Tiffany is a proud Black queer woman, born and raised in Ohio. She is currently based in Chicago and happy to be back in her beloved Midwest. In her professional life she is a social worker specializing in work with LGBTQ+ older adults, caregiver support, and dementia care & a consultant/facilitator. In her personal life she is a lover of music and dancing, an amateur baker and an aspiring spiritual healer.

Tiffany has a passion for helping to facilitate conversations around systems of oppression and privilege, and the role we all play as agents and targets. She works to bring an empathetic and engaging approach to help folks be prepared and ready to engage in these necessary but sometimes difficult conversations. Her goal is to help get teams, groups and organizations on a path to move towards equitable, respectful, and responsible interactions.

Tiffany received her MSW from the Boston College School of Social Work in May 2015. She also has an MA in Higher Education and Student Affairs and a BS in Human Development and Family Science, both from The Ohio State University. Tiffany is a proud alum of Flashback Sunday, an LGBT Elders of Color group. She is also a planning team member of the LGBT Aging Issues Network (LAIN) with the American Society on Aging.

Karari Olvera is the non-binary trans femme first-born of Mexican immigrant parents. As a writer, activist, and public speaker, her art and work has focused on the uplifting of voices living in the intersections of gender, race, and ethnicity through storytelling and workshop facilitation.

Karari currently serves as co-chair of United Latinx Pride and Central Co-Director of the National Board of the TransLatin@ Coalition. 

You can catch her IRL in Chicago dropping trans truth on the Hoodoisie, a live and live-streamed news show disseminating radical perspectives on culture and politics. You can also find Karari working as a certified pharmacy technician in Humboldt Park, working with many patients of marginalized experiences to ensure affirming care and access to medical coverage.

Jes Favers du Shine (they/them) is a white, queer and nonbinary abolitionist raised and based in Chicago, the traditional homelands of the Council of the Three Fires. They are the Director of Operations & Outreach at Praxis, whose anti-oppressive mission is to redefine group and organizational cultures so that people feel empowered to bring their full selves to the table.

As an advocate for racial, social and economic justice issues, their previous roles included supporting campaigns for fair and affordable housing, living wage, comprehensive immigration reform and trans-inclusive school policies.

Jes’ current work prioritizes building towards their dream of a world without police, prisons or systems focused on punishment. They focus on challenging assumptions of white heteropatriarchal culture as normative and deconstructing the myth of the colonial gender binary. 

Jes is a Capricorn who enjoys doing puzzles, falling in love with every cat, and taking naps. Jes was named one of the Windy City Times’ “30 Under 30” in 2017. They received their BSW from Illinois State University and their MSW from Loyola University Chicago.