Linda Allegro earned her PhD in Political Science at the New School for Social Research in NYC in 2002. Her areas of specialization include Latin American Studies, Transnational Migration, and Social Movements. She is the co-author along with Prof. Andrew Wood of Latin American Migrations to the US Heartland published by the University of Illinois Press in 2013. She has taught courses on US/Mexico Border, Central American Politics and Immigration in Film. She has taught at Hampshire College, OSU and TU and currently serves as an adjunct instructor at Tulsa Community College teaching American Federal Government. Three years ago, Linda became the Director of the New Sanctuary Network Tulsa, an anti-deportation organization that advocates for asylum seekers and migrants in Tulsa. She along with statewide immigration activists is currently drafting a letter calling on Governor Stitt to release all asylum seekers from our county jails, issue a moratorium on ICE arrests, and free all inmates being held for low-level offenses.
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Mika, following a time-honored family tradition, has served in various leadership roles as a Sergeant Frist Class in the United States Army for nearly two decades. She is an "Army brat" and calls Alabama, home. She relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2015 and became deeply involved in the community, serving as a social justice researcher for Block Builderz, an organization focused on finding alternatives to incarceration and reducing recidivism. Mika elevates the voice of the seemingly voiceless as an associate producer for the online media publication, Black Wall Street Times, and as a segment producer for Focus: Black Oklahoma, a public radio production. As a life learner, she seeks to challenge her ideas and beliefs to enhance her understanding of the world and the people and communities in it.
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Chan Joined the University of Oklahoma in 2002. Chan is a professor in the Anne & Henry Zarrow School of Social Work and Founding Director of The Hope Research Center. Chan holds Adjunct Professor appointments in the Department of Internal Medicine and Department of Pediatrics for the OU College of Medicine and the Department of Health Promotion Sciences for the OU College of Public Health. Chan has numerous scholarly publications in scientific journals, technical reports, books and has presented his research at both national and international conferences. Chan’s research is focused on the application of hope theory to those impacted by trauma and adversity. He is also interested in the impact of prevention and intervention services on increasing and sustaining client hope. Chan teaches master’s and doctoral level students primarily in the areas of positive psychology, research methods, and statistics. He also directs student research in the areas of hope and nonprofit organizations. Chan is a lifelong Oklahoman, and lives in Tulsa Oklahoma with his wife Kendra. They enjoy spending time with their children and grandchildren, traveling, and reading.
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Tommy Yap is a politics and policy wonk. Currently, he is a data and policy fellow for Metrirach, a policy collective focused on women's health, and a field organizer for People Not Politicians, an advocacy organization dedicated to redistricting reform. Along with his husband, Tommy began the Tulsa Voter Van, a project dedicated to increasing voter access by providing free transportation to polling locations across the city of Tulsa. Since childhood, he has had a passion for politics and eventually earned a B.A. in Political Science and a Master of Public Administration from Cal Poly Pomona. A SoCal native and NYCer previously, he is the most grateful for Tulsa for providing him with more opportunities than anywhere else.
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Linda Allegro earned her Ph.D. in Political Science at the New School for Social Research in NYC in 2002. Her areas of specialization include Latin American Studies, Transnational Migration, and Social Movements. She is the co-author along with Prof. Andrew Wood of Latin American Migrations to the US Heartland published by the University of Illinois Press in 2013. She has taught courses on US/Mexico Border, Central American Politics and Immigration in Film. She has taught at Hampshire College, OSU and TU and currently serves as an adjunct instructor at Tulsa Community College teaching American Federal Government. Three years ago, Linda became the Director of the New Sanctuary Network Tulsa, an anti-deportation organization that advocates for asylum seekers and migrants in Tulsa. She along with statewide immigration activists is currently drafting a letter calling on Governor Stitt to release all asylum seekers from our county jails, issue a moratorium on ICE arrests, and free all inmates being held for low-level offenses.
