Quentin Vennie is a celebrated wellness expert, motivational speaker, and author of the bestselling memoir, Strong In The Broken Places. His work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Thrive Global, Entrepreneur, Fox News, MindBodyGreen, and others. Quentin has been recognized as one of Black Enterprise magazine’s 100 Modern Men of Distinction and by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for his contribution in raising awareness for mental health and suicide prevention, as well as appearing as the wellness keynote speaker for Colin Kaepernick’s “Know My Rights” Camp. Quentin works with youth in under-resourced communities, helping them understand their traumas and turn them into triumphs, and spearheads initiatives that make yoga and mindfulness accessible among communities and populations that don’t ordinarily have access to them.
Michelle Cassandra Johnson:
I am a social justice warrior, author, dismantling racism trainer, empath, yoga teacher and practitioner, and an intuitive healer. With over 20 years of experience leading dismantling racism work and working with clients as a licensed clinical social worker, I have a deep understanding of how trauma impacts the mind, body, spirit, and heart. My awareness of the world through my own experience as a black woman allows me to know, first-hand, how privilege and power operate. I have a Bachelors of Arts degree from the College of William and Mary and a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. I have worked in several non-profits and served as an elected official and on many non-profit Boards of Directors. I have led Dismantling Racism Trainings with large corporations, small non-profits, and community groups, including the ACLU-WA, Duke University, Google, This American Life, The Center for Equity and Inclusion, Eno River Unitarian Universalist Church, Lululemon, and many others. I published Skill in Action: Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World in 2017 and teach workshops in yoga studios and community spaces nationwide. I am on the faculty of Off the Mat Into the World, and serve as the Co-Director of 18 Springs Healing Center in Winston-Salem, NC. I was a Tedx speaker at Wake Forest University in 2019, and I have been interviewed on several podcasts in which I explore the premise and foundation of Skill in Action, along with creating ritual in justice spaces, our divine connection with nature and Spirit, and how we as a culture can heal.
Kerri is the founder of CTZNWELL, an emerging movement to mobilize people into a powerful force of wellbeing for all. She spent seven years as Executive Director of the non-profit Off the Mat, Into the World and is currently on this faculty. She is relentless in her commitment to elevating community consciousness and engagement around a culture and politics that democratize well-being for everyone. Kerri Kelly is a force of nature. She is a skilled yoga teacher, motivating students to effect change in their lives. She’s a fierce coach, whose ability to turn ideas into purpose and action is a gift. And she plays big; straddling the mindfulness and political worlds, so that the social change makers—the visionaries—she works with can mobilize and organize effectively.