Countering PUSHOUT: Skills to Support Girls of Color 2025

MONIQUE COUVSON, ED.D (formerly Monique W. Morris) is an award-winning author and social justice scholar with three decades of experience in the areas of education, civil rights, juvenile and criminal justice. Her research intersects race, gender, education and justice to explore the ways in which Black communities, and other communities of color, are uniquely affected by social policies. Dr. Couvson is the President and CEO of Grantmakers for Girls of Color, which has developed four signature funds, including: the Black Girl Freedom Fund. She is also the Founder and Board Chair for the National Black Women’s Justice Institute. Dr. Couvson’s work has been profiled by MSNBC, CSPAN2, The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, USA Today, and PBS, among other national and local print, radio, and television media.

Judith Browne Dianis has served as a lawyer, professor and civil rights advocate in the movement for racial justice. Hailed as a voting rights expert and Godmother of the movement to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline, Dianis is Executive Director of Advancement Project and Advancement Project Action Fund, where she leads their work in combating structural racism in education, voting, policing, and criminal justice.

Since joining Advancement Project at its inception in 1999, Dianis has been a pioneer in the development of the movement lawyering model. She has worked with grassroots organizations to wage successful campaigns using litigation, advocacy and communications. Dianis has authored groundbreaking reports on school discipline and criminalization. Advancement Project’s work has led to decreases in suspensions and arrests and removal of police in several districts.   

Dianis helped start Advancement Project’s Voter Protection program which has brought some of the most important voting rights cases of our time and is currently litigating in Georgia and Florida. Under her leadership Advancement Project started its Justice Project to end mass incarceration and transform public safety. The organization has provided rapid response support in communities facing police violence. Recently, Judith co-created an animated video series with her Board member, actor/activist Jesse Williams, called How Cops Get Off to explain the reasons police are unaccountable.

Judith is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia Law School. She served as president of Columbia Black Law Students Association, leading a sit-in resulting in hiring of additional Black professors among other changes. Upon graduation, Dianis served as a Skadden Fellow at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and went on to become the Managing Attorney in the Washington, D.C. office. She was awarded the Prime Movers Fellowship for trailblazing social movement leaders and was named one of “Thirty Women to Watch” by Essence magazine. 

When it comes to breaking down barriers related to autism in the Black community, no one does it with more passion and clarity than Maria Davis-Pierre, a licensed mental health counselor, autism awareness advocate and founder of Autism in Black.  

With a keen ability to educate and guide communities in desperate need of resources and support, Maria has transformed the lives of countless Black families parenting autistic children.  

As the parent of two autistic children, and being autistic herself, Maria understands firsthand the isolation, shame and stigma that often accompanies an autism diagnosis. Armed with that knowledge, she uses her professional expertise to connect with and empower Black parents of autistic children. Through Autism in Black, she also provides essential training to organizations so they can more effectively serve the Black disability community.  

A dynamic, in-demand speaker, Maria has conducted many powerful workshops and lectures on topics related to autism including autism in the Black community, the intersection of race and disability, and self-care.  

Her work has gained national acclaim with features in Forbes, The New York Times, USA Today, Parents magazine and on PBS. Maria has also collaborated with Microsoft.