Speakers
Thema Campbell
Speaking in My First 100 Days: Moving Through and Moving Up at 9:45 am for the Ignited Leadership track.
Ms. Campbell’s involvement in “the greater good” for young women began, in part, when she started encountering the abuse, neglect, assault, and abandonment of young girls. She is an expert on children’s issues and a true champion and advocate for girls. Since Girl Power’s inception, the suspension rate of its participants has dropped by 85 percent and the arrest rate by a staggering 90 percent.
Ms. Campbell believes passionately in her personal mission at Girl Power: to protect, preserve and nurture the integrity and moral conscience of girls. Her ambition for this mission, along with her training and experience in the Public Defender’s Office has allowed her to journey down an amazing career path. Ms. Campbell is currently the Executive Producer of the annual “It Takes a Village” Girls Summit and a current member of the Overtown Council for the Common Good. She is a former member of the Miami Commission on the Status of Women, and a proud member of Sojourner Truth Book Club. She is the former State Director of the Miss Black Florida USA Pageant, and former Chair and Co-Chair of the Juvenile Justice Board – Circuit 11. In 1989 she co-founded Concerned African Women and the New Dimensions in Community Education Program.
In January 2013, Ms. Campbell was honored with the prestigious “Thelma Gibson Award of Excellence Corporate Winner Award”. In 2016, the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club presented Ms. Campbell with the “National Sojourner Truth Meritorious Service Award” for her meritorious community service in advancing the status of women and girls. Ms. Campbell was presented with the Miami-Dade County Bar Association “Women of Distinction – Community Champion Award” and the “Black History Lifetime Achievement Award” from Miami-Dade County Commissioner Jean Monestime, in 2018.
Because of Ms. Campbell’s dedication to improving the lives of at-promise girls and advocacy on their behalf, in 2019, she was honored with the prestigious “Thelma Gibson Award of Excellence” and also received the “Essie Silva Community Builder Award” from the United Way of Miami-Dade County. In 2021, Ms. Campbell was awarded the “Small Non-Profit Organization of the Year Award” by the Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce, and in 2022 under her leadership, Girl Power was selected as one of the Top 100 Women-Led Businesses in Florida by the Commonwealth Institute.
In addition to her role as Girl Power’s CEO, Ms. Campbell is currently focusing her attention on the Mama Hattie’s House Capital Campaign. Among other things, Mama Hattie’s House will serve as a permanent home for Girl Power’s programs and services and a safe “Place to Call Home,” for girls who are aging out of foster care, at risk of human trafficking, or who are wards of the courts.
A real “Southern Bell,” Ms. Campbell’s hospitality, good heart, and helping hands come from her early years, growing up in Sparta, Georgia, where she was raised in a family of ten children by loving parents and grandmother “Mama Hattie.” In 1977 she moved to Miami, FL, got married, and raised two sons and a daughter. Currently, she surrounds herself with positive, like-minded individuals – one of those being her daughter, who works by her side at Girl Power – helping to serve the community.
Community Affiliations:
- Together for Children, Board of Directors
- Tools for Change Micro Enterprise Lending Program, Loan Committee Member
- Allegany Franciscan Ministries “Overtown Council for the Common Good”
- The Equity and Advocacy Collective (EAC), Founding Member
- Overtown Children and Youth Coalition, Member
- Florida Juvenile Justice Board, Past Board Chair and Member
- Blue Ridge Institute