Kendra Gaither was named President of the U.S.-Africa Business Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in October 2023. She served as Vice President of the USABC for the preceding 2.5 years.  

During her 20 years of working in government, Kendra has specialized in international economics and trade policy as a career Foreign Service Officer with the State Department focused on Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas, as well as in an academic environment, leading a global policy center focused on innovation and strategic partnerships at Carnegie Mellon University.

Brian Nelson wass the Senior Policy Advisor at Harris for President and former Under Secretary for Terrorism & Financial Intelligence at the U.S. Department of Treasury. Nelson is also the former Chief Legal Officer for the LA28 (The Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, 2028).  

The Democratic Congresswoman from Chicago, Lauren Underwood, is a member of the 118th United States Congress representing Illinois’s 14th Congressional District, she represents the city’s western suburbs and was highly recognizable when her hometown hosted the Democratic party’s national convention in August 2024.  Co-chair of the House Democrat’s policy and communications committee, she is also a high-profile member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority of which Vice President Kamala Harris is also a member.  

Prior to entering Congress, Underwood was a senior adviser at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, engaging with communities in response to disasters and public health emergencies, and assisted with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Underwood has been the subject of two New York Times features in the past year, which described her as a living extension of Jackie Robinson’s identity.   

“We constantly tell the scholars that they are ambassadors of his legacy, and she is a quintessential example of that legacy, said JRF President and CEO, Della Britton.

The recipient of the 2024 Rutgers University School of Engineering Medal of Excellence for Distinguished Achievement in Industry, Whitney Muse is the Senior Policy Advisor in the White House Office of Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation (OCEII); serving in the Biden-Harris administration since September 2023. Previously, she had been the inaugural chief of staff and senior advisor of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Grid Deployment Office (GDO) where she worked to address the nation’s power generation, transmission, and grid resilience challenges. 

Prior to joining DOE, she was a manager in Deloitte’s federal energy practice, where she provided policy and regulatory analysis of domestic and international power sector projects. Previously, she worked at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners implementing capacity-building programs for energy regulators around the world.  

Senior Confirmations Counsel, to the (Biden Administration) White House, Rayshon Payton has worked in Washington, DC in various roles and capacities since earning his JD from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 2013.   

An avid golfer, after four years at Oklahoma City University as an engaged leader and student-athlete, he earned his law degree and later interned at the White House. 

Payton has served as Attorney Advisor in the Office of Legislative Affairs, U.S. Department of Justice since 2021. He was previously Domestic Nominee Outreach Director, for the Biden-Harris Transition Team and Legislative Director for Rep. Kendra Horn, U.S. House of Representatives from 2019-21. Payton also served as Associate Director at the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee for Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer from 2017-2019.  

Payton currently serves in the Office of Legislative Affairs as senior confirmations counsel at the White House and in true JRF Scholarship fashion, when asked what is next for him, Payton’s responded like a true public servant “I am content continuing to positively impact the world and the spaces around me.” 

A committed public servant with policy, research, and community outreach experience and graduate-level training in public administration, Hector Velez, MPA has been a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for more than eight years.

Previously a Public Health Analyst Velez served as a Project Officer in the Division of Policy and Shortage Designation working with U.S. State and Territory Primary Care Offices (PCOs) under a cooperative agreement to assist with the designation of Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) and Medically Underserved Areas/Populations (MUAs/MUPs). He also worked for the Health Resources and Service administration (HRSA) on agency-wide transitions efforts, Government Accountability Office and Office of Inspector General engagements, and agency-wide response to emergent public health issues such as Zika.

Velez’s professional interests include identifying and addressing health disparities in minority and underserved populations from a public health policy perspective and improving the efficiency and transparency of these efforts through program evaluation.

A former speechwriter to Vice President Kamala Harris, Gevin Reynolds, a joint JD/MBA Student, attended Yale Law School and Stanford Graduate School of Business. Reynolds joined the Biden/Harris administration in 2021 and was the Associate Director of Speechwriting, for the Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President until July of 2023. He also worked as a speechwriter for the Democratic National Committee in advance of the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

Reynolds writes extensively for The Root, Resolute Square, and appears regularly as a panelist on Roland Martin Unfiltered; his thought leadership has been published in numerous local and national outlets including USA Today, The Hill, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Detroit Free Press, and New York Daily News.