Malaika Lucien is an incredible human being, colleague, and Haitian American Young Professional. As the daughter of Haitian immigrants that settled in Mattapan and Hyde Park in the early ’80s, Malaika grew up in Hingham, MA and has returned to Boston after attending Loyola University in New Orleans.

Dedicated to building a better Boston for everyone, Malaika joined the Office of Boston At-Large City Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George to advocate for some of Boston’s most vulnerable and most often ignored: our students, our families and residents who are struggling with mental health issues, addiction, and/or housing instability. Malaika has been critical to this office’s capacity to get the word out about our work, the lived realities of so many Bostonians, and the systemic deficiencies that make it harder for folks who are struggling in this city.

Despite the demanding hours and workload of this office, Malaika always has time for residents of Boston. She also makes time for her whole family and many friends, and for championing the Haitian community. Her community ties led to the Boston City Council issuing official Resolutions honoring the Haitian Artists Assembly of Massachusetts at the Still Arts Rise exhibit at Boston City Hall and honoring the work and dedication of Franck Toussaint. Malaika has participated in the Haitian Unity Parades for many years, sang at the Annual Haitian Independence Day Gala in Massachusetts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UOIJ-6iaVE), and, as a teenager, participated in many benefit events after the 2010 Haitian earthquake.

Malaika is a kind, talented, and brilliant public servant with a bright career ahead of her. With aspirations to go to law school and to become a judge, Malaika embodies the best qualities of her generation as a current and future leader.

Rebecca Zama is a Boston based singer/songwriter/recording artist. Growing up, she found her passion in singing and in music. She has been performing publicly from the age of 3 all around Massachusetts in venues such as Symphony Hall, Ryles Jazz Club, Middle East Downstairs, and the Hard Rock Cafe.

She specializes in R&B/Pop, but sings a bit of everything. She constantly tries a bit of her Haitian heritage, of which she is proud, into her music. Her inspirations include old time legends like Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald and Whitney Houston and new sensations like Beyonce, Rihanna, Jasmine Sullivan, and Emeli Sande.

She had no formal training until 2011, where she started taking voice lessons to perfect her technique. Since a young age she discovered songwriting and the ability to translate her emotions onto paper and sing them, in her album “brighter than the sun”, a few of her original tracks like “Take it Slow” and “Can’t Get To Me” are featured. Rebecca also released her first book of poetry entitled “Optimum Me”.

Zama was deeply affected by the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti’s capital city. She lost some extended family members who perished in the rubble in Port-Au-Prince. The shock was immediate, especially since she had just 11 days before arrived back in Boston from a visit to Haiti.

As Zama grew older, she became more aware of the discrepancies between herself and her family in Haiti.

In 2012, Zama helped her mother launch the Haiti Global Youth Partnership.

The nonprofit organization, which focuses on alleviating issues that include unsafe water and food insecurity, supports hundreds of L’Asile’s children.

Sofia Rinvil is a leader, advocate, entrepreneur, mentor, and philanthropist who has helped marginalized people improve their life. Sofia’s dedication to justice and human rights stems from her childhood experiences, which prompted an interest in commerce, technology, law, and policy. Sofia has spent her career working on the front lines of many of the world’s most pressing challenges. At the municipal, state, and federal levels, she advocates for underprivileged populations’ health, education, immigration, global poverty reduction, and civil and human rights.

Sofia also contributes to the community through mentoring students in middle school, high school, college, and graduate school. She has volunteered as a court-appointed advocate to assist foster children in the court system, using her legal knowledge. Sofia has volunteered with organizations such as the American Bar Association, American Cancer Society, the American Constitution Society, America Needs You, Federal Bar Association, LinkedIn, the University of Southern California, Harvard University, and others.

She earned separate degrees in Political Science, Global Affairs and Human Security, Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, and Law from a number of prestigious universities. Her favorite activities include reading, traveling, boxing and binge-watching TV shows.

