​State Senator Adam Hinds is a husband and a new father, which has only strengthened his life-long desire to ensure the next generation is better off than his own. He grew up in a small town in western Massachusetts and went to a high school where his dad was a teacher and a coach, and his mother was a librarian. His parents made it clear that working for the greater good was everyone’s responsibility.
 
Adam attended Wesleyan University and received a Master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He then joined the United Nations, and spent nearly ten years in the Middle East. He was based in Baghdad, Iraq where he was a team leader of a UN-led negotiation between the Kurdistan Region and Government of Iraq over disputed territory. In Jerusalem, he was a regional advisor to the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. He worked for former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to establish a ceasefire in Syria in 2012 and was part of a team to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons program.
 
Adam believes the same skills and problem-solving spirit he used overseas make him a powerful advocate and voice on Beacon Hill, where he represents the largest district in the Massachusetts legislature since being elected on November 8, 2016. 
 
Currently, Senator Hinds serves as the Chair of a new Senate Committee on “Reimagining MA: Post-Pandemic Resiliency” and the Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Revenue. He is Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs and is a member of the powerful Senate Committee on Ways & Means. He is an active member of legislative caucuses for Gateway Cities, Regional Transit Authorities, Criminal Justice Reform, Regional Schools, Clean Energy and Food Systems and serves as the Senate co-chair of the Rural Caucus and the Senate vice-chair of the Cultural Caucus.
 
Before joining the Senate, Adam was the founding Director of Pittsfield Community Connection, a youth violence prevention program. He also led the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, based in North Adams, that empowers residents to respond to local challenges, including issues related to employment and mental health.
 
Early in his career, Adam worked for former Congressman John Olver and was part of John Kerry’s campaign for President where he worked for Susan Rice, the head of his foreign policy team who later became the US National Security Advisor.
 
Adam is married to Dr. Alicia Mireles Christoff, Associate Professor of English at Amherst College. Their son, Rafael Fernando Hinds, was born in May 2021. 

​Regge Life, sometimes credited as Reggie Life, is a director, mainly in television, who directed Sesame Street episodes and inserts for seasons 29, 30, and 31. He directed several Elmo's World segments.
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Early in his career, Life worked as an American Film Institute intern on John Landis' Trading Places. He went on to direct episodes of The Cosby Show, A Different World, and Sister, Sister. He shifted to directing primarily documentaries, notably a series of documentaries about Japan (and the relationship with Americans living there). He also directed Native Son (2003) for the Discovery Channel and Live Your Dream: The Taylor Anderson Story (2013). On stage, he directed off-Broadway plays, including Do Lord Remember Me (1982 and again in 1984, both times starring Frances Foster).
 

​As an accomplished National Recording Artist, Minister of Music, songwriter, producer, and community activist Kathy Taylor has been appointed for a time such as this to bring music that not only inspires, but encourages, uplifts, and heals the spirit and soul of mankind. Kathy is the walking embodiment of the term “Minister of Music”.
 
Her musical gifts have brought her before both national and world leaders. She has ministered before Queen Elizabeth, former President Bill Clinton, Senator Hillary Clinton, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Cicely Tyson, Maya Angelou, and many others. Kathy has received resounding critical acclaim for her outstanding, soul-stirring and inspirational performances.
 
She began her recording career as a soloist with the legendary James Cleveland’s Gospel Music of America and The Mass Choir. She was the featured vocalist on songs such as, “Anticipation”, “It’s Your Decision”, “He Did It” and “I Got My Joy Back”. These projects, along with her captivating and live performances have catapulted Kathy into the national spotlight.
 
In her never-ending quest to serve the Kingdom of God, Kathy answered her calling and founded Kathy Taylor and Favor, a multi-talented singing ensemble known for their meticulous and breath-taking harmonies. They have graced the stage with many of today’s most renowned gospel artists. To their acclaim, they have released three projects to date. The first two albums produced by Kathy were entitled, “He’s Worthy” and “What Would It Profit Me to Gain the Whole World and Lose My Soul?“, which were both well received. The third album, “Taylormade“, was released on Aleho International Records, under the leadership of gospel music executive, Al ‘The Bishop’ Hobbs, and produced by Grammy Award winning, legendary gospel music producer, Sanchez Harley. This powerful collaboration produced an incredible project that yielded a Stellar Award Nomination.
 
