Masked and Anonymous, American History X, The Sum of All Fears, New York Undercover, The District, The Agency, 24, The Practice, Philly and Karen Sisco, In South Africa: Generations, Jacob’s Cross, Fourplay: Sex Tips For Girls, Scandal, Ubizo: The Calling, Jozi-H, Night Drive and Home Affairs.
He’s released numerous poetry-infused music projects which include: Human Jewels (album), We Dance We Pray (album and remix EP) and My Africa (album and remix EP).
He is currently manifesting several projects: Crossing Rivers (an immersive theatrical experience/ writer), Women on the Hill (TV series/ creator-writer), Almost A Dancer (Film Project/writer), and Breathe (Short Film/writer-actor) and his first collection of poetry, TWO SIDE/SAME COIN.
He also serves as the Board President for the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation.
Website: http://www.antoniodavidlyons.com/
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/Antoniolyons
Mia Massimino
Director of Creative Projects, The Woodshed: A Center for Art, Thought & Culture at the Racial Justice Insitute
Email: mm4923@georgetown.edu
Massimino comes to the Racial Justice Institute with a background in performance, visual arts, and youth organizing. Currently based in Philadelphia, PA, and Washington, D.C., Massimino is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan, where she received a BFA in Interarts Performance with a minor in Gender and Health. Massimino is a community artist and educator committed to using art as a revolutionary tool. She applies this ethic to her work with Call Your Mom, an interdisciplinary performance collective she co-founded in 2014 with Sophie Goldberg, Emma Bergman, and Elif Cadoux. Known for interdisciplinary, immersive works, Call Your Mom uses video, installation, movement, and participatory performance to create reflective spaces for audiences. Call Your Mom was recently in residence at Bunakra (Simrishamn, Sweden), and has shown work across the U.S. and abroad at venues that include Cucalorus Festival (Wilmington, NC), Centro NAVE (Santiago, Chile), Artscape Sondheim Prize Exhibition (Baltimore, MD), and more.
Website: https://www.miamassimino.com/
Leslie Jones
Assistant Director Racial Justice EnActors. Community Artist & Restorative Consultant
Leslie is an actress, writer and arts-educator from Brooklyn, NY. As an actress, she has performed extensively throughout the US. In 2015 she founded Artery, a Brooklyn-based arts organization committed to presenting affordable performance and other creative events to communities where arts events may not be readily accessible. She currently facilitates workshops for families and educators in areas of conflict management, wellness, personal development, and transformative Social Emotional Learning. In addition to working with the NYC public school system, she has been invited to train staff in schools nationwide, including Lafayette LA, San Francisco, CA and Philadelphia, PA. She is currently working as the personal development instructor for both AileyCamp NY and AileyCamp Baltimore.
Leslie currently resides in Baltimore, MD.
Justin Alexander Gordon
Assistant Director Racial Justice EnActors
Justin Alexander Gordon is the assistant director of the Racial Justice Enactors at Georgetown University and an adjunct professor at the Georgetown Law School. Gordon is a masters graduate from Harvard’s School of Education and in addition to teaching and creating in Washington DC, Gordon has brought arts education services to all levels from Kindergarten to Medical School in New York and Michigan. Gordon is an author, producer, actor, and rapper under the moniker Most Turnt Nerd. Most Turnt Nerd is a character created to use theatre, film and music to influence youth from the hoods of America to enjoy education.
Erika Wichmann
Project Coordinator for the Center for Men’s Health Equity
Email: ew740@georgetown.edu
Erika Wichmann serves as the Project Coordinator for the Center for Men’s Health Equity at Georgetown University and is especially engaged with the Mighty Men program. Equipped with a primary background in performance, Erika graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Individualized Studies, combining educational psychology and media studies. Her educational interests center on children’s programming as a means of supplemental education for low-income families. Professionally, this interest ultimately led her back to the world of education; prior to joining Georgetown, she supported graduate students at the University of California, Irvine.