A serial entrepreneur with over 10 years’ experience, having co-founded start-ups in the fashion, food and beverage, and online media industries. Erick, the son of a Haitian immigrant, took up tennis during a time of racial tension in the late 1980’s New York City. The sport gave him access to a vision of life beyond Brooklyn, with his first plane ride to a tournament in Bermuda. His playing also earned him a D-1 college scholarship, which led to a Master’s Degree in Urban Policy. Erick is driven by a deep desire to build businesses, and give young people the same opportunities tennis gave him.

A first generation American, based in Washington, D.C., Global Entrepreneurship, Government & Corporate Relations Executive and International Arbitration Professional of Haitian-Dominican descent is the CEO of MTA Visions LLC, the world’s first Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Government Relations firm and Founder of the Society of Global Impact Entrepreneurs–an incubator, accelerator, and support group for social entrepreneurs committed to solving tomorrow’s global problems today.

Since taking the leap into entrepreneurship in Fall 2016, Ms. Adonis has provided executive business coaching to over 50 entrepreneurs, engaged in speaking engagements on various topics of entrepreneurship, and officially represented the United States across the globe for entrepreneurship. Specifically, Ms. Adonis was selected to serve as: an inaugural judge for the National Invention Convention and Entrepreneurship Expo hosted by United States Patent and Trademark Office; mentor and coach for Charlotte City Startup Lab-incubator for minority millennials; steering committee member and contributor to the program content committee for the 2018 Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Summit covering topics such as, growing your business, leveraging technology,  acquiring capital, and securing contracts.

Additionally, Ms. Adonis has shared her expertise on entrepreneurship as a speaker and panelist at: Queen City Entrepreneurship Conference, sharing Top 10 Pitfalls a Women Entrepreneur Should Avoid; Sister Cities International, sharing The Success Factor of Women Entrepreneurs and bridging the gap between millennial entrepreneurs and citizen diplomacy; U.S.-China Entrepreneurship and Economic Opportunities Forum, sharing Policy Implications on the Sharing Economy; First U.S.-China National Pitch Competition serving as a guest judge alongside Shark Tank casting directors providing feedback on the Viability of Chinese Product and Service in the U.S. Marketplace ;and many more.

Most notably, Ms. Adonis was honored as one of the 30 under 30 rising entrepreneurs by the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce and selected: 1) to join a delegation led by White House Advisor, Ivanka Trump, as United States Delegate to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad, India, (a summit originally sparked by former President Obama in 2010 to deepen ties between business leaders, foundations, and social entrepreneurs);  and 2) selected as 1 of 50 American entrepreneurs and innovators to serve as Global Innovation Fellow by the U.S. Department of State to join the historic delegation to convene in Shenzhen, China, the Silicon Valley of China, with the goal of developing international business partnerships, and exchanging business practices with Chinese entrepreneurs. The forum was developed on the heels of the U.S.-China Social and Cultural Dialogue, launched by President Donald J. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to increase people-to-people ties and mutual understanding between the two nations. Ms. Adonis was further selected as 1 of 2 United States entrepreneurs during the forum to unveil the first U.S.-Chinese memorial and plant the tree of “No Worries” in Shenzhen City, China to illustrate the two countries’ friendship and immersion of business talent.

Beyond entrepreneurship, Ms. Adonis’ expertise and experience extends to U.S. Policy and Political Administration, Private International Law (specifically international commercial and investment arbitration), CSR, Nonprofit Management, Diversity & Inclusion, and Community Economic Development. Most notably, Ms. Adonis served as in-house expert on bi-partisan national politics for an education foundation in D.C., where she expanded the foundation’s reach to over 2,000 + senior level contacts; partnerships with 25 + federal governemnt agencies and political and public policy organizations. On the Political side, Ms. Adonis partnered with staff of the 2016 Republican and Democratic National Committees, Office of the First Lady Michelle Obama and Office of Public Engagement under President Obama, and other agencies to execute political and policy education training on various education, immigration, tax, criminal justice, healthcare, financial, telecommunications, opioid and other international topics. Ms. Adonis also secured over 150+ credentials for participants to attend the respective conventions.

