Brittany Collins is an executive leader in philanthropy and social impact with nearly 20 years of experience in place-based investment, policy reform, and complex governance, driving systems change that expands opportunity for families across Georgia and the American South.
As Executive Director of the Betty and Davis Fitzgerald Foundation, she oversees the Foundation’s governance, investments, and strategy to expand access to education and mental health services across Georgia. Previously, as Founding Director of PAACT: Promise All Atlanta Children Thrive, she convened more than 60 multi-sector partners to drive policy and practice change, culminating in a landmark $20 million public-private investment in early learning outcomes.
Brittany serves on several national and regional nonprofit boards and is a sought-after thought partner among institutions working at the intersection of place-based investment and systems change. Her leadership has been recognized with honors including Atlanta Business Chronicle and Georgia Trend’s 40 Under 40 and the Outstanding Atlantan Award. She holds a B.A. from Spelman College, a Master of Education from Georgia State University, and has completed executive education at INSEAD and Harvard Business School.
Anne-Laure Desjonquères is a career diplomat who joined the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs in 2006.
Before being appointed Consul General of France in Atlanta in 2022, she served as the head of the division of European Union law and international economic law in the Legal Affairs Department since 2018. Previous postings abroad include head of the Press & Communication Office at the French Embassy in New Delhi, and political advisor on domestic and African policy issues at the French Embassy in Pretoria. At the Ministry’s headquarters in Paris, she also served as a desk officer in the Strategic Affairs Department, in charge of nuclear disarmament issues, and as a legal consultant in European Union law in the Legal Affairs Department.
A former student of the French National School of Administration (ENA) and of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ulm), she graduated from Sciences Po in Paris and from the University of Paris-IV Sorbonne (Master’s Degree in History of International Relations).
Tara Dickman is a community organizer, educator, and strategist with over 15 years of experience building civic power in France and Europe. Founder of Le Next Level and co-founder of both Démocratiser La Politique and Stop le Contrôle au Faciès — a grassroots-led, multisector coalition that successfully challenged discriminatory policing before the Paris Court of Appeal and the European Court of Human Rights — she teaches community organizing at ESSEC Business School and has served as a Teaching Fellow for Marshall Ganz’s Executive Education class at Harvard Kennedy School. Her work asks not only what democracy promises, but who gets to shape it.
Artist-researcher and associated professor at the National School of Architecture of Marseille, Matthieu Duperrex has been working for over 15 years on urban, landscape, and ecological issues. With a background in literature, he holds degrees in philosophy, economics, sociology, and visual arts. His prolific and acclaimed scientific output lies in the fields of ecological humanities and the anthropology of technology and infrastructure. Performances, installations, films, photography, multimedia publications, curating ideas, literary narratives… His creations transcend disciplinary boundaries and are always based on field research into anthropized environments and sentinel territories. He is interested in the mineral turn, complex socio-hydrosystems, feral dynamics, critical zone sciences, and landscape aesthetics. During his stay as part of the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program, Matthieu Duperrex will conduct a field investigation entitled “How to Build a Marsh?”, analyzing various wetland ecological restoration projects in Louisiana. He is hosted by the LSU Coastal Ecosystem Design Studio.
David Edwards is the Policy Advisor for Neighborhoods for the City of Atlanta and the Inaugural Director of the Center for Urban Research at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He served as Chief Executive Officer at Purpose Built Communities, a non-profit firm partnering with local leaders to revitalize distressed urban neighborhoods. In addition, Mr. Edwards served on IBM’s Global Smarter Cities team, as Senior Policy Advisor to Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, as a management consultant for the Boston Consulting Group in Atlanta, and as Assistant Provost for Academic Affairs at Columbia University. He initially began his career at the Office of Management and Budget in the Executive Office of the President in Washington, D.C.
Chandra Farley serves as Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Atlanta and leads the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and Resilience. In this role, she sets direction for the City’s sustainability and resilience goals and leads the interdepartmental and community-wide engagement necessary to address the inequitable effects of climate change through an environmental justice lens.
Chandra’s charge is the development of the City’s first climate resilience strategy that will address energy burden, emissions reductions, urban agriculture and local food systems, building decarbonization, green workforce development, fleet electrification, expanding EV Charging and uplifting youth leadership while advancing the City’s goal to achieve 100% clean energy for 100% of Atlantans by 2035. Prior to joining the City, Chandra founded ReSolve Consulting, an energy justice consulting firm and launched the “Good Energy Project,” a social space envisioned to connect the transformational power of Black Women to the creation of an equitable clean energy economy.
Chandra is a well-known leader in energy and climate justice circles, and her work has been recognized with multiple awards. Her advocacy extends to Congress, where she has twice testified to the importance of a justice-centered climate action agenda and she has held multiple national and regional board service roles. In 2022, Chandra completed a historic run for the Georgia Public Service Commission.
Nikishka Iyengar is a social entrepreneur, community organizer, and writer advancing economic democracy. As founder and CEO of The Guild, she has built a cooperative ecosystem in Atlanta that enables communities to shape their economic futures through collective ownership of land, housing, and real estate. She is also the founder and Managing Director of Groundcover, a $30 million impact investing fund focused on scaling shared equity models.
Nikishka is a 2025 Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, a Democracy Fellow at the Harvard Ash Center, and a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Next City, Nonprofit Quarterly, and other outlets.
