CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Janea manages all programming activities for the Power Coalition. Her work includes the statewide growth of the Power Coalition and the implementation of core programming including She Leads! our leadership program for female leaders of color; our Black Men and Boys Statewide work; and our policy/advocacy work. She also oversees the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice Census work including conducting research, work planning, convening, programming and evaluation. Janea coordinates with our staff to ensure a seamless work approach to our program work. Prior to her position with the Power Coalition, Janea worked at the East Baton Rouge Metro Council as the Legislative Assistant to Councilwoman Erika L. Green (D-5) and Court System Supervisor for Assumption Parish. Her program areas included community outreach, civic engagement, and youth development. She spends much of her time volunteering for nonprofits such as the Butterfly Society, St. Vincent De Paul, Big Buddy Program, and Dream Works Louisiana. She is a 2019 BOLD (Black Organizing for Leadership & Dignity) Fellow and also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Janea earned her B.A. in Political Science from Southern University and A&M College where she also received a Masters of Public Administration (MPA).

Lyons is a retired supervisor with the Jefferson Parish Streets Department. He formerly coached high school and youth league basketball. He is a former president of the Woodmere Civic Association, an organization of homeowners in the largest subdivision in Louisiana. Lyons calls himself “a quick study” who has “the pulse of the community at my fingertips.

Walker served in the administration of former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu. His roles included Senior Advisor to the Mayor and Communications Director; Senior Advisor to the Mayor for Local Affairs where he oversaw Local Government Affairs and Community Engagement; Special Assistant to the Mayor and Faith-Based Advisor; Director of CeaseFire New Orleans; and Project Manager on the Mayor’s Innovation Delivery Team where he helped write and lead the implementation of the city’s NOLA for Life Murder Reduction Strategy.

Outside of working in public service, Walker has demonstrated success in the private sector as Chief Operating Officer of the Law Office of Wayne E. Woods and Alpha Title Company and owner of Walker Strategic Solutions, LLC, a full service consulting firm he started in 2015 that specializes in strategy development, project management and political campaigns.

Walker is a native of the New Orleans’ 9th Ward and is a proud graduate of Brother Martin High School. Walker went on to earn his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont. Walker is also active in civic leadership having served on a number of boards in founding roles including Miller-McCoy Academy for Mathematics and Business, Son of a Saint Foundation, and the Split Second Foundation. Walker also currently serves on the Board of New Schools for New Orleans. Walker is the Immediate Past President of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Sigma Lambda Chapter and is a member of the Franklin Avenue Baptist Church.

He is the author of the book Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities, which is currently available wherever books are sold. A nationally known and respected commentator on race, structural inequality, and education, Perry is a regular contributor to MSNBC and has been published by The New York Times, The Nation, The Washington Post, TheRoot.com and CNN.com. Perry’s scholarship has been featured on HBO, ABC, CNN, PBS, National Public Radio, NBC and in the Wall Street Journal. His research focuses on race and structural inequality, education, and economic inclusion. Perry’s recent scholarship at Brookings has analyzed Black-majority cities and institutions in America, focusing on valuable assets worthy of increased investment.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Perry has documented the underlying causes for the outsized number of coronavirus-related deaths in Black communities. His Brookings research has illuminated how certain forms of social distancing historically accelerated economic and social disparities between Black people and the rest of the country. Perry also mapped racial inequities in housing, income, and health to underscore how policy discrimination makes Black Americans more vulnerable to COVID-19.

Currently, Ron serves on the Pfizer Small Business Council, National Newspapers Publishers Association Foundation Board of Directors, and White House African American Leadership Council. He has also formerly served on the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Council on Underserved Communities.

Trained by some of the country’s leading corporate executives, Ron developed his skills at some of the nation’s largest corporations including; Exxon, Xerox, IBM, and Coca-Cola USA. While in corporate America, he was recognized as National Sales Person of the Year.

Ron also has chamber experience as he was previously the President of the Greater Phoenix Black Chamber of Commerce for five years.

A native of Oakland, CA; and graduate with honors from both Florida A&M and Clark Atlanta University, Ron has dedicated himself to the empowerment of the Black community. Ron is also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Ron has two sons and currently lives in the Washington, DC area.

