Andrea Pérez-Maikkula (she/her/ella) is a multilingual global health professional and DEI practitioner with fifteen years of experience in intercultural facilitation, community engagement, and community development, particularly in Haiti, where she’s focused her work in ecological sanitation. She currently serves as the Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at the Minnesota State Retirement System.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Andrea studied Business Law and Music Business at the University of Miami. In her early 20s, she founded a non-profit organization that focused on co-creating sustainable projects that contribute to social justice. Prior to moving to Minnesota in the fall of 2014, Andrea spent the summer in Porto Alegre, Brasil, where she worked with a street clinic providing free healthcare to sex workers and folks experiencing homelessness.

Andrea was a speaker at the first TEDxSanJuan event in Puerto Rico, has a master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Puerto Rico, is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, and a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory. She is the incoming chair of the City of Brooklyn Park’s Human Rights Commission.

In her spare time, Andrea enjoys singing and dancing (even though she’s neither a singer nor a dancer) and watching tennis matches (while secretly hoping she was playing in them). Andrea lives in Brooklyn Park with her husband and their two young children.

Jason Marque Sole (he, they) is a formerly incarcerated abolitionist. He has been a criminal justice educator for 14 years and is currently an adjunct professor at Hamline University in the Criminal Justice & Forensic Science Department. He has facilitated hundreds of circles in jails, prisons, and communities across the nation. Jason is also the co-founder of the Humanize My Hoodie Movement in which he challenges threat perceptions of Black people through clothing, art exhibitions, documentary screenings,
and workshops.  He is a Core Member of Relationships Evolving Possibilities (REP) where several abolitionists respond to community harms in the Twin Cities. In addition, he recently launched the Institute of Aspiring Abolitionists for people who’d like to learn more about abolitionist frameworks.