Jannelle Cortes is a Dominican-American choreographer and entrepreneur who has been a contributing member of the Washington, DC and New York City dance, education, and health communities for 20 years. In 2006, Jannelle founded Groovefit, a dance and fitness company that promotes cross-cultural unity and wellness accessibility. As a certified Minority/Women Business Enterprise in New York, Groovefit has had the privilege of providing dance, mediation, yoga, and mental health services to public schools, churches, and hospitals.

For the past thirteen years, Jannelle has been expanding Groovefit’s operations to include travel. Through its sister company, Groove Trips, Jannelle has taken travelers on dance and cultural journeys to destinations such as Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Morocco, Puerto Rico, Spain, Portugal, India, Egypt, and Turkey. Jannelle uses dance and rhythm as a portal through which migration stories are told.

During the summer months, Jannelle participates in outdoor events hosted by EmblemHealth and HealthFirst. Through her companies, she thrives to bring awareness to the importance of mental wellness and fitness. She volunteers at Hope Connections for Cancer Support, is an active Board Member of the Silver Spring Town Center (Maryland), and dedicates her weekends to servicing her community in Harlem; through the Frederick Douglass Boulevard Alliance.

An E-RYT 500 and 20 year veteran in the wellness field, Lateefah Fleming is the president and Chief Motivating Officer of empowerFit Wellness, LLC. A yoga, Pilates, dance, and whole body experience, empowerFit is dedicated to empowering women, especially black women and women of color, to find their voice - and use their voice to embolden themselves and their communities. She has a passion for building communities locally and globally by combining the grounding and strength of yoga, the freedom and movement of dance and exposure to various cultures.

Lateefah inspires women to have healthy relationships with their bodies while fostering a deeper love of themselves. Using doula services, classes, workshops, and wellness retreats, she seeks to build community and amplify voices on both a domestic and international scale.

Throughout Lateefah's career, she has led international yoga retreats, mentored many fitness professionals through her position as Fitness and Wellness Director at various NYC facilities and trained women through various events in their lives from chemotherapy recovery to running their first marathon at 60.

She is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, the author of “Everyone Can do Yoga: 30 Days of Information and Instruction on an Ancient Practice That Works Wonders in Our Modern World”, a Lululemon Ambassador and is on InStyle/Yahoo’s Top 10 Powerful Women of 2021.

Lateefah is in the business of motivation, transformation and empowerment; changing hearts and minds and making people love themselves enough to understand their worth, recognize their true beauty, find their voice and embrace their power.

Ashley is a healer and lover by nature. She is a Licensed Master Social Worker currently working in a Day Treatment Program with youth who have mental health and developmental disabilities. Ashley has experience working with youth, adolescents, substance abuse/recovery, foster care, developmental disabilities, aging, small businesses/entrepreneurs, and more. Ashley received her Masters of Social Work at The University at Albany, The State University of New York in May 2019. She obtained her New York State Social Work Licence in August of 2019.

Ashley has experience facilitating group therapy sessions in a community mental health setting (Root3d) and at an inpatient substance abuse program. Ashley has developed a group curriculum based on developing life skills, Dual Diagnosis (Substance Abuse and Mental Health), coping skills for interdisciplinary education settings, and relational healing during the holiday season.

Ashley is fueled by her passion to help black and brown girls and women to achieve their dreams through education. She believes that education in any form is the gateway to creating a life that can lift families and future generations out of poverty and struggle. Ashley considers herself a “student of life” consistently learning from the world around her.

Ashley believes that choosing to heal is a radical act of self-love. Once we take the time to learn and heal ourselves and our wounds we can emerge toward collective empowerment.

Root3d

Root3d is driven by its mission to provide access to wellness practices for people who have been marginalized in wellness spaces and institutions, particularly for people of color and people who can't afford the going rate of the average yoga or wellness class. Our purpose is to create safe spaces for all to connect to the 3 dimensions of themselves: their mind, body, and spirit.

One of the biggest opportunities for community healing is in our schools. Between the staff, the families, and the students, this ecosystem has the potential to support and uplift each other in a powerful way and work against the forces of oppression that show up in life.

A woman of the world, passionate about beauty & people: this Energy Medicine Intuitive, Certified Health Counselor, Skin Expert, Beauty & Wellness Educator, and Founder of The Seven Effect; has more than twenty years of experience within the beauty and wellness industries. Impressively, her international certifications expand to over 38 countries as both Energy Healer & Esthetician.

Seven has made helping people find balance inside & out of her life’s work. As an energetic and creative leader, she strives for and encourages performance excellence, resilience, customer focus, and effective practices in every endeavor. A fabulous and fit mother of four, grandmother to five, and as a survivor of domestic violence, she is a passionate supporter and champion of all organizations charged to reduce violence and trauma of any kind.

As an authority in beauty media, Seven served as Beauty and Grooming Director of The Bleu Magazine for eight years and is an active contributor with the popular blog, Hello Beautiful and other media platforms. Known to friends, clients, and fans as warm, personable, and authentic, she shares her knowledge and imparts tips and techniques generously, garnered her an impressive following nationally. It’s not just audiences who adore her—brands do, too. Seven has served as the Resident Skin Care Consultant for the Sam Fine Beauty Tour (sponsored by Sephora), as an aesthetician for Oil of Olay's Regenerist Team, and Keynote Speaker Cosmetology Educators of America conference.

If that weren’t enough, she triumphantly owned a full-service skincare boutique from 2011 to March 2020 located in Harlem, NY. The Harlem Skin & Laser Clinic served both men and women and enjoyed a varied clientele that included New Yorkers, travelers visiting the city, and well-known personalities. Widely known as the “premier skin of color clinic,” Seven and her boutique were prominently featured inTime Magazine, on MSNBC, and channel 7 Eyewitness News, as well as several other publications and media outlets.

Always an innovator, Seven is currently focused on formulating a line of herbal products and remedies. Additionally, during the pandemic, she has launched Beauty of Chaos, a Post-Pandemic program for the personal care industry with Columbia University's SBS. The program includes Workshops and One-On-One Coaching Sessions on “Solutions for the Unique Challenges of Operating a ‘Touch Practice’ in Today's Contact-Free Society.” Seven’s entrepreneurial foresight, knowledge, and drive make her a genuine force of nature that continually motivates and inspires all who meet or work with her.

The Seven Effect Educator & Teen Student Series

Designed for fun but useful tools that promote positive outlets and tools for stress and anxiety. Works well when the educators are involved so they can reference items during regular class sessions.

Breathwork - learning what breathe is and how to breathe through stress, anxiety and even during a test. I use the method employed by Navy Seals & one other that allows you to immediately tie left and right brain for clarity.

Ear Seeding - Instruction and demo of ear therapy points that they can either press or place a seed for stress and anger reduction. Points for increased concentration.

Coherence Training - basic heart math tying vision and mission or heart + brain to the things you desire in life.

Personal Story & Media - crafting your message to the world. What is the story you tell yourself and why it matters.

Eating for Energy - making choices with new and fun alternatives.

Make your own lip balm or products - simple fun math and science project that can produce a take away product that helps teen skin. Can incorporate tattoo info here (henna). Nice way to explain the hazards of tattoo and piercings.

Tapping - using fingers to tap on places of hand, face to instantly calm yourself in stressful situations.