Kristina Gray-Akpa

Kristina Gray-Akpa is the co-founder of the Septima Project. For the past 20+ years, she has worked with national and community-based organizations to spark change and transform systems through education, advocacy, art, and grassroots action.

She began her career leading youth development and youth organizing programs in DC public schools. In addition to working on student-led campaigns, she designed and facilitated workshops for teens on topics like anti-oppression, reproductive justice, and financial literacy. Since then, her work has focused on health advocacy, philanthropy and the social determinants of health.

She has spoken widely on race, gender, cultural organizing, and health equity. She has presented at workshops, panel discussions, and conferences including the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. In 2002, she co-founded the all-woman DJ crew the First Ladies DJ Collective. She was also the lead singer of the band Coup Sauvage and the Snips.

She served on the boards of the Diverse City Fund and Girls Rock! DC. Her writing has appeared in such publications as Health Affairs and Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism. She holds a BA from Goucher College and MSW from University of Maryland, Baltimore. She challenges you to find a question about “A Different World” that she cannot answer.