The Team
Who We Are
Terri L. Bailey, MA
Curator
Bio
Terri L. Bailey is a community organizer, educator, and women’s empowerment coach, with more than 30 years of experience working with Black Women’s and Feminist Women’s health, empowerment, and wellbeing. Terri is a former high school dropout with a passion for education. With encouragement from both her mother Bettye Cook and her Godmother, NBWHP founder Byllye Avery, Terri returned to college. She holds a BS in Elementary Education from Bethune Cookman University (Magna Cum Laude) and an MA in English and Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University (with the distinction of Outstanding Graduate Student).
In April 2022, Terri L Bailey graduated with an MA from the University of Florida in Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies and Research. Her MA project, Womanfesto of the Divine Feminine and the Laws of S.H.E., focuses on a woman’s right to honor the divinity within and claim her right to put herself first. Terri feels that through the act of daily self-care and a commitment to healing, empowerment is born. Her MA project culminated with a day-long self-care workshop called Warrior Women’s Wellness: Self Care for the Feminine Divine. Attendees were primarily women of color, ranging in ages from 6 to 76, from Florida and Georgia. Topics included Spiritual Self-Care, Pussy Power and Womb Wellness, Breath Work, Movement via African Dance, Positive Periods, Wellness using kitchen herbs, and organizing for wellness. The reviews were all positive and each survey requested that next year’s event be a weekend retreat.
In addition to her women’s work, Terri is a lifelong writer and storyteller, who often incorporates her advocacy and organizing work into her poetry, weaving women’s empowerment and social justice issues into her spoken word performances. She also integrates the Southern folklore she grew up with as well as African spirituality in her stories and poems. Her three proudest moments as a writer include winning first prize in the short story competition at Bethune Cookman University (2010) for The Journey, a modern, Afrocentric adaptation of Dante’s Divine Comedy, performing at the Zora Neale Hurston Festival with the poetry collective If You Ask A Sistah and most recently being first runner up for Alachua County’s first Poet Laureate. For the past few years, she has been working on When the Witches Ride You: A Collection of Southern Afrofuturistic Speculative Fiction and Black Horror and has started a Patreon page in hopes of raising funds to cover publishing expenses by the end of the year.
Terri is the Founder of Bailey Learning and Arts Collective (BLAAC - pronounced black), a nonprofit organization that focuses on building socially responsible communities and leaders through grassroots organizing, community education, and the arts. BLAAC’s newest program, The Queens Room, offers empowerment tools such as self-care plan development, EFT/TFT (tapping) services, and writing to heal workshops.
Terri hopes to inspire women by sharing the story of how she survived and flourished despite experiencing poverty, domestic violence, and sexual abuse. She feels that Writing saved her life and she tries to incorporate this valuable tool in every aspect of her spiritual, business, and personal life. Writing is this gift that never stops giving and she wishes to share this skill with every person she encounters.
Terri Bailey is a practitioner of African Traditional Spirituality and feels the presence of African spirituality in her life is the grace that continues to save and nurture her. She lives in her beloved Pleasant Street District (Gainesville, Florida’s oldest Black settlement) with her husband, artist Turbado Marabou, and beautiful daughter Aaliyah.
Leslie D. Posey
Curator
Bio
Leslie D. Posey is a community builder, organizational strategist, and advocate who believes in the power of people coming together around a shared vision. Her work centers on strengthening organizations from the inside out, helping leaders and teams build the structures, relationships, systems, and capacity needed to turn vision into action.
Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Leslie’s understanding of community was shaped early by her family, neighborhood, and the city itself. These experiences taught her the importance of connection, shared responsibility, and collective action. Later, in Cleveland, Ohio, Leslie expanded her understanding of community and sparked her appreciation for the transformative power of arts and culture.
Throughout her career in administration, management, operations, and organizational development, Leslie learned that strong organizations, like strong communities, are built on shared values, collaboration, belonging, trust, and purpose. Her experiences as a volunteer, board member, and advocate further deepened this understanding.
Her work with the National Black Women’s Health Project (the Project) became a defining influence on how Leslie approaches organizational development. Beginning as a volunteer and later serving as Operations Manager, she experienced firsthand how “the process,” authenticity,
shared purpose, and collective action could become more than values; they could be operationalized as a way of working. Leslie began to see the Project’s practice of women
working together, sharing knowledge, building relationships, and creating solutions as a model for organizational development, strategy, and capacity building. She carried these lessons forward, integrating the principles and “the process” into her approach to building stronger organizations and more connected, sustainable communities.
