Omolara Williams Community Engagement Coordinator

Samara Gaev Education Coordinator -- Samara is a New York based activist, educator, performer, and doula. She has been working as a teaching artist and educational consultant in the New York City schools, shelters, transitional programs and community centers for over ten years. Samara has initiated young women’s groups, support networks for pregnant and parenting teens, interactive educational theatre residencies, and performance poetry and hip-hop intensives for formerly incarcerated youth. She is the Education Coordinator East for Question Bridge, a board member of Project Rhythm, Curriculum Writer for Hurricane Season, and co-director of In Transition Hip Hop Theatre Co. She serves as a teaching artist and artist in residence at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and runs performance and media programs with The Media Spot. Samara has worked in Senegal as the Cross Cultural Arts Facilitator for the African Women’s Millennium Initiative on Poverty and Human Rights at their annual Women's Knowledge and Leadership Institute—an intensive training on economics and social justice. Her work as a performer and facilitator has also taken her to Zimbabwe, Hawaii, Brasil, Peru, and Cuba. Samara is a recipient of the 2009 Next Generation of Leadership Fellowship through the Center for Whole Communities and now serves on their faculty. She has also served as a performer/facilitator at Esalen’s International Arts Festival, and facilitator/panelist at Omega Institute’s National Women and Power Conference, among others. Samara graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study; her interdisciplinary degree was awarded in performance as a tool for cross-cultural education and social change. She completed advanced training in Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed from the Paul A. Kaplan Center for Educational Drama and received her Master's Degree in Performance Studies from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a thesis that explored trauma, advocacy, and witnessing.

LaShaune Fitch Education Coordinator -- LaShaune earned a BA in African-American Studies: Social Sciences from the University of California at Berkeley; a BFA in Jewelry/Metal Arts, and a MA in Visual and Critical Studies, both from the California College of the Arts (CCA). Her thesis investigated the empowering role textile production plays in West Africa. She conducted field research for this project, traveling to Bamako, Mali, where she focused on the intersection of fashion, craft production and economic development among female textile workers. LaShaune’s background in media includes serving as an associate producer for several documentary public television series, among them: Rights and Wrongs: Human Rights TV and With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right. She recently completed a community and art outreach project for Laney College in Oakland, California titled ArtSpectrum@Laney, which celebrated the college’s 40th anniversary. LaShaune maintains an art practice that includes designing and making leather handbags, and fabricating metal sculpture and jewelry. She continues her research of contemporary African textiles, experimenting with the application of African fabrics to Western designs.

Jinan N. Sumler (Education Consultant) - started in education as an elementary special education teacher after graduating from Spelman College. She joined the staff of Teach For America, as a program director, where she worked to support 100 + teachers in the Greater New Orleans area. In this capacity, Ms. Sumler worked directly with superintendents, principals, university faculty and the business community. Ms. Sumler received a Masters in Education from Harvard and began working as a school improvement consultant for the Southern Regional Education Board in Atlanta. She coordinated a Successful Transitions Initiative between middle schools and high schools in the southeast region of the country. Originally from New York, Jinan returned in 2005 to work for AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) as the Northeast States Director. In this position, she works to support schools in seven states through face-to-face and e-learning professional development and coaching. Ms. Sumler markets AVID to new schools, districts and community organizations, manages AVID implementation at the school and district level and co-writes curriculum on Culturally Relevant Teaching.