Timothy Snyder
Timothy Snyder will join us for a dialogue at Annual Meeting 2025 on Friday, November 14.
Timothy Snyder holds the inaugural Chair in Modern European History, supported by the Temerty Endowment for Ukrainian Studies, at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto. He is also a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and the head of the academic advisory council of Ukrainian History Global Initiative.
A scholar of the history of Central Europe, Ukraine, the Soviet Union, and the Holocaust, Snyder speaks five and reads ten European languages. He is the author or editor of twenty books published in forty languages. Snyder writes for the press on Ukraine, the U.S, authoritarianism, digital politics, health, and education. He has also appeared in documentaries, on television, and as an expert witness before several parliaments. He has received state orders and decorations as well as honorary doctorates.
His work has inspired demonstrations, sculpture, posters, punk rock, rap, film, theater, and an opera.
Adam Russell Taylor
Rev. Adam Russell Taylor is president of Sojourners and author of A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community. Follow him on Bluesky @revadamtaylor.
Taylor previously led the Faith Initiative at the World Bank Group and served as the vice president in charge of advocacy at World Vision U.S. and the senior political director at Sojourners. He has also served as the executive director of Global Justice, an organization that educates and mobilizes students around global human rights and economic justice. He was selected for the 2009/2010 class of White House Fellows and served in the White House Office of Cabinet Affairs and Public Engagement. Taylor is a graduate of Emory University, the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology. Taylor also serves on the Independent Sector Board, the Global Advisory Board of Tearfund UK, and is a member of the inaugural class of the Aspen Institute Civil Society Fellowship. Taylor is ordained in the American Baptist Church and the Progressive National Baptist Convention and serves in ministry at the Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Va.
Itzel Hernandez
Itzel Hernandez is an immigrant rights organizer with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), where she advances justice, dignity, and human rights for immigrant and marginalized communities. Grounded in her lived experience, she builds grassroots power through education, leadership development, and civic engagement.
Over the years, Itzel has played key roles in statewide campaigns including access to driver’s licenses, tuition aid and equity for immigrant students, occupational licensing for immigrant communities and others. Her work centers on amplifying youth voices and challenging systems of exclusion, contributing to broader state, national, and international conversations on immigration and social justice.
Her personal story is featured in Anthology of Dreams of an Impossible Journey, a collection of immigrant narratives, and her advocacy has been highlighted in the documentary Borderline Butterfly, a short film exploring the intersection of immigration activism and policy change.
Outside of her work with AFSC, Itzel serves on several nonprofit boards and county advisory committees. Her leadership in higher education and civic engagement has earned her multiple awards.
Maya Wiley
Maya Wiley is the president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund. A nationally respected civil rights attorney, she has been a litigator and a program creator and policy advocate in philanthropy, non-profits, government, and higher education. Prior to taking the helm of the Leadership Conference, Ms. Wiley ran for Mayor in 2021, garnering the second highest number of first choice votes in a rank choice vote election. In 2014, she became the first Black woman to be Counsel to a New York City Mayor, Bill deBlasio where she worked to protect and expand civil rights, Minority and Women-Owned Business contracts and broadband access. Wiley became a Senior Vice President for Social Justice at the New School University, where she also founded the Digital Equity Laboratory. While there, she chaired the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB). As chair, she led the release of the “hold” on proceedings against Daniel Pantaleo whose illegal chokehold killed Eric Garner, and also Co-Chaired the Mayor’s School Diversity Advisory Group that authored two major reports on integrating New York City public schools.
Wiley has been a litigator at the ACLU, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Inc, and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. She helped create a criminal justice program for a major foundation in South Africa. Wiley co-founded and led a national policy advocacy organization, the Center for Social Inclusion, now a part of Race Forward, a national policy strategy organization working to end structural racism. Wiley has received numerous awards, and has been a public voice for rights, justice and democracy, through written opinion editorials and as a former legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. Wiley is the author of the memoir, Remember You Are A Wiley.
