Maleeka Jihad is the Director of MJ Consulting and the nonprofit MJCF: Coalition, an agency focused on dismantling systemic racism in the family policing (child welfare) system through education, advocacy, and policy reform. MJ is the Director of the Family Justice Programs with the Office of Respondent Parent Counsel (ORPC, in Denver Colorado) where she provides national trainings and consultations to professionals as it relates to race, culture, and justice within dependency & neglect court cases and service providers. As an adjunct faculty member with the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver, she teaches on race, privilege, social justice, therapy, leadership, as well as child and family law courses. Alongside her students, MJ is continuing her education by obtaining a PhD in Organizational Development with Social Justice Change specializing in Somatic Leadership Coaching (at Fielding Graduate School). With foundation courses from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology International Psychology PhD Program.

Amari Harris is the General Counsel and Director of Equity & Operations for the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission (VIDC) where he leads the agency’s DEI initiatives, recruiting efforts, lease administration, leadership training and development, and serves as a primary resource executive leadership. He started his legal career as an assistant public defender for the VIDC in the City of Richmond and practiced in the areas of civil litigation, civil rights, contract, corporate counsel, and criminal defense. He was named to Virginia Business Magazine’s “Legal Elite” in 2016. In 2019, he returned to the VIDC to serve as the Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion attorney and helped the agency build pipelines to more diverse law schools, increase the overall diversity of the agency, and establish 7 active affinity groups. In 2021, he was appointed to Virginia’s Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Board and to the Department of Criminal Justice Service’s (DCJS) workgroup to establish statewide standards of conduct for law enforcement. In 2022, he was elected as the President of the Hill-Tucker Bar Association and received the Mentorship Excellence Award from Bridge Builders Mentorship Program for Aspiring Black Lawyers.

Sharene Ginyard is an Assistant Public Defender with over 20 years of experience. She iscurrently The Director of Recruitment for Child Advocate Unit at the Defender Association of Philadelphia. A graduate of Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, she began her career as a public defender in 1999. She left briefly to become Assistant General Counsel for the School District of Philadelphia, before returning to her roots with the Defender Association as an advocate for underserved and overrepresented communities in the legal system. Sharene recently completed a Racial Justice Lecture Series, featuring speakers on storytelling, juvenile justice, systemic racial issues, and building client trust. She is in the process of developing a series on client-centered advocacy. Sharene is a volunteer at Defender community events, including expungement clinics, and a member of the diversity and policy committees.