For seven years, Ms. DeVane served as associate director of Financial Services for Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) where she was responsible for loan structuring, underwriting, business development, and providing technical assistance services to clients. Before NFF, she worked as an independent consultant providing credit training and risk advisory services to financial institutions and had an extensive career in corporate banking.

Ms. DeVane holds an MBA in finance from the Atlanta University Graduate School of Business Administration and a BA in Economics from Tufts University.

Klassi is an active member of the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, the International Council for Small Business, and serves as member of the Board of Directors for the Association for Women’s Business Centers. Klassi also represents the Urban League of Louisiana on the Louisiana House of Representative’s COVID-19 Subcommittee on the Economic Recovery of Minority, Female, and Veteran-Owned Enterprises.

Ms. Duncan earned a BS in Business Management and a Master’s in Business Administration at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, FL. She is also a Certified Professional in Supply Chain Management and a Certified Professional in Supplier Diversity.

While a State Representative she was active on a number of committees including the House Ways and Means Committee, Health and Welfare Committee, the Municipal, Parochial, Cultural Affairs Committee and the Joint Capital Outlay Committee. She currently serves as the Chairwoman of the Select Committee on Women and Children, Vice Chair of the Health and Welfare Committee, a member of the Finance Committee, Judiciary C, Labor and Industrial Relations, and the Select Committee on Veterans Affairs.

As a State Legislator, Senator Barrow has stayed actively involved in giving her community the leadership they deserve. As a Representative, Senator Barrow passed several pertinent pieces of legislation including ACT 264, which provides National Guard members who re-enlist in the National Guard the opportunity to receive free college tuition up to a doctorate degree. She also ushered through ACT 98, which creates a new economic development district for the North Baton Rouge area. Senator Barrow is also deeply committed to strong ethics within our state government. During the 2007 Legislative Session, she led an effort to successfully pass legislation that requires elected officials to participate in mandatory ethics training. Senator Barrow is also proud to have played an integral part in passing legislation to protect and prevent the birth of premature babies to reduce infant mortality in the State of Louisiana. In her last term as State Representative, Senator Barrow authored HCR 129 which created a task force to study health services delivery and financing in the Baton Rouge Region.

Senator Barrow is a graduate of the Flemmings Fellow Leadership Institute Fellow and the Council of State Government-Center for Advancement of Leadership. In addition, she will be pursuing her degree in Business Administration over the next four years. She is also the state director for Women in Government and Women in Legislature Lobby and the regional chair for the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. She was also the executive director of RĪZ Up Louisiana. Senator Barrow in 2015 was presented with the Regional Legislator of the Year Award for Region 10 at the 39th Annual National Black Caucus of State Legislators in Los Angeles, California. She was also named the 2015 Regional Policy Legislative Honoree for being a champion for mental health and addiction treatment, by the Mental Health America Association.

Senator Barrow and her husband, James, have been married for 31 years and have two children, James Barrow, Jr. and Shanrika Barrow Fobb, a son-in law, Derrick Fobb, Sr. and two grandsons, Jeremiah and Derrick Jr.

Katrina was born and raised in Monroe, Louisiana and is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Welton and Patricia Holman and Mr. and Mrs. Walter and Linda Jackson.

As a young child, her parents’ friends would comment on her inquisitive mind and her friends loved that when they got in trouble, Katrina was always there to stick up for them, even if it landed her in hot water as well. Her mother’s mantra that she should always fight for what she believed in, even when others disagreed, because the fight was worth it sticks with her today.

Katrina graduated from the University of Louisiana at Monroe where she majored in Pre-Law and Legal Studies. Her commitment to an aspiring career in the legal profession led her to receive her Juris Doctorate from Southern University in Baton Rouge in 2004. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Sorority Inc., following in the footsteps of her grandmother, the late Alice Marie Jackson.

Katrina has been blessed with many mentors in her life, they all shine through in the path she has chosen. From family members that taught her about etiquette and gave her a fighting spirit; to teachers who prepared her for life beyond the classroom, and legal and political minds that taught her life lessons about separating good people from bad ideas.

