Speaker Series

Glenn D. Magpantay, Esq. is a long-time civil rights attorney, professor of law and Asian American Studies, and LGBTQ rights activist. He is principal at Magpantay & Associates: a nonprofit consulting and legal services firm. In 2023, the United States Senate appointed Glenn to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to advise Congress and The White House on equal opportunity and civil rights.

Before, he served as Executive Director of the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance. He practiced voting rights law at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF). His lawsuits have secured bilingual ballots in Chinese and Vietnamese in the City of Boston in 2004 and struck down Pennsylvania’s restrictive voter-ID law in 2013. He championed the successful reauthorization and expansion of the federal Voting Rights Act by Congress in 2006. He knows the law and its limitations very well.

---

Engagement Tools

Feelings Reflection Card

Hailing from East San Jose by way of Guerrero, Mexico, Reyes quickly made a name for himself at the tender age of sixteen, exploding onto local Bay Area stages and captivating his audiences with deeply moving spoken word performances.

Reyes’ repertoire has since evolved to include nationally-acclaimed keynotes, writing workshops, and his one-man show, Prieto, a coming-of-age story that explores subjects like migration, sexuality, and socio-economic struggle—all while empowering his audiences to tap into their own creative potential.

His achievements don’t stop there. In addition to being the first-ever undocumented poet to achieve Santa Clara County Poet Laureate status, Reyes was chosen to be a 2024 Creative Ambassador by the City of San Jose, The Advocate named him one of “13 LGBT Latinos Changing the World,” and Remezcla included him on their list of “10 Up And Coming Latinx Poets You Need To Know.”

Amongst numerous accolades, Reyes has been awarded a NALAC Catalyst for Change Grant (2020), a Gerbode Foundation Grant and most recently, a Walter & Elise Haas Creative Work Fund Grant (2023), . His writing has appeared in publications such as MARIPOSAS: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry, Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings and forthcoming UndocuPoetics.

---

Engagement Tools

Feelings Reflection Card

Lisa McNair’s older sister, Denise, was one of the four little girls killed in the infamous 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Through her memoir, Dear Denise: Letters to the Sister I Never Knew, Lisa provides readers a front row seat inside a family that endured a horrific and high-profile loss in the Civil Rights movement. Driven to find redemption in her sister’s death, Lisa’s parents worked tirelessly to build relationships and promote change across racial lines. Lisa’s poignant stories, often unique and even entertaining, reflect the pain and perseverance of many first-generation post-segregation African Americans. In 2022 Dear Denise: Letters to the Sister I Never Knew was recognized as one of NPR’s “Books We Love”. She was also recently a featured author at the annual Monroeville Literary Festival. Monroeville is the home of Harper Lee and Truman Capote.

Lisa is a frequently sought-after national public speaker. Her gift for telling stories that create empathetic connection enables her to address racial unity across a diverse range of audience demographics. Through her family’s historic tragic loss, Lisa shares how they chose to love instead of hate. It is a road map to show us all how we can bring about reconciliation to our state, our country and our world. Lisa believes it is important for all generations to know the rich stories of the Civil Rights Movement so that history does not repeat itself.

She is a current graduate of the 2024 Class of Leadership Birmingham.

For more on Lisa’s writing and speaking see www.speaklisa.com.

---

Engagement Tools

Feelings Reflection Card