Andrew Gillum
With a passion for public service, and the ability to motivate and mobilize people to action, Commissioner Andrew D. Gillum is recognized statewide and nationally as an emerging leader. At the age of 23, Gillum became the youngest person ever elected to the Tallahassee City Commission in February 2003. At the time of the election, Gillum was a student at Florida A&M University (FAMU), majoring in political science. In August 2004, Commissioner Gillum was re-elected to serve for a full four-year term, and subsequently re-elected without opposition in August of 2008.
In November 2004, Gillum garnered increased prominence for his civic leadership when he was elected by his fellow City Commissioners to serve a one-year term as Mayor Pro Tem and again in November 2008. Also in 2005, the joint body of local and regional City and County Commissioners, known as the Capital Region Transportation Planning Agency, elected him to serve as chairperson for a year. In September 2008 the joint body of the Tallahassee City Commission and Leon County Commission known as the Blueprint 2000 Intergovernmental Agency elected him to serve as chairperson for a year.
While a City Commissioner, Gillum founded and serves as the National Executive Director of the Young Elected Officials Network, a unique national network that links more than 500 elected officials age 35 and under and helps identify innovative solutions to the challenges facing communities and states across the country. In conjunction with People For the American Way Foundation, the program supports this dynamic network with leadership training and public policy support.
In June 2003, Gillum received the “Emerging Leaders Award” from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. (Washington, DC) for educating and motivating young adults to become more politically involved and for being an “invaluable source of guidance and inspiration to this generation of leaders.” Ebony magazine’s February 2004 edition featured Gillum as one of “The Fast Track 30 Leaders Who are 30 and Under.” Tallahassee Community College also spotlighted him in their 4th Annual African-American History Calendar that recognized achievers who have made significant contributions to Leon and surrounding counties. In June 2007, Gillum was recognized as an Emerging Leader of the month by IMPACT and subsequently became their inaugural Emerging Leader of the Year during the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference in September 2007.
Gillum has traveled with two international delegations to engage in dialogue on international issues and forge professional relationships. In February 2007 he participated in a City of Tallahassee Sister City exchange trip with peer City Commission members to Ramat-Hasharon, Israel. In June 2007, Gillum was selected by the American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL) as a delegate to travel to Egypt and Jordan for a political study program. Both delegations provided him the opportunity to travel within the country and interact with local and national leaders, business representatives, and civic groups. Gillum also hosted an in-bound delegation of elected and political leaders from Japan to the United States for a two-week diplomatic and educational mission.
In addition, Gillum serves on the Board of Directors for The Schott Foundation for Public Education in Cambridge, MA, and the Black Youth Vote Coalition, a program of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation in Washington, DC. He is a member of Alpha Zeta Chapter of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity Incorporated (Boule’), the FAMU National Alumni Association, the NAACP; and Bethel AME Church.
Laura White
Laura White began her social entrepreneurship career when she rescued five children from drowning. As a former competitive swimmer whose best friend was homeless, Laura had been searching for a way to combine her passion for swimming with her desperation to help low-income youth. While volunteering on a camping trip with low-income kids from Atlanta, Laura was asked to supervise a swimming excursion that turned disastrous. After saving those five children, Laura realized that she and her swimming friends had a valuable skill they could share with these children. At 16 years old Laura utilized those skills by starting Wild and Water Swimming, a nonprofit organization which trains volunteer swim instructors to provide free swimming lessons for low-income children. Three years later, Wild and Water Swimming has not only provided swimming lessons for 150 children, but has used the sport of swimming as a medium to combat poverty in Atlanta, GA, and soon New Orleans, LA. Laura’s work with Wild and Water Swimming was recently featured on NBC’s TODAY Show, and Laura won $10,000 in the Youth Venture/Best Buy 15 @ 15 Contest. Laura is currently a freshman at Tulane University in New Orleans and is majoring in Political Economy and Social Policy.
Julia Sewell
Julia Sewell is a 20-year-old native of Minneapolis. She is a Junior at Augsburg College in Minnesota, studying psychology and theater. She is an actress, a model, a motivational speaker, and a published poet. Her service work began at age 10. By age 14, she was selected to be part of the inaugural group in the Youth Leaders International Program, which gathered the top leaders from across the globe and brought them together to create strategies for leadership within the local and National context. As part of this group, she traveled to both France and the United Kingdom. She was also selected to attend the Inaugural Clinton Global Initiative in New Orleans, where Bill Clinton spoke and gave advice about global leadership and how youth can work to be part of this initiative.
Julia attended the National Youth Leadership Training and became involved with the National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC), presenting at various conferences, including the Ryan White Conference for HIV/AIDS. Julia remains active in community work in Minneapolia, including the Youth Performance Company youth artists’ board, Umoja Academy, People of Pluralism, Soul Food, and Chicago Cares. She was a member of State Farm’s Youth Advisory Board in 2007-2008, where she helped to give out $5 million worth of awards to service-learning projects across the country. She currently serves on the America’s Promise Alliance Youth Partnership Team, the IMPACT Conference planning committee, and the Youth Noise Leadership Team.
Performing has always been in her blood. Julia began acting at age 5 and hasn’t stopped since. She began to combine her love for the stage with her passion for change, becoming involved in plays and films with educational messages. She recently performed at the 2008 National Service Learning Conference, and is working with the National Youth Leadership Council on strengthening youth initiatives and awareness on HIV/AIDS.
Princella Smith
Princella Smith serves as Chief Advocate for American Solutions, an organization founded by former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. She is a guest lecturer on the topics of “New Media” and “Grassroots Activism” at The Leadership Institute, an organization founded by Morton Blackwell committed to identifying, recruiting, training and placing conservatives in the public policy process.
Princella is also a frequent guest speaker for various groups and organizations and is a Visiting Fellow for the Independent Women’s Forum. During her collegiate years, Princella participated heavily in statewide and national government including national internships.
She was propelled into the national spotlight in 2004 when she won MTV’s “Stand Up and Holla” essay/speech contest and became a primetime speaker at the Republican National Convention in New York City. During the 2006 election cycle, Princella served as the E-Campaign Director for Michael Steele’s senate race in Maryland, managing all electronic communications for the campaign, including the official campaign website. She also served as the director of Students for Steele throughout the campaign.
Princella is a regular political contributor and has been featured and/or written for several national media outlets including FOX News, FOX Business News, CNN, CBS, MSNBC, Bloomberg News, France 24, EuroAmerican News, Danish Broadcasting, NPR, the New York Times, USA Today, XM Satellite Radio, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Essence Magazine, YouTube News, XM Radio, Armstrong Williams Show, NPR, AOL Radio/TV, Black America Web, RocktheVote.com, Daily Kos , Futuremajority.com, Huffington Post, and several local press/media outlets among others.
Princella is a graduate of Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas, where she majored in Political Science with minors in Communications and History and was the offensive player of the year for the Lady Tigers basketball team. She is a graduate of the Buckley School of Public Speaking.
Erin Mizursky
Erin was most recently an assistant at the Presidential Inaugural Committee. Previous to her work on the inaugural committee, she was a field coordinator for Senator Obama’s presidential campaign in Florida.
Erin co-founded Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND), a campus organization that became the model chapter for the international non-profit, STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition.
As director of STAND in its founding year from 2006-2007, Erin worked to expand STAND’s presence on high school and college campuses, which grew to more than 700 active chapters worldwide under her tenure.
Erin is a 2007 Aspen Institute Fellow and a recent graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
