Dr. Toni M. Bond has been a social justice activist for over 30 years. In 1994, she was one of the twelve Black women who gave birth to the concept of “Reproductive Justice,” creating a paradigm shift in how women of color would add their collective voices to the fight for reproductive autonomy and freedom. She is adjunct faculty at Claremont School of Theology (CST) and Methodist Theological School in Ohio where she teaches graduate students about Christian and classical ethics. She is one of the co-founders, former board chair, and currently the Interim CEO of Interfaith Voices for Reproductive Justice (IVRJ), a national faith-based reproductive and sexual justice organization that works with religious scholars, religious leaders, and grassroots activists to create a culture shift around issues of religion and reproductive and sexual justice.
 
Dr. Bond received a B.A. from DePaul University and M.A. in Theology/Ethics and Ph.D. in Religion, Ethics, and Society from CST. A womanist ethicist, her areas of specialization include classical, Christian, and womanist ethics, gender and sexuality, reproductive health, rights, and justice, Black feminist theory and methodology, and womanist theory and methodology. Her scholarly foci are reproductive justice and women of color, religion, faith, and reproductive justice, and womanist theo-ethics and reproductive justice.

Dr. Georgette Ledgister is Vice President of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, and People Experience at DoubleVerify (DV). As DV’s global DEIB and People Experience leader, her role includes expanding and executing a global strategy that reflects DV’s commitment to its values of passion, accountability, collaboration and trailblazing, not only its innovative products that ensure brand safety in the digital ad ecosystem, but among DV employees who make the company the market leader that it is.

Prior to joining DV, Ledgister was Vice President of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at Universal Music Group where she led global workplace initiatives that cultivated a culture of belonging in the company through education, celebration, and execution of strategies that fostered an environment of belonging for UMG employees. She was also a Research Associate and Visiting Lecturer in the Women’s Studies in Religion Program at Harvard Divinity School, and a Visiting Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. Ledgister has deep consulting experience, and served as the Executive Director and Lead Facilitator at Fearless Dialogues, an Atlanta-based organization that prioritizes innovation and transformation in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion, and leadership development.

A Congolese-American who is fluent in four languages, Ledgister specializes in training leaders to courageously embrace the constructive possibilities of conflict and difference. She holds a PhD in social ethics from Emory university, and has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard Divinity School, Emory University, Agnes Scott College, and Earlham College. 

The Reverend JoAnne Marie Terrell, Ph.D. is Kenneth B. Smith, Sr. Professor of Public Ministry and Associate Professor of Theology, Ethics, and the Arts at Chicago Theological Seminary. She is the author of Power in the Blood? The Cross in the African American Experience, and numerous scholarly articles.

Professor Terrell’s current research interests are interreligious in scope, and focus on soteriological principles in Taoism, Buddhism and Christianity, the genre of spiritual autobiography, and the power of the visual and performing arts to effect personal, social, and cosmic transformation.

Iya Dr. Funlayo E. Wood is a scholar-practitioner of Africana Religions, specializing in the Yoruba Ifa-Orisa tradition as practiced in Nigeria and among African Americans in the US. She is the founding director of the African and Diasporic Religious Studies Association, chief Priestess at Ile Ase Ire, Inc. Ifa-Orisa temple, and founding dean of Ase Ire Communiversity, an independent Africana Studies Institute.

Iya Dr. Wood was initiated into Ifa-Orisa in 2008 and received her PhD in African and African American studies and the study of religion from Harvard University in 2017. Her work has been published in academic and popular venues including the Journal of Africana Studies, the Review of Religious Research, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Caribbean Religion, Crosscurrents, and Medium. Her book in progress, Obi: Death, Divination, and the Divine Feminine, will produce the first scholarly monograph on the kola nut—source of the word “cola” and its original caffeine source—in the context of Africana Religion.

Affectionately known as Your Favorite Scholar-Priestess, Iya Dr. Wood is a dedicated public scholar. She leads weekly worship service, lectures frequently, and has appeared in documentaries for PBS and the National Geographic Channel.