Featured Guests

Reverend Al Sharpton is the President of the National Action Network (NAN) and one of America’s most-renowned civil rights leaders. Whether it was his noteworthy run for President of the United States in 2004 or his use of passive resistance and non-violent civil disobedience, Rev. Sharpton has had an irrefutable impact on national politics because of his strong commitment to equality and progressive politics.

As the head of one of the most well-known civil rights organizations that has over forty chapters and affiliates across the United States, Rev. Sharpton has been applauded by both supporters and non-supporters for challenging the American political establishment to be inclusive to all people regardless of race, gender, class or beliefs.

Ever since his surrogate father, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, told him, “you can’t set your sights on nothing little…you got to go for the whole hog,” Rev. Sharpton has been doing just that. He was born on October 3, 1954, in Brooklyn, New York, and began his ministry at the unusually early age of four. He preached his first sermon at that age at Washington Temple Church of God & Christ in Brooklyn where he was licensed by the legendary Bishop F. D. Washington at age nine to be a minister in that denomination. He likewise started his civil rights career very young. At age 13, he was appointed, by Reverends Jesse Jackson and William Jones, the youth director of New York’s SCLC Operation Breadbasket (founded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.). At age 16, Sharpton founded the National Youth Movement Inc. which organized young people around the country promoting voter registration, cultural awareness and job training programs.

Rev. Sharpton was educated in public schools in New York and attended Brooklyn College. He was later presented with an honorary degree from A.P. Clay Bible College.

In 1991, Sharpton founded the National Action Network a broad-based, progressive civil rights organization which he still heads. From 1994 to 1998, Rev. Sharpton served as Director of the Ministers Division for the National Rainbow Push Coalition under Rev. Jesse Jackson while still serving as the head of NAN. Upon the death of Bishop Washington in the late 80s, Rev. Sharpton became a Baptist, and in 1994, he was re-baptized as a member of the Bethany Baptist Church by Rev. William Jones.

Rev. Sharpton has rejuvenated the Civil Rights movement while raising the bar for political participation for people of color. In 1999, when a young unarmed African immigrant was gunned down in the vestibule of his home by four New York City police officers, Sharpton led 1,200 people in the civil disobedience protest arrest. The throngs that followed him to jail in this protest included former mayors, congressman and religious and community leaders across racial, ethnic and political lines.

Rev. Sharpton’s platforms against racial profiling and police brutality has reached an international audience, and his work on human rights issues has taken him to Sudan, Israel, Europe and further, where he has formed alliances with international peace activists across the world.

But perhaps his most significant international visit was his sojourn to Vieques, Puerto Rico in 2001. Sharpton and three Latino elected officials from New York visited Vieques to protest the U.S. Naval bombing exercises on the island, a practice that has endured for over 60 years. After visiting with hundreds of Puerto Rican citizens who have suffered physical and mental infirmities as a result of the bombing exercises, Sharpton and the other members of the “Vieques Four” led the protest at the U.S. Naval Base in Puerto Rico. They were subsequently arrested, tried several weeks later and sentenced to 40 to 90 days – Sharpton received the longest sentence – in federal prison for their protests. While Sharpton was in jail, he fasted, losing eighty pounds, and even managing to influence the local mayoral election. Because of the stand that the “Vieques Four” took that summer, President George W. Bush addressed the issue and ordered the Navy to end their exercises in 2003.

Rev. Sharpton is a member of Bethany Baptist Church in his native Brooklyn neighborhood where the late William A. Jones, Jr., was the Pastor. Rev. Sharpton still preaches throughout the United States and abroad on most Sunday’s, and averages eighty formal sermons a year. Rev. Sharpton says his religious convictions are the basis for his life. In addition to continuing to run NAN, Rev. Sharpton hosts a talk show on Syndication One that broadcasts in 40 markets, five days a week, and he hosts “Sharptalk” on TV One-- a national cable show based in a barber shop setting.

Rev. Al and Kathy Jordan Sharpton have two daughters, Dominique and Ashley.

