Tina Meier

Founder, Megan Meier Foundation
On October 16, 2006, Tina Meier’s life took a devastating turn when she found her 13-year-old daughter Megan Meier hanging from her bedroom closet. Megan passed away the next day, just weeks from her 14th birthday. A few weeks prior to her passing, a 16-year-old boy by the name of Josh Evans, contacted Megan through her MySpace account and they began a friendship. Six weeks after Megan’s suicide, Tina Meier, was informed that Josh Evans never existed. In fact, it was Lori Drew, an adult neighbor that lived down the street, her 13-year-old daughter, and an 18-year-old employee that worked out of Lori Drew’s home. It was from this tragic loss that Tina Meier founded the non-profit Megan Meier Foundation to bring awareness and change to cyber-bullying.

Stephanie Mills

Singer, Songwriter, Actor
Stephanie Mills has one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary music, an ultra soulful songstress who’s on stage energy and power inspires standing ovations wherever she performs. She is a legendary Grammy an American Music Award winning recording artist with five best-selling albums and ten Billboard #1 singles. Over the span of a 25 year illustrious career, Stephanie Mills has distinguished herself as an actress and performer who is as at home on the Broadway stage as she is in the recording studio. Hit records such as “I Have Learned to Respect the Power of Love,” “Home” and “Whatcha Gonna Do with My Lovin” have become enduring classics. Stephanie’s critically acclaimed appearances in show like the four-time Tony Award-winning “The Wiz” and “Your Arms Too Short to Box with God” have assured her of a consistently loyal following among fans, industry insiders and cities alike.

Brandon & Lorielle Broussard

Owners, Barack A Wear
In August 2007, the brother-and-sister team quit their day jobs (Brandon was a writer and Lorielle, a celebrity stylist ) to promote one message: ‘Barack the Vote.’ More than 35,000 shirts have been sold to date: After the election, Baracka Wear launched YOTOWN, a line of nonpolitical shirts that feature a personalized map of “your” city (i.e. New York, Los Angeles).A portion of their sales ($17,000) was donated to President-Elect Obama’s campaign. And slated for fall 2009 is a denim line they’re designing themselves. The siblings were recently featured in “Black Enterprise Magazine’s “ issue on Fearless Youth Entrepreneurs.

Brenston Buckner                                                                                                                Former NFL Player, Radio Host

Brentson is a 12-year football veteran. He played at Clemson University and played defensive tackle his entire career. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1994, then later played for the San Francisco 49ers. Brentson finished his professional career with the Carolina Panthers after five years in 2006. He is currently the head football coach at Northside Christian Academy and holds a Bell & Buckner Football Symposium football camp each summer at Johnson C. Smith University for young people, where over 300 youth attend every year.

Special Ed                                                                                                                


Special Ed, born Ed Archer, impacted the rap game in 1989 at the young age of 16 with his dazzling and critically acclaimed debut album, Youngest in Charge, on Profile Records, which featured the world renowned hit, “I Got It Made” earning him the title of “The Youngest In Charge”. That album also spawned the legendary hits “Taxin” and “I’m the Magnificent” which inspired the 2009 Rick Ross remake “The Magnificent” featuring Big Boi of Outkast, P.Diddy and you guessed it Special Ed. He`s worked along side artists like Tupac, Notorious B.I.G and Snoop Dogg. Special Ed is still recognized throughout the world as a hip-hop legend and now tours world wide performing his classics and speaking to the youth.

Julie Arko 

A kindergarten teacher from New York, Julie was one of several women chosen nationwide from Dove in 2004, to participate in the very successful Campaign for Real Beauty. Julie and the other women were featured in only their bras and panties to promote natural beauty, in an effort to offest the unrealistically thin and unhealthy archetypal images associated with modelling.  Their slogan "real women have curves".  Julie has admitted that her favorite food is pizza and her favorite curves are "My butt and hips."