The Presenters
CECILIA B. LOVING is the pastor of SPIRITMUV® www.spiritmuv.com, a trans-denominational church in New York City, which teaches Ancient Wisdom/New Thought. She is the creator, owner and visionary of God is a Brown Girl, Too® , which celebrates our expression of the image and likeness of God. Reverend Loving practiced law for over 23 years as a litigator — at The Legal Aid Society, Criminal Appeals Bureau, Kramer Levin Nessen Kamin & Frankel, and at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP. She obtained her B.F.A. from Howard University in 1980, her M.F.A. from UCLA in 1982, and her Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law in 1985. She obtained her Masters of Divinity from New York Theological Seminary in 2007, receiving highest honors as The President’s Award, as well as the Rising Star Award most recently. She is also the owner of Myrtle Tree Press LLC (www.myrtletreepress.com), her publishing company, which is publishing a number of books, including Prayers for Those Standing on the Edge of Greatness (www.prayersontheedge.com), God is Brown Girl, Too and the God is Brown Girl Too Workbook: Moving From the Ordinary to the Extraordinary (www.godisabrowngirltoo.wordpress.com), Angels Angels Everywhere and The Angel Blanket (www.myrtletreepress.com). She is married to Marlon Cromwell and resides in Brooklyn, New York.
RAQUIBA LABRIE is Prayer Director of SPIRITMUV® and Meditation Leader for God is a Brown Girl Too®, as well as Director of the United States Programs' Equality and Opportunity Fund at the Open Society Institute ("OSI"). In this role, Ms. LaBrie directs grant-making focused on ensuring justice and equality, prohibiting arbitrary and discriminatory government action, and lifting barriers that prevent people from participating fully in economic, social, and political life. In 2007, she helped design and launch an OSI initiative to respond to the sub-prime lending crisis. Ms. LaBrie was previously Program Director of OSI's United States Programs' Sentencing & Incarceration Alternatives Project, which sought to reduce the scale of incarceration in the United States by eliminating race and class disparities in sentencing and incarceration; promoting alternatives to incarceration; and limiting prison growth and prison privatization. She also directed the Soros Justice Fellowships and served as program officer for OSI's United States Programs' Access to Justice program, which focused on strengthening the federally funded civil legal aid field. Prior to joining OSI, Ms. LaBrie was an associate in the exempt organizations practice group of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler LLC. She is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School and resides in Brooklyn, New York.
BAYLISS “SHERRELLE” FIDDIMAN is the Social Media Consultant and a Creative Workshop Leader for God is a Brown Girl Too®. She is a recent graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with Commonwealth College Honors distinction and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Legal Studies with a minor in African American studies. Sherrelle has a passion for community service, which she has engaged in since middle school. In High School she traveled to Mali, West Africa for to weeks to help build a schoolhouse for young children in an impoverished village. Acting as Community Service chair for the Black Student Union at UMass, she led students on cancer walks, community service and awareness events, and fundraisers. As the Political Chair of the UMass Pride Alliance she helped foster discussion about issues facing the LGBTQA community, and assisted in planning social events.
Event planning is also a skill that Bayliss has acquired. She served on the 2010 Senior Campaign at UMass helping to plan events for her graduating class. She also served as the UMass Representatives for the Five College Black Student Caucus where she hosted meetings and assisted in creating a constitution for the new group. Sherrelle plans to continue her passion for community service and event planning through the law. She is currently a Juris Doctor candidate at Northeastern University School of Law.