#WPC25
MEET THE KEYNOTES
Esther Armah
Author, playwright, & international public speaker
Creator of Emotional Justice,
a racial healing roadmap
& framework
Esther A. Armah is CEO, The Armah Institute of Emotional Justice (The AIEJ), a global institute and the implementation home of Emotional Justice. Leading a global team in Ghana, Chicago, and the UK, The AIEJ creates racial healing resources and tools working across Accra, New York, and London. It devises, develops, designs and delivers those resources through projects, training, thought leadership. The AIEJ is engaged by organizations and institutions in the USA, Ghana, South Africa and London. As a Thought Leader and global speaker, Armah has brought Emotional Justice to global organizations and institutions across three Continents; including Stanford University, Brown University, NYU in the USA, the University of Stellenbosch, The Institute of Justice and Reconciliation in South Africa; St. Bartholomew Hospital and The Royal College of Nursing in the UK and to African Women in Media (AWiM) Conference in Kenya. Esther is author of ‘EMOTIONAL JUSTICE: a roadmap for racial healing’ a #1 New Release on Amazon in the category General Sociology of Race Relations for six straight weeks. It was named a Top Summer 2023 Pick by Stanford Social Innovation Review. Emotional Justice is a racial healing roadmap Esther created over a 15-year period through assignment, research and community engagement in Accra, Philadelphia, South Africa and New York.
As a journalist she has worked in London, New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. Esther was the Spring 2022 Distinguished Activist in Residence at New York University’s Center for Black Visual Culture. Her Emotional Justice essays are featured in the New York Times best-selling book Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America; the award-winning Love with Accountability, Charleston Syllabus, and Women & Migrations (II). She has written five Emotional Justice plays that have been produced and performed in New York, Chicago and Ghana. For her Emotional Justice work, she won the ‘Community Healer Award’ at the 2016 Valuing Black Lives Global Emotional Emancipation Summitin Washington DC. Esther was named ‘Most Valuable NY Radio Host’ in The Nation’s Progressive Honors List for her work on Wake-Up Call on Pacifica’s, WBAI.
Glenn Singleton
Author, thought leader,
& strategist
Creator of of Courageous Conversation® &
Beyond Diversity™
Glenn Singleton has devoted over thirty years to constructing racial equity worldwide and developing leaders to do the same. Author, thought leader, and strategist, he is the creator of Courageous Conversation®, a protocol and framework for sustained, deepened dialogue, and Beyond DiversityTM, the curriculum that has taught hundreds of thousands of people how to use it. Glenn is the Founder and CEO of Courageous Conversation®, an agency that guides leadership development in education, government, corporation, law enforcement, and community organizing. He is the award-winning author of Courageous Conversations About Race; A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools, Third Edition; and of MORE Courageous Conversations About Race.
Glenn has consulted executives at Wieden + Kennedy (W+K) Advertising, Google, Amazon, Procter & Gamble, the New York Department of Education, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundations. Along with W+K, he received the 2017 Most Valuable Partnership (MVP) Award by AdColor. He is the recipient of the George A. Coleman Excellence in Equity Award by the Connecticut State Education Resource Center. Cited in the June 2018 edition of the Hollywood Reporter for his work with 21st Century Fox Animation, most recently, Glenn was awarded the AdWeek/AdColor 2020 Champion Award, the 2021 Ad Age Creativity Awards Diversity & Inclusion Champion of the Year, a National Speech and Debate Association Communicator of the Year Award. In 1995, Glenn founded the Foundation for A College Education and continues to serve on its Board of Advisors. He is also the founder and Board Chair of the Courageous Conversation® Global Foundation, which develops partnerships to promote racial justice, interracial understanding, and human healing worldwide. In 2020, Glenn became a Partner with WorkWider, a professional community dedicated to the advancement of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. In 2022, Glenn founded Glenn Singleton & Associates, a consulting firm that will pioneer the support and training for executive leadership to advance their racial equity agenda throughout their organizations and beyond.
Glenn has trained law enforcement leaders with the U.S. Embassy in Western Australia and established the Courageous Conversation® South Pacific Institute in Auckland, New Zealand. For eight years, he served as an adjunct professor of educational leadership at San Jose State University. Glenn has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University and has instructed faculty, students, and administrators at the University of Minnesota, New York University School of Medicine, and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University, Glenn Singleton is a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. and 100 Black Men. Glenn currently resides in Washington, D.C., and Accra, Ghana.
