Blending his passions for people, product, and problem solving, Brandon Smith has crafted a 10-year career spanning multiple industries including social media, sports, consumer packaged goods, and non-profit.

He currently serves as a Manager at Facebook on the New Products Team – where his global team leads product testing to guide the future of Facebook’s Family of Apps (ex. Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp).

Prior to his current role, Brandon served as a Team Lead on Facebook’s Global Business Group sales team – leading a team of New Grads on the Entertainment & Publishing Vertical. During his tenure, he designed Facebook’s first Influencer Subvertical - generating a $9.8M business in 3 quarters (+87% YoY) across 22 advertisers including Grant Cardone, Tai Lopez, and Gabrielle Bernstein.

Brandon’s proudest professional accomplishment is serving as a small business owner outside of Facebook. In 2014, he and life-long friend Howard Patton created the Smith+Patton Study Abroad Scholarship to provide study abroad funding to underrepresented students at The Ohio State University. To date, Howard and Brandon have raised over $38,000 and supported 38 students on global excursions around the world - becoming the youngest, living alumni of Ohio State with an active, self-named scholarship.

A native of Georgia, Brandon earned a BA in Marketing from The Ohio State University and is a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. He currently lives in Austin, TX with his wife, Shontell.

Jonathan Jackson is a Program Manager on the Privacy Risk Management Team at Meta where he designs, optimizes, and facilitates the execution of the company-wide Annual Privacy Risk Assessment required by the Federal Trade Commission. He’s an active member of the Black@meta Resource group and is currently leading a cohort devoted to bolstering industry expertise and certifications in Meta’s Privacy Organization. Prior to Meta, Jonathan was a consultant at Deloitte focused on business model transformation and business process optimization in cleared environments. Prior to Deloitte, Jonathan honorably served in the United States Navy as an Officer in the Submarine community at Naval Nuclear Power Training Command. Jonathan is an Atlanta native and was dual enrolled at Georgia State University (The Real GSU) and Georgia institute of technology for his undergraduate degree followed by Emory University for his Master of Business Administration. He; Passionate about developing others and actively seeks opportunities as a mentor or serve as a sounding board for problem solving. On his down time you’ll probably find him spending time with family, playing basketball, or studying fashion (probably shopping lol, first hand experience is best, but I do actually study the topic).

Ashley Jenkins is the HR Director for The Americas Global Business Group based in New York. She’s spent the last 6+ years at Meta in several HR Business Partner roles supporting various organizations – she started as an Infrastructure HRBP supporting Meta’s global data centers, and then moved to the Reality Labs HR team about a year & a half later to help support that org through massive growth and change. Most recently, and prior to her current role, she was based in Meta’s Sydney, Australia office on assignment as the Australia/New Zealand and Asia-Pacific Policy, Comms and Legal HRBP, covering for a one-year maternity leave. Suffice to say, she’s having the time of her life at Meta!

Ashley was born and raised in Chicago, and is a proud DePaul University (undergrad) and University of Illinois (grad) alumna. Working in HR for her entire career has afforded her the opportunity to live and work all over – Chicago (Aon); Seattle (Microsoft); Hershey, Pennsylvania (The Hershey Company); and the Bay Area, Sydney and New York (Meta). Her various roles and experiences at each company have pushed her out of her comfort zone; allowed her to develop a toolbox of skills given the diverse set of client groups and their business challenges; introduced her to a wide range of POVs and an expansive perspective that she’s continued to carry with her throughout her career; and taught her that she is a much better HR professional when she can show up every day as her “very Black, very authentic and very proud self” - regardless of her seniority or where she’s physically located.

Ashley is proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., an avid traverel, obsessed with OrangeTheory workouts and a huge foodie (#balance).

LaMecia Butler is a Program Manager for Meta Global Supplier Diversity whose mission is to help diverse-owned businesses do business with Meta and with the people and communities it connects. She manages the team’s global partnership, marketing and supplier engagement efforts. Prior to Meta, she worked in roles that drove economic opportunity as the Director of the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, community relations roles for Super Bowl 50 (San Francisco Bay Area) and Super Bowl LI (Houston), and the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF). She holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (emphasis Marketing) and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication (emphasis in Public Relations).

Andronica Klaas is a QA Engineering Lead at Meta where she leads a Quality Assurance team supporting Privacy and Compliance across the Meta Family of apps. A graduate of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership for Girls, she is passionate about empowering women, first-generation students, minorities in Tech, and HBCU students through intentional and infrastructural programming. Klaas is also an advocate for building confidence and belonging in women in tech and engineering and has for the past year worked with Discover E to connect thousands of women around the world for uplifting conversations to help them persevere and thrive in engineering and technology careers through the Discover E monthly virtual speaker series - as the host of the Discover E Persist series. She is a proud graduate of Johnson C. Smith University where she obtained her BSc in Computer Science Information Systems.

Alicia Tambe is currently a Public Policy Manager for Global Connectivity and Access at Meta where she leads Meta’s policy engagements with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). She has experience working on connectivity policy issues across the globe and works to advance digital inclusion and affordable and reliable internet access initiatives. She also serves on Meta's BlackWomen@ Leadership Team. Prior to joining Meta, Alicia was Regulatory Counsel at SES, where she worked on global satellite and connectivity regulatory issues and she has served as Counsel and Regional Specialist for Africa in the International Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Alicia has also served as Law Clerk in the Office of the White House Counsel as well as Law Clerk to the Deputy Chief of Staff at the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

Alicia is a licensed attorney who holds a Juris Doctorate from Northeastern University, a Master of Arts in Sustainable International Development from the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the State University of New York at Albany.  She is most proud of her work as Co-founder and Board Chair of Fight Through Flights, Inc., a non-profit organization which aims to address racial disparities faced by black women living with breast cancer by providing them with free wellness retreats and travel experiences as well as access to mental health, nutrition, and fitness resources.  

Alicia is extremely passionate about traveling and building global community. She has been to over 35 countries and looks forward to new experiences and opportunities.

Amber Burrell is a University Recruiter for Facebook, serving on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team. In her role, she utilizes strategic recruiting and hiring initiatives to positively impact diverse representation across multiple graduate and undergraduate positions within the tech industry.

Amber is an Alabama native and third generation University of Alabama alumni. There, her passion for diversity, equity and inclusion blossomed when she became a member of the Black Student Union and National Council of Negro Women. She later lead outreach programming for both organizations at UA. Upon graduation, Amber held multiple upper-management and campus recruitment positions at Target Corporation and Shipt where she led internship programming, and curated diverse hiring strategies for multiple universities across the nation.

A proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Amber serves on the Financial Projects committee for her chapter.

Sheldon Louis is a Partner Manager for Twitter Sports and a Travel content creator on Instagram, @swipeszn. Sheldon, a Trini-American, considers himself a tech enthusiast and travel lover. The "There's Wifi in Every City" advocate enjoys the flexibility of working in tech, as he continues to travel the world, having visited over 20 countries.