2026 Building Bridges, Removing Barriers Summit
Join us for a powerful lineup of confirmed speakers and panelists who will share their institutional knowledge on challenging the systems of inequity that affect our children, youth, families, and communities.
Dr. Sharon L. McDaniel is the founder, president and CEO of A Second Chance, Inc., the nation’s leading nonprofit voice on kinship care. She has more than 40 years of professional experience as an award-winning child welfare leader in Pennsylvania.
Dr. Sharon McDaniel
Sixto Cancel, a former foster youth, is the Founder and CEO of Think of Us (TOU), a nonprofit working to transform the nation’s foster care system into a Child and Family Well-Being System. His TED Talk on transforming foster care has been viewed over a million times worldwide. In 2023, TOU became the first lived experience–led organization in child welfare to receive a major “big bet” investment from TED’s Audacious Project, raising $47.5 million to drive systemic reform.
Sixto Cancel
Sandra Bernabei is a founder of the Antiracist Alliance which is building a movement to undo structural racism in human services and to bring an analysis of structural racism as outlined by the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond to social work education and practice. Her panel will discuss efforts to undo white supremacy principles impacting our children, youth, families, and communities.
Sandra Bernabei, LCSW
Toia Potts is a grieving mother and activist in Durham, NC. Falsely accused of child abuse, she spent eight months in jail on an unattainable bond, losing her job, home, car, and children. Released after Durham’s 2019 bond reform and exonerated, she nonetheless lost her parental rights in 2022. Inspired by Black mothers facing family separation, she organizes with Emancipate NC, founded Thrive Tribe NC, and co-founded Carolina Parent Defenders.
Toia Potts
Kamilah Bunn is CEO of the National Adoption Association and the first African American to lead the organization in its forty-four-year history. She brings more than two decades of child welfare experience and ten years of executive leadership. Kamilah will lead an interactive workshop featuring the Ujima Collective, an award-winning African-centered national leadership development program operated by the National Adoption Association.
Kamilah Bunn
Keiko Anderson, Esquire, is CEO of the Law Office of Keiko Griffin. Minister Anderson teaches the gospel, devoting much of her time to ministering to women at conferences and seminars across Central Texas. This co-author of “Live Your Abundant Life Too” will open our summit, leading us in our signature praise and worship service. Minister Anderson is the proud wife of Reverend Dr, Colonel DeVry Anderson who is a retired Colonel in the U.S. Army.
Minister Keiko Anderson
Jameila “Meme” Styles is a nonprofit executive, data activist, and responsible AI leader working at the intersection of governance, equity, technology, and community power. She is the CEO of Nonprofit Base, a governance and organizational accountability platform designed to help nonprofit leaders strengthen oversight, decision-making, and responsible technology use. In her interactive session, Meme will help nonprofit board members, executive directors, and senior leaders understand what responsible AI governance actually looks like—without requiring them to become technologists.
Jameila "Meme" Styles
Troy James is the founder and CEO of Velora™, a Harvard-Certified Executive Leadership Coach, and creator of the Pathfinder Method™, a framework that helps leaders separate identity from performance. Closing Keynote Address: This keynote honors the faithful carriers in the room: practitioners, healers, advocates, and leaders who have spent decades on work that often goes unseen. Attendees will leave knowing what is theirs to carry while feeling free to serve without bearing the harvest alone.