Ashley Walker is an astrochemist, planetary scientist, science communicator, and advocate. She is originally from Chicago, IL. She has attended the city colleges of chicago - Kennedy King college. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from Chicago State University. During her undergraduate tenure, she interned at Harvard University & Smithsonian - Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and became a visiting student at the Johns Hopkins University. Shortly after graduation, she was a post-baccalaureate intern at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. At NASA GSFC, she studied the stratospheric ice cloud interactions on Titan. Throughout this time, she created Black In Astro and created the inaugural Black Space Week (Black In Astro Week), a grassroots organization dedicated to celebrating Black people within the space community around the world. Currently, she is a third year doctoral student at Howard University in the Graduate Program in Atmospheric Sciences (HUPAS) and the recipient of the 2023 Future Investigators in NASA Earth, Space Science, and Technology (NASA FINESST) Grant. She was a graduate intern at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she focused on Venus’ clouds and hazes. Her doctoral research is based on understanding the chemical and physical evolution of clouds and hazes on ice giant atmospheres, Uranus and Neptune. She advocates for students of color and she also co-founded #BlackInChem, #BlackInPhysics. She serves on several committees for the American Astronomical Society.

Caprice Phillips i is final year PhD candidate at The Ohio State University, where she has been a P.E.O Scholar, CCA Predoctoral Fellow, and received the AAUW Dissertation Fellowship. She works with Professor Ji Wang on brown dwarf and exoplanet atmospheric characterization. Alongside this, she also work with Dr. Jackie Faherty on retrievals of planetary-mass objects to understand their formation pathways. She is a former fellow in the LSSTC Data Science Fellowship Program. She received her M.A. in Astronomy from the UT Austin in 2019 and my B.S. in Physics with a minor in mathematics from The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) in 2015. In her free time she enjoys reading, crafting (coloring, watercoloring, painting flower pots), cooking, and trying her hand at new recipes.

KeShawn Ivory, Black In Astro's Events Director, is a rising 4th year PhD candidate in astrophysics at Vanderbilt University. He works on identifying galaxy groups in dark matter haloes via simulations of large scale structure. His passion lies in astronomy education and planetariums. In his free time, he loves to sing, cook, and write whiny narrative essays.

Cheyenne is a small island girl with big dreams. She left St Lucia in 2015 to pursue an Integrated Masters degree in Astrophysics in the UK. Since then, she has served as St Lucia’s first National Point of contact in the Space Generation Advisory Council and co-founded St Lucia’s first national Astronomy association (LUNAA). Outside of her day job in Finance Technology, Cheyenne is still very active in the space community as an international speaker, science communicator and lead organizer of Black in Astro. This dedication stems from a wider career goal of increasing gender and ethnic diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields, especially Physics.

Rob Washington is a recent graduate from Purdue as a Planetary Science major. Currently I work as a research assistant at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center studying exoplanet atmospheres. I’ll be attending Howard University to pursue my PhD. in planetary sciences. My goal is to create a larger platform for Blacks and minorities in STEM to help boost not only their network but confidence.

Naia Butler-Craig, a native of Orlando, is working toward her Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering and is a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research fellow and GEM fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research involves characterizing the electron energy distribution function at the inner front pole cover of a magnetically shielded Hall-Effect Thruster with a centrally mounted cathode using Laser Thomson Scattering. In between her pressing academic schedule, Butler-Craig also works to advocate for diversity in STEAM disciplines. She engages in public speaking events, volunteers with STEAM organizations, and virtually mentors students. Butler-Craig has also built a large following online through her social media profiles and website. These outlets bring her advocacy work to life by offering a window into the life of a doctoral student in a laboratory, testimony and Q&A videos from her living room, and quick demonstration videos on a variety of aerospace engineering topics.

Naia Butler-Craig is also the recipient of the 2020 Modern-Day Technology Leader Award and 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 award for her outstanding performance and diversity advocacy in STE(A)M.

AJ Link (he/him) is openly autistic. He received his JD from The George Washington University Law School and his LL.M in Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law. He is the inaugural director of The Center for Air and Space Law Task Force on Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity in Aerospace and an adjunct professor of space law at Howard University School of Law. AJ is the Communications Director for Mission: AstroAccess and works as a research director for the Jus Ad Astra project. He serves as the Space Law and Policy Chair for Black in Astro and was the founding president of the National Disabled Law Students Association. AJ is a policy analyst for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. He has been actively involved with disability advocacy in the Washington, DC area and nationally within the United States. He serves on several advisory boards and steering committees that focus on disability advocacy and broader social justice movements.