Mandisa has a number of media appearances to her credit, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, CBS Sunday Morning, CNN.com, and JET magazine. She has been a guest on podcasts such as The Humanist Hour and Ask an Atheist, as well as the documentaries Contradiction and My Week in Atheism. Mandisa currently serves on the Boards for American Atheists and the Reason Rally Coalition, and previously for Foundation Beyond Belief and the Secular Coalition for America. She also is an active speaker, and has presented at conferences/conventions for the Freedom from Religion Foundation, Secular Student Alliance, and many others.

As the president of Black Nonbelievers, Inc., Mandisa works to encourage more Blacks to come out and stand strong with their nonbelief in the face of such strong religious overtones. “The more we make our presence known, the better our chances of working together to turn around some of the disparities we face. We are NOT alone.”

She is the Prison Book Club Coordinator at Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop, a nonprofit serving incarcerated youth tried as adults. She is also a grant writer for Artistri Sud, a Montreal-based nonprofit providing social entrepreneurship and leadership development training to Indigenous women artisans.

Previously, she was a Community Facilitator for McGill University’s “Social Learning for Social Impact” GROOC (massive open online course for groups) and the Marketing and Communications Lead for their environmental hackathon “On the Earth, For the Earth” at the 2016 World Social Forum.

From 2015 to 2016, Jessica was the Projects Assistant at the American Humanist Association, Operations Manager at Humanist Press, and Assistant Editor at TheHumanist.com. She is Co-Chair of the Feminist Humanist Alliance.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Economics and Psychology from McGill University.

You can find her on Twitter @jexxicuh.

As Noelle became involved in the secular movement, she heard the national leadership discussing the lack of diversity. (At that time it was ‘Too many men, where are the women?’) Noelle saw the prevalence of lecture-type and social bar events and started advocating for more diverse gatherings like community service projects and family-friendly meetups. To that end, she founded a secular volunteering charity in 2009, but in 2011 merged it with FBB to create the volunteer network that is now the Beyond Belief Network (BBN). Noelle has been the executive director at Foundation Beyond Belief (FBB) since 2015, and has held many different roles in the organization since she first began as a volunteer.

Noelle has several privileged identities, but wants to acknowledge the privilege of being a cis white woman whose parents were able to support her in earning a college degree, which has allowed her to volunteer her skills and experience for charitable causes or to work part-time while her husband financially supports their family as an engineer. Noelle lives in Houston TX and has a 7 year old daughter, two cats, and a dog.

Before joining American Atheists, Alison worked as a consultant to foundations and nonprofits focusing on advocacy strategy and systemic change. Prior her consultancy work, Alison served as Senior Legislative Counsel at the Human Rights Campaign where she managed state-level advocacy on issues such as conversion therapy, bullying prevention, education discrimination, LGBTQ health and wellness, youth homelessness, and LGBTQ data collection. Alison also worked as Government Affairs Director with The Trevor Project and as State Policy Manager with GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. Alison received her B.A. in Molecular Biology & Biochemistry from Rutgers University and her J.D. from George Washington University Law School.

Trinity Pixie is a transgender activist with a background studying cognitive science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which heavily informs her activism.  She is a former member of the advisory council for Secular Women, has co-written with Zinnia Jones, and contributed to LGBTI+ employee education at the Mayo Clinic.  Trinity has appeared at conferences such as Secular Women Work and Skepticon, where she speaks and hosts workshops on transgender and disability issues. She is an avid gamer and manages an online community for trans feminine gamers with over 500 members.

Amy Withawhy is co-host of the Secular Soup podcast. She lives in rural Minnesota, and has been a local atheist and progressive community organizer for many years. She is the founder of Lakes Area Atheists & Freethinkers, as well as a co-organizer of her local Stand Up Minnesota chapter. She was an original organizer of Advocates for Reproductive Education, a locally-owned family planning clinic, and is a well-known community rabble rouser. She has been married for 17 years, is a small business owner, and the mom of two boys who she hopes will make the world a better place. You can find out more about her podcast and work at www.delightfulbitchcraft.com.

Cassidy Slinger is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin Madison where she majored in Pharmacology & Toxicology and was active in Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics all four years she attended, serving as Vice President of the group for the last two. She hopes to eventually work in the medical field as a family medicine physician, with a focus on sexual and/or reproductive health. She’s passionate about reproductive justice, debunking pseudoscience, and making the secular community a safe and enjoyable place for all nonreligious people.

Dr. Ashley F. Miller is a writer, activist, and communications scholar from South Carolina, who has worked for LGBT, secular, and women’s rights for over 15 years. She is currently a Presidential Management Fellow working in communications in DC. She has written for dozens of publications including Salon, Freethought Blogs, The Orbit, and the academic journal CrossCurrents and has run local communications campaigns for abortion rights groups, law firms, news websites, and secular organizations. She holds a PhD in mass communications from the University of South Carolina, where she focused on women and minorities in the media. Before returning to school for her PhD, she worked in film and television in Los Angeles. She has a master’s in film production from Florida State University and a bachelor’s degree from Emory University in film studies. She’s also active in the arts, as a digital painter and singer.

Elise Matthesen is an essayist, journalist, poet, fiction writer, crafter of art jewelry, and long-time bisexual rights activist. She has provided role-play services on code of conduct violation reporting for conventions training their ops/safety staffers, but this is the first time (and quite possibly the only time) she will present this workshop, so if you want the unvarnished opinions of someone who’s been through it, this is a rare opportunity. Prior to participation, your recommended reading includes “How To Report Sexual Harassment” and “What Happened After I Reported”.More details added as we progress!