I am a Milwaukee-based writer and photographer. For more than 40 years I have worked as a reporter, writer and editor, specializing in social issues, with articles published in daily newspapers, magazines and journals. In the last decade I have added photography. Different tools, same goal: to focus on something important to me and to try to communicate to others why.

My most recent book is Lessons from the Heartland: A Turbulent Half-Century of Public Education in an Iconic American City (New York: New Press, 2013.) Among its awards is the "Studs and Ida Terkel Prize," given annually by New Press to celebrate authors "who share Studs Terkel's commitment to exploring aspects of America that are underrepresented by mainstream media.

Dr. Alison Efford
Marquette University

History



Alison Clark Efford (PhD, Ohio State, 2008) is an historian of immigration and the nineteenth-century United States. Questions of race and power stand at the center of her work, which typically intertwines cultural, social, and political analysis.

Her first book, German Immigrants, Race, and Citizenship in the Civil War Era (Cambridge University Press, 2013), explored how German Americans contributed to the rise and fall of white commitment to black rights. In collaboration with Viktorija Bilić (Translation and Interpreting Studies, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee), Dr. Efford recently published Radical Relationships: The Civil War–Era Correspondence of Mathilde Franziska Anneke (University of Georgia Press 2021). The volume presents edited and translated letters by the important German American abolitionist and suffragist, featuring her intense, cohabiting romantic friendship with Mary Booth. Other essays and articles have appeared in journals such as The Missouri Historical Review, the Journal of the Civil War Era, several edited collections, and the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee.

Zong Yang
Queer Justice Director, Hmong American Women’s Association, Inc.

Zong Yang, (Zoo Yaj) is a Hmong artist, advocate and community organizer based in the Upper Midwest. His work is centered on ending gender-based violence within the Hmong community. With eight years of community organizing and advocacy experience and learning from Hmong Women and LGBTQ gender justice leaders, Zong has worked and supported local, national and international efforts to end gender-based violence against Hmong Women, Girls and LGBTQ people.

Isioma Nwabuzor

Founder, the DREAMer Next Door

Attorney Isioma Nwabuzor (pronounced “E-see-o-muh Wah-boo-zur”) serves as SVP & Associate General Counsel for Baird, an international, employee-owned financial services firm based in Milwaukee. She supports Baird’s US and UK transactions and its asset management and mutual funds (Baird Asset Management)team.

A double-alumna of Marquette University, Attorney Nwabuzor earned her Bachelors in political science and psychology in 2012 and her Juris Doctorate from Marquette University Law School in 2015.

Attorney Nwabuzor presently serves as a Board Member for both the Sports & Entertainment Law and IP & Technology Law Sections of the State Bar of Wisconsin. She also sits on the Board for the 

Association of Corporate Counsel Wisconsin Chapter, YWCA Southeast, and she serves as a leadership co-chair for TEMPO Milwaukee’s Emerging Women Leaders. She is an alumna of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Leadership Development Summit. In 2020, Attorney Nwabuzor was recognized by the Milwaukee Business Journal as one of its “40 Under 40,” a recognition given to Milwaukee-area individuals under the age of 40 who are making a difference in their professions and communities, and an “Up and Coming Lawyer” by the Wisconsin Law Journal.

Attorney Nwabuzor’s dedication to her career is only matched by her dedication to her community. She currently serves in various capacities, including as Leadership Development Chairmen for the 

Epsilon Kappa Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.

In 2019, Attorney Nwabuzor went on to found The DREAMer Next Door, Inc., a non- profit organization (coined after her highly-acclaimed TEDx Talk “The DREAMer Next Door”), designed to mobilize millennials in solving pressing socio-political issues, particularly immigration.ew Paragraph