Colin Woodard
COLIN WOODARD is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist. He is the author of six books that have been translated into a dozen foreign languages and inspired an NBC television drama. He is currently a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Affairs at Salve Regina University and State and National Affairs Writer at the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, where he won a 2012 George Polk Award and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2016. He is a contributing editor at POLITICO and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, Smithsonian and dozens of other major publications.
A native of Maine, he has reported from more than 50 countries and seven continents and lived for more than four years in Eastern Europe during the collapse of the Soviet empire and the transition that followed. A graduate of Tufts University and the University of Chicago he is past Pew Fellow in International Journalism at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a recipient of the Jane Bagley Lehman Award for Excellence in Public Advocacy.
Safiya Khalid
SAFIYA KHALID is the Founder and Executive Director of Community Organizing Alliance. She is a former elected politician who created history when she was elected to the Lewiston City Council as the first Somali-American and youngest person in 2019. She is a graduate of Lewiston Public Schools and the University of Southern Maine, with a Psychology major and minor in Business Administration. Safiya served on many state, municipal and non-profit boards and committees. She is currently attending Northeastern University getting her Masters of Public Administration and focus in public policy. She is an avid advocate of social justice, community organizing, and youth leadership. She envisions a world that is just, fair and is equitable. With COA, we can accomplish these goals by creating and supporting a community that is united and organized to support issues that are important to their daily lives.