Grassroots Advocacy and Media Portrayals of Race, Gender, and Protests
Learn about our PANELISTS and moderator!
RACHEL BOWEN PITTMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UNA-USA
Throughout her career, Rachel Bowen Pittman has been committed to the idea that individuals, when brought together and motivated around a common vision, can be strong catalysts for change toward a brighter, more just, and more sustainable future.
As Executive Director of UNA-USA, Rachel leads a grassroots advocacy movement of more than 20,000 Americans in 225+ chapters who are dedicated to supporting the work of the United Nations in their communities, on campuses, and on Capitol Hill. She guides the UNA-USA’s strategic work and key partnerships, oversees membership expansion, and spearheads important advocacy initiatives to help the United States advance the far-reaching goals of the United Nations. Rachel has been with the UNA-USA—a component of the United Nations Foundation—for more than four years. As Senior Director of Membership and Programs, she managed the UNA-USA’s national programs and events, including the annual Global Engagement Summit at UN Headquarters, Global Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., and UN Day events across the United States. She also led a successful nationwide fundraising campaign to provide education to youth in refugee camps around the world.
Previously, Rachel served on the leadership teams of several professional associations representing lawyers, surgeons, regulators, and engineers. In those positions, she strengthened membership programs, directed rebranding initiatives, and secured agreements with national associations representing China, Korea, Argentina, India, Peru, Egypt, and Mexico. Rachel holds a B.S.B.A in international business from American University and an MBA in marketing from Johns Hopkins University. She lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
VINCENT BISH, FORMER OPERATIONS DIRECTOR SLACK FOR GOOD & OBAMA ADMINISTRATION APPOINTEE
As the first Operations Director for Slack for Good, Vincent worked with companies like Square, Dropbox, Zoom and the Last Mile—in concert with the Kellogg Foundation—to place formerly incarcerated software engineers within their tech roles.
Vincent has made a career of leveraging public and private sector knowledge and connections to re-democratize career opportunities for people (1) left behind by the economic opportunities of tech and, (2) communities underserved by the interventions of policy.
Before his time in tech, Vincent was a White House Innovation Leadership and Technology fellow in the Obama Administration. There, he was as a founding member of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Service’s Philanthropy, Innovation and Engagement Office. At HHS, he spearheaded an initiative with the Office of Domestic Policy at the White House that invited over fifty of the leading philanthropic partners in the United States.
As a queer, Black professional in these spaces, Vincent sees issues of racial equity and, on-ramping new communities into tech and government as necessary to a healthy, representative democracy. He champions the idea of “Using Your Career as a Cite of Activism” in speaking engagements across the United States.
STEPHEN YOUNGBLOOD, DIRECTOR OF CENTER FOR GLOBAL PEACE JOURNALISM
Steven Youngblood is the founding director of the Center for Global Peace Journalism at Park University in Parkville, Missouri USA, where he is a communications and peace studies professor. He has organized and taught peace journalism seminars and workshops in 27 countries/territories. Youngblood is a two-time J. William Fulbright Scholar (Moldova 2001, Azerbaijan 2007). He also served as a U.S. State Department Senior Subject Specialist in Ethiopia in 2018. Youngblood is the author of “Peace Journalism Principles and Practices” and “Professor Komagum.” He edits “The Peace Journalist” magazine, and writes and produces the “Peace Journalism Insights” blog. Youngblood has been recognized for his contributions to world peace by the U.S. State Department, Rotary International, and the World Forum for Peace, which has named him a Luxembourg Peace Prize laureate for 2020
MICHAEL PATRICK MACDONALD, NYT BESTSELLING AUTHOR AND ACTIVIST
Michael Patrick MacDonald is the author of the New York Times Bestselling memoir, All Souls: A Family Story From Southie and Easter Rising: A Memoir of Roots and Rebellion. He has given over 300 campus lectures as his works are frequent “First Year Experience” selections at colleges and universities throughout the country. He has been awarded an American Book Award, A New England Literary Lights Award, and a fellowship at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study Center.
MacDonald grew up in the Old Colony Housing Project in South Boston, a neighborhood that held the highest concentration of white poverty in the United States. After losing four of his eleven siblings and seeing his generation decimated by poverty, crime, addiction, and incarceration, he learned to transform personal and community trauma, becoming a leading Boston activist, organizer, and writer. His efforts have built diverse, class-conscious coalitions to reduce violence and promote grassroots leadership from within the communities and families most impacted. He co-founded Boston’s first ever Gun Buyback programs as well as local support groups for survivors of poverty, violence, and the drug trade.
ALEXANDRA STRATTON, JOURNALIST AND HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL U.S. LATINX LEADERSHIP FELLOW ‘22
Alexandra Stratton is an incoming U.S. Latinx Leadership Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she will pursue a Master in Public Policy. Most recently, she has worked at an elementary charter school located in an underserved neighborhood in her hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Prior to that, Stratton worked as a business journalist for The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News in New York City. Post graduate studies, she aspires to continue in journalism, pivoting her focus to covering vulnerable and marginalized populations.