Trailblazers Featured at the 40th Annual Parker Lecture

Maya Wiley, Jessica J. González and TL Lewis to be honored

The UCC Media Justice Ministry's 40th Annual Parker Lecture & Awards Breakfast is back in person this fall. The event will be held at the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington D.C. at 8 am ET.

Maya Wiley, the nationally recognized civil rights leader and newly-appointed president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, will present the 40th Parker Lecture. Wiley brings a perspective based on a wealth of expertise and a lifetime of leadership in the civil rights sector as a founder of the Center for Social Inclusion (now Race Forward), and as a litigator at the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Inc. She also played a key role championing a $10 million investment in affordable broadband in New York City and served as a legal analyst for MSNBC from 2018 to 2021.

Jessica J. González, co-CEO of Free Press, is a champion for low-income people, people of color and others often left out of the discussion in communications policy. She is a staunch advocate of net neutrality and media diversity, and a forceful opponent of media consolidation. She co-founded Change the Terms, building a coalition of more than 60 civil- and digital-rights groups seeking to address online hate speech, and helped lead the “Stop Hate for Profit” boycott.

Talila "TL" Lewis, co-founder of HEARD, which is is a path-breaking advocate with and for disabled incarcerated people, and works to identify and address the inextricable links between ableism and all forms of oppression. Lewis co-founded HEARD in 2011 to support deaf, deafblind, deafdisabled, and hard of hearing people affected by incarceration, especially those who were wrongfully convicted.