These experiences led to the creation of The Indaba Center, LLC, an organizational advisory and capacity-building firm founded by Leslie. Through The Indaba Center, she works alongside organizations and leaders to strengthen organizational capacity, leadership, systems, governance,
and collaboration, helping organizations become more aligned, effective, and sustainable.
Leslie is also co-founder of Charge A Sister!, an initiative that encourages Black women to consciously strengthen their connections with one another and amplify their collective power through simple, intentional acts of connection.
Across all her work, Leslie brings a distinctive ability to connect people, purpose, culture, and organizational practice. Her guiding belief is simple: when organizations intentionally invest in their internal communities (their people), they increase their capacity to create meaningful and sustainable impact on the communities they serve.
Yet, above all her work, Leslie is the mother of Joshua and grandmother of Kailani.
Ama R, Saran, PhD, MSW
Advisor
Bio
Northern-born, primarily southern reared, now residing in the deliciousness of coastal South Carolina's Gullah Geechee Cultural Corridor, I am stepping and hard on 74's dress tail. My life is mercifully synched in a goodness-of-fit with my work as thought-partner in community organizing non-profit organizational development, social science research, and always teaching and training. And now at this moment, this epoch of lost and found, prayerfully post-covid, war and wondering, I write, daily, hourly, incessantly picking my way through the detritus of decades, the dust of decisions made well but still gone awry, profound Joy always paired with her sister, Sadness, and too many farewells to irreplaceable and unforgettable family and friends, and the necessary reflections on chance and courage, and streaming life events that either wondrously shaped or mauled me into the ranks of the still-standing.
Life’s sometimes terrible but always fruitful terrain has cultivated a constant and acute social/political/cultural consciousness operating as my guidance system for working at the nexus of social welfare and public health. I now add to this writer as I have declared that’s what I must do to net narratives of my own and harness hordes of others. I must be here for the telling even when finally absent in the body as it’s time to talk story, surrender memory, and persist in truth-telling affirming my authenticity as woman, daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt, friend, and writer. So, I open up the pages of me by rifling through varied roles and accomplishments inclusive of: adjunct faculty at University of California’s School of Social Work, Herstory board of director’s, doctoral student coach, researcher, examining COVID’s impacts among older Gullah women, co-founder, The Good Trouble Collaborative for labor reform, voter education, energy justice and, non-profit organizational development consultant.
These well-curated learnings, skills, and assets are backstopped by expertise garnered from work with the National Black Women’s Health Project, now Black Women’s Health Imperative, colleges, and universities such as Spelman, Tuskegee, Jackson State, Georgia State, Emory University, Morehouse School of Medicine, foundations, Kellogg, Ford, Casey, Pfizer among them and serving as the program officer for DC Community Humanities Foundation. I was privileged to work domestically and internationally with NGOs in western and southern Africa on HIVAIDS, female circumcision, women’s economic development, and most recently public health curriculum design in St. Vincent and The Grenadines. So, this is me, nearly in the middle of my 7th decade, more fully declared, more realized than ever, and still ready.
On balance, I do not agree with the dictate that there be only good stories included which you deem muzzling memory does not make this very authentic. Many have learned and grown traipsing through the fire that was the NBWHP. They have emerged as changed that’s the positive piece that could and must be shared without this dictate. You have asked for stories on how the Project and its process have impacted us. That is the impact which should be anchored to real-life, real-felt experiences.
Dianne Anderson Valentin
Advisor
Bio
Dianne Valentin is the mother of four, grandmother of ten, great-grandmother of two, and has over thirty years of experience assisting small businesses and nonprofit organizations with their business needs. She worked directly within community, private industry, and public education sectors. As a political scientist with training in the areas of international affairs and national defense, Dianne has used her training and education when advocating grassroots and progressive issues on Capitol Hill, as well as in national and international forums. She has had issues related articles published in a major news outlet. Dianne has curated, edited, and published two art books.