Natalie Holder-Winfield is an employment lawyer and diversity consultant whose work has been featured in the New York Times, the New York Law Journal, Good Morning Connecticut, and Diversity Executive magazine. She creates customized leadership programs and training videos, integrated with diversity, for Fortune 500 corporations, law firms, government agencies and not-for-profit organizations, such as Time Warner, Deloitte, Proskauer Rose and the New York Mission Society. Natalie Holder-Winfield wrote, Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse Workforce: New Rules for a New Generation, after receiving program attendees’ requests for her training materials. New Rules provides human resource managers, diversity officers, managers, employees and students with practical advice and ideas for creating inclusive cultures. The book has been used to facilitate discussions at orientations, meetings, roundtable discussions, recruitment events and diversity training sessions. Natalie graduated from New York University, Tulane Law School, and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth’s Executive Education program. She is the Chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Labor & Employment’s Diversity Committee, a member of New York University’s Young Alumni Leadership Circle, and the United Way of Greater New Haven.

Melody Barnes served as Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council from January 2009 until January 2012. In that capacity, she provided strategic advice to President Obama and worked closely with members of the Cabinet coordinating the domestic policy agenda across the Administration.

Prior to her work in the White House, Barnes served on the leadership team for the Obama-Biden Transition Project and as Senior Domestic Policy Advisor to the Obama for America campaign.

Until July 2008, Ms. Barnes was the Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress, a progressive research institute and think tank. From December 1995 until March 2003, Ms. Barnes worked for Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee; she served as his chief counsel from 1998 until she left the Committee in 2003. Barnes’ experience also includes an appointment as Director of Legislative Affairs for the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Ms. Barnes began her career as an attorney with Shearman & Sterling in New York City.

Ms. Barnes received her law degree from the University of Michigan and her bachelor's degree from the University.

Keith Boykin is the editor of The Daily Voice online news site, a CNBC contributor, a BET TV host, and a New York Times best-selling author of three books.

Educated at Dartmouth and Harvard, Boykin attended law school with President Barack Obama and served in the White House as a special assistant to President Bill Clinton.

Boykin has been actively involved in progressive causes since he worked on his first congressional campaign while still a student in high school. He is a veteran of six political campaigns, including two presidential campaigns, and he was named one of the top instructors when he taught political science at American University in Washington.

Boykin has traveled extensively across four continents, and in 1997 President Clinton appointed him, along with Coretta Scott King and Rev. Jesse Jackson, to the US presidential trade delegation to Zimbabwe.

He was a star on the 2004 Showtime television series American Candidate and has since appeared on numerous national media programs, including Anderson Cooper 360°, The O'Reilly Factor, The Tyra Banks Show, The Montel Williams Show, Judge Hatchett, and The Tom Joyner Morning Show.

A founder and first board president of the National Black Justice Coalition, Boykin has spoken to audiences, large and small, all across the world. He delivered a landmark speech to 200,000 people at the Millennium March on Washington and he gave a stirring speech about the AIDS epidemic in front of 40,000 people in Chicago's Soldier Field in July 2006.

Boykin's books have been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, including his most recent book, Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies and Denial in Black America. Boykin won the Lambda Literary Award for his second book, Respecting The Soul, while his first book, One More River to Cross, is taught in colleges and universities throughout the country.

His newest book is For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Still Not Enough: Coming of Age, Coming Out, and Coming Home. It responds to the crisis of youth development and suicide in the black community, specifically among young gay men of color.

Boykin is an associate producer of the 2007 feature film Dirty Laundry and is working on his fourth book. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Boykin currently lives in New York City.

An expert cultural critic and writer, Michaela Angela Davis has been exploring the power of urban style, race, gender, and hip-hop for nearly two decades.

Having begun her career under the mentorship of Susan L. Taylor at the incredibly successful Essence, Davis went on to become founding fashion director at Vibe, and later editor-in-chief of Honey, a premiere magazine for 18 to 34-year-old urban women that, under her editorship, was the number one growing women’s title at the time.

Over the years, Davis became known for her insightful perceptions and seasoned opinions, penning fashion and culture commentary for publications in the US and worldwide. A stylist to such celebrity icons as Mary J. Blige, Oprah, Prince, and Donald Trump, Davis was often consulted on film and television sets for her fashion forward sense and intuition.

Her interests went further than fashion, however, as she maintained a close pulse on the developing urban culture and its roles and influence in society today. Perhaps best known for her work with Take Back the Music, Davis founded the initiative to promote the next generation of the hip-hop movement to focus on the musical value of the genre instead of the negative, often sexist attitudes that are so prevalent now.

A dynamic woman known for her insightful perceptions of popular culture, Davis developed MAD Free, a multi-platform conversation project dedicated to spurring and expanding the conversation about black women’s image, beauty, and power. Also devoted to several philanthropic efforts, she serves on the board of Black Girls Rock!, ImageNation, The Brooklyn Community Arts and Media High School, and conducts her own monthly career-mentoring program.

