Public Purpose Speaker Series: Past Events

Discussing Active Peacemaking

The fifth annual Speaker Series will focus on active peacemaking and will feature three local individuals engaged in powerful work to create spaces and opportunities for people to share their narratives, explore differences and identify common ground to bring about positive change.

This year we will also be joined by a number of our community partners who will share information about their organizations and their current partnerships with Penn Charter.

The Center for Public Purpose faculty works closely with student representatives to design, coordinate and facilitate this event. Please join us for what will certainly be an enlightening evening.

Reggie Shuford: American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania

Reggie Shuford became executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania in September 2011. Prior to joining the ACLU-PA, he served as the director of law and policy at the Equal Justice Society (EJS), a national strategy group heightening consciousness on race in the law and popular discourse.

From 1995-2010, Shuford served as senior staff counsel in the national ACLU's Racial Justice Program. During his tenure there, he helped to pioneer legal challenges to racial profiling practices nationwide. He was the ACLU's chief litigator in challenges to racial profiling, leading national litigation efforts and consulting with ACLU state affiliates and others in cases of "driving while black or brown," airport profiling, and profiling related to the war on terror.

Shuford is a graduate of the University of North Carolina’s School of Law in Chapel Hill, where he was his graduating class president. In 2009, he received the Law School’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. Shuford is a former Harvard Law School Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow and received the 2014 Minority Business Leader Award from the Philadelphia Business Journal and the 2014 Humanitarian of the Year Award from the William Way LGBT Community Center. In 2015, Shuford was selected as a CBSPhilly GameChanger, named Diverse Attorney of the Year by the Legal Intelligencer, and received the Philadelphia Business Journal's LGBT Business Advocate Award. He is the recipient of the 2016 Living Legal Legend Award from Penn State Law's Black Law Students Association and Multicultural Undergraduate Law Association. Shuford also received the 2016 David M. Rosenblum GLBT Public Policy Award from the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Rights Committee and was named one of Philadelphia’s Most Influential African Americans of 2016 and 2017 by the Philadelphia Tribune. In 2017, Shuford was the recipient of the City of Brotherly Love Softball League's Community Service Award and was selected as an Outstanding Voice: the Business of Pride by the Philadelphia Business Journal. (Philadelphia)

Ayesha Imani, Fellowship of Friends of African Descent, Ujima Friends Peace Center

Ayesha Imani has been a public school educator for more than 40 years. She is the founder and head of school at Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School, a K-12 public social justice charter school in Philadelphia. She is also the executive manager of the Imhotep Institute Charter School, a 9-12 African Centered STEM school.

Ayesha Imani has been a Quaker for more than 35 years. She serves as clerk and is one of the founders of the Fellowship of Friends of African Descent, a transnational organization of Black Quakers. She is also clerk of the Ujima Friends Peace Center in North Philadelphia. Ujima Friends Peace Center's mission is to reduce the many forms of violence that plague communities of color. In addition, she is a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting and has served on the school committee of Germantown Friends School. Finally, Ayesha Imani is the proud mother of three awesome children, all of whom have become educators and are committed to being agents of change in the world.

Roy Michael Roman, University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Youth Commission

Roy Michael Roman is the chairman of the Philadelphia Youth Commission. He was initially appointed to the commission by Councilwoman At-Large Blondell Reynolds Brown, and he continues to work closely with her to craft policy solutions, hold public events and address other youth-related issues. In his role as chairman, he advocates for the youth voice to verify that youth have an opportunity to comment on, be aware of, and be knowledgeable about anything that is occurring in all levels of the governmental world. He is passionate about educational equity, racial equality and anything that pertains to the youth voice in political discourse.

As a Puerto Rican student born and raised in Tennessee, he has learned that understanding and being cognizant of different viewpoints is crucial in any young person's upbringing. Currently, Roman is a junior at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) with a primary theme area of Public Policy & Governance. He is also pursuing a music minor.