Shanelle Matthews is a strategist, storyteller, and educator who has spent over a decade building narrative power for social movements. Rooted in the Black Radical Tradition, she has led communications for campaigns at the frontlines of racial, economic, and reproductive justice, including the Movement for Black Lives, the ACLU, the National Network of Abortion Funds, and the Sierra Club. She is the founder of the Radical Communicators Network (RadComms), a community of practice for movement communicators dedicated to advancing liberatory storytelling. Shanelle is also co-editor of Liberation Stories: Building Narrative Power for 21st-Century Social Movements, an anthology chronicling two decades of narrative strategy across the left. Currently, she teaches in the Department of Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Studies at the City College of New York, where her scholarship and pedagogy focus on the rhetoric of social movements and the role of narrative in shaping culture and politics.

Shanelle Matthews is a strategist, storyteller, and educator who has spent over a decade building narrative power for social movements. Rooted in the Black Radical Tradition, she has led communications for campaigns at the frontlines of racial, economic, and reproductive justice, including the Movement for Black Lives, the ACLU, the National Network of Abortion Funds, and the Sierra Club. She is the founder of the Radical Communicators Network (RadComms), a community of practice for movement communicators dedicated to advancing liberatory storytelling. Shanelle is also co-editor of Liberation Stories: Building Narrative Power for 21st-Century Social Movements, an anthology chronicling two decades of narrative strategy across the left. Currently, she teaches in the Department of Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Studies at the City College of New York, where her scholarship and pedagogy focus on the rhetoric of social movements and the role of narrative in shaping culture and politics.

Trevor Smith is the co-­founder and executive director of the BLIS (Black Liberation-­Indigenous Sovereignty) Collective. He is a writer, poet, researcher, and strategist focused on racial and wealth inequality, reparations, and narrative change. Formerly the director of narrative change at Liberation Ventures, he launched the Reparations Narrative Lab. Trevor has also held roles at the Surdna Foundation, the NYCLU, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and M+R Strategic Services. He received his BA in journalism from American University and his MPA from New York University. He is a son and a brother originally from Maryland, by way of Freetown, Sierra Leone. He currently resides in Lenapehoking, now known as New York City.

Shadia Fayne Wood is the executive producer and founder of the Survival Media Agency and is an Arab American film director and photographer. She has been deeply involved in the journey to shape and share the narratives of grassroots communities of color who are innovatively leading the way in organizing and solutions while also being the first and worst impacted by economic and political systems. She is a recipient of the Yoshiyama Award and the Brower Youth Award, has been featured in the 2007 Green Issue of Vanity Fair, and is a recipient of Elle magazine’s 2008 Green Awards. Her photos have been featured in The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, MSNBC, and the front page of the Huffington Post, among many others.

Jaime Longoria is the manager of research and training for the Disinfo Defense League at Media Democracy Fund. Previously, he was a senior researcher and project manager at First Draft, where he focused on political and health disinformation in Spanish-­ language and Latinx communities. He also worked as a researcher at NBC News Investigations and served as a data editor at Type Investigations. Jaime holds a BA in international relations from Boston University and attended the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

Deva Woodly is a Professor at Brown University. She is the author of Reckoning: Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Necessity of Social Movements (Oxford 2021) and The Politics of Common Sense: How Social Movements Use Public Discourse to Change Politics and Win Acceptance (Oxford 2015). She has held fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton as well as the Edmund J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard. Her research covers a variety of topics, from media and communication to political understandings of economics, to race and imagination, and social movements. In each case, she focuses on the impacts of public discourse on the political meanings of social and economic issues as well as how those common understandings change democratic practice and public policy. Her work centers the perspective of ordinary citizens and political challengers with an eye toward how the demos impacts political action and shapes political possibilities.

Eesha Pandit is co-­ founder of the Center for Advancing Innovative Policy (CAIP). She has worked in national and international movements for racial justice, human rights, reproductive justice, and ending gender-based violence. She is a member of the Crunk Feminist Collective and a founder of South Asian Youth in Houston Unite (SAYHU).

Verónica Bayetti Flores is co-­ founder of CAIP and has led national policy and movement-­ building work on the intersections of racial justice, immigrants’ rights, health care access, young parenthood, police accountability, and LGBTQ liberation. Verónica also moonlights as a music journalist, focusing on sociopolitical meaning in Latin music cultures, with bylines at Rolling Stone and Crack magazine and as a co-founder and former co-host of the podcast Radio Menea.

Jaime Longoria is the manager of research and training for the Disinfo Defense League at Media Democracy Fund. Previously, he was a senior researcher and project manager at First Draft, where he focused on political and health disinformation in Spanish-­ language and Latinx communities. He also worked as a researcher at NBC News Investigations and served as a data editor at Type Investigations. Jaime holds a BA in international relations from Boston University and attended the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.