Panelists and Speakers

Dr. Burke is an associate professor and graduate coordinator at UGA. His research interests include curriculum theory, gender and sexualities, civic youth engagement, and queer theory. He is currently working on a project with the Parkview Community Center that utilizes Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR).

James Bailey is an Atlanta native and graduate of the University of Georgia. Bailey was recently named the inaugural CEO of the RCIE after tremendous success as the CEO of Operation Hope, a global non-profit focused on financial literacy. Bailey also founded the private equity firm Greenwood Archer. Greenwood Archer is dedicated to reimagining the way America’s most under-served communities leverage assets, establish wealth, strengthen infrastructure and create jobs. Bailey was one of eight Americans honored at the White House in 2012 as a “Champion of Change: Following in the Footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” He was also named to both the Atlanta Business Chronicle and Georgia Trend magazine’s “40 Under 40 Best and Brightest Leaders of the Future.”

Randolph Carter is a graduate of the University of Georgia. He currently manages the Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program at the University while also pursuing a doctor of Christian ministry degree from Liberty Theological Seminary. Carter has worked extensively in international development, with a focus on children and youth that have been affected by armed conflict. Carter has a personal stake in this work as he himself survived a civil war in his native Liberia when he was only 11 years old. Carter has worked in 18 countries across Africa and Asia.

Emily Boness is the director of Athens Peer Court, a program in which high school students serve as the lawyers, judge, and jurors in cases for youths who have been charged with first time offenses. Boness also serves as a board member for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), and organization that trains and provides advocates for children in the foster care system.

Dr. Michelle Cook has served as the Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion and Strategic University Initiatives since 2017. During her tenure as associate provost, UGA has received national recognition for its work in diversity, earning the INSIGHT Into Diversity Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award for four consecutive years.

Dr. Allison Plyer is an expert in applied demography, disaster recovery, and coastal population movements. Dr. Plyer is currently Chief Demographer at the Data Center, an independent organization that collects and analyzes data in South East Louisiana. The Data Centers areas of focus include disaster recovery, regional economic analysis, workforce development, racial disparity indicators, blight reduction, affordable housing, and coastal population movements. Dr. Plyer is a co-author of the New Orleans Prosperity Index which examines the extent to which economic outcomes have improved for black New Orleanians since the end of the Civil Rights era.