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Keynote Speakers and Featured Performers

Friday: Opening Session

Keynote Speaker: Ned Rimer

Ned Rimer is the Co-Founder of Citizen Schools and was its Managing Director from its founding in January 1995 until June 2007, when he left to pursue a new nonprofit venture and to teach organizational behavior at the Graduate School of Management at Boston University. He has been an educator, nonprofit leader, and manager for the past 25 years. He spent several years as a teacher of high school youth at the Close Up Foundation, using the city of Washington as a classroom without walls and conducting innovative experiential lessons on government and international relations. Ned served as a leading administrator for the Close Up Foundation and as the Director of East Coast Operations for Pacific Intercultural Exchange, a nonprofit organization that provides educational experiences at U.S. schools for students from ten countries. In 1987 Ned was nominated and trained by the American Red Cross to serve as an international delegate to natural disasters around the world. He has additional international experience working in Greece, studying in Hungary, and serving for four years as an assistant professor and lead administrator at the Panamerican Agricultural School in Honduras. While in Honduras, he also established the first emergency ambulance service in rural southern Honduras and trained a team of 20 medics to serve as its volunteers. Ned earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Vermont, an MBA from Boston University in Public Management, and a Masters in Education from Harvard University. He lives in Cambridge with his wife, daughter, and son.

Keynote Speaker: Alexis McGill

Alexis McGill is a political strategist, educator, writer, and a passionate organizer around issues of social justice facing her generation and community. Throughout her work, Alexis has explored the shifting paradigms of identity politics in the post-civil rights era, increasing civic engagement among youth and people of color, and the implications for demographic and ideological changes of these constituencies on national politics. Upon earning her undergraduate degree in politics from Princeton University in 1993, Alexis enrolled in the doctoral program of the Department of Political Science at Yale University. Not satisfied with the insular boundaries of the Ivory Tower, Alexis decided to explore other venues and audiences to discuss the real-life concerns and experiences of her generation. In March 2002, she found such an outlet in Savoy Magazine, where she wrote an article about mobilizing the Hip-Hop Generation—raising the question: “Can the Hip Hop Generation become the Next NRA?” An interview for that article with Russell Simmons, the legendary “Godfather of Hip Hop,” created a unique opportunity to begin work as Political Director of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, Simmons’ voter mobilization organization. From July 2003 through the following year, she worked with Mr. Simmons and his national network of artists and cultural participants to devise the strategic plan for the Hip-Hop Summit’s voter registration and mobilization initiatives. In July 2004, Alexis became Executive Director of Citizen Change, a national, non-partisan and non-profit organization founded by Sean Combs which launched an unprecedented media and marketing campaign to educate, motivate, and empower young people through voting. This campaign was marked by the now ubiquitous slogan “Vote or Die!” Mixing traditional grassroots mobilization with a non-traditional, consumer-based marketing methodology, she created a new model for reaching young people and people of color, and helped lead the most massive grassroots mobilization this generation has ever seen. Since 2004, Alexis has developed a media and marketing consulting practice which applies the same mix of traditional grassroots organizing with the non-traditional consumer-based model used in “Vote or Die!” for issues, candidates, and corporate pro-social initiatives. She has worked with Ned Lamont for Senate, WE tv, American Federation of Teachers, and the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. She remains a committed political activist and strategist for a variety of organizations and continues to research, write, lecture, and build coalitions with other artists, foundations, and activists while taking time to think broadly and decisively about how to harness the power of this great generation in our nation’s service.

Interfaith Service Speaker: Rev. Nancy Taylor

Dr. Nancy Taylor serves as the Senior Minister & CEO of Old South Church in Boston. Founded in 1669, Old South is a towering architectural landmark in Copley Square and one of the nation's most historic churches. Called to Old South in 2005, Lawrence Bowers, the chair of the search committee, commented, "She is a superb preacher, a thoughtful pastor, an accomplished leader, and a respected public voice on social justice and religious issues, who affirms every person as a child of God." Dr. Taylor's accomplishments include co-founding the Idaho Human Rights Education Center and Idaho Voices of Faith for Human Rights. She served as the Moderator of the General Synod of the United Church of Christ and is the recipient of the Hewlett Packard Award for Distinguished Leadership in Human Rights, the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry “Building Bridges” Award, and was named the Boston Globe's "Best of the New Faces in 2005." She is a trustee of Pax World Funds, the oldest socially -esponsible mutual fund listed on the NYSE; of Andover Newton Theological School, the oldest independent theological school in the US; and of Ecclesia Ministries, ministering to the homeless in and around Boston Common. Dr. Taylor earned a Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Chicago Theological Seminary. She is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.

