Dr. Caroline Heldman is a Political Scientist and Chair of the Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies program at Occidental College in Los Angeles. She is also Co-Founder of Stand With Survivors and a political commentator for CNN and CBS. Dr. Heldman earned her Ph.D. from Rutgers University and a certificate in executive leadership from the Harvard Business School. She has published ten books, including Gender, Power, & Politics: The Fight for Gender Equality in the United States (Oxford University Press) and The Media Book on Representations (Vernon Press). Her work has been featured in numerous documentaries, including Miss Representation and The Mask You Live In. She co-founded the New Orleans Women’s Shelter, the Lower Ninth Ward Living Museum, End Rape on Campus (EROC), Faculty Against Rape (FAR), and led the campaign that overturned the time limit on prosecuting rape in California. She is the Board President of the TEP Center, the first Civil Rights museum in New Orleans, and the Chair of the Board of Alturas Institute, a non-profit fighting for stronger democracy. 

Alanah Odoms is a distinguished civil rights attorney, renowned public speaker, and loving mother to her nine-year-old daughter Elan Jolie Hebert.  As the first Black woman to lead the ACLU of Louisiana in its 68-year history, Alanah has expanded the organization from a modest team of two to a formidable force of twenty, addressing the state’s most critical civil rights and liberties challenges since she began her tenure on June 4, 2018.

Under her leadership, the ACLU of Louisiana has embraced a targeted universalism approach, focusing on representing and investing in marginalized communities to ensure that constitutional rights are restored and protected from the ground up and not from the top down.  Alanah has been at the forefront of defending the Constitution and the Bill of Rights by tackling systemic racial injustice and the enduring legacies of slavery including racial gerrymandering, mass incarceration, immigrant detention, and discriminatory policing.

Alanah and her team utilize the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments’ protections to end police violence and misconduct in the state of Louisiana.  Through the “Justice Lab: Putting Racist Policing on Trial” initiative, Alanah and her team collaborate with law firms and legal clinics nationwide, representing black plaintiffs who have experienced racially motivated police misconduct. The affiliate has filed sixty -seven lawsuits challenging unconstitutional policing, successfully passed legislation protecting law enforcement whistleblowers, extended the statute of limitations for civil suits against police, and catalyzed the Department of Justice to initiate a pattern or practice investigation of the Louisiana State Police. The Justice Lab has secured over $1M in settlements for clients throughout the state.

Recognizing Louisiana as the sixth most racially gerrymandered state in the country, Alanah and her team spearheaded a statewide redistricting campaign, educating and mobilizing thousands of Louisianans to advocate for fair representation in elected offices including the Louisiana supreme court, congress, and the state house and senate. These efforts resulted in the establishment of a second Black congressional district and a second Black state Supreme Court seat, historic achievements that will shape the future of the state for centuries to come.

Alanah's work is also grounded in the ACLU of Louisiana’s steadfast commitment to protecting the First Amendment rights and religious freedom of all Louisianans.  The ACLU of Louisiana, along with partners, has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a draconian law mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.  Alanah and her team work diligently to inject a vector of love into our laws and policies allowing each person’s dignity, humanity, and intrinsic value to be recognized and respected.

Prior to joining the ACLU of Louisiana, Alanah served as Deputy General Counsel and Director of the Division of Children and Families at the Louisiana Supreme Court. In these roles, Alanah helped pass historic criminal justice reform legislation, and improved delivery of holistic services for children in the foster care and juvenile justice systems.  

Alanah is a graduate of Rutgers School of Law- Newark and a Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rutgers College in New Jersey. Alanah is a proud alumnus of the Presidential Leadership Scholars Program, the Eagleton Institute of Politics and the Institute for Women’s Leadership.  Alanah’s expresses her love for exercise and children by coach and mentoring dozens of third through fifth grade girls in the “Girls on the Run” program. 

CHRISTINE KUNEWA WALKER is a Native Hawaiian filmmaker dedicated to powerful, independent storytelling, both through her creative endeavors and her professional work supporting diverse cinematic voices. A seasoned producer, writer, and now director, her work has been recognized globally, with films premiering at major international festivals and earning a number of notable awards, including an Independent Spirit Award Nomination for producing and recognition from the Producer’s Guild of America for Excellence in Diversity Filmmaking. Driven by a commitment to equity, she founded the Media Summit for Equity and Inclusion in U.S. Entertainment Media and recently completed her narrative directorial debut, THEALI′IKING, an intimate family story set within the Hawaiian diaspora, demonstrating her deep, personal connection to the stories she tells.

Walker's career reflects a comprehensive dedication to the independent film landscape, having served in leadership roles such as CEO of the Provincetown Film Society and founder of the production company, Werk Work Works. Her producing credits include critically acclaimed films like the Academy Award-nominated AMERICAN SPLENDOR, HOWL, and FACTOTUM, allowing her to collaborate with celebrated filmmakers and artists. 

Building on her extensive background, including a recent McKnight Filmmaking Fellowship, she is currently directing a feature documentary about Iosepa, the first Hawaiian settlement in Utah. Through her ongoing work as a filmmaker, industry leader, and board member for organizations like the Walker Art Center, Christine Kunewa Walker continues to contribute to the growth and vitality of independent cinema.

