MARJORIE A. JOSEPH is a native New Yorker, recently relocated from Los Angeles to Houston. She currently serves as Executive Director of Houston Coalition Against Hate. HCAH is a network of community-based organizations, institutions, and leaders who come together to reduce hate and encourage belonging. The Coalition is committed to addressing all incidents of hate, bias, violence, and discrimination, on the basis of a person or group’s religion, race/ethnicity, gender, gender identity/expression, abilities, age, sexual orientation, national origin, creed, immigration status, or genetic information. HCAH does this through education, research, relationship building, and prevention initiatives, as well as partnering with organizations to host events that celebrate diversity and make Houston strong. Prior to her role with the Coalition, Marjorie served as Associate Director of Street Poets Inc., an LA non-profit poetry-based peace-making organization dedicated to the creative process as a force for individual and community transformation. There she spent nine years doing the work of gang intervention and violence prevention through the use of music, poetry, and the mentoring of LA’s youth/young adults. Marjorie is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University with a BA in Political Science and minors in Dance and African/African American Studies. She was also part of the Leadership In Action inaugural cohort at Rice University’s Glasscock School of Continuing Studies Center for Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership. Known as MJ to many, Marjorie is excited to be a member of the 56th class of the American Leadership Forum (ALF). And, to be a member of the Jung Center’s Arts & Exhibitions Committee. She is the recipient of the 2021 United Nations Association-Houston’s Global Citizenship Award, and the work of HCAH has been recognized by The Center for the Healing of Racism with their 2021Juneteenth Ally Award. An accomplished writer and performer, her poems have been published in several anthologies, and she has appeared on stage (off-Broadway/internationally) and in film. A creative at heart, she is currently writing/producing a documentary called Private Collection about one of the few remaining collections of Haitian Art since the 2010 earthquake owned by art collectors/curators Leon and Evelyne Chalom. A leader, visionary, and advocate, she has always been a proponent of art in the space of acknowledgement and activism; and, is the originator of the #justiceoverequity framework in order to facilitate societal and cultural shifts and transformation. Marjorie is excited to be in Houston heralding the work of the Coalition, and feels privileged to be living in the most diverse city in the country.