Denia Brielle Smith (she/her) is a nationally recognized activist, grassroots organizer, and public speaker passionate about racial and gender equity.
Denia’s immersion in activism began during her sophomore year of high school amid a racially derogatory Tik Tok incident in her community. After acknowledging that such incidents occurred frequently– some gaining more publicity than others– she conversed with dozens of students, teachers, and community members to assess how her community could actively become anti-racist. Her conversations culminated in an Anti-Racist Action Plan outlining changes in school policy, curriculum, and school/community programming presented to school principals, the superintendent, and district administrators. Over the following summer, Denia worked alongside school and community stakeholders to bring the action plan to fruition, thus creating the WW-P POC Advocacy. The WW-P POC Advocacy contains 80 members and has reached 5 schools in Denia’s district. Through hosting professional development days, anti-racism workshops, and community conversations on DEI, Denia has impacted 5,000 students through her work. She continues to support the POC Advocacy as a founding member of its Alumni Oversight Board (AOB) where she provides guidance on the organization’s initiatives and partnerships.
During the resurgence of the #BlackLivesMatter movement in June 2020, Denia led a march to advocate for intersectional racial justice. The demonstration was attended by 1,000 attendees and was documented as one of the largest demonstrations in her town’s history. Her journey to organize and lead the march was documented by the Historical Society of West Windsor and SR Mosaic through the Voices of West Windsor campaign: an oral history project seeking to fill in the gaps in her town's history. The march served as a catalyst that inspired Denia to become immersed in social activism in the pursuit of making her community a more equitable place for Black and Brown youth.
In the months preceding the march, Denia spoke at numerous community and state-wide events advocating for racial justice, including the New Jersey High School Democrat’s Racial Justice Forum. During this time, Denia turned to voter registration as a method to elect candidates supporting racial justice and ensure that the voices of Black American voters were heard. In the Winter of 2020, Denia served as a voter protection fellow with the Democratic Party of Georgia, where she contributed toward a collective effort to cure 5,000 rejected ballots. Her strides helped elect Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossof to the United State Senate, thus establishing a Democratic majority. Thereafter, Denia volunteered with Blue Future + the Youth Progressive Action Catalyst and New Voters to host phone banks, text banks, and nationwide campaigns promoting racial justice and voter pre-registration. Denia also participated in campaigns aiming to address vaccine hesitancy, including a youth town hall with Dr. Tom Freiden, former director of the Centers and Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In the Spring of 2021, Denia was selected from 500 applicants to serve as a Teen Advisor to the United Nation Foundation’s Girl Up Campaign, an initiative advocating for intersectional and global gender equality. She worked alongside 23 youth activists from around the world to provide input on Girl Up’s strategy and partnerships and represent Girl Up constituents on the international stage. During her tenure, Denia used her voice to advocate for intersectional racial and gender justice, and Sexual and Reproductive Health. She served as a panelist at the 2021 Global Leadership Summit (“Day of Action Fireside Chat: Intersectionality in Organizing”), co-emcee of the inaugural Sports Innovation Lab, panelist at Girl Up’s Global Fitness Challenge, panelist at “Girl Talk: Critical Conversations on Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice (SRHRJ),” and moderater at the 2022 Global Leadership Summit (“Bodily Autonomy & Gender Based Violence ft. Tarana Burke). She was featured in “Leading Between The Lines'' a LinkedIn Newsletter by Girl Up’s Executive Director, Melissa Kilby, and was nominated to co-lead a Gender Equality Action Group at the Big Brainstorm: UNF’s annual open-space event designed to provide a platform for intergenerational action on pressing global issues. Through the Action Group, Denia collaborated with 30 youth activists to compose an advocacy guide on climate and gender justice. Denia was also nominated to attend an intergenerational dialogue with Action Group leaders from the UN's Generation Equality Forum (GEF) to discuss the integration and support of youth activists in the GEF process.
During the Summer of 2021, Denia combined her passion for racial and gender justice by conducting research at the African American Policy Forum’s Young Scholar Program. At AAPF, she studied intersectional research paradigms and conducted a collaborative study on Black female leadership. Her research revealed that 48% of Black girls are most likely to self-identify as leaders compared to girls of other races yet Black women and girls are disproportionately underrepresented in leadership roles. To combat this gap, Denia founded She Shall Speak, a podcast and empowerment community aiming to inspire Black girls to pursue civic service, entrepreneurship, and social justice. She Shall Speak interviews young Black female leaders to increase the representation of Black women and girls in leadership roles and uses their stories to empower others. She Shall Speak has garnered a global audience across 25 US states and 20 countries and plans to expand its impact by hosting leadership development workshops in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. In November 2022, Denia received a $1,500 grant toward She Shall Speak from The Taco Bell Foundation and Ashoka Changemakers through the inaugural Ambition Accelerator.
As a result of her accomplishments and extensive advocacy, Denia has been featured in Black Enterprise, Good Morning America, Yahoo Finance, The New York Amsterdam News, The Sacramento Observer, and more. She has also participated in prestigious leadership programs, including Black Girls Lead! hosted by BLACK GIRLS ROCK!® and The Disney Dreamers Academy hosted by Walt Disney World and Essence Magazine. She has been honored as a Conversationalist Disruptor, Princeton Prize in Race Relations Certificate of Accomplishment honoree, New Jersey Rising Scholar (New Jersey Department of Education), Vital Voices Visionary Fellow (Vital Voices & The Estee Lauder Emerging Leadership Fund), and presented a $10,000 scholarship as a NAACP & Lancôme Write Her Future Scholar. In 2022, Denia was also selected from 1,600 applicants to join Women Empowering Nation and Cantu Beauty’s Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) Cohort, an immersive, high-impact leadership coaching experience. She will continue her GLOW journey as a Global Fellow where she will complete a 4-month paid internship at Cantu Beauty followed by an all-expense paid trip to Ghana, West Africa to partake in Cantu brand shoot and promotions, community service projects, excursions, leadership conferences, and capstone presentations.
Denia is currently a freshman at American University majoring in Political Science while minoring in African American Studies and pursuing a certificate in Advanced Leadership studies. In addition to being a full-time student, Denia continues her advocacy by serving as a Youth Advisor at PERIOD., a youth-fueled nonprofit that strives to eradicate period poverty and stigma through service, education, and advocacy. In December 2022, Denia was nominated by her peers to serve as the Vice-Chair of PERIOD.’s Youth Advisory Council.
In the future, Denia aspires to use her experience in grassroots activism and research to enact equitable changes at the intersection of racial and gender equity in legal systems. After completing her undergraduate education, she aspires to attend law school and become the first Black woman to serve as a US Senator from New Jersey.
