Founder & Chairwoman of URBAN ONE, Inc.

Cathy Hughes is a dynamic, media pioneer who demonstrates the power of one: one woman, one vision, one company – Urban One. Hughes’ unprecedented career has produced the largest diversified media company that primarily targets African American and urban consumers in the U.S. She pioneered the innovative radio formats, the “Quiet Storm” and “24-Hour Talk from a Black Perspective,” and is the first African American woman to chair a publicly held corporation. In 2016, Howard University renamed its communications program the Cathy Hughes School of Communications, and she was inducted into National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2019. Hughes continues her family’s philanthropic work and legacy at The Piney Woods School, an African American boarding school in Piney Woods, Mississippi, established by her grandfather in 1909. 

Former General Manager of the Baltimore Ravens

Ozzie Newsome’s legacy is unlike any the game of football has produced. Simply put, “The Wizard” will forever remain in a class of his own. Flourishing at every point of his football career, Newsome has not just followed a successful path, he has blazed the trail. Known throughout all of sports as a premier leader, Newsome is a Hall of Fame player, the architect of Baltimore’s Super Bowl XXXV and Super Bowl XLVII championship teams and an elite personnel evaluator who became the NFL’s first African American general manager in 2002. (In 2019, Newsome’s longtime top lieutenant, Eric DeCosta, took over as the Ravens’ EVP & GM. However, Newsome maintains a significant role within the organization as its executive vice president.) “If Ozzie wasn’t already in the Hall of Fame as a tight end, they would be putting him in as a general manager,” Hall of Fame GM Bill Polian stated. “Ozzie is special as a person,” head coach John Harbaugh states. “Obviously, he’s great at what he does – that’s proven. He’s been great at everything that he’s done. If you look at his history, he’s a Hall of Famer; he’s in every Hall of Fame there is and still counting. For me, it goes beyond that; it goes to who he is as a person – the type of husband he is, the type of father he is, the type of friend he is, confidant, advisor, just all-around good person with a great heart and a strong faith.”Newsome’s remarkable football journey began in Leighton, AL, where he first stepped onto the gridiron with the hope of playing college football.

That dream turned into a reality when he became a standout at Alabama under Bear Bryant from 1974-77. “Coach Bryant helped me grow up,” states Newsome, who has a sideline portrait of the legendary coach and mentor on his office wall. “He pushed me further than I thought I could go, both on and off the field.” In 1978, Cleveland selected Newsome in the first round (23rd overall) of the NFL Draft. Playing 13 years for the Browns, he authored the most productive career for a tight end in the game’s history. A three-time Pro Bowler, his 662 receptions for 7,980 yards and 47 TDs stood as NFL records by a TE until Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe surpassed those marks in 2001 (HOFer Tony Gonzalez now owns the catches and receiving yards marks, while Antonio Gates holds the TDs record).

Following his storied playing days, Ozzie joined Cleveland’s front office. His initial non-player position came as an assignment scout in 1991. Two years later, he was promoted to a comprehensive role – assistant to the head coach/offense/pro personnel. “I had to find out which direction my career would go,” Newsome explains. “Art [Modell] gave me the opportunity to work with the coaches, and I enjoyed that. At the same time, I increased my experience with the personnel department and decided that’s where I wanted my career to head.” In 1994, Newsome was named the Browns’ director of pro personnel. Although he continued to help on the field, Ozzie provided detailed studies on other NFL players and recommended which players the Browns should try to acquire. When the franchise moved to Baltimore in 1996, Mr. Modell invited Newsome and promoted him to vice president of player personnel. From that point, Ozzie’s reputation as a supreme talent assessor grew quickly. In the Ravens’ first-ever draft, Newsome tabbed T Jonathan Ogden and LB Ray Lewis (fourth and 26th selections, respectively). Combining to produce an amazing 24 Pro Bowl honors, Ogden became the first Ravens’ draft choice electedinto the Pro Football Hall of Fame (2013), while Lewis was enshrined in 2018. Fittingly, the duo joined Newsome, who was inducted into the Hall as a Brown in 1999.

International Spoken Word Artist

Lady Brion has been performing since age 12 and in that time has performed across the world including London, Ghana, Zanzibar and many US states. Her educational career includes teaching creative writing at the middle and elementary school level, coaching poetry teams in over 10 institutions for the Louder Than A Bomb poetry program and residencies in over 15 K-12 institutions. During her time as a competitor in slam competitions including becoming the 2016 National Poetry Slam Champion and the 2017 Southern Fried Regional Slam Champion. From 2015 to the present she has represented Baltimore in a number of other national competitions including the Individual World Poetry Slam and the Women of the World Poetry Slam. 

Brion is a recipient of the Open Society Institute Fellowship centered around her project facilitating poetry workshops in prisons and group homes throughout Maryland. She also received the 2017 Salzburg Fellowship for Social Innovators.  She received her B.A. in Communications from Howard University and her MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore. Brion is a board member and manager of 10 teaching artists, dispatching them to teach poetry workshops in middle and high schools in the Greater Baltimore Area for Dew More Baltimore, an art centered non-profit using spoken word as a tool to foster community and civic engagement. She also holds the position of Cultural Curator for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS), a grassroots think-tank which advances the public policy interest of Black people, in Baltimore, through: youth leadership development, political advocacy, and autonomous intellectual innovation. As an independent artist and entrepreneur, she offers artistic consulting, residencies and workshop, keynotes and other speaking engagements and spoken word performances around the world.