One force that can’t be denied is her love and devotion to her Lord, Jesus Christ. She was brought up in the Christian faith, and accepted Christ as Lord and Savior of her life at an early age and has continued to grow her faith. During law school she began; to study the Word more rigorously. She always knew that God should be acknowledged in all areas of her life, but during her law school years she was away from home for the first time and learned to depend on Him more. It was then that her personal relationship with God became stronger through more time in the Word and in midweek church services. She knows she is an imperfect person doing all she can to submit to the will of God daily in all areas of her life.

Armed with her law degree and several years of mentoring from attorney and former State Representative Willie Hunter, Jr., Katrina came to the Louisiana Legislature in 2006 as a Staff Attorney for the House Committee on Labor & Industrial Relations and as Executive Director of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus. Her exposure to the issues the legislature faced; and the leaders crafting solutions; and fighting for people gave her new insights and opened new doors for her.

In 2011 she announced for the 16th State House seat (parts of Ouachita and Morehouse Parishes) being vacated and won in the first round of voting against 3 other opponents. She was subsequently elected without opposition in 2015 for a second term. In August of 2019 she was elected Senator for District 34 without opposition.

The smile that Katrina keeps on her face in good times and bad is well known throughout the Capitol. Known as a tough negotiator who often gets more than her opponents wanted to give up from the bargaining table, Katrina hasn’t shied away from leadership roles and is well versed in the procedures and politics that make her such a good fighter for her values and constituents.

Whether it’s protecting working and middle-class families from tax increases that unfairly burden them to fighting for women to receive equal pay for equal work, there’s no better friend and advocate in the Capitol than Katrina. She’s helped protect our state’s agricultural interests, funded roads and bridges back home, ensured that student athletes have access to defibrillators in their schools and protected the uninsured’s access to quality affordable healthcare. But children have a special place in her heart, and she is a passionate and outspoken protector of the unborn’s right to life and funding for K-12 education in the State Legislature.

At home you can find Katrina worshiping with her family at Riverside Missionary Baptist Church, fighting for clients in criminal and civil law cases, and spending time educating, working with, and listening to her constituents at churches, senior centers and community venues.

Katrina attributes her accomplishments to not just having a dream, but having a dream that lines up with God’s plan for her life. She believes her footsteps are ordered by God and every day she works to allow God to guide her in the process of realizing her dream.

Larvadain won election to the Louisiana House of Representatives to represent District 26 outright in the primary election on February 23, 2019.

Pierre is dedicated to solving problems, rather than partisanship: “It is critical that our district has a representative to fight for their interests at the state level, whether it is for a home rule petition, for a sewer system or fight for local aid.”

As a child, he developed an early love for baseball. He grew up in the NORD system, playing for Milne and the Lakeshore Allstars, where his teams won several state and regional championships. He spent his teenage years painting houses for his father’s company, and Matthew credits his dad, Dominic, for instilling in him personal values of selflessness, hard work and service.

His mother, Terrie Bazanac Willard, is a lifelong educator who taught Matthew to respect the tireless, and oftentimes, underappreciated work of educators. She always challenged Matthew to do his best and to utilize his God-given assets to help others.

Perhaps it would be impossible to miss the lessons of teamwork, setting and achieving goals, finding common ground to make improvements, and how to think critically and problem solve when there was a deep family legacy of service stemming from Matthew’s grandparents, Elliot and Mary Jane Willard. Both were civil rights leaders and lifelong educators at St. Augustine, Booker T. Washington and John McDonogh High Schools. Matthew’s Aunt Cynthia Willard-Lewis served as a State Senator and City Councilperson.

Matthew is an elected member of Orleans Parish Democratic Executive Committee for City Council District D and serves as a Board Member for Jason’s House, a nonprofit organization working to finance low-cost housing for men following rehabilitation for chemical dependency. Matthew is a homeowner, President of the Seabrook Neighborhood Association, and Board Member for the Seabrook Neighborhood Improvement and Security District. He is a parishioner of St. Raymond / St. Leo the Great Catholic Church.

Stemming from a legacy of service with deep roots to the Gentilly and Seventh Ward neighborhoods, Matthew is committed to the success of his community and embodies leadership that we can trust.

Before becoming a politician himself, Hughes worked as a political strategist in Louisiana politics. Hughes has served as the assistant legislative director to former Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, the regional manager for former US Senator Mary Landrieu, and the Director of Federal Relations for the city of New Orleans.