About the Authors
Ijeoma Oluo is a Seattle-based writer, speaker, and internet yeller. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling first book, So You Want To Talk About Race, Mediocre, and Be a Revolution. Her work on race and gender has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and NBC News; and she has been featured on The Daily Show and NPR's All Things Considered. Named on the TIME 100 Next list and The Root 100, she's been awarded the Harvard Humanist of the Year Award, the American Humanist Association's Feminist Humanist Award, Gender Justice League's Media Justice Award, and the Equal Opportunity Institute's Aubrey Davis Visionary Leadership Award.
Reagan Jackson is a multi-genre writer, artist, podcast host and producer, facilitator, and international educator. Most days though she is at Y-WE working to create programming that empowers our youth. She is the author of Still True: The Evolution of an Unexpected Journalist (2024 Hinton Publishing), Summoning Unicorns (2014), Love and Guatemala (2013), God, Hair, Love, and America (2009), Coco LaSwish: When Rainbows go Blue (2014), Coco LaSwish: A Fish From a Different Rainbow (2013).
About the Panel
Young Women Empowered is honored to present an intimate and thought-provoking conversation between two extraordinary authors and community leaders: Ijeoma Oluo and Reagan Jackson.
This special event marks a celebration of Reagan's incredible 10 years of leadership as Co-Executive Director of Y-WE, where she has dedicated herself to uplifting and empowering young women. Joining her is Ijeoma Oluo, the New York Times bestselling author of So You Want to Talk About Race, Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America, and the forthcoming Be a Revolution. A leading voice on race, identity, and justice, Ijeoma's work is shaping national conversations on how we build a more equitable world.
Together, Reagan and Ijeoma will explore how community serves as a balm in turbulent times-a source of healing, resilience, and strength in the face of fear and uncertainty. They will reflect on the personal and collective power of belonging, discussing how we can sustain each other amid political extremism and efforts to dismantle progress toward equity.
This dialogue will invite Y-WE youth leaders to engage directly, posing their own questions to these two visionary leaders at a time when these conversations are more urgent than ever. Whether within families, neighborhoods, or movements for justice, this discussion will illuminate the ways we create spaces of solidarity, healing, and courageous action.