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Rev. Dr. Robert Richard Allen Turner is a millennial who is passionate about his calling to serve this “present age” by speaking truth to power, and by following the Word as printed in Isaiah 61 to “preach good tidings to the poor…heal the brokenhearted…proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” Currently, Dr. Turner is the pastor of Historic Vernon Chapel A.M.E. Church, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which has the only edifice which survived the 1921 Race Massacre on Greenwood. Additionally, Dr. Turner is now the Academic Dean for Jackson Theological Seminary, in Little Rock Arkansas. He sits on the Board of Trustees for the American Village, the Board of Directors for the Terence Crutcher Foundation, North Tulsa Task Force, Demanding a Just Tulsa, and the Advisory Board of the Blackburn Institute of the University of Alabama and the chairperson of the board for the Turner Ministry Association 501(c) A cum laude graduate from the Honors Program at the University of Alabama, he majored in Political Science with a minor in Spanish. Rev. Turner was the first Black Chief of Staff for the Student Government Association at the University of Alabama and was honored as the 2004 University of Alabama Most Outstanding Male Student. In addition, he was featured on CNN concerning the University of Alabama’s Faculty Senate Apology for slavery that took place on their campus. Moreover, Rev. Dr. Turner helped lead a movement, which caused the University of Alabama to recognize the presence of two slaves, Jack and Boysie, who were buried on the college campus. Rev. Turner graduated with honors from the Interdenominational Theological Center’s Turner Seminary in Atlanta, GA, with a Masters in Divinity. He later received his Doctor of Ministry from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. In his dissertation, Rev. Turner coined the phrase, “Prophetic Civic Engagement,” and highlighted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a shining example of this concept. He is a 1999 graduate of Alabama Boys State, a 2013 graduate of Leadership Mobile, an ordained clergyman, and a lifetime member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. In 2005 after struggling over his calling, Rev. Turner withdrew from law school and went on a mission trip to Kenya and was given the title co-team leader. In Kenya, Robert grew extremely close to God. While there he supervised approximately 25 young adults together they by the power of God, taught, preached, and healed, many people. From the Kenyans Turner grasped a greater appreciation for living by faith alone. Furthermore, by the mercy of God, he and his teammates were used to bring well over 200 souls to Christ. Constantly seeking to help the needy. After Hurricane Katrina, Pastor Turner also went down to New Orleans to evangelize, comfort those grieving, and to offer assistance where needed. Most recently, he took a mission trip to Egypt where he visited holy sites, and learned from monks key insights on spiritual discipline. Formerly the pastor of St. Paul A.M.E. Church in Mobile for three years, he is a former board member of the Mobile Chapter of the Sickle Cell Disease of America and the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, assisted organizations create mentorship programs and recruit mentors. Dr. Turner was also a UniServ Director for the Alabama Education Association where he represented over 1,800 members covering 4 counties, and 51 work sites. Before moving from Mobile, Rev. Turner was a regular columnist for the Press-Register and AL.com. Previously he has interned for U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, former Congressman Artur Davis, Alabama Supreme Court Justice Harold See, and Secretary of State Jim Bennett. Additionally Dr. Turner has done research for the Kettering Foundation and the David Mathews Center for Civic Life. While at the Mathews Center for Civic Life, he co-authored the 2015 Alabama Civic Health index. Dr. Turner loves to preach and was an adjunct professor of Homiletics for Jarvis Christian College. His passion for social justice led him to become the Chair for the Social Civil and Political Action for the A.M.E. Church in the state of Alabama. He continued his fight against racism in his previous position as Project Director for Truth Racial Healing and Transformation for Selma, Alabama where he oversaw a $3 million grant from the Kellogg Foundation for the BlackBelt Community Foundation with the goal of jettisoning the belief of a hierarchy of human value based on physical characteristics such as skin color. Currently Dr. Turner fighting in Tulsa for justice for the victims of the 1921 Race Massacre, getting burial sites excavated, and seeking reparations. Each Wednesday you can find him with his Bible and Bullhorn seeking by God’s direction, to call the city to recognize what they did in 1921, repentance, and reparations. As of August 25, 2017 Rev. Dr. Robert R.A. Turner became the pastor of the Vernon Chapel in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Since becoming the pastor, he has been a tireless advocate for the Historic Greenwood District (the site of former Black Wall Street), highlighting the church’s history from its beginning in 1905 to today, given countless tours of the church, increased membership, installing tv monitors, the church has been placed on the National Historic Registry, creation of a website, started several ministries, and outreach programs, children’s church, an evening service, a satellite campus, homeless ministry, feeding ministry, and a $2 million capital campaign to restore the basement and historic church. Turner has been married for over 13 years to fellow University of Alabama Alumna and Mississippi native, Shere Turner, M.B.A. They have two boys, ages 9, and 7, Robert Richard Allen Turner II (Deuce) and Malcolm Robert Martin Turner (Bobby). Together they found the Turners Unlimited, LLC. and the Turner Ministry Association 501(c)3. In his free time, this community activist, consultant, dean, and clergyman enjoys reading, sports, mentoring youth, working with convicted felons and spending time with his family. Dr. Turner travels the country as a guest lecturer, presenter, facilitator and motivational speaker. Since coming to Tulsa he has received several awards such as the Hometown Hero from the Modern Woodmen, Nat Turner Award for divine leadership on restorative justice from the African Ancestral Society, Trailblazer Award from North Tulsa Educational Task Force, Terence Crutcher Foundation Award for commitment to criminal justice reform, lastly, he was given the distinction of being named Tulsan of the Year for 2019 by the Tulsa World the cities largest news publication. His areas of focus are racism, community development, grassroots organizing, non-profit grant program management, faith-based community involvement, civic engagement, mentorship, deliberative forums, and employee relations. If you would ever like him to come to visit your area you can book him at robertturnerministries.net
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Roberto Mendoza, from Tulsa, OK, is a Native-American and Chicano filmmaker, thinker, and writer. His ideas connect the values of Indigenous people to the emerging political and social movements of non-Indigenous people here in the U.S. In the 60’s he lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and became involved in the Occupation of Alcatraz Island, the struggle of the Pit River tribe in Northern California. He filmed both struggles and made a documentary (The Earth is Our Mother) about the Pit River people’s attempt to reclaim their land from Pacific Gas and Electric company. He organized Idle No More Central Oklahoma with the goal of empowering Indigenous people to create a new civilization in the U.S., based on Indigenous values of seeing the Earth as sacred, Food Sovereignty, Living Well instead of Living Better, living in balance and harmony with all living things and developing a sustainable, human-scale economy.
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