Chattanooga Council Against Hate
Chattanooga Council Against HateShelley Rose is Deputy Director with the Southeast Region Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which tracks trends in hate. In this position, she organizes community programming, provides educational outreach to community organizations, coordinates legislative advocacy and conducts workshops and presentations for parents and educators on religious intolerance, anti-bias training and cultural awareness. Shelley’s articles have been published in newspapers, magazines and journals and she has appeared on television and radio as a spokesperson for ADL.
Shelley also spoke at the inaugural meeting of Chattanooga’s Council Against Hate, an initiative spearheaded by Mayor Andy Berke. In an interview with Deborah Levine, Mayor Berke explained the background for doing this project:
Sybil Topel serves as Vice President of Marketing and Communications for the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce. She led the marketing department for a boutique architecture firm in Nashville prior to earning her Master’s degree in Fine Arts in Atlanta in 2014. As a media consultant her clients included insurance companies, healthcare systems and FedEx. She has worked in communications for AT&T and SunTrust Banks. Sybil started her career as a journalist.
Originally a professional educator from Ukraine, Fiona Citkin is among the successful women immigrants to the US. She came to America as a Fulbright Scholar studying languages and cultures. She holds 2 doctorates, speaks 3 languages, and has published several books, including the award-winning Transformational Diversity. Fiona is Managing Director of Expert MS Inc. For her latest book, How They Made It in America , she interviewed 100 immigrant women and profiled 18 of them in this book.
Oluwaseun Babalola is a Sierra Leonean-Nigerian-American filmmaker who founded DO Global Productions, a video production company specializing in documentaries and docuseries. Her focus is to create and collaborate on projects across the globe, while providing positive representation for people of color. She is a co-founder of BIAYA consulting, a consulting firm that bridges resource and knowledge gaps for African entrepreneurs in emerging industries. BIAYA’s first project was a convention in Lagos, Nigeria to help build a sustainable creative industry that can grow and export content.
Dr. Eylene Pirez is an accelerator physicist and photographer who focuses on science literacy and multi-disciplinary education through exploration and world travel. Most recently, she has been working on a project called Access Chile, a docuseries tackling unique adventures in the name of science.
Lily Sanchez, a first-generation Dominican-American, is the Communications Coordinator for La Paz Chattanooga and serves its Latinx community. She graduated with a degree in Communication and English Writing from the U. of Tennessee at Chattanooga where she founded the Spanish Language version of the campus newspaper.
Susan Popoola is a Human Value Optimisation Specialist and published author of books that reflect on the opportunities, challenges, evolution and diversity of today’s world. Headquartered in the UK, Susan has a rich experience working in different people-related roles within organisations whilst simultaneously engaging in education and wider society. See more at 
The author of Water Entanglement, Claudiu Murgan, was born in Romania and has called Canada his home since 1997. Claudiu’s experience in industries such as IT, renewable energy, real estate and finance, helped him create complex but real characters that carry forward his meaningful messages.