Dianne is the founder and CEO of the Black Heritage Museum & Cultural Center, Inc. (BHMACC) founded in 2005 and established as a nonprofit organization with federal tax-exempt status in 2006. The BHMACC is a grassroots, multi-issue, cultural organization led by Black women. Its mission is to document and preserve Black heritage, culture, and scholarship and use it to encourage, empower, and uplift current and future generations through scholarly engagement, art, and artistic expression, while cultivating critical thought. The organization is currently working out of Atlanta.
Under Dianne’s leadership the BHMACC has helped over 3,000 marginalized and low-income students get into college. It does its work in the areas of arts, culture, education, social justice, community benevolence, environmental justice, and civic engagement.
Dianne works with national, state, and community nonprofit organizations providing strategic advice, technical assistance, program development, community outreach, and community organizing support.
During her corporate career working for an investment banking and accounting firm Dianne and her team managed the assets of twenty-six financial institutions with asset values ranging from $25 million to $10 billion, she managed the staff of asset managers, financial services and accounting representatives, researched and brought to resolution federal agency investigations, Congressional Inquiry and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests received directly from Congress related to those managed institutions, developed and initiated uniform training procedures for the handling of client issues. As a Senior Analyst for a government agency she was responsible for the analysis of negotiated contracts to insure commitment integrity and that the negotiated contracts fell within the guidelines for that financial product.
Dianne was invited to appear, and testified, before President Barack Obama’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future presenting her views on nuclear weapons, nuclear waste, and how they impact environmental and racial injustice. Dianne acted as a technical advisor and editor of a climate report that has been presented to and accepted by the United Nations, personally received and reviewed by the current Pope at the Vatican.
Dianne recently retired from her position as President of the board of directors of a statewide women-led peace, environmental justice, political empowerment nonprofit organization, has served as Chair of a national, women led United Nations recognized NGO. She formerly served as founding President of an Atlanta based legal advocacy nonprofit supporting girls and women dealing with sex discrimination and abuses in the education and workplace settings. Dianne is a former President of the board of directors of a women’s health center with a national client base. She is also a past President of the Friends of Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture & History.
Dianne has been honored with awards which include a United Nations’ National Human Rights Award and a National Grassroots Activist Award by a national organization comprised of organizations from all over the country.
Tori
Artist
website Original Art
Bio
Latoria Magee is a rising Senior at Alabama Christion Academy. She is 17 years old and loves art, with her preferred area of focus being abstract art. Tori plans to direct her studies on becoming a Biomedical Engineer.
Courtney Brooks
Artist
website Original Art
Bio
Founder of Journey of a Black Girl / Artist / Advocate / Graphic Designer / Art Instructor
Brooks believes that it has been a gift to work with a wide range of entrepreneurs, small businesses, and grassroots organizations. She collaborates with emerging, as well as established, visual artists from multiple disciplines, cultures, and backgrounds. As a curator, she assists artists/muralists, as they focus on understanding their creative process. She helps reveal and bring forth the undiscovered narrative that can help them identify their sense of urgency. Her goal is to help maximize the artist’s potential and expand the visibility of their work to broader audiences. She understands and considers it a privilege as a curator to share her client’s work from private collections and established studios, handling concepts with great care. @cbrooksart
Omelika Kuumba
Artist
website Original song
Bio
Founder and CEO of Sistah With A Nia, LLC. / Drummer / Dancer / Choreographer / Musical Arranger/Cultural Arts Educator/Founding Member/ Artistic Director Emerita of Giwayen Mata
Omelika Kuumba is a native of Brooklyn, NY, and a graduate of Spelman College. She taught African Dance at Emory University, and is an instructor of African Dance Forms at Spelman College, directs Ashietu, the Sisters Chapel African Dance and Drum Ministry at Spelman College; Soaring High, experienced and multifaceted artists who play, sing, and dance to original works and arrangements by Sis. Omelika; and Metropolitan Atlanta African Dancers and Drummers, accomplished and zestful artists presenting performances and workshops in African drumming and dancing; and teaches West African dance for AileyCamp.
Omelika considers herself blessed to have learned from, taught, worked with, and performed with so many beautiful spirits over the course of her career as an educator and an artist. It is her hope that she has contributed to their lives in as many positive ways as they have contributed to hers and that she will have even more opportunities to create and experience joy by sharing her passions exploring dance, rhythm, and culture with others. Omelika cherishes the growing experiences she had at the Mother House, her Self-Help group, and the Dahlonega retreats. She is very excited to have been asked to write "This Is an All Call" for NBWHP.