Aiko Smith is a Black and Japanese American Woman, born on a naval base in Okinawa, Japan but raised in Los Angeles, California. She is a mother of three, wife, mindfulness writer, coach, and speaker.

Driven by creating a kinder, more compassionate country, Aiko has devoted her life and career to teaching women how to mindfully confront their suffering as an integral part of the process of dismantling harmful paradigms and oppressive systems.

As a thought leader, her vision is to see a society that values all human beings as sacred. Aiko is a certified mindfulness teacher trained by UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior’s Mindfulness Awareness Research Center.

Dr Izdihar Jamil, Ph.D. is an immigrant, Asian, hijab wearing Muslim computer scientist turned media expert.

She is an 8 x #1 International Bestselling Author of It Is Done, Yes I Can! and has been featured on Forbes, Fox TV, NBC, CBS, ABC, CW, Thrive Global and multiple other publications.

In 2021, Izdihar was inducted into the prestigious Marquis Who’s Who biography in recognizing her contribution as the top 5% in the industry with Warren Buffet and Oprah.

Izdihar lives in California with her husband and three kids and in her spare time she loves reading and baking for her family.

Julie Weiss, of Santa Monica, CA., ran a remarkable 52 marathons in 52 weeks and in the process, she ran 1,362.4 miles, raising over $700,000 in the fight against pancreatic cancer.

Julie also generated considerable awareness through high profile appearances on CNN, The TODAY Show, the Los Angeles Times, O Magazine and many other outlets. She is also one of seven featured runners in the inspiring documentary Spirit of the Marathon II.

Following the death of her father, her biggest fan, from Pancreatic Cancer, she embarked on this incredible endeavor to raise hope, money and awareness for Pancreatic Cancer, the 3rd leading cause of cancer death in the United States, and also the lowest funded for research.

As a multidisciplinary musician, Trinidadian-American Trish Hosein has been featured on NPR, Billboard, Rolling Stone India, MTV India, and VH1 India; and she has performed internationally, playing festivals like SXSW, CMW, Women’s Redrock Festival, Linda Perry’s Rock N Relief and Pyramid Yoga Festival.

Jelan Agnew, LCSW is a psychotherapist, professor, facilitator and public speaker, with 16 years in the mental health field. She is the founder of Nalej of Self, LLC, a private practice dedicated to addressing Black generational trauma, identifying cycles/patterns and creating new ways of being through healing Mind, Body, Spirit.

Jelan’s work is committed to healing trauma within the Black community.

In addition to her work in the field, she’s open about her own struggles with Depression and Anxiety, and takes pride in saying, “I am a Black therapist, with a Black therapist”, as a means to destigmatize mental health.

Jelan, a Brooklyn native and Hartford resident, sees authenticity as a superpower and freedom as the ultimate life goal.

Nadia Payan is an educator, speaker, artist, third culture human and Montessorian whose life is filled with reverence towards creativity as a pathway to healing and power. Nadia explores and cross pollinates her own creative expression with her experiences as an early childhood educator, a spiritual practitioner and artist.

Themes present in her life, studies and art include conscious creativity, community care, affirmation, emotional intelligence, imagination, shadow exploration and embodied interconnection.

Nadia has facilitated creative healing workshops and retreats internationally, nationally and virtually with multigenerational and multicultural adults and children.