Southern Organizer Academy

Our Mission:

S.O.A serves to strengthen the leadership and capacity of Southern based folks to build power that creates social and structural change. We are rooted in a queer, feminist, abolitionist framework and believe that revolution is a verb , only possible through collective mass mobilization.

S.O.A centers the leadership of Black and Brown women and femmes and strives to honor our strong lineage of freedom fighters through:

Kinship based organizing training.
Weaving our individual and ancestral knowledge into real time change.
Being a commitment to maintaining our wholeness and that of our kindred.

N. Nathalie Nia Faulk - Director of Philosophy , Thought, & Leadership is self described "Ebony Southern Belle" born in Lafayette, Louisiana and living in New Orleans for the last eight years. Since her childhood, her work has lived at the the intersections of performance, healing justice, individual and organizational development, and community building. They use these competencies as tools for the liberation of all people, centering trans and gender non confirming black and brown people. Currently, they serve as A Human Right Commissioner for the City of New Orleans, Co-Director of Southern Organizer Academy as well as Co-Director of Last Call Oral History Project. As a Advisory Board member, they currently serve both BreakOUT! and the LOUD Queer Youth Theater. They believe that everyone is inherently valuable and a star in their own right!

Key Jackson - Sr. Strategist is a 1st nations/Black Queer radical dreamer who is committed to weaving the Strength of their community into sustainable social change. A Founding member of Black Youth Project 100 New Orleans, Key has spent the past 15 years fighting for Queer, Youth, Educational, Housing, Immigrant and Racial Justice. Key’s lived experience as a low income, Queer person of color has fueled their desire to educate and move always towards a more equitable reality. Key has co-founded multiple youth centered initiatives and has provided formal as well as informal trainings to hundreds of youth, organizations and communities across the nation.

SOA's Advisory Board Council Members:

Moonlite (they/them/she/her) is a 4th generation New Orleanian is a self-identified Black Witch. Their work lives at the intersections of healing justice, community organizing, arts, culture building & serving as a reminder to beautify & adorn ourselves. Moonlite has spent years developing programming in service to the liberation of Black and Brown people, particularly queer & Trans folk. This includes serving as HART coordinator at BreakOUT!, healing and safety lead for Black Youth Project 100 . A small herbal business that helps folks with chronic pain & recently in the film and creative community. In their off time, you can find Moonlite spending time in meditation, at a body of water , doing crystal work, collecting dead stuff, eating a pickle, or cuddling with Garcia (beloved feline companion). Moonlite believes in the power of magic as a tool to reach a world that serves us all.

Gahiji is a reiki practitioner has been living in New Orleans for nearly 13 years and has done transformative work within the criminal justice arena working with VOTE and other organizations. Gahiji has been a community mediator for 8 years and is founding member of a statewide organization that focuses on conflict resolution using mediations, coaching, restorative circles and other strategies. He also is a spiritual energy worker and teaches Reiki.

Annke Dunbar is a Skadden Fellow with the Fair Housing and Community Development project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. In this role, anneke’s work centers on ensuring Black people in Baltimore can stay in their homes and building toward a future of permanently affordable housing and community control over housing and land. Tactically, anneke provides direct representation to low-income Black tenants facing eviction proceedings, supports the development of tenant-led organizing with Baltimore Renters United and provides legal support for housing cooperatives and community land trusts by and for low-income Black Baltimoreans.

Prior to joining the Lawyers’ Committee, anneke served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell of the District Court for the District of Columbia. Before clerking, anneke worked in plaintiff's side race-based employment discrimination litigation and worked closely with the ACLU and the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition on Miranda v. Barr, an impact case on behalf of indigent undocumented individuals being held in immigration detention solely for their inability to pay their bonds. In law school, anneke was an organizer of the Harvard Law Review Prison Abolition Symposium, a Law and Social Change Fellow, co-chair of the Harvard Black Law Students Association’s (HBLSA) political action committee, and a core organizer of the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign. Prior to law school, anneke worked in New Orleans for Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Institute for Women and Ethnic Studies, while supporting the work of Stand with Dignity at the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice, organizing with Black Youth Project 100 and serving as a core member of the Nola 2 Angola planning team.

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