Jazmin Tanner

Co-Founder

With youth development programs being pivotal in Jazmin’s growth, she has been tenacious in ensuring everyone has the opportunities those programs afforded her. Jazmin is a catalyst for youth empowerment, an intersectional gender and economic equity advocate, as well as a career readiness and STEAM education champion. Outside of her work for Project Z, Jazmin is a Technical Program Manager at the Wikimedia Foundation, where she serves as a chaos calmer for teams creating and running products that allow users to edit and access Wikipedia from mobile devices and desktop computers.

She has been recognized as an Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar, World Economic Forum Global Shapers DC Curator, National Black MBA Association DC Mentor of the Year, and Inductee of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. Jazmin has provided board development and growth strategies for education nonprofits including City Year DC, as well as programmatic advising to health NGOs such as the Oddariya Foundation.

While pursuing her degree in Marketing and English at Virginia Commonwealth University, Jazmin formed the Leaders of Tomorrow (LOT) Alumni group and began mentoring elementary students through the Carver Promise program. During that time Jazmin coached high school students to compete and ultimately win MBA-level case competitions. Jazmin would go on to become the Chair of the Leaders of Tomorrow program, pro-bono, serving as the youngest NBMBAA-DC Board member in 2017. She also represented millennials on ad-hoc committees at the national level.

In 2013 upon graduation from college, Jazmin established marketing service offerings for Virginia’s largest commercial sheetfed printer, Worth Higgins & Associates as their first Digital Marketer. Jazmin has worked as a Principal and Senior Consultant at Infinitive Inc. and Booz Allen Hamilton, respectively. During her time as a Consultant she worked in both the commercial and federal technology markets for clients in health and education industries.

Jamira Burley

Co-Founder

For more than a decade, Jamira has worked at the intersection of policy, community and social good, she provides unique insight that will help actualize the change we all so desperately need. Coming from a family, where both of her parents and twelve of her thirteen brothers have been incarcerated, Jamira’s advocacy is very personal. Outside of her work for Project Z, Jamira currently serves as the Head of Youth Engagement and Skills at the Global Business Coalition for Education (GBCE). She has been recognized as Forbes 30 Under 30, as a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, a White House Champion for Change, Vital Voices Honoree, and NBC Black 28 Under 28.

Early in Jamira’s career she was recruited by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter to lead the City of Philadelphia Youth Commission. As Executive Director for the Youth Commission, she represented the interests of over 600,000 Philadelphia youths and worked to ensure youth voices were represented at every level of decision-making. Jamira has worked as the National Deputy Millennial Vote Director at Hillary For America (HFA) where she Developing national and state-based strategies to engage and inform millennials from a range of backgrounds and interests. While at Amnesty International USA she managed the gun violence and criminal justice portfolios overseeing collaboration with partners and Amnesty’s national and international membership base. Jamira has organized more than 100 youth trainings around the world in collaboration with the United Nations.

Jamira Burley received two governor appointments by Governor Ed Randall and Governor Tom Wolf, as well as two Mayoral appointments by Mayor Michael Nutter and Mayor Muriel Bowser to both city and state commissions. During her appointment, Jamira traveled to over 15 countries speaking with heads of states and working with youth serving organizations to advocate for the rights of every child to have access to quality education.

Jamira is a Philly native, the first of her siblings to graduate high school and earned a degree in International Business and Legal Studies from Temple University ​ in 2012.

Cedric Mobley

Board member

Cedric is the Special Assistant to the President for Strategic Marketing and Communications at Fort Valley State University, the institution’s chief communications officer. He leads the university’s Marketing and Communications Department, charged with promoting the brand of the institution through increased visibility, aggressive and effective marketing, and meaningful messaging.  Mobley previously served as Associate Vice President for Institutional Communications at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).

Mobley has also served as the national consulting director for the National Black MBA Association’s Leaders of Tomorrow Mentoring program (LOT), mobilizing more than 200 mentors across the country to help some 800 high school students maximize their potential. He was the creator of the organization’s annual Success Boot Camp, LeaderTech STEM careers program, and Global Community Service Project, and was the principal co-founder of the LOT National Business Case Competition, which in its 16th year has awarded more than $400,000 in scholarships and programming support to minority students from all over the United States. In addition, he has been a consultant on programming and communications for organizations including the National Association of Black Accountants and South Carolina State University and a speaker for the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund.

Mobley has worked as the Associate Dean for Strategic Marketing and Communications at the Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies, as an Account Supervisor and Marketing Director for the public affairs department of Porter Novelli, and as Marketing Manager for the United Negro College Fund, responsible for raising over $21 million in donations and pro-bono support through direct marketing and public relations associated with the “An Evening of Stars/ Lou Rawls Parade of Stars” telethon.

Mobley is also a past Chief of Staff and communications director for the Congressional Black Caucus Chair.  He is a graduate of Florida A&M University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and an MBA in marketing, and a certified Project Management Professional.

The NBMBAA awarded him its National Helping Hands Award for community contributions. He was also recognized by the Washington, DC chapter through the Legacy Award, Community Service Award, President’s Award, Choice Award, and MBA of the Year Award.