Currently, Ms. Adonis serves as Federal TPS Campaign Consultant for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, leading the coalition and its member organizations towards a coordinated and comprehensive federal advocacy campaign to reinstate TPS, keep government accountable via a push for government investigation on initial decision to terminate TPS, and crafting a permanent solution for TPS holders in Florida.

Coupled with over ten years advocating on Capitol Hill and navigating the U.S. federal agencies and the White House on behalf of trade associations, national nonprofits, and corporations, Ms. Adonis has both theoretical and practical international arbitration experience. Specifically, Ms. Adonis received her global arbitration training, simultaneously with her law degree, from Queen Mary University of London, School of International Arbitration. After her training, Maritza was selected to work with the leading business law firm in the Baltics’ Dispute Resolution practice group with a primary focus on international commercial and investment arbitration. After, Ms. Adonis completed her tenure providing technical support for the protection of investments in eastern Europe under bilateral and multilateral investment promotion and protection treaties, Ms. Adonis was selected to work under the Secretariat of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center,one of the leading arbitration institutions in the world.

In an international leadership capacity, Ms. Adonis assisted the Jerusalem Arbitration Center with the utilization of International Commercial Arbitration as a means of promoting the Rule of Law. Ms. Adonis has also provided consultation to the Republic of China with their companies (corporate) law, and have provided feedback to the United States Trade Representative regarding preserving the arbitration provisions in the renegotiation of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In addition to her commitment to her service as founding board member of the Charlotte International Arbitration Society to promote Charlotte as a seat for International Arbitration, Maritza currently serves as the Vice Chair of Policy for the American Bar Association where she is working on the International Courts and International Arbitration committee’s activities to 1) promote and improve international arbitration as a method of resolving cross border disputes through educational and training programs on procedural and substantive aspects of international arbitration under both institutional and adhoc rules; and 2) formulate international legal and policy positions that are consistent with enhancing the effectiveness of this method of dispute resolution when necessary by identifying and influencing public policy issues important to international law, global business, and international institutions.

Ms. Adonis’ CSR and Nonprofit experience includes providing strategic development and management consulting to several national organizations and corporations mostly in the areas of education, health, and law. Most notably, Ms. Adonis served as the Assistant General Manager to the Haitian National Basketball Team. Highlighted achievements in the field of Diversity & Inclusion and Community Economic Development include: creating tools to enhance cultural competency in the medical and legal profession and expanding access and resources for minority pre-medical and pre-law students interested in entering the medical and legal profession respectively; drafting county Economic Development policy which will serve as the guiding principles for Board of County Commissioners when making decisions regarding assisting current businesses in the County and recruiting new business, arts & tourism, workforce development, and many more; drafting and revising procurement policies to increase contracting opportunities for Minority, Women, and Small Business Enterprises; deploying internationl trade missions to liaise between opportunities for business development for both the private and public sectors; and many more.

Ultimately, Ms. Adonis is an innovator, influencer, and change-agent. Ms. Adonis is a South Florida native, North Carolina resident, and Washington D.C. transplant with a proven ten year track record serving as a local, state, and national leader representing the needs and concerns of her respective constituents, creating and implementing programming, affecting change through design and execution of policy, and successfully operating and managing nat’l nonprofits. .

Ms. Adonis’ passion is today’s youth. She has provided direct-client services to over 500 misdemeanant youth and affiliated organizations and associations, discovering, developing and implementing practices that narrow the achievement gap; eradicating barriers impeding access to health care for medically underserved children; and increasing rehabilitation, prevention and retention for juveniles in the juvenile justice system, eliminating retributive practices.

‘Us Keeps Us’ is Ms. Adonis’ life motto because she truly believes that ‘united we stand, divided we fall’ and that it is truly up to “we the people” to be the change we want to see.

In her spare time, Ms. Adonis enjoys planning weddings and conferences; admiring art and playing volleyball, and engaging in youth empowerment and corporate speaking engagements.