Theme: ELEVATE

This year's theme, ELEVATE, challenges us to consider how we lift each other up, improve ourselves morally, intellectually or culturally, and how community raises our spirits.

Oates Theater, Collegiate School
103 N Mooreland Road
Richmond, Virginia, 23229
United States

Abby Rieck

Student

Abby Rieck is a senior at James River High School in the Center for Leadership and International Relations. Born in Dayton, Ohio, Abby moved to the Richmond area when she was two years old. Abby comes from a large family – she is the fourth of five children. She enjoys playing goalkeeper for FC Richmond Travel Soccer Club, and she participates in James River’s Student Council Association. Abby loves to travel both in and outside of the United States.

Aerica Lauren

Musician

Aerica Lauren is a Richmond local whose memorable pop-style melodies mix with folky lyricism, allowing her to deliver raw, relatable, and emotive performances.

April Perrin

Sustainable Fashion Advocate

April Auger Perrin is the owner and creator of the website All Awear. She started her career doing public relations in the fashion industry and dreamed about one day combining her love of both fashion and philanthropy. At the time, she had no idea what that meant (this was before the days of TOMS shoes). She envisioned the fashion industry as an engine to empower people throughout the world and to serve as a model to other industries in conducting business ethically. Following her stint in fashion, April spent 8 years working in the nonprofit sector training political and business leaders to use their resources and skills to improve social problems within the Commonwealth of Virginia. April has a Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Studies from the University of Richmond, where she wrote her thesis on fashion-related social entrepreneurship. In June 2017, she launched All Awear as a culmination of her work in fashion, wardrobe styling, and the nonprofit sector.

Chris Largaespada

Wheelchair Constructor

Chris Largaespada is a student at Virginia Commonwealth University double majoring in Biomedical engineering and Applied Mathematics. He is a twenty-two-year-old, second generation student born and raised in Woodbridge, Virginia. Currently, Chris works as an emergency room medical scribe and a student researcher. Here he is studying the effects of cellular mechanobiology on fibrosis and tumor formation. Along with two other students, Chris spent a semester repairing motorized wheelchairs for Goodwill, and shadowing technicians learning how to repair medical equipment in the VCU health system. This prepared him to spend seventy days working in local hospitals in Guatemala and St. Vincent’s repairing medical equipment.

Danielle Jefferson

Race and Education Activist

Danielle Freeman Jefferson is a freshman at North Carolina A&T State University, Landscape Architecture major. Danielle’s goal is to redesign and build communities to mediate housing insecurities in areas that are under-resourced. She is invested in the social issues in our society and is committed to decreasing the effect of these social issues for as many people as she can. Her biggest hope is to decrease social issues surrounding education, as well as direct service to communities affected most by issues such as mass incarceration, food and housing insecurities, and social injustice.

Dave Watkins

Sound Artist

Dave Watkins is an audio/visual artist living in Richmond, Virginia. He has focused his studies primarily on music and the performing arts, graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University with a BFA in Theatrical Design and Technology. As a musician, he has performed all around the country, coaxing any number of sounds out of an electric dulcitar he designed and built, in conjunction with assorted effects and loop pedals, and sometimes augments his performances with live sound reactive video projections. He has shared stages with artists such as William Tyler, Sir Richard Bishop, Dan Deacon, Tim Barry, Des Ark, and Christopher Tignor. Watkins has also engineered and produced albums for other Richmond artists such as Dumb Waiter, Night Idea, and Lobo Marino in addition to his own solo work.

David Coogan

Author

Dr. David Coogan is an associate professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University and a co-author of Writing Our Way Out: Memoirs from Jail. Writing Our Way Out is the creative culmination of a writing class in which ten men explore the conditions, traps, and turning points on their paths to imprisonment as well as the redemptive power of memoir. He is the founder and co-director of Open Minds, which brings college classes—and college students—into the Richmond City Justice Center, and the founder and director of Writing Your Way Out: A Criminal Justice Diversion Program, which enables low-level offenders in Richmond to avoid incarceration and instead pursue education.

Elizabeth Redford

Co-founder of the Next Move Program

Elizabeth Redford, M.A. Ed., is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of The Next Move Program. She has worked in the field of Special Education for the last 9 years – spending half of that time in a traditional school setting and the other half within Transition. She was named The 2017 Change Agent of the Year by the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce and a member of the 2018 Top 40 Under 40 list by Style Weekly. In addition to leading Next Move, she is a speaker, consultant, advocate, and curriculum developer.

Henry Haggard

Child Activist

Henry Haggard is a civil liberties advocate and a host of two ACLU events and one fundraiser. He is a freelance journalist for RVA Magazine and the ACLU of Virginia, as well as being the owner of a personal and political blog. He is a political leader through numbers and the written word, Henry Haggard encourages activism in both his peers and in adults.