Wilson Pipestem
Founding partner of Pipestem & Nagleand;
Founder of Ietan Consulting
Speaks about the developments in federal law and policy; protector of American Indian & tribal government rights
Wilson Pipestem’s career has been dedicated to protecting the rights of tribal governments and American Indians. Wilson has represented and advised tribal governments on a broad range of issues from treaty rights to minerals production to gaming. A graduate of Stanford Law School and Oklahoma State University, Wilson formerly practiced law at Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman, LLP, a law firm based in Washington, D.C. There he established a practice advising and representing tribal clients on a broad range of issues before founding Pipestem Law in 1999.
Wilson served as lead counsel in Osage Nation v. United States, a case in which the Nation alleged federal mismanagement of Osage mineral resources and the funds derived from minerals production. After eleven years in federal court litigation, the federal government and the Nation agreed to settle the case for $380 million, the largest settlement at the time of a single tribe against the United States.
Advocating before Congress and the federal administrative agencies, Wilson has helped tribes reacquire lands lost as the result of misguided federal policies through both Congressional enactment and administrative decision. He has helped tribes protect their aboriginal territories from encroachment, and successfully advocated for greater tribal control over tribal lands, water, and resources, as well as adjacent federal lands. In 2013, Wilson played a prominent role in the enactment of the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization that reaffirms the inherent sovereign rights of tribal courts to exercise criminal jurisdiction over all persons who commit domestic and dating violence crimes against Native women. In 2004, he led the advocacy team that achieved Congressional reaffirmation of the inherent sovereign right of the Osage Nation to determine its form of government and membership. The VAWA and Osage laws are two of only three instances in U.S. history that the U.S. Congress reaffirmed inherent sovereign rights after the federal courts had ruled that those rights were extinguished.
Wilson is a frequent speaker on developments in federal law and policy and has taught Federal Indian Law as a Lecturer at Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America and as an Adjunct Professor at Washington College of Law at American University.
Wilson is at citizen of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe and an Osage Headright Owner. He also is a Founding Partner at Ietan Consulting, a federal advocacy firm that also represents Indian tribes.
jessica Care moore
Renowned poet, playwright, performance artist, & producer
Founder and CEO of Moore Black Press, executive producer of Black WOMEN Rock!, & founder of the literacy-driven, Jess Care Moore Foundation
jessica Care moore is the founder and CEO of Moore Black Press, executive producer of Black WOMEN Rock!, and founder of the literacy-driven, Jess Care Moore Foundation.
An internationally renowned poet, playwright, performance artist, and producer, she is the 2019 and 2017 Knight Arts Award Winner, 2016 Kresge Arts Fellow, NAACP Great Expectations Awardee, and an Alain Locke Award recipient from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Moore is the author of The Words Don’t Fit in My Mouth, The Alphabet Verses the Ghetto, Sunlight Through Bullet Holes, and the critically acclaimed Techno Choreopoem, Salt City.
Her work has been published in numerous literary collections and she has performed on stages all over the world, including, The Apollo Theater, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the London Institute for Contemporary Arts. jessica lives and writes in an historic Detroit neighborhood with her son King Thomas.
Monique Clark
Friday Luncheon Speaker
Dynamic passionate leader
Talks about CODA, accessibility,
disability inclusion, & DEI
Monique Clark, brings a uniquely invaluable perspective shaped by her upbringing deeply rooted in Deaf culture. Born into Deaf culture as a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults), her first language was American Sign Language. Her life has been profoundly influenced by the experiences and hurdles encountered within the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.
Her intimate connection to Deaf culture has deeply influenced her career path and advocacy work, driving her passion for accessibility, authenticity, diversity, and the celebration of differences. With a professional journey that spans across various facets of the ASL Interpreting industry, including sign language interpreting, operations, people & culture, and comprehensive employee management. Monique brings a wealth of experience and a unique perspective to her role as COO at SignGlasses, a pioneering language service provider, that disrupts traditional communication barriers through its patented technology offering live sign language interpreting and captioning accessibility directly through cutting-edge smart glasses. Under Monique’s leadership SignGlasses is setting a new standard in accessibility and empowerment for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.
Passionate about the celebration of diversity, Monique shares powerful stories of resilience, addresses critical themes of power privilege oppression, accessibility advocacy, and healing, as she champions the cause of embracing differences to foster environments where individuals can thrive authentically.
Beyond her executive responsibilities, Monique is founder of Clark Laine where she provides consulting, workshop and speaking engagements. She has made significant contributions to the broader community. She has served on the CODA International Board of Directors, CODAs of Color board member, and the BAYTOC (Bay Area Interpreters of Color) Board. Her insights and experiences have also taken her to the global stage, where she has been a keynote presenter at CODA International Conferences, the White Privilege Conference, and numerous colleges, universities, nonprofits, and government entities. Monique Clark's dynamic blend of personal and professional expertise makes her a compelling advocate for the transformative power of accessibility and inclusive communication technologies.