Spring 2023 Class
Venita Aspen
Fashion / Lifestyle / Food
Venita Aspen is a Charleston-based model and influencer, best known for her positivity, glamour, and bright and colorful style. Venita is a self-proclaimed Southern Belle who infuses southern flair into everything she does. She has been on the last two seasons of Bravo’s hit show Southern Charm, and will be back this year for her third. Prior to her influencer career, Venita completed culinary school at Trident Technical College.
Jazz Avery
Food
Jazz Avery is a NYC based vegan influencer and content creator. She is known for her fun, magnetic personality and unbridled creativity reflected in all her relatable vegan food and lifestyle content! She is passionate about Black Vegan representation and showcasing the vegan lifestyle from the lens of the Black experience and all the hilarious moments in between.
Emma Cortes Ellendt
Fashion / Lifestyle
Emma is a Filipino-American Seattle based Content Creator. Her blog and social media channels Emma's Edition encourages others to seek and create their own experiences in style, one adventure at a time. As a fashion and lifestyle creator, Emma share's everything from style tips, to life updates, and travel adventures. She is also the host of the Creative Edition Podcast. Her mission on the podcast is to inspire creatives to discover, grow, and own their brand.
Sally Elbassir
Travel / Food / Culture
Born in Ireland, but raised in Los Angeles to North African parents, Sally has been a traveler from the start. In 2015, she launched Passport & Plates, chasing her dream of eating the best street food, learning about different cultures and challenging misconceptions about Muslims. She's a firm believer that local food and travel experiences are the best form of education and empowers first-generation women to challenge cultural norms while they travel and dine sans spirits and swine.
Calandra R. Etsitty
Fashion
Calandra R. Etsitty is the founder and CEO of Winston Paul, a Diné owned clothing and accessory company based out of Many Farms, Arizona on the Navajo Nation. The company is named after Calandra’s kid brother, Winston and late grandpa, Paul. Winston Paul offers a wide variety of products such as handmade makeup bags, traditional two piece sets and customized outfits. Winston Paul is inspired from a mixture of traditional and street art to the urban and traditional music of her ancestors. Winston Paul seeks to bring a positive influence to everyone through fashion and art.
Gerry Isabelle
Travel / Culture / Lifestyle
Gerry is the founder of Dominican Abroad, a popular travel and culture blog dedicated to showing people how to travel in a meaningful way, highlighting cultural heritage, and amplifying BIPOC voices and histories. In addition to her travel content, which includes her New York State and beyond, Gerry has also led heritage tours in the Dominican Republic, helping diaspora travelers reconnect with their Caribbean roots.
Capri Lilly
Food
Capri Lilly is a Los Angeles-based food blogger and wellness enthusiast, who is passionate about creating delicious and nutritious meals that fuel the body and soul. She is dedicated to sharing her love of healthy eating with the world through her website, Good Food Baddie. Specializing in gluten-free recipes, Capri strives to show readers that healthy eating can be both satisfying and enjoyable. With a focus on fresh ingredients and creative flavor combinations, She hopes to inspire others to live their healthiest and happiest lives, one delicious dish at a time.
@caprililly
goodfoodbaddie.com
Cece Meadows
Beauty
Cece Meadows is a Xicana and Indigenous woman from Arizona. She currently resides on traditional Piro-manzo-tiwa land in Las Cruces, NM with her husband and four children. Cece is the founder and CEO of Prados Beauty. She is the first Xicana and Indigenous woman to bring her beauty brand to retail with over 600 JCPenney store placements. Prados Beauty is an inclusive and BIPOC beauty brand that brings awareness to Indigenous causes, peoples and stories through cosmetics.
Mabel A. Nuñez
Finance
Mabel is the founder and Chief Education Officer at Girl$ on The Money - a stock market investing education company targeted toward underrepresented individuals in the investing world.
Mabel teaches highly-rated courses centered on stock market investing and is also the author of two best-selling books on the subject.
She is passionate about helping women feel more confident around money topics and empowering them to create wealth.
Tamika Price
Food
After years of struggling with asthma and sinus infections, Tamika decided to treat it with a plant-based diet. Since then, Tamika attributes a plant-based diet to curing her asthma and renewing her quality of life. Tamika's passion for the vegan lifestyle transcends through her vibrant videos, where she features vegan-friendly restaurants, recipes and much more.
Tamika's transparency, fun personality and authentic delivery allows her to connect with her audience and build a highly engaged online community. Her mission is to spread joy and inspire healing from the inside out.
@plantbasedtamika
plantbasedtamika.com
Jen Ruiz
Travel
Jen Ruiz is a lawyer turned full-time travel blogger and author. She is a 5-time Amazon bestselling author, 3-time TEDx speaker and multi award-winning travel journalist. She has been featured by The Washington Post, Forbes and ABC News and is the solo female traveler behind Jen on a Jet Plane.
@jenonajetplane
jenonajetplane.com
Tiffany Yu
Disability Advocacy / Lifestyle / Wellness
Tiffany Yu is the CEO & Founder of Diversability, an award-winning entirely disabled-run and led social enterprise to elevate disability pride, and a content creator with 180k+ followers across platforms. She is a 3x TEDx speaker and has been named a TikTok API (Asian & Pacific Islander) Trailblazer and a LinkedIn Top Voice in Disability Advocacy. At the age of 9, Tiffany became disabled as a result of a car accident that also took the life of her father.
@imtiffanyyu
mydiversability.com
Art by Nichole Washington