Jeremy Hoffman

Climatologist

Dr. Jeremy Hoffman is Climate and Earth Scientist at the Science Museum of Virginia and an affiliate faculty in VCU’s Center for Environmental Studies. He specializes in public-facing Earth science research, communication, and exhibit development, including leading the City of Richmond’s first Urban Heat Island Assessment in July 2017. Jeremy earned his Ph.D. in Geology with a focus in Paleoclimatology as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. Dr. Hoffman has served as a Science Communication Fellow for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and the Mitchell Hamline College of Law.

Kelvin Belton

Author

Mr. Kelvin Belton is a co-author of Writing Our Way Out: Memoirs from Jail, the creative culmination of a writing class in which ten men explore the conditions, traps, and turning points on their paths to imprisonment as well as the redemptive power of memoir. Belton is also a program coach in Writing Your Way Out: A Criminal Justice Diversion program, where he mentors low-level offenders in their writing and life skills. Belton is a Richmond native, an entrepreneur, and a basketball coach for Blacktop Kings and Queens.

Lindsay Wallbillich

Roller Derby Skater/Coach

Lindsay Wallbillich is a Banquet Captain and Jeweler by day, kickboxer and roller derby coach by night, (and even some early mornings). She works 50+ hours per week because coaching adult women through a hard hitting sport is her life and love. Married with two pets, Lindsay is a young woman born in Virginia but from all over. She has a need to understand and accept challenges, and even failure as a means to thrive.

Mariya Vysotskaya

Dancing Classrooms RVA

Mariya Vysotskaya is a champion professional ballroom dancer, instructor, coach and social entrepreneur. She is the founder and Executive Director of Dancing Classrooms Greater Richmond, which has taught thousands of young people the value of teamwork and discipline as they learn to lead, follow and succeed through the art of ballroom dance. A native of Kaliningrad, Russia, Mariya competes as a professional, teaches both adults and children, and coaches the current United States Amateur Champions. Her greatest joy is helping children, particularly those who may face disadvantages, because she knows that through hard work they can succeed. Mariya says that when two people move across the floor to beautiful music, they are sharing their humanity. Being able to see past, race, position, language, size, and focus on the humanity of another person is a skill that will prepare our children to take their place in a complex and diverse world.

Matt Daniel

Satire Writer

Matt Daniel is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Peedmont, an editorial company that publishes satirical news journalism on all things related to Virginia. Matt is a Richmond native that grew up in the West End before studying marketing at VCU. In 2016, he started The Peedmont with the help of a few friends; he now works with a team of contributors based around the state that creates humor-driven satire on culture, places, events, and politics within the commonwealth. Matt believes that comedy and satire can be an accessible way to approach complicated and serious topics in the world today.

Ngan Bui

Human Trafficking Activist

Ngan Bui is senior at James River High School in the Center for Leadership and International Relations. She is a passionate advocate against human trafficking that is present in both the world and in the Richmond area. Ngan is currently the Vice President of ImPACT Virginia, a grassroots awareness campaign that fights to eradicate the trafficking of America’s youths through prevention education. She is also an active member of the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement, One Community, and ESOL Club.

Nico Cathcart

Muralist

Nico Cathcart is a painter, signmaker, and muralist hailing from Toronto, Ontario, who strives to discuss Feminism, Minority Empowerment, and Conservation in her highly-colorful works. She is currently creating and adventuring in the southern wilds of Richmond, VA. Her work has been shown in many galleries and museums throughout the continent, including the MASS MOCA, Gallery 5, Glave Kocen, 1979 Gallery in Rochester, NY, La Bodega Gallery in San Diego, District Local Gallery in Vancouver, and many more. She holds a dual BFA in Painting and Ceramics from SUNY Cortland. She is an active muralist, with work in the Richmond Street Art Festival, Wall Therapy, Spirit Walls in Pittsburgh, and the Richmond Tattoo and Arts Festival as well as many businesses and restaurants throughout the area.

Rodney Lofton

Diversity Richmond

Rodney Lofton has been a voice and advocate for those living with HIV for almost 20 years. He has served as a keynote speaker and requested facilitator, he is a former freelance writer and public relations professional, having worked with Kool and the Gang and Mary Wilson of the legendary Supremes, and he has served as a columnist for the online website GBMNews. His column focused on issues around HIV/AIDS and African-American gay men. His debut novel, The Day I Stopped Being Pretty: A Memoir along with his sophomore effort No More Tomorrows: Two Lives, Two Stories, One Love were both nominated for Lambda Literary Awards. Before assuming the role of Vice President and Deputy Director with Diversity Richmond, Mr. Lofton served as Executive Director of The Renewal Projects. In addition, he worked extensively in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention and case management with organizations in Richmond, Washington, DC, and Albuquerque, NM.

Rodney Robinson

Teacher, Social Justice Advocate

Rodney Robinson is a teacher who has 19 years of teaching experience in the Richmond Public School System. He has recently received the award for the 2019 state of Virginia Teacher of the Year. He moved to Virgie Binford Education Center inside Richmond Juvenile Detention Center in 2015 to help understand the school to prison pipeline in order to create alternatives to juvenile imprisonment. He is a fearless advocate for social justice and works hard to instill these values in his students.