Karen Day is the Winner of the Governor’s Award for the Idaho Arts in filmmaking. With a 20-year career in war zone journalism, Day focuses on gender equity and social justice in education, health/reproductive rights, media and cultural issues affecting women and girls from Afghanistan to Idaho. As a film director, Day has produced 20 award-winning social justice documentaries with luminary advocates, including Geena Davis, Ruth Bade Ginsberg and George Takei.  Her films have premiered on PBS and NBC, and are currently adopted into curriculum of 100 universities’ gender and film studies programs, with five films co-produced by Harvard University Human Rights and Global Health Dept. Day is the founder and publisher of IdaHome Magazines, which she recently sold to concentrate on directing and producing documentaries focused on igniting positive social change and equity around the world. Her new documentary, ARIA; Opera on the Edge, is currently on a 2025 international film festival tour and her newest film for Harvard, A BREATH OF HOPE, will simultaneously premiere on August 20th for international UNITAID Conference in Luxembrug and in Boise, Idaho, at the 2025 Alturas Institute’s Exceptional Women Conference.

Chief Justice (ret.), Louisiana Supreme Court

Chief Justice Johnson served as a member of the Council’s Task Force on Long Sentences.

Bernette Johnson served as the first Black and only the second female Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. She was first elected to the state’s highest court in 1994, and was reelected without opposition in 2000 and 2010. As the senior justice on the court, she was sworn in as Chief Justice on February 1, 2013 and served until her retirement at the end of 2020. A lifelong advocate for social justice and civil rights, Chief Justice Johnson began her judicial career in 1984, when she became the first woman elected to serve on the Civil District Court of New Orleans. In 1994, her colleagues elected her Chief Judge. While on the bench, she served on the National Campaign on Best Practices in the area of Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts and championed many successful initiatives, including the training and certification of the Limited English Proficiency Interpreters in the courts and the implementation of an electronic filing system for the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Widely recognized as a trailblazer in the judiciary, Chief Justice Johnson is the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious Joan Dempsey Klein Award from the National Association of Women Judges, the 2010 Spirit of Excellence Award from the American Bar Association’s Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession, and the 1998 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award. In 2010, she was inducted into the National Bar Association (NBA) Hall of Fame and was awarded the Distinguished Civil Rights Advocate Award by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law. And in 2019, she received the prestigious Gertrude E. Rush Award from the NBA for her leadership in the community and in the legal profession, as well as her concern for human and civil rights.

In recognition of Chief Justice Johnson’s widespread impact, the Louisiana State Bar Association Board of Governors in 2016 unanimously voted to combine the Trailblazer and Human Rights Awards into a single award, “Louisiana State Bar Association Chief Justice Bernette Joshua Johnson Trailblazer Award.”

Chief Justice Johnson was one of the first Black women to attend and earn a Juris Doctorate degree from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University, and also received an Honorary Doctorate in Law from Spelman College in 2001. She was inducted into the LSU Law Center’s Hall of Fame in 1996 and was named as an Honorary Inductee into the LSU Order of the Coif. In tribute to her lifelong commitment to the legal profession and the citizens of Louisiana, the Louisiana Supreme Court Law Museum was renamed the Chief Justice Bernette Joshua Johnson Supreme Court Museum.

Angela Lynn Tucker is an Emmy- and Webby-winning filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist. Her latest documentary, The Inquisitor, premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival and will broadcast in 2026 on PBS’ Independent Lens. It completes her trilogy on Black women and political power in the South. Her work has screened globally and aired on NBC, Showtime, PBS, Netflix, and Lifetime, including the holiday film A New Orleans Noel starring Keshia Knight Pulliam and Patti LaBelle. Tucker’s art has been exhibited at the True/False Film Festival, Vassar College, Lawrence Arts Center, Brooklyn Historical Society, and The Diboll Gallery. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the artist-run gallery The Front, she has received fellowships from Sundance Institute, Firelight Media, and Chicken & Egg. Raised in New York City, she lives between New Orleans and Mississippi and is an Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Mississippi.

Darcy McKinnon is a documentary filmmaker based in New Orleans, whose recently released projects include Natchez, (Best Documentary, Tribeca, 2025), theatrically released by Oscilloscope in 2025, and scheduled for broadcast on Independent Lens in 2026.  Other recent projects include.A King Like Me (Netflix) and Roleplay, (SXSW, 2024), Commuted (PBS, 2024), Algiers, America (Hulu, 2023), Under G-d (Sundance 2023), Look at Me! XXXTENTACION (SXSW, Hulu, 2022) and The Neutral Ground (Tribeca, POV, 2021).   Her work has been featured on Netflix, Hulu, World Channel, AfroPop, POV, and Reel South and has screened at Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, CPH:DOX and more. She is the recipient of American Documentary’s 2023 inaugural Creative Visionary Award. She is the recipient of American Documentary’s 2023 inaugural Creative Visionary Award.

Maren is a cultural strategist who supports visionary innovators and storytellers—especially those historically denied access to critical social and financial capital. With over five years of experience in program development and over a decade in event production, she has shaped and led initiatives that have provided mentorship, visibility, and over $200K in funding to more than 200 emerging creators. She strives to cultivate nourishing, collaborative experiences—whether through workshops, one-on-one support, or regional partnerships. Her work is grounded in a deep belief in the power of community to build a more equitable, vibrant future.