Our Team
Missed the memo…This will have to do for now!
Randy Novak
“The goal is not to be better than the other man, but your previous self.”
- Dalai Lama
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us.”
- Marianne Williamson
Do What Matters
“It always seems impossible until it's done.”
- Nelson Mandela
DeLano Morgan
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
- Maya Angelou
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Guest Presenters
David Adams
- Over 25 years of management/leadership
experience
- Former VP of Learning and Development at a Global Fortune 500 organization
- President/Founder of Ascent Consulting
- Partner and Senior Consultant at Performance Methods, Inc.
- Certified Coach in Leadership Engagement & Impact (The Academies)
- Hiker, Musician, Father, and Husband
Do What Matters
Delena Coby
- Former EVP of Human Resources and Diversity Nordstrom
- 30+ years of management/leadership
experience
- Oversaw over 60,000 employees
- Developed inclusive programs impacting
company culture
Guest Presenters
Elissa Haddad, Ph.D.
- Co-founder of System 2 Leadership Consulting, specializing in leadership development and training.
- Experience encompasses a strong teaching background and a range of consulting expertise.
- Lecturer in the Master of Arts in Leadership program at the University of San Diego.
- Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership and Consulting and a Master’s degree in Global Leadership and Project Management from the School of Business at the University of San Diego.
Do What Matters
Bharat Mohan, Ph.D.
- System 2 Leadership Consulting -Co-founder, specializing in leadership development and training.
- Experience as a Strategic Draft Analyst for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Assn.
- Data Analyst within the People Analytics team at Qualcomm. Helped design and implement survey design, data management, marketing analytics, and deep-dive corporate research projects using various advanced modeling techniques.
- Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership and Consulting from the University of San Diego.
Global Leaders & Mentors
Fr. Gregory Boyle, S.J.
Fr. Greg Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry program in the world.
For over 30 years, this Jesuit priest has partnered with National & International Leaders to stand with people on the margins. Fr. Boyle challenges all of us to create a circle of Kinship, a place where everyone is accepted.
Renee Firestone
Renee Firestone is a survivor of Auschwitz Concentration Camp and the Holocaust. She has worked with Steven Spielberg for the past 25 years and her story won an academy award in The Last Days.
Renee was the original member of the speakers bureau at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles and has transformed thousands of lives by sharing her stories and empowering people to follow their hearts.
Erin Gruwell
The hit movie Freedom Writers starring Hilary Swank was a film based upon Erin’s experience as a teacher in Room 203, and #1 New York Times Best Seller - The Freedom Writer’s Diary.
Ms. Gruwell’s progressive teaching style has helped shape thousands of students, educators and administrators around the world.
Global Leaders & Mentors
Carine Kanimba
Ms. Kanimba survived the Rwandan genocide and grew up in Belgium. She has become a global ambassador for Human Rights.
Carine recently shared her story of the Rwandan Genocide through the lens of Forgiveness and Grace. Her moving TED Talk exemplifies her strong and compassionate leadership.
Carine has been a part of the SAA family for many years, and continues to impact people around the globe by advocating for peace and equality.
Patrinell Wright
Pastor Wright helped found SAA. She is a gospel music legend and has sung all over the world. Ms. Wright has performed for many global leaders including Presidents, King and Queens and other dignitaries. She has represented her community while singing for the Dalai Lama, Bishop Desmond Tutu, and she is the only musician that can say she sang at Jimi Hendrix’s Funeral.
Pastor Pat reminds us to reach back into our nation’s history. A history we must first acknowledge in order to move forward. She uses music as a way to bring people from diverse backgrounds together while emphasizing unity.
A documentary, Patrinell - The Total Experience was released in 2019. The film garnered wide attention and won several film festival awards.
Bob Zellner
Bob remains an active leader in the Civil Rights Movement. The son and grandson of Ku Klux Klan members, he overcame his family legacy and continues to fight for Human Rights.
Mr. Zellner brings to life the victories, struggles and heartbreaks of the civil rights era in a way that empowers and instructs audiences and today's movement.
Bob’s story is being brought to life by Executive Producer - Spike Lee - in the New Motion Picture, Son of the South. The film will hit the big screen in early 2021.
Special Thanks to our Special Content Contributors
Fr. Emmanuel Mulenga
Fr. Emmanuel has been entrusted with a major restoration project of the oldest Catholic church founded by African Americans in the United States.
St. Augustine’s has witnessed the struggle for racial justice in New Orleans from 1841 through the present day.
Fr. Mulenga now stands in Treme representing the people who came together to build it. The African American families, both free and enslaved, along with Creole, Haitian, Cuban, Italian, German and various European American families.
The Tomb of the Unknown Slave sits on the east side of the Church. This powerful memorial honors all of the enslaved women and men.
Gwendolyn Midlo Hall
Professor Hall is an American historian who focuses on the history of slavery in the Caribbean, Latin America, Louisiana (United States), Africa, and the African Diaspora in the Americas.
She discovered extensive Spanish and French colonial documents related to the slave trade in Louisiana.
Midlo Hall created a database of records identifying and describing more than 100,000 enslaved Africans. It has become a primary resource for historical and genealogical research.
Professor Hall is an elder of the African Heritage Studies Society and a Guggenheim Fellow. In 1997, she was appointed Chevalier dans l'Order des Arts et des Letters by the government of France and, in 1994, she was the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities - Humanist of the Year.
Lawrence Powell, Ph.D.
Tulane University
Emeritus Faculty (Ph.D., Yale, 1976)
Before his retirement, Powell was the James H. Clark Endowed Chair in American Civilization.
Professor Powell specialized in Civil War and Reconstruction; Southern history; Louisiana history and politics; and the Holocaust.
In 1999 he was named Louisiana Humanist of the Year. In 2014-15 he chaired the history jury for the Pulitzer Prize.
Special Thanks to our Special Content Contributors
Ashley Rogers
Ashley Rogers is the Executive Director of the Whitney Plantation, a museum and memorial in South Louisiana dedicated to the interpretation of slavery. Ashley has led the museum’s interpretation since its opening in 2014, and has spearheaded a project to document the lives and labor of 20th century cane workers through oral histories.
She is an advocate for inclusive and social justice-informed museum practice, and she is a contributing writer to the MASS Action toolkit; the Inclusive Historian’s Handbook, and Montpelier’s Engaging Descendant Communities rubric. Ashley is a PhD student in the department of history at Louisiana State University, where her research focuses on labor, sugar plantations, and the petrochemical industry in the 20th century.
Dr. Ibrahima Seck
Dr. Seck is the Director of Research, Whitney Plantation. Ibrahima Seck is a member of the History department of University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar (UCAD), Senegal.
His research is mostly devoted to the historical and cultural links between West Africa and Louisiana with a special interest for religious beliefs, music, foodways, and miscellaneous aspects of culture.
Pamela Smith
Pamela is a part of Smith- Zellner consulting. As a team and through a lens of shared history, together they aim to demonstrate how to respect differences of race, gender, religion and ideology.
Mrs. Smith is a community builder and her experience guides us forward. Through listening to our neighbors and fellow citizens, she challenges us to search for the common threads that bind us into this vibrant weave of many colors.