Black Couple On Campus To Encourage Millennials To Vote
Vestige Strategies, a Washington DC based civic community engagement firm founded by power couple Quentin James and Stefanie Brown James are on a mission to underscore what’s at stake for millennials in this election season, especially for millennials within the African American community. Also known as the conversation curators, the Brown’s are igniting conversations to activate change through their ‘Changing the Climate Tour.’
In partnership with BET’s Vote 2016 campaign, the tour will stop at 10 cities stimulating discussions about education, criminal justice reform, and economic opportunity, and the forefront of it all, environmental equity and climate change.
Quentin and Stefanie will visit North Carolina Central University on Wednesday, November 2 at 10am. They will be joined by guest panelists Tamika Mallory (Mallory Consulting), Kwame Jackson (MSNBC Contributor), Brittany Packnett (Teach For America), Telley Madina (The Medina Group) and Kurin Kennedy (The Sierra Club). Congressman G. K. Butterfield (D-1) will deliver remarks.
This tour will offer millennial perspectives from nationally known advocates, entertainers, politicos and journalists. Both Quentin and Stefanie have worked as directors for the Hillary Clinton & President Obama campaigns respectively, and will offer great insight on how they’re getting black millennials to vote, and their ultimate goal for this tour.
The event will take place from 10:00 am to 11:00 am in the Moot Courtroom in the NCCU Law School. Admission is free.
About Quenton James
A native of Greenville, South Carolina, Quentin James is the Co-Founder & COO of Vestige Strategies, LLC – one of the top civic and community engagement consulting firms in the nation. Through Vestige, Quentin has created innovative and impactful campaigns for various clients including: Google, Tumblr, Green for All and Dr. Keith Rowley, Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago. Previously, Quentin served as the National Black Americans Director for the Ready for Hillary PAC; creating outreach initiatives that recruited over 50,000 African American donors and over 3 million people to support a potential presidential campaign run by Secretary Hillary Clinton.
Quentin formerly worked as the National Director of the nation’s largest youth environmental organization, the Sierra Club’s Student Coalition; leading the organization’s training and advocacy efforts to help youth members run effective campaigns that resulted in tangible environmental victories and developed leaders for the environmental movement. A lifelong member of the NAACP – the country’s oldest and largest civil rights organization – Quentin was a member of the NAACP’s National Board of Directors from 2009-2013.
A true visionary and proponent of community empowerment, Quentin is the founder of The Collective PAC, a political action committee focused on building black political power by electing black candidates on the local, state and federal level. Quentin is also the co-founder of Inclusv, a diversity hiring initiative that places talented staffers of colors into campaigns and advocacy organizations throughout the nation.
Quentin’s work has been featured in national media outlets, books, and publications. A 2011 graduate of Howard University in Washington, DC, Quentin received a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Afro American Studies and is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated. Quentin currently resides in Cleveland, OH with his wife Stefanie Brown James and son Carter.
About Stefanie Brown James
A passionate leader, Stefanie Brown James is a master of making the political, personal. She has dedicated her life to empowering people to organize and advocate for justice and equality in their communities. Stefanie is the CEO and Founding Partner of Vestige Strategies, LLC; a Washington, DC-based public affairs firm that specializes in grassroots community and civic engagement strategies. Through her role at Vestige, Stefanie works with domestic and international clients to help build and sustain strategic relationships while empowering the community in the process.
This Bedford Heights, Ohio-native, honed her skills while working concurrently as the National Field Director and National Director of the Youth & College Division for the NAACP. In the process of overseeing the organization’s 2,200 adult branches and representing the 23,000 under-25 youth, Stefanie helped NAACP units identify their pressing issues and crafted creative solutions that turned citizens into stakeholders, and non-traditional partners into allies.
In fact, her reputation precedes her, which is why it only made sense that President Obama would bring her on board to work as his campaign’s National African American Vote Director for the 2012 election cycle. She didn’t just convince a record breaking 66.2% of eligible Black voters to cast ballots, she also empowered a massive volunteer force to engage their friends, family and neighbors, by bypassing the tired tactics of political insiders and getting to know who they are and what they need to be their most successful selves.
A member of the Howard University Board of Trustees, it’s a strategy that the 2003 Howard University grad also employs as the founder and Executive Director of Brown Girls Lead, Inc., a leadership development organization focused on helping collegiate and professional women cultivate the skills they need to effect positive social change on their campuses and in their communities. Stefanie also serves as the Co-Founder of The Collective PAC, a political action committee focused on building black political power by electing black candidates on the local, state and federal level.
www.ChangingTheClimate.us (#ChangeTheClimate)