Dr. Angela Fitzgerald is the creator, producer and host of “Why Race Matters.” She has dedicated her extensive education and career to leadership, community engagement and creating opportunities for others. She was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Southern Maryland by her parents and two sisters. Dr. Fitzgerald received an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and a master’s degree in social psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Over a period of 10 years in Virginia she conducted research in public health, working to reduce health disparities in Black communities, and creating safe and empowering spaces for young adults through a network she founded called The Alternative Entertainment Group. She moved to Madison, Wisconsin in 2014 to continue her career in research and evaluation. Dr. Fitzgerald later returned to graduate school, pursuing her doctorate at UW–Madison, focusing on the intersection between research, community engagement and organizing. 

Jacquelyn Hunt is a caring, compassionate professional with more than 20 years of experience in the substance abuse/mental health field. She provides culturally relevant, strength-based and trauma-informed care. Ms. Hunt knows firsthand what it’s like to be marginalized and in need of supportive services. Her own testimony of recovery, redemption and restoration provides the foundation for her work and allows for just the right balance to support consumers — to instill in them the belief that they, too, can overcome and become all that they want to be. She has received numerous awards and recognitions. Most recently she was awarded the 2020 Nan Chaney March for Justice Award; she also was named one of Madison 365’s most influential Black leaders in the state of Wisconsin (2017), received the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.’s Humanitarian Award (2016), and called a Brava Magazine Woman to Watch (2015). 

Dr. David J. Pate, Jr., is an associate professor of human development and family studies/consumer science, and the Dean’s Fathers and Fathering Faculty Fellow in the School of Human Ecology at UW–Madison. Professor Pate’s research projects involve examining the life course events of Black adult males through the use of qualitative research methods. His primary areas of interest are the child support enforcement system, infant mortality, and the impact of adverse childhood experiences on the well-being status of Black males. Professor Pate received a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Detroit; a Master of Arts in Social Work from the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration; and a PhD in Social Welfare at UW–Madison.