Takenya Nixon is an attorney licensed to practice law in the state of Illinois. For the last 17 years, she has worked as an Assistant Public Defender with the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender. She is currently assigned to the Felony Trial Division, where she advocates for people accused of committing various felony offenses. She also coaches the National Mock Trial team at The DePaul University College of Law and taught Criminal Justice courses at Westwood College. She has earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Toledo and her Juris Doctorate Degree from the University of Toledo College of Law. She has devoted her legal career to helping people who have been silenced, ignored, and abused by a criminal legal system that is far from just.

Katelyn Johnson is the Executive Director of BlackRoots Alliance, a non-profit organization that works to build community relationships, inspire civic engagement, and organize people toward social change. She has overseen various social justice initiatives in and around Chicago, including six years as the executive director of Action Now. Her current work at BlackRoots Alliance focuses on expanding public discourse on racial justice, engaging community members in co-creating public policies, and promoting individual and collective wholeness and healing. She is a graduate of North Park University and has completed academic studies in Diversity and Inclusion at Cornell University. She is pursuing her Master’s Degree in Consciousness and Transformative Studies at National University. She practices her liberatory values while residing in Chicago, spending her free time writing, reading Afrofuturist fiction, and enjoying Lake Michigan.

Jasmine Cole is the Director of Programs for the Black Public Defender Association, where she coordinates, supervises, and assures the productivity of BPDA’s programs. Jasmine is a native of Shreveport, Louisiana. She attended the University of Louisiana at Monroe, where she received her Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science. She then continued her education and received her Juris Doctorate and Degree in Comparative Law at Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University. Upon graduation, Jasmine worked in the private sector practicing criminal defense and immigration law. She also served as the first staff attorney for a non-profit organization where she zealously advocated for early release and pardon consideration for impacted people within Louisiana’s prison system. Her commitment to help others extended outside the prison walls. She was also a liaison to the Parole and Reentry Clinic at Paul M. Hebert Law Center, assisting students with their client representations.