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Valeisha Butterfield Jones
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network (WEEN)
Mistress of Ceremonies at the Diaspora World Cup Gala
Valeisha Butterfield Jones is an award-winning author, youth and women’s activist and nationally recognized expert on entertainment and politics. Butterfield Jones is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network (WEEN) and the author of the highly acclaimed book, The Girlprint.
As a college student, Butterfield Jones began working full-time for music legends Wu Tang Clan and for former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson. After graduation, Butterfield Jones was recruited byHBO Boxing and served as the Executive Assistant to the President of HBO Sports.
Butterfield Jones returned to her North Carolina roots and served as the Field Director for Chief Justice Henry Frye of the N.C. Supreme Court.After a devastating loss on election night, Butterfield Jones moved to New York City to further pursue her entertainment dreams and landed an unpaid internship with music mogul Russell Simmons.
Butterfield Jones was a professional standout and turned her entertainment aspirations into action by becoming one of the youngest Executive Director’s of a national organization at the time. Butterfield Jones served as the Program Manager, Director of Sponsorship and Events, Vice President and eventually the National Executive Director of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network over a seven-year period.
During this time, she was introduced to then Senator Barack Obama and began serving as a volunteer for his 2008 Presidential campaign. Butterfield Jones recruited celebrity surrogates to endorse and support Senator Obama and received a call soon after election night to serve in the Obama Administration.
Butterfield Jones served by Presidential appointment in the Administration of U.S. President Barack Obama as the Deputy Director of Public Affairs for the International Trade Administration and as the National Youth Vote Director for the 2012 Obama for America campaign.
Butterfield Jones has been widely credited for her magnetic relationship with youth culture and her role turning out youngAmericans during the 2004, 2008, 2012 Presidential elections. Butterfield Jones also served as the National Ambassador for the United Negro College Fund’s Empower Me Tour in 2014 and 2015.
Butterfield Jones has been recognized by Glamour, Marie Claire, Elle, Essence Top 40 under 40, Ebony Top 100, Jet, Black Enterprise and Sister 2 Sister Magazines as a leading young executive in the United States with her finger on the pulse of all things related to youth culture, entertainment and politics. Butterfield Jones has also appeared on OWN TV’s Light Girls, Aspire TV’s Exhale, Centric TV’s Morning Cup, BET’s 106 and Park and others.
Butterfield Jones was born in Wilson, NC and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Clark Atlanta University.
ButterfieldJones is married to NBA veteran Dahntay Jones and gave birth to her first child in 2012. She is the daughter of U.S. Congressman G. K Butterfield and N.C. State Legislator Jean Farmer Butterfield.
Valeisha Butterfield Jones
Founder & CEO WEEN
View BioErika Andiola
Human Rights & Global Activist
Founder and Director of The Dream Action Coalition (DRM)
Diaspora World Cup Global Ambassador
Featured Speaker at the Diaspora World Cup Gala
Erika Andiola is a former Congressional Staffer for Arizona Congresswoman, KyrstenSinema and co-founder of the DRM Action Coalition. Erika started her community organizing experience when she co-founded the Arizona Dream Act Coalition.She then served in the National Coordinating Committee and the Board of Directors for the United We Dream Network. Her personal struggle as an undocumented woman herself, with an undocumented family, has given her the drive and the passion to keep fighting for immigrant rights.
Erika Andiola
Human Rights & Global
Activist