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2007 Keynote Speakers


 Tonya Jameson

Tonya Jameson is the Charlotte Observer’s Pop life columnist. She primarily writes for the Observer’s site Charlotte.com.

She’s mostly known for her Paid to Party nightlife coverage, but her passion is That’s Wassup!. A pop culture column uses entertainment to educate readers ages 35 and younger about local, national and social issues. Her goal is to give young people and minorities a voice in the Observer and provide a place where they see themselves as more than criminals, statistics, failures, and victims.

Tonya grew up in the planned community of Columbia, MD, a suburb between D.C. and Baltimore. Columbia was designed to be a racially integrated town with a nearly 60-40 racial split in each neighborhood and school.

She got a reality check while attending “segregation now, segregation forever” University of Alabama.  After graduating from Alabama in 1994 with a less than stellar GPA (UA is a party school, hence Paid to Party), Tonya became a police and courts reporter for the Charlotte Observer’s York bureau in S.C.

She didn’t like her bosses. Who ever does?

She thought about becoming a cop, but that didn’t pay enough. Plus, she partied too hard in college and would’ve failed the background check.

After failing the test to become a firefighter, Tonya returned to college on a graduate fellowship. She received a master’s in political reporting from the University of Maryland.

Upon returning to the Observer in 1997, Tonya became a general assignment reporter. She was still a bit of a slacker and had to create a niche for herself or face a not so hot future in journalism.

She focused on writing stories about young people and minorities.  

 

 David Johnson

 David is a former English teacher in Charlotte, NC who left teaching to do full time photo journalism. He specializes in documentary photography, and his passion is taking his camera around the world to document persecuted and oppressed people and then using his work to raise awareness and money for the indigenous people. All of the profit from his work is donated back to aide those people he has documented. His latest book. VOICES of SUDAN documents the people in Darfur and other regions of Sudan. He has traveled to and documented work in Cambodia, Thailand, Brazil, Uganda, Kenya, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Ghana, South Africa, Singapore, France, Holland, China, Vietnam, and France, New Zealand and Australia. 1
  • 1994 graduate of Charlotte Catholic High School (voted "best leader" of the senior class)
  • 1998 graduate of UNC Chapel Hill (Served as student leader of FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes)
  • Received scholarship to play collegiate tennis
  • Taught English and coached high school tennis at Providence Day School in Charlotte, NC
  • Served for one year as the director of communications and International initiatives for CSO.
  • Founder of Silent Images
  • President of Johnson Photography, LLC.
  • Eagle Scout
 

Eric Rowles

Eric Rowles, President – Leading To Change, Inc.
Eric is a nationally recognized trainer, speaker, and consultant whom has worked with over 40,000 youth, adults, administrators, professionals, and policy makers since 1990. His 15+ years of training and presenting experience, coupled with his advanced degrees in curriculum development and design, have lead to the creation of Leading To Change, Inc. As President of Leading To Change, Eric runs a customized consulting and facilitation practice that works with for profit and non-profit organizations to achieve progressive and dynamic change.

Eric’s previous experience includes his work as Senior Director of Training with the Youth Leadership Institute where he designed a national training institute that provided over 1000 days of training in five years. Prior to his work with the Youth Leadership Institute, Eric held several positions directly related to training and organizational development. He was the Director of Leadership Development at Rutgers University (NJ) from 1997-1999, and for ten years directed and managed his own private training and educational theater organization, Leadership Through Motivation Productions. For six years he was the Director of International Youth Summer Abroad programs (CA) & spent five years as a substance abuse prevention coordinator of the Friday Night Live program in Riverside County (CA).

At the heart of his work, Eric is a community organizer and advocate for social justice. He has been a volunteer trainer and partner for a wide range of social change agencies and organizations including the National Conference on Community and Justice Anytown Program, New Jersey College Leadership Diversity Conference, and Teaching Tolerance Curriculum Instruction. Eric has designed, trained, participated, and facilitated over 20 different cultural/diversity “immersion” programs, including:

  • "Bridging The Gap” Multi-Cultural Student Leadership Retreat (New Brunswick, NJ)
  • “Mosaic” Multi-Cultural Leadership Retreat (New Britain, CT)
  • “New Jersey Diversity” Multi-Cultural Leadership Retreat (Newark, NJ)
  • “Black-Latino-Asian Student Orientation” (New Brunswick, NJ)
  • “Gay/Lesbian/Bi-Sexual/Transgender/Allies Network” (New Brunswick, NJ)
  • “Cinco De Mayo Con Orgullo Campaign” (Los Angeles, CA)
  • “TRIBES Cultural Competence Training” (San Francisco, CA)
  • “Time Out Gay/Lesbian/Bi-Sexual/Transgender/Allies Conference” (Charlotte, NC)
  • “Charlotte Coalition For Social Justice Conference” (Charlotte, NC)
  • “North Carolina Native American Youth Organization Unity Conference” (Fayetteville, NC)

Eric holds a double Bachelors of Arts degree from the University of California (Riverside) - one in Ethnic & Cultural Studies, and a second in Sociology/Psychology/Anthropology/Philosophy. In addition, he also holds a Masters of Science degree from Central Connecticut State University in Educational Leadership & Design.

 

 Decker Ngongang

Decker Ngongang is a Charlotte native and 2003 graduate of NC State University where he majored in Political Science. He is also a 2005 graduate of Leadership Charlotte, a program that focuses on volunteer community leadership. During this program he volunteered on projects to improve Charlotte’s at risk neighborhoods through funds development and strategic programming with area stakeholders. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of Partners for Out of School Time (P.O.S.T.), a non-profit organization which serves as a partner and advocate for area after school programs, and is a founding Director of the Tadlock Scholarship Fund Board.
 

 Rod Garvin

Rod received his Bachelor’s in Communication Studies from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte and has taken post-graduate film courses at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at Hood Theological Seminary. Prior to joining Generation Engage, he worked as a Youth Program Coordinator with the National Conference for Community and Justice (now Charlotte Coalition for Social Justice). Rod is a graduate of the Leadership Development Initiative, a Community Building Initiative program created to increase the awareness and ability of board members and staff of non-profit and public organizations to influence racial and ethnic inclusion and equity.