Shankar K. Prasad is a Clinical Professor at the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at NYU. His research, design and advocacy focus on technology and policy innovation, with a particular emphasis on engaging the public in problem solving at the local, state and national level.  As part of a grant from the Knight Foundation he is currently developing on online curriculum on new models of governance. At Wagner, Prasad teaches public policy, statistics, research design and methods and SPSS. He received the MLK, Jr. Faculty Award and was voted 'Adjunct of the Year' by students and invited to join the full-time faculty in 2012.

While at Wagner, Prasad designed and created Yourlist.org, web-based and mobile software issue-aggregator that creates a platform by which citizens can make their voices heard about the issues that most directly impact them. This platform was used during the 2011 Festival of Ideas to identify critical issues faced by thousands of residents and businesses in Downtown NYC. He also designed and co-lead the Code for Change “civic hackathon” that paired NYC city agencies and non profits with technologists to identify innovative solutions to help communities in need.

Prior to NYU, Prasad worked, first, at a hedge fund and, in 2008, left to co-found and lead India’s largest provider of clinical data systems as Chief Marketing Officer and Director of US Operations until June 2012.

Prasad completed a PhD in Political Science at Brown, where his dissertation focused on political learning within immigrant communities in the United States. As part of his doctoral work, Shankar conducted a national survey and numerous focus groups across the country to develop a detailed understanding of the process of partisan affiliation among newly entering communities. Shankar's dissertation "Red, Brown and Blue: The Political Behavior of Asian Indian Americans" analyzes the politicization of the Indian American community and suggests that religion is a primary factor in explaining the disproportionate association of this group with the Democratic Party.

Shankar graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Rutgers College in 2002 with a BA/BS (Honors) in Finance, Political Science and French. Shankar previously served as a Visiting Professor at Brown and has taught architectural history and international relations in Aix-en-Provence and Paris.

Michael Skolnik is the Political Director to hip-hop pioneer, Russell Simmons and the co-President of GlobalGrind.com, an online destination founded by Mr. Simmons. As his role as Political Director, Michael oversees Mr. Simmons’ entire social justice, political and semi-political activities. The focus of their work together is based around three core themes: education, poverty and ignorance. GlobalGrind reaches over 4.5 million people a month, predominantly serving a multi-racial segment of the 18-34 population, covering entertainment and celebrity news, lifestyle content, fashion, style, music and politics with an authoritative voice.

Michael has appeared regularly on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR, HLN, Al-Jazeera, Current TV, Sirius/XM and the BBC, where he has discussed a wide range of topics from the Trayvon Martin case to efforts to reduce gun violence to the youth participation in the 2012 election. A leading voice on social media, his 2012 essay titled, “White People, You Will Never Look Suspicious Like Trayvon Martin” was shared over 190,000 times on Facebook and was credited as one of the catalysts of bringing that story to national attention.  His 60,000+ person twitter following has allowed for his tweets to be featured on the Rachel Maddow Show, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Mashable and various other media outlets.

Michael serves on the Board of Directors for The Trayvon Martin Foundation. He is also active on the Leadership Council of Gen44, the Democratic Party’s group for young people and young professionals, and was an official surrogate for the 2012 Obama campaign. He proudly serves on the advisory board of Kid Power, a non-profit serving young people of Washington, DC.

Prior to his work for Mr. Simmons, Michael spent over a decade as an award winning film director and producer. He is a graduate of the UCLA School Of Film, Theater and Television.

As the soul of Essence magazine for over three decades, Taylor was the driving force behind one of the most celebrated African American owned business success stories. A fourth generation entrepreneur, she flourished in her leadership role, building the brand and guiding it through a period of phenomenal growth to a readership of over 8 million.

During this time she penned the popular “In the Spirit” column and wrote the best-selling books, In the Spirit: The Inspirational Writings of Susan L. Taylor, and Lessons in Living and Confirmation: The Spiritual Wisdom That Has Shaped Our Lives.

Now, as the Founder of National Cares Mentoring Movement, she shares her inspirational passion for empowering African Americans in a call to action to recruit mentors for at-risk youth. She continues to inspire hope and encourage us to reclaim our lives and create sustainable communities.

Genuine, energetic, and spiritual, Susan Taylor’s passion is to help people realize their strengths and take charge of their lives. She brings her gift of inspiration to every audience, sharing with them her prescription for adopting the best practices, both personally and professionally, that will help them find fulfillment and success in life.