DISCOGRAPHY:
 

• He’s Worthy
• What Would It Profit Me to Gain the Whole World and Lose My Soul?
• Taylormade

 
Kathy’s purpose is tri-fold. She has fully embraced her mission to carry the gospel in song all over the world. Through Kathy, God continues to pour out His Spirit. Her dedication to the Body of Christ and limitless love of God places Kathy in a unique position to minister the “Good News” of Jesus Christ. Today, Kathy allows herself to be a vessel God can use to pour out His spirit upon all flesh, for tomorrow she desires to make the music relevant to the next generation. For yesterday, she stands humbly on the shoulders of her mother and grandmother to carry the gospel in song to the uttermost parts of the world.

In 2019, George T. French Jr. became the fifth president of Clark Atlanta University, the largest United Negro College Fund (UNCF) member institution in the country and the largest private HBCU within the state of Georgia. 

Prior to his appointment, French served for 14 years as the president of Miles College, making him one of the longest serving university presidents in the nation. A nationally recognized leader and influencer in higher education and educational policy, French has served three secretaries of education under two United States presidents as a congressional appointee to the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity.

He is a three-term board member for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC); Chair of the Atlanta University Center (Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Spelman College and Morehouse School of Medicine,) Council of Presidents; and chair of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAC) Council of Presidents and member of the Metro Atlanta Chamber (MAC) Board of Directors. French also has served as a member of the national diverse council of Regions Bank since 2011.

Education: University of Louisville, Miles Law School (J.D.), Jackson State University (Ph.D.)
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Notable achievements: Under French’s leadership Clark Atlanta University has exponentially exceeded all fundraising records in the history of the university; maintained stable enrollment in the midst of global pandemic and developed corporate and community relationships to position the university for unprecedented growth. 

His awards include Birmingham Spotlight Man of the Year, NAACP Man of the Year, and the Higher Education Leadership Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.
 

Dr Melvin B Rahming, a native of Nassau, Bahamas, has been teaching African American and Caribbean literature at Morehouse since 1979. He has served as the Hugh M. Gloster Professor of English and as the Chair of the English Department. Rahming is an accomplished public speaker and published poet who also serves as the co-founder and co-director of the International Conference on Caribbean Literature and is a member of the African American Multicultural Educator’s Hall of Fame.

​Born and raised in France, educated in France and America (l’Université de La Sorbonne, and the Florida State University), Alix Pierre, Ph.D., has taught in France, the Caribbean, and at various institutions in the United States at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
 
A committed scholar, he regularly attends professional development events at the national and international level where he presents the result of his research. He is the author of "L’Image de la femme résistante chez quatre romancières noire: vision diasporique de la femme en résistance chez Maryse Condé, Simone Schwarz-Bart, Toni Morrison et Alice Walker" (2014). He has completed an eight hundred-page book on gwoka, the traditional music of the island of Guadeloupe. In a comparative study of over two hundred songs, Pierre discusses the lyrics and practice of gwoka as a repetition in variation of the West African griot art form. He recently served as project manager and scholar-in-residence in Guadeloupe, FWI, for the DVCAI-ARTOCARPE International Cultural Exchange. He taught a seminar on the Pan African/Caribbean griot tradition at the University State of Bahia in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil.
 
He lent his expertise in Francophone studies to the University of Guyana-the Atlanta University Center Collaborative Project serving as co-coordinator, adviser, panelist, moderator, translator and liaison. He was instrumental in bringing to Atlanta the internationally-renowned poet and novelist, and Guadeloupe’s Cultural Attaché M. Ernest Pépin as the keynote speaker to the lecture series.
 
As part of his community service effort, Pierre has worked with World Relief, the largest refugee resettlement agency in the U.S., where he designed, implemented and assessed a curriculum geared at assisting refugees who settled in Georgia to adapt to their new environment. For three months, his team met weekly with a family of nine who fled the Democratic Republic of Congo and live now in Clarkston.
 
Pierre currently sits on the board at the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center, and is on the editorial board of Caribbean Vistas: Critique of Caribbean Arts and Culture, and Negritud: review of Afro-Latin American studies. He is an officer of the Caribbean Writers Congress.

​Born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Dennis Powell lived on West and Mill Streets which were both razed during the Urban Renewal of 1966. After serving in the U.S. Army in Germany, he worked briefly at General Electric, and then attended the Culinary Institute of America (C.I.A.), where he later became a teaching fellow. He worked in New York City until he returned to the C.I.A. as a faculty member, then department chair. After a career at the C.I.A., he opened a restaurant in Pittsfield, and now helps with Mad Jacks, his son’s restaurant and catering business.
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Dennis is in his third term as NAACP chapter president, serves on the Pittsfield School Committee, Pittsfield Licensing Board, as Vice Chair of the Clinton Church Restoration Board, and is active in many social and racial justice and education projects, including the Du Bois Lecture Series.