Jahana Hayes is the U.S. Representative for the Fifth Congressional District of Connecticut. She was elected to the United States House of Representatives in November 2018, making her the first African-American woman and the first African-American Democrat to ever represent the state of Connecticut in Congress. Hayes first garnered widespread recognition when she was selected as the Connecticut Teacher of the Year, before going on to earn the distinction of 2016 National Teacher of the Year (NTOY). In her capacity as NTOY, Hayes traveled the country and the world as an ambassador for public education engaging all stakeholders in policy discussions meant to improve outcomes for students. She was a history and government teacher for 15 years. She has been quoted as saying that “education saved her life” and is a fierce advocate for ensuring equitable access to educational opportunities for all students and families. Congresswoman Hayes currently sits on House committees of Education and Labor, and Agriculture. She earned a Bachelor’s of Arts in history and secondary education, a Master’s of Arts in curriculum and instruction, and a degree in administrative leadership.
Fedrick C. Ingram is Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, serving 1.7 million members, including pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; and nurses and other healthcare professionals.
Ingram is the immediate past president of the 140,000-member Florida Education Association (FEA). He also has served as an elected vice president of the AFT’s executive council, and as an AFT vice president for six years (2014-2020) before being elected as the AFT’s secretary-treasurer. Read more
Suzanne Nossel is Chief Executive Officer at PEN America and author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All. Prior to joining PEN America, she served as the Chief Operating Officer of Human Rights Watch and as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. She has served in the Obama Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, leading US engagement in the UN and multilateral institutions on human right issues, and in the Clinton Administration as Deputy to the US Ambassador for UN Management and Reform. Nossel coined the term “Smart Power,” which was the title of a 2004 article she published in Foreign Affairs Magazine and later became the theme of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s tenure in office. She is a featured columnist for Foreign Policy magazine and has published op-eds in The New York Times, Washington Post, and LA Times, as well as scholarly articles in Foreign Affairs, Dissent, and Democracy, among others. Nossel is a member of the Oversight Board, an international body that oversees content moderation on social media. She is a former senior fellow at the Century Foundation, the Center for American Progress, and the Council on Foreign Relations. Nossel is a magna cum laude graduate of both Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
Julie Womack is an Ohio suburban mom and the Organizing Director for Red Wine & Blue, a community of 300k suburban women who use digital media and friend-to-friend organizing to fight disinformation and win campaigns. She is a former prosecutor who specialized in domestic violence and abuse cases. She also practiced as an assistant city attorney for the City of Columbus, Ohio where she handled both state and federal litigation.
After the 2016 election, Julie jumped into local organizing in her blue-trending conservative suburb to help start several women-led grassroots organizations and a political action committee. This experience led to her current position with Red Wine & Blue where she is connecting women across the country and teaching them to organize in their own communities. She resides north of Cincinnati and is the mom of three.