Date: Saturday, September 11, 2027

Time: 8:00AM-12:00PM

Modality: Online and In Person

Instructors: Atem Richardson and Courtney Cook

Courtney Cook

Courtney is a deeply engaged activist with 13 years of experience in business operations. Her strong skills in gathering and analyzing data, paired with her passion for building community, help her create effective strategies to engage LGBTQ+ Missourians. Courtney has served as Board President for Ujima, an organization focused on improving language and literacy skills for all children, and as a Board Member for The GLO Center, Springfield, MO's LGBTQ+ community center.

Atem Richardson

Atem is an experienced organizer whose power rose following the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. They felt the impact of such a murder and how it related to their skin color three days before they turned 19. It is why they work in the movement to ensure other 19 year olds don’t feel that.

They graduated from Webster University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Media Communications. From there, they joined the National Blues Museum as Programming and Operations Lead responsible for planning and curating the museum’s concert seasons. Atem also previously served on the Black Pride St. Louis board, one of the longest running Black Pride organizations in the country. They joined PROMO in the summer of 2024 as a paid canvasser for the organization and then hired full-time as the organization’s St. Louis Equality Organizer in September of the same year. Their work and dedication was profiled in a Washington Post article around their deep canvassing and Get Out the Vote efforts.