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About This Webinar
An impactful panel engages in conversations around how people of all ages can contribute to social justice efforts nationally and items impacting the Mizzou community and their local environment.

Voting registration, donations to social justice efforts and next step deliverables will be included to ensure tangible results.
Presenters
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    Erica Simon
    Moderator
    Erica Simon is an anchor/reporter at ABC in Houston.

    She first got her journalism start in her hometown of Dallas, winning numerous Young Authors Contests and participating in high school plays.

    She graduated with a major in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Sociology from Mizzou in 2008. From there, she anchored and reported for KOMU-TV in Columbia, then spent two years at KTAL in Shreveport, Louisiana. While in the Bayou State, Erica covered Hurricanes Gustav and Isaac and reported on the front lines of a national police-involved shooting in the town of Homer.

    Her next gig landed her in Jacksonville, Florida, where she launched and anchored the weekend morning show at WJAX/WFOX. She earned two Emmy nominations in The Sunshine State and covered everything from politics to hurricanes.

    Some of Erica's most memorable interviews include NFL wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald and Civil Rights icon Andrew Young. Working for the ABC/Disney-owned station in Houston, she often gets the chance to do live talk backs with 20/20 and Good Morning America personalities like Michael Strahan and TJ Holmes.

    She’s passionate about race and culture stories, along with at-risk youth. She’s a mentor for the ROSES program in Houston Independent School District, which helps Black and Hispanic girls navigate their educational and personal lives. She’s also a board member of the Houston Association of Black Journalists, which is part of NABJ.

    Erica enjoys traveling, going to HomeGoods and spending time with her husband, 19 month-old daughter and Dalmatian Sampson.
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    Ashley Yates
    Panelist
    Ashley Yates, also known on Twitter as Brown Blaze, is a key organizer in the #BlackLivesMatter movement. She was at the center of the Ferguson protests after the police killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown and continues to organize around issues of police brutality and institutional racism. She was among the protesters who made headlines by interrupting presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley at Netroots Nation in late 2015.

    Ashley Yates is an organizer, writer and community advocate based out of St Louis, Missouri. As a member of Ferguson Action and #BlackLivesMatter Ashley has been active in both on the ground protests and strategic organizing central to the Movement for Black Lives.
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    Dr. E. Andre Thorn
    Panelist
    Dr. E. Andre Thorn is the new Director of the Center for Academic Success and Excellence at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU).

    He originally hails from Las Vegas, Nevada and attended the University of Nevada, Reno where he completed a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice and a Master of Arts degree in Counseling and Educational Psychology with an emphasis in College Student Development. He earned his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis from the University of Missouri in 2014. Dr. Thorn comes to back to Mizzou after serving as the Assistant Director of Academic Retention Services (ARS) at MU from 1998-2010. Most recently, he was Director of the Multicultural Center at the University of Alaska, Anchorage (UAA) 2011-2020.

    During his tenure in Alaska, he engaged in a variety of campus and community committees and programs designed to enhance the student of color experience and enhance diversity, inclusion and equity efforts. He also served as an adjunct faculty in both the Career and Technical College and has taught UNIV 150 (Creating Success in College) and Organizational Theory and Behavior, and Change Leadership courses in the UAA College of Business at both the graduate and undergraduate level.

    He has been married to Stephanie White Thorn, Esq. for over 25 years.
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    Dr. Courtney Gay, PhD
    Panelist
    An accomplished sports professional with NFL, NBA, MLB, and NCAA experience, Dr. Courtney Gay is dedicated to the advancement of athletics as a vehicle and platform for individual, collective, and societal growth, development, and change.

    Dr. Gay currently serves as an associate director/diversity and inclusion strategist with the University of Georgia (UGA) Athletic Association. In her current role, she creates and implements strategic diversity, equity, and inclusion programs for student-athletes, provides academic support for student-athletes competing in Olympic sports, and assists in the development and facilitation of UGA Athletic Association diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Additionally, she has conducted extensive research on the intersection of sport and social justice.

    Prior to her arrival at UGA, Dr. Gay gained community affairs and player development experience in roles with the Atlanta Braves, Fort Worth Flyers (NBA G League), and the National Football League (NFL).

    A native of Houston, Texas, Dr. Gay earned a bachelor of journalism and a bachelor of arts from the University of Missouri, a master of science in kinesiology with a focus in sport management from Texas A&M University, and a doctorate in college student affairs administration from the University of Georgia.
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    Payton Head
    Panelist
    Payton is a recent graduate of the University of Missouri where he represented nearly 28,000 students as President of the student government. In the aftermath of Ferguson, he spearheaded conversations about improving race relations in Missouri. Head’s viral Facebook post detailing his experience with racism at Mizzou ignited the student body to fight for a more inclusive campus and shook up the world of higher education. This led to the #ConcernedStudent1950 movement, where campus protests resulted in the resignation of the chancellor and UM-System president in the historic fall of 2015. Head was featured inTeen Vogue’s "How Three Students Changed the Course of History at Their Schools."

    Head was awarded at the 2016 NAACP Image Awards on the mantra “Courage Will Not Skip this Generation.” Spike Lee featured Head in the ESPN Documentary “2 Fists UP,” which documented the stories of the student activists at Mizzou. Head is a contributing writer for the Huffington Post and joined former Secretary Arne Duncan with the U.S. Department of Education to discuss effective strategies for addressing campus race relations. With the National Campus Leadership Council and the Department of Ed, he co-authored a guide for student leaders for addressing inclusion at educational institutions, and has presented to students nationwide on the importance of creating a culture of acceptance.

    A member of the LGBTQ community, Head facilitates dialogue on the intersection of race and sexual identities. He recently presented at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, addressed the White House Initiative on HBCUs, and helped to organize and present at the first ever White House Convening for Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Ed. He has been featured on CNN, The New York Times, The Melissa Harris Perry Show, MSNBC, The Chronicle of Higher Education, ABC, The Washington Post,and in Wesley Lowery's "They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement."

    Using his platform to advocate for inclusion, Head empowers students and campus administrators to fight hatred with radical love for others and for themselves.
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