(IYKYK)

A proud Filipina-American daughter of immigrants, she taught herself how to pay off over $50,000 of debt and did what any Millennial would do: Yell about it on the internet.

Berna’s 2023 debut book with HarperCollins, MONEY OUT LOUD: All the Financial Stuff No One Taught Us, is a Bookshop.org BESTSELLER and has received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist.

Berna is the co-founder and Head of Community & Culture at New Dimes, a network for first-generation breadwinners moving past stability to generate wealth and make progressive change.

Sylvia has been a committee member for EWOCC as well as workshop presenter, open mic performer, Theme artist and audio-visual coordinator.

Sylvia was empowered by her experiences with EWOCC to make a pivot on her own trajectory.

In 2020, she fired her job and launched Queendom Network, in an effort to utilize her skills as a graphic designer and writer to bring women and paying projects together.

She has provided opportunities for poets, artists, musicians, chefs and more through coordinating meetups, interviewing people live on her show, Poetry in the Raw or otherwise facilitating connection.

Sylvia considers the Empowering Womxn of Color Conference to be one of the most cherished and pivotal events of every year she has attended.

Sylvia Blalock is a student at Diablo Valley College, pursuing a degree in Business Administration.

She is the owner of Queendom.Network and the author of "Uprising: A book of Poetry".

When not planning for the next chapter of life with her husband and business partner, Stevan Edgecombe, she works on building community alliances and artistic opportunities for resistance.

With a BA in Sociology from UC Berkeley and an MSW from San Francisco State University, Christine specializes in empowering Filipina and AAPI women through culturally responsive, trauma-informed care.

A Certified Brainspotting Therapist, she addresses issues such as burnout, anxiety, depression, trauma, and imposter syndrome.

As the Bay Area Chapter Lead for Therapinay and a board member of the Filipino Young Leaders Program (FYLPRO), Christine advocates for mental health and wellness within the Filipinx community.

Growing up, Kyra Lumpkin lived in pretty much every major city in the United States. With every new environment, she quickly learned that the concept of home had to mean more than just four walls.

“I had to make peace with the idea that home was not going to be a place for me,” says Lumpkin.

“It was always going to be an ideal or set of people or a moment in time.

Fragrance is my way of keeping a little bit of every home I've ever had."

@sweetmangotherapy

@therapinxy

www.sweetmangotherapy.com

https://fylpro.org/

https://www.youtube.com/@SylviaBlalock0111 https://www.facebook.com/authorsylvialblalock https://www.linkedin.com/in/slblalock/

IG @sylvia.blalock

How can we break cycles of trauma, while honoring our ancestral roots?

More than ever, we need to connect, as there is strength in numbers.

How can we support and nurture these connections?

(think ‘If You Give a Mouse a Cookie’ book, or being viewed as a “cash cow”, opportunism)

What can we proactively do to empower womxn of color between conferences? 

We love the idea of continuing connections, but it fizzles after the conference is complete. 

If so, please share. 

If not, has there been another moment where you reflected on your identities and reconnected back to your past or prior experiences? Your foundational experiences?

(think: masking, performative identity, code switching)