As Vice President for Development at The Carter Center, Ms. Kruse directs the development work of the organization, which includes the facilitation of donor investments and partnerships in support of the Center’s efforts to eradicate disease, promote peace, democracy, and human rights, and educate the public and policymakers about important mental health issues. Ms. Kruse holds an M.S. in International Affairs from the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Graduate Certificate in International Management from the School of Management at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a B.A. in Economics and French from Hollins College. Ms. Kruse also completed an Executive Education Program in Nonprofit Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. In 2012, Ms. Kruse was awarded the French National Order of Merit with the rank of Knight (Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite) for her impact on the francophone community. She is a recipient of the Emory University Award of Distinction and the Distinguished Alumni Award of the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she serves as an Advisory Board member at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs.
Olivia Leu joined The Carter Center as a Data Analyst in 2024. She helps lead the Center’s efforts to combat digital threats to democracy through social media monitoring and media literacy curriculum development, as well as supporting data collection and analysis for the Democracy Program’s domestic and international nonpartisan election observation initiatives. So far, she has contributed to projects in Bangladesh, Guyana, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, and the United States. She has prior experience working on political campaigns, U.S. and international public policy, and computational biology. She holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and politics from Pomona College.
Rohit Malhotra is the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Civic Innovation in Atlanta, his hometown city. His background is in social entrepreneurship, digital communications, open data and community organizing. He served as an Ash Innovation Fellow in the White House Office of Management and Budget, focused on the Obama administration’s efforts around social impact bonds and pay for performance. In 2015, he was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, where he served as the youngest member in recent history, and he also served on the Grady Ambassador Force Board and as a co-chair for the Atlanta Hawks Basketball Club Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Board. Rohit was named as one of Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 30 Under 30, 500 Most Powerful Atlantans, and was awarded the prestigious Echoing Green Global Fellowship. He earned his B.A. from Emory University, where he was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 2019, and a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he served as student body president.
Thiên Thanh Nguyễn is a fourth-year at Emory University, studying Sociology and Economics. He is a 1.5-generation Vietnamese American, having been born in Việt Nam and then raised in Lynnwood, Washington. Thiên is interested in pursuing his Ph.D. in sociology and social policy after completing his studies at Emory and eventually becoming a university professor. As a first-generation, limited-income student, he is deeply aware of the educational inequalities that students face within our current public education system. Thiên’s current and future research will aim to uncover the mechanisms driving these issues, with the goal of informing policies that positively impact students and schools. He is an APIA Scholar and inaugural Bolder Futures Social Impact Fellow with AAPI Data. In his free time, Thiên enjoys spending time in nature, cooking new cuisines, and volunteering in the local Atlanta community.
Fabrice Rozié is a cultural leader dedicated to fostering cross-cultural dialogue and building lasting connections between France and global creative communities.
He serves as Director of Villa Albertine in Atlanta, where he leads initiatives that strengthen academic and cultural exchanges between France and the U.S. Southeast. His work spans literature, visual and performing arts, design, and architecture, engaging local ecosystems while promoting contemporary French creativity through flagship programs such as Night of Ideas and artist residencies.
Previously, at the Institut Français in Paris, he was Department Director and a member of the Executive Committee, overseeing international programs supporting French artists worldwide. Earlier roles include Cultural Attaché at the Consulate General of France in Chicago, where he launched major Franco-American initiatives, and leadership positions in New York, where he founded the French Book Office and co-created the French Voices translation program, expanding the reach of Francophone authors in the U.S.
He has also worked as an independent cultural consultant in Paris and Berlin, and contributed to publications including Le Monde and Die Zeit. Rozié holds a Ph.D. in French literature, has taught at Sciences Po, and developed the theater project Transatlantic Liaison, staged in Paris and New York. He is a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.
Abigail Stanga is a Program Associate with The Carter Center’s Human Rights Program, supporting initiatives in the Democratic Republic of Congo focused on women’s empowerment, human rights defender protection, and youth civic engagement. She holds a master’s degree in Development Practice from Emory University and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Eckerd College.
Having grown up in France and England, with family roots in New Orleans, Abigail brings a global and cross-cultural perspective to her work. She is fluent in French and has working proficiency in Spanish. Prior to joining The Carter Center, she worked in community-based and private-sector settings, including food systems, which informed her interest in sustainability and locally driven change.
Andrew J. Young has earned worldwide recognition as a pioneer in and champion of civil and human rights. Ambassador Young’s lifelong dedication to service is illustrated by his extensive leadership experience of over sixty-five years, serving as a member of Congress, African American U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Mayor of Atlanta, and ordained minister, among other positions.
During the 1960s, Young was a key strategist and negotiator during civil rights campaigns that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Appointed as an Ambassador to the United Nations in 1977, Young negotiated an end to white-minority rule in Namibia and Zimbabwe and brought President Carter’s emphasis on human rights to international diplomacy efforts. As two-term Mayor of Atlanta, Young brought in over 1,100 businesses, over 70 billion in foreign direct investments and generated over a million jobs.
Ambassador Young has received honorary degrees from more than 100 universities and colleges in the U.S. and abroad and has received various awards, including an Emmy Lifetime Achievement award in 2011 and the Dan Sweat Award in 2017. His portrait also became part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
Ambassador Young also serves on a number of boards, including, but not limited to, the Martin Luther King Center for Non-Violent Social Change, Morehouse College, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State and Americas Mart. In 2003, he and his wife Carolyn McClain Young founded the Andrew J. Young Foundation to support and promote education, health, leadership and human rights in the U.S., Africa, and the Caribbean. Young currently serves as the Chairman of the Andrew J. Young Foundation.
In 2012, Young retired from GoodWorks International, LLC, after well over a decade of facilitating sustainable economic development in the business sectors of the Caribbean and Africa. Young was born in 1932 in New Orleans, and he currently lives in Atlanta with his wife, Carolyn McClain. He is also a father of three daughters and one son, a grandfather of nine and a great grandfather of two.