Keynote Speakers / Performers

Funmilola Fagbamila

Funmilola Fagbamila (pronunciation: Foo-mee-loh-luh Fog-buh-mee-luh) is a Nigerian-American playwright, actress, and scholar. Her internationally touring stage play “The Intersection: Woke Black Folk” has been met with critical acclaim by thinkers and artists such as Angela Davis and Erykah Badu. This production explores the complexities of Black political identity and is a story about how humans navigate difference. It premiered to sold-out houses at both the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles (as the featured theatrical production) and the Skirball Cultural Center. “The Intersection” has been staged in venues and universities across the U.S., England, France, the Netherlands, and Brazil. Fagbamila serves as professor of Pan African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. As an original organizer of the Black Lives Matter national network, Funmilola contributed to the organization’s inception in 2013 and served as the Arts and Culture director in LA for years following. In 2015, Fagbamila was honored by the United States Congress and the Black Community, Clergy, and Labor Alliance for her commendable activist scholarship and service. In 2017, Fagbamila was awarded the Inaugural Activist-in-Residence position at the Institute on Inequality and Democracy at UCLA Luskin. And in 2018, Amplify Africa and the US Congress honored Fagbamila once more with the African Excellence award in the field of education.

Fagbamila’s viral poem “Black Girl Fly” has been viewed online more than four million times and in 2021 the TNT network collaborated with Fagbamila on a national feature of this piece. Her writing, creative productions, and social commentary have been featured in publications such as the Guardian, BBC, NPR, NOW THIS news, Blavity, FOXtv, and Netlflix.

In 2017, Cal State LA hosted a public dialogue between Fagbamila and the Ooni of Ife, traditional ruler of the largest African kingdom — Yoruba kingdom Ile-Ife. In 2018, Fagbamila and Nigerian presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore participated in a public dialogue on the state of affairs in Nigeria and the African diaspora. And in 2020, Fagbamila traveled to Paris at the request of the president of France to offer her consultation in France’s plan to address the country’s colonial history with African nations. This came to fruition after the president, Emmanuel Macron, had viewed Fagbamila’s social commentary and political analysis in the popular French publication, Le Monde.

Fagbamila has delivered keynote addresses, lectures, and performances at universities across the U.S. and Europe. Some of the venues include UCLA School of Law, Oxford University, Stanford, and Harvard.

Full bio


Chinedu Unaka

Chinedu Unaka (pronunciation: Chin-eh-doo Oo-nah-kah) is a Los Angeles-based comedian, actor, and writer. He recently performed as a featured comedian on “Comedy Central Presents” and as a special guest on the “Arsenio Hall Show.” Highlights of his career include:

  • Was recently chosen as “A Comic to Watch” by Time Out Los Angeles and was an NBC StandUp for Diversity Finalist
  • Has a regular series every Wednesday on FUSE TV’s “We Need To Talk About America”
  • Served as executive consultant on Yvonne Orji’s first HBO comedy special, “Momma, I Made It," which was nominated for an NAACP award

Born and raised in South Los Angeles by parents who emigrated from Nigeria, Unaka got his start in entertainment through stand-up while attending college at the University of California, Santa Barbara. While in school, he spent time teaching and entertaining inner-city students with mild to moderate special education needs. In between lesson plans, Unaka made time to pursue his artistic dreams before eventually leaving teaching after proudly serving the inner-city youth of Los Angeles for six years.

Full bio


Our Campus in Action Panel

This panel will explore our MLK 2024 theme by hearing from four different Cobbers reflecting on their experiences with racial and economic justice efforts at Concordia College. Our panelists will share personal stories, reflections, and advice for engaging as “Communities in Action, Empowering the Dream,” with an emphasis on what it means to engage in direct action on our own campus.

Fanan Nizam

Fathimath Fanan Nizam is currently a junior majoring in political science with minors in English literature and history. She is the lead commissioner for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Commission on campus and is the associate producer for an upcoming documentary, “Voices of the Maldives.” Outside of work and school, she likes to read novels and make things such as jewelry and crochet pieces. Her main interests lie in social justice and the arts.

Sunet Rubaclava

Sunet Rubaclava serves as an academic counselor and diversity support coordinator for two of Concordia’s scholar-leadership programs. In the past, she worked at the Office of Admission as the coordinator of multicultural recruitment, participating in the planning of Phase III for the Act Six cohort recruitment. She also worked as one of the chairs for the anti-racist committee for the Minnesota Association of Colleges and Admission Counseling, where her team won the Rising Star Award at the state and national level in 2022. She is currently involved in Summer Start-Up Orientation, planning leadership training opportunities for BIPOC students, hosting community spaces for meaningful conversations every month, Phase III planning, and supporting MOPOC (mentorship opportunities for people of color) in partnership with Moorhead High School. She earned her B.A. from the University of California Riverside and M.Ed. from the University of Utah.

Heidi Rogers

Heidi Rogers serves as an assistant dean of students and director of the Center for Student Success at Concordia. She has worked at Concordia for about 13 years, beginning in Residence Life and transitioning to Student Success and retention after completing a master’s degree in counseling and student affairs. She recently completed a certificate in diversity and inclusion from Cornell University. These work and academic experiences fostered a passion for student support. Initiatives she has contributed to include developing student spaces that welcome and affirm identities, addressing gaps in academic support programs to create more access, co-facilitating an interfaith working group to lift up and celebrate the diverse faith traditions in our community, and partnering with the Office of Student Engagement to further empower Concordia’s affinity student organizations and their important contributions to our community. Through building meaningful relationships and addressing the gatekeeping that happens in systems of higher education, she aspires to create an environment where all students have opportunities and access to succeed.

Alisha Debleye

Alisha Debleye is a senior majoring in neuroscience and psychology with a minor in data analytics. She is a marketing and food pantry assistant at the Cobber Food Pantry, community engagement intern with Dr. Kenneth Foster, and is currently a part of the Reading for Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (RIDE) program that offers eighth grade students the opportunity to engage and learn about issues surrounding Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity in our local community and beyond. She is also the lead coordinator of MOPOC (Mentorship Opportunities for Students of Color) along with advisors Dr. Ken Foster and Sunet Rubalcava. She works with students of color at Moorhead High School to develop a group that encourages learning and the growth of skills like self-efficacy, figuring out how to use systems that were designed to delay, independence, communication, leadership, advocacy, and more.