Saturday: All Conference Session

Shelby Knox grew up as a conservative Southern Baptist in Texas, turned progressive activist and documentary film subject. She recently graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Political Science. Throughout her college career, Shelby traveled across the nation to speak to young people about the importance of comprehensive sex education and the power of youth activism, using the film that carries her name, “The Education of Shelby Knox,” as a vehicle for discussion. She currently lives in New York City and is a full time speaker/activist/organizer working with progressive organizations to promote sex education, women's rights, and youth empowerment.

Sunday: Closing Session

Keynote Speaker: Scott Morency

Scott Morency, formerly the Graduate in Residence and Coordinator for Student Programs for the Bentley Service-Learning Center in Waltham, MA, developed the “2+2=5: The Power of Teamwork” program that provides mentoring and teambuilding experiences for fourth and fifth grade students. The 2+2=5 program has since become a national success expanding from Boston, MA to Casper, WY with over 200 college students and 2500 elementary school students experiencing the program. In addition, Scott was the Chair of the Students as Colleagues Institute at Bentley College, a nationally attended conference. Scott has presented at several conferences throughout the United States on topics such as civic leadership, reflection, Service-Learning, and career development. Scott was published in New Directions: Your Journey to Success (2006) for his research titled “Career Development through Service-Learning.” Scott obtained his Masters in Taxation from Bentley College and is currently a financial statement auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Jarrett Barrios serves as the president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation. Jarrett previously served as Massachusetts State Senator, where his priorities included preserving public safety, improving health care access, enhancing public education system, and expanding access to homeownership. The son of a carpenter and a social worker, Barrios came to Cambridge at the age of 17 to study at Harvard University. After graduating with high honors, working for the Boston City Council and on local campaigns, he obtained his law degree with honors from Georgetown University. Jarrett promptly returned to Cambridge, where he has practiced law at the Boston firms of Hill & Barlow and Piper Rudnick. In 1998, he began his legislative career when he was elected to the House of Representatives. In 2002, he was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate by a large majority in a contested Democratic primary election. As a State Representative, he led successful efforts to create a state low-income housing tax credit, to expand health care access in hospital emergency rooms, and to encourage volunteerism with the Red Cross during disaster relief operations. Barrios' legal work and community activism have been widely acknowledged, including recognition in Boston Magazine's "40 under 40," the Boston Business Journal's "40 under 40," the Boston Jaycees' "Ten Outstanding Young Leaders," receipt of the Kennedy Library's Fenn Award for Young Leaders, and membership in the American Council of Young Political Leaders. He is also the recipient of the Chancellor's Medal for Distinguished Service from the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters at Cambridge College. His past work on health and wellness, as well as for other forms of individual empowerment—against violence, for education, and for consumer protection, to name a few—inform his current work. He speaks English and Spanish, and is proficient in Portuguese.

Staceyann Chin is a fulltime artist. A resident of New York City and a Jamaican National, she has been an "out poet and political activist" since 1998. Chin's achievements include- rousing cheers of the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe to one-woman shows Off-Broadway to poetry workshops in Denmark and London to co-writer and performer in the Tony-nominated “Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam” on Broadway. NYU, Pace, Willamette, Holy Cross, Harvard, Cornell, University of Illinois, University of New Hampshire, University of Miami, University of California at San Diego, Boston University, Grinnell College, these are only few of the "institutes of higher education" at which she has shared her story. Chin was the winner of the 1999 Chicago People of Color Slam; first runner- up in the 1999 Outright Poetry Slam; winner of the 1998 Lambda Poetry Slam; a finalist in the 1999 Nuyorican Grand Slam; winner of the 1998 and 2000 Slam This!; and winner of WORD: The First Slam for Television. Her individual performances warranted her work being published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Pittsburgh Daily. Her work was also featured on "60 Minutes." Her poems can be found in her first chapbook, Wildcat Woman, the one she now carries on her back, Stories Surrounding My Coming, and numerous the anthologies, including Skyscrapers, Taxis and Tampons, Poetry Slam, Role Call, and Cultural Studies: Critical Methodologies. Staceyann's voice can be heard on CD compilations out of Bar 13- Union Square, Pow Wow productions, and many more. In 2002, Staceyann was nominated for the Rolex Mentor and Protege Art Initiative where she was considered as a possible protege for Toni Morrison. She was also featured on the second and third seasons of the Peabody Award winning HBO series, Def Poetry Jam. She has since then gone on to co-writing and performing as one of the original cast members of the ground-breaking and critically acclaimed, Tony Award-winning Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway.

If you are interested in bringing Staceyann to your campus, please feel free to visit her website or contact her manager, Greg Polvere, at greg.polvere [at] gmail [dot] com.