Shanéa Thomas, LICSW, MEd, (he and she pronouns) is a seasoned scholar-practitioner with more than 14 years of professional social work experience in the Washington D.C. metro area. His main commitment is training and educating social workers, educators and service providers around building safer therapeutic, service, and educational spaces for clients and students, especially those working in communities who are underserved, Black and people of color and/or LGBTQI folks. For the past eight years, she has dedicated her time as a Senior Lecturer for the University of Southern California’s School of Social Work’s Virtual Academic Center. As a Youth Psychotherapist, Thomas also commits time toward supporting local LGBTQIA+ youth and those affected by HIV/AIDS through organizations such as Whitman-Walker Health and in the past, the Wendt Center for Loss and Healing in Washington, DC. She is a proud alumnx of Virginia Tech, Howard University, and Widener University holding a BS in Psychology, a Masters of Social Work degree with a concentration of Direct Services (Families and Children), and a Masters in Education and an Advanced Certificate in Human Sexuality Studies, respectively. He is currently working towards his EdD in Organizational Change and Leadership through the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California.

Nick Fuentes, MS LPC, LMHC, CST, CPCS, NCC, CCMHC (he/him/none), owner of Modern Path, LLC, has been working in the behavioral health community for close to 25 years with experience in direct care and administrative oversight capacities. Nick’s clinical practice helps gender, sexuality and relationship structure minorities overcome substance use, mood and anxiety disorders; engage in positive sexual health and develop skills and resiliency to live their lives authentically. Nick is an active member of the American Psychological Association Division 44 Consensual Non-monogamy Taskforce, an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist and a Coalition Partner of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom.

Nicole Y. Ward MAMFT, LMFT works as a Professional Public Speaker at Helen Paris Foundation LLC, Public Speaking Firm. She is sex positive, inclusive, compassionate, and aware of intersectionality. Nicole considers herself a social entrepreneur. As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and an Advance Reiki Master, Nicole’s goal is to motivate people to “Live your best life all year long.”

Angelique L. Burke, MS, EdS, LPC, ChT has a proven and long-standing commitment to community involvement, leadership, and education, and one of her current passions is creating new communal connections while presenting and educating at various community and professional events.

She is a PhD candidate and Psychotherapist who graduated from The Florida State University’s College of Education with dual Masters’ of Science in Career Counseling and Mental Health Counseling, and an Educational Specialist degree.

While attending Florida State University, Mx. Burke obtained further specialization and experience via the Arts in Community Practice Certificate Program, which has supported her ability and interest in using Expressive Arts, Music, Somatics and Dance in therapeutic work with clients in both group and individual sessions.

She believes the most impactful approach to experiencing healing, growth, and successful recovery is via a relational framework. Therefore, utilizing a comprehensive approach that blends art and science, she has worked in the substance abuse and mental health field in inpatient and outpatient settings for over 20 years, extensively with co-occurring disorders, Intimate Partner Domestic & Sexual Violence, LGBTQI+ Relationships, trauma and abuse—child and adult.

Dara Hoffman-Fox, LPC (they/them/theirs) is a mental health counselor in private practice (in Colorado Springs, Colorado) whose primary client focus is working with those who are transgender, nonbinary, and gender questioning. Dara is considered a subject-matter expert in the field of trans and nonbinary-awareness, having already conducted over fifty media and podcast interviews, including USA Today and Teen Vogue. Dara presents frequently on the topic of trans and nonbinary inclusion on a national level at conferences, symposiums, and universities, as well being invited to conduct book signings and appear as a special guest speaker. Dara is the author of the Amazon #1 bestseller You and Your Gender Identity: A Guide to Discovery, a guidebook for those who are gender questioning. Aside from the extensive experience Dara has with the transgender and nonbinary communities, Dara also identifies as nonbinary and queer.

Niki Khanna MA, MFT is a psychotherapist and educator in the Bay Area, CA. Her focus is working within the Queer, Trans and Intersex communities. She is also a certified Sexual Health Educator and has spent over 20 years working in Sex Education, Sexual Assault and Rape Prevention Education as well as Intimate Partner Violence Prevention Education. She identifies as a Femme, Intersex, and POC. She is passionate about finding ways to use the skills she has developed to contribute to the Intersex community. She provides workshops and mental health support to both the AIS-DSD Support Group/ InterConnect and InterAct, two of the largest Intersex support and advocacy organizations in the country. She also sits on the board at interAct. Her current projects are developing practical training modules for mental health providers working with Intersex clients and their families and writing/editing a chapter focused on Intersex for a forthcoming textbook on trauma within the LGBTIAQ+ communities.

Beck is a master’s level clinician with an undergraduate degree in Sociology with an emphasis on Gender & Sexuality and a master’s degree in Addiction Counseling. Beck has worked in the mental health and substance use field for over 10 years in various capacities. The main focus of his work has been invested in the LGBTQI+ community, adolescents, and families. Over this decade, Beck has trained numerous facilities on LGBTQI+ best practices, has been a keynote and presenter at many conferences and has facilitated workshops about LGBTQI+, trauma, adolescents, gender and sexuality.

Beck grew up outside of Los Angeles and has lived in many states across the U.S. He got sober July 11, 2005, and believes recovery is the foundation of his success and gave him the ability to live authentically. Beck’s superpower is using his platform to speak out about issues of social justice. He loves musicals and Madonna. By day, you can find him hanging out with the Visions team creating some awesome new programming; by night, you can find him hanging out with his wife (Shana) and two dogs (Tootsie and Scout), and making his way through all the restaurants around the Los Angeles area, or maybe at a spin or yoga class.

Rafi Daugherty is a Licensed Marriage and Family Counselor Candidate and a graduate of the University of Colorado, Denver. Rafi also holds a masters degree in Crisis and Trauma Studies from the University of Tel Aviv, Israel. As a couples and family therapist, Rafi has been trained to view even individuals as a part of a system and understands that people need to be seen as the whole of who they are and where they come from. Rafi enjoys working with individuals of all ages who are at any stage in the process of acknowledging, accepting, and living in their identities. Rafi utilizes relevant treatments from multiple theories but leans strongly into attachment theory and internal family systems theory. Being transparent with clients is an important aspect of the therapeutic relationship to him and thus encourages clients to stand in their truth when it does not align with his words.

Born and raised in the Bronx, he attended Williams College and after a short stint in New York City, moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he lived for nine years. He now lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his dog, Justice. He is the former board president of InterACT, a legal advocacy organization protecting the human rights of intersex young adults and is a co-founder of the Intersex Justice Project (IJP), a project whose mission is to #endintersexsurgery. Saifa's story has been featured in Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, Trans Bodies, Trans Selves, Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics journal, the Washington Blade, The Guardian, and The Remedy: Queer and Trans Voices on Health and Healthcare. He is a TEDx speaker and has been a guest on Huffington Post Live, ABC News Nightline and Afropunk: Solutions Sessions. Recently, IJP was highlighted in the Google/Stink Films documentary, Stonewall Forever. As an intersex activist and community-based researcher, he founded the research company, Rooted in Research which has consulted with the Scottish government on intersex rights and met with the Intersex Task Force in Kenya. His team's findings, which highlighted intersex activism in the Global South, will be published in a forthcoming report by the Open Society Foundations.