10-Year Anniversary Convention

SPEAKERS AND PRESENTERS

The 10-Year Anniversary Convention will build on the tradition of previous Act Six conventions, bringing together challenging and inspiring speakers and workshop presenters.  This year's convention will prominently feature voices from within the Act Six network along with of community leaders who have boldly risked, acted, and led in pursuit of their vision for community transformation.

KICK-OFF DINNER

Danjuma Quarless, Whitworth Cadre Four Alum

Born and raised in the Northwest, Danjuma attended Bellarmine Preparatory School before joining Act Six Cadre Four at Whitworth University. While there Danjuma double majored in Mathematics and Computational Biology, graduating in 2010. He is currently working on his doctoral degree in the Biomedical Sciences program at the University of California, San Diego where he is focusing on clinical cancer applications for genome sequencing in the research lab of Dr. Nicholas Schork at the Scripps Translational Science Institute. His goal is serve the research community as well as actively contribute to the progression of education in America.

 

Sandra Lopez, George Fox Cadre Five Scholar

A graduate of Forest Grove High School, Sandra Lopez is a member of Act Six Cadre Five at George Fox University. Passionate about self-expression, Sandra loves to write and dance, and is ferocious about her desire to lead. Sandra is a sophomore business major who has worked hard to put herself into strategic position to be a future business leader in the Northwest. Among her many leadership commitments in her freshman year, Sandra was an integral part of launching a dance team at George Fox and was chosen to participate in an exclusive Latino and Friends Network mentoring program at Nike’s World Headquarters.  This summer Sandra is interning with Multnomah County in their Division of Assessment, Recording and Taxation (DART).

 

Crystal Ben, Former Tacoma-Seattle Site Director

Crystal Ben is a citizen of the Navajo Nation and was born on the Navajo Reservation in Chinle, Arizona. Crystal is of the Tangle clan born for the Bilagáana; her maternal grandfather’s clan is Bitter Water and her paternal grandfather’s clan is Bilagáana. She was raised by her mother in Tacoma along with her six siblings and is a proud aunt of 10 nieces and nephews. For the past five and a half years, she worked with Act Six at Northwest Leadership Foundation, most recently serving as Tacoma-Seattle director where she guided the recruitment, selection, training, and support of Tacoma-Seattle scholars.

As a first-generation college student from Lincoln High School, Crystal earned a bachelor’s degree in International Studies with a minor in Peace Studies from Whitworth University. This fall, she will begin a Ph.D. program in sociology at University of California, San Diego where she will focus on the urban American Indian population, social inequalities, culture, education, race, and ethnicity. The legacy of oppression of Tribal people as well as their overwhelming resilience inspires her to advocate for justice in urban Native communities.

    

THURSDAY PLENARY SESSION

Fab-5

Actualized by the intersecting potential of youth expression, community development and cultural confluence, Fab-5 represents a creative approach to community building that helps youth discover their artistic voices while helping the world to hear those voices. Started 11 years ago by a group of young leaders ready to see a difference in their community, Fab-5 is now an established platform through which youth develop into creative leaders who inspire change in their surroundings.

Though Fab-5's work is centered around creating art, their main objectives are cultivating communities where youth from diverse backgrounds can gather, collaborate, learn and share ideas. Fab-5 recognizes that in the Tacoma community today, there is a significant need for relevant outlets for youth to express themselves. By connecting youth with dedicated mentoring artists who support their capabilities, they become immersed in art-forms traditionally inaccessible to them. By using urban-arts as their springboards, Fab-5 instructors equip students with independent creative and collaborative skills relevant in life far beyond Fab-5's program bounds.

   

FRIDAY & SATURDAY PLENARY SESSIONS

Stephan de Beer

Stephan is a born and bred South African, committed to inclusive urban communities, carrying signs of the shalom of God. A trained minister of the Uniting Reformed Church, Stephan was the CEO of the Tshwane Leadership Foundation from 1993-2012, developing a range of social ministries, a housing company, economic incubator, community festival, and leadership program for urban practitioners. He also is the convener of 12 Leadership Foundations across Africa.

Since May 2012 Stephan is the Director of the Centre for Contextual Ministry at the University of Pretoria. He holds a doctorate in practical theology, focusing on the role of the church in inner city transformation through housing.

 

For convention questions, please e-mail convention@actsix.org.