Phillip A. Burse is the Chief Operating Officer at In Our Own Voices, Inc. (IOOV) and has worked in various capacities at IOOV for close to 15 years with a focus on working with LGBTQ+ communities, communities of color and LGBTQ+ victims/survivors of trauma. In his current role as IOOV's Chief Operating Officer, Phillip is responsible for overseeing programs, services, and events that focus on reducing barriers and increasing access for LGBTQ+ and People of Color communities by addressing the socioeconomic, political, cultural and health related disparities that disproportionately impact LGBTQ+ communities (with a particular focus on LGBTQ+ people of color). Phillip is also responsible for providing training & technical assistance to communities, businesses, and service providers, grant writing, and strategic planning. Phillip has represented IOOV on local, statewide and national initiatives that impact/address the intersecting needs of LGBTQ+ communities and has served as President and Vice President of the Board of Directors of the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the New York State Office of Victim Services Advisory Council. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood. In his spare time, Phillip enjoys karaoke, brunch, traveling, and listening to music.

Lisa Fujie Parks, MPH, is an associate program director at the national nonprofit Prevention Institute, where she works to promote safety, wellbeing, health equity, and racial justice. She is a leader in community-driven, culturally rooted approaches to safety and healing. She has extensive experience providing coaching and consultation and supporting learning communities, and has worked with many cities and counties, as well as states, to develop and implement community-driven collaborative strategies to prevent violence across the life course. Lisa serves on the Board of Directors of Our Family Coalition, a community-based organizing advancing equity for the full and expanding spectrum of LGBTQ+ families and children. She also serves on the National Advisory Board of Vital Village Network, a national network of residents and organizations committed to maximizing child, family, and community wellbeing and promoting healthy social and emotional development in early childhood.

Brian Heilman is the Deputy Director of Research at Equimundo, where his work focuses on preventing all forms of gender-based violence and achieving broader gender equality and social justice in the United States and around the world. Brian is a co-author of the State of the World’s Fathers 2017 and 2019 reports, the lead author of The Man Box study on harmful effects of rigid masculine norms in the US, UK, and Mexico, and a co-author of multiple reports using International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) data. Brian has particular program and research experience in South Asia and the United States, in addition to many other valuable opportunities worldwide. He holds a BA in English from Saint John’s University and an MA in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Wat hat ka ha teni ne Ion kats (He turned around is his name) Harvey Herne is his English Name. Harvey grew up in Akwesasne, NY and instead of an education steeped in cultural knowledge and traditions he was met with dysfunction, criticism, and violence. He grew up a very good student of this and eventually found a partner who only knew the same thing, which led him down an unhealthy path. He continued on a path of destruction in his adulthood until he went to the reservation run rehab, The Partridge House. Here he was able to start to unwind the insanity that he went through and learn who he was really meant to be. During his time in rehab he learned about smudging, sweatlodge, ceremonies, talking circles, the cultural and traditional way. He was able to start the healing through self-awareness. Through honesty he was given validation for feelings of low self-esteem, insecurity, low self-worth, abandonment, and fears. After two years of recovery, he was hired at the Partridge House to share his knowledge of the Native American culture and shortly after he became a shift supervisor. He worked at the Partridge House for twenty years. He often states that “I am not STUCK in the problem anymore; I AM part of the solution.” Harvey came to work seven years ago for Seven Dancers Coalition to run Honsekwiroton (Standing The Trees Back Up) Men’s Program. He helped create the curriculum that is based in Traditional Cultural and Oral Traditional Stories that is designed for men who have been taught the wrong things. He assists them build a foundation built on Cultural knowledge with roles and responsibilities as a guide. He soon began a Youth program, Sapling To Cedar to begin teaching cultural knowledge at a younger age as a preventative measure. He is wealth of knowledge and teaches on the 2-3 way value system, creation story, mind-mapping, sweatlodge and more.

OVW Campus Grant Project Director and Coordinator of Student Inclusion Initiatives for SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Chris Kosakowski, MSW, works as both the OVW Campus Grant Project Director and Coordinator of Student Inclusion Initiatives for SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.  Outside of this role, Chris serves as Board President for CNY Pride and Couselmember for the CNY Hate and Bias Prevention Regional Council.  Through these various roles, Chris aims to help support individuals  who have been impacted by harm while actively working to prevent it from happening.  For over a decade, Chris has worked in direct service, clinical mental health, and violence prevention work to combat these issues from all angles.  Chris believes that through empathy, humility, and an appropriate level of sarcasm and humor, we can have meaningful dialogue and create social change.

Maya Pilgrim is a mixed Filipina/Cajun mother, partner, and independent consultant. For the past 10 years, she has been supporting evaluative and learning efforts around preventing and addressing sexual violence and advocating for racial justice. She has been a part of collective efforts towards more equitable and just communities within the United States and internationally for over twenty years in the connected fields of youth development, reproductive justice, gender-based violence, and racial justice. She has a BA in Psychology and a Master’s in International Development and Social Change.

Farah Tanis, CEO/Founder of Restore Forward and Executive Director/Co-Founder of Black Women's Blueprint, is an internationally acclaimed grassroots activist and advocate for Black women and girls. She has over twenty years of experience in community leadership, fundraising, human rights initiatives, movement building, organizational development, public speaking and strategic mobilization.

Ponny White (she/her) is an NYU Master of Art student, reproductive justice advocate and a storyteller. Her passion for social equity has allowed her the opportunity to work with notable organizations like Planned Parenthood, Advocates for Youth, Girls for Gender Equity and others.

Ponny's reproductive advocacy efforts predominantly centers and uplifts the experiences of children and youth. Using her advocacy knowledge–her professional experience as an early childhood policy consultant, her personal experience as a survivor of CSA (child sexual abuse), and her love for storytelling–Ponny strives to create spaces that affirm the voices of young people, and challenges community and system leaders to radically value the expertise of children and young people in this work.

Ponny is a big picture thinker whose activist praxis is love. She plans on spending the next 5 years solidifying herself as a multimedia storyteller who helps to uplift authentic stories.