In a world where you can be anything at all, be yourself.

Carmen 'Spindiego' Berkley is an award-winning political strategist, creative, entrepreneur, and author striving to change the world through politics, social impact, creative expression, and culture. Carmen has focused her career on intersecting the issues of Black, Indigenous, People of Color, women, and LGBTQIA+ communities into initiatives and programs that have improved the lives of millions of people.

She currently serves as the Vice President of Strategy and Impact at the Inatai Foundation, where she leads a team of dynamic communications experts, policy advocates, and grantmakers striving to ensure racial justice and equity in Washington state and beyond. She has been the CEO of her own meeting design, media, and production company CB Strategies, for over a decade. She is also the proud co-author of the book The Empath Leader: Your Ultimate Guide to Authentic Influence.

Carmen's early career led her to Washington, DC where she cut her teeth in advocacy, communications, leadership and training as the President of the United States Student Association, Field Director at NAACP and URGE (formerly Choice USA), Executive Director at the Generational Alliance, Director of Civil, Human and Women's Rights at the AFL-CIO, Managing Director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund. She later went into consulting, working at Civitas Public Affairs and Dancing Hearts Consulting. Carmen proudly co-founded Can't Stop! Won't Stop! with her dear friend Gregory Cendana, who turned the idea into a powerhouse international business and 501(c)(3). Carmen has developed thousands of people as a political campaigns and organizational development trainer for re:Power (formerly Wellstone Action) and Midwest Academy. Carmen's passion for public affairs and communications allowed her to produce and host two women's run radio shows in Washington, DC, Sophie's Parlor and Melody Divas.

Named Essence Magazines Woke 100 and Washington Life Magazines top 40 under 40, Carmen has been recognized many times for her work by her peers in the movement. Carmen has been featured in the Washington Post, Huffington Post, Coveteur Magazine. and New York Times. She serves as Sephora's equity advisor, board chair for re:Power, and a National Domestic Workers Alliance board member. She proudly wears her BYP100 founding member badge of honor. Currently, she's lives in Seattle, WA where she loves to eat crab legs and attend concerts with her brilliant husband, Lee and their dog King T’Challa. Carmen attended the University of Pittsburgh where she found her passion for politics and communications.

There isn’t a day that goes by that I do not feel extraordinarily blessed by the opportunities presented to me by God. At 21, I almost lost my life. I vowed to myself, that if I made it through that horrific medical nightmare, I would live to the fullest—and I have. Some people do not understand my plight. They might never understand my passion for Black liberation, my focus on justice and equity, and the need to be creative at all times of the day. But I am grateful that there are so many co-conspirators, comrades, and friends that do. I believe that our people will be free in our lifetime. In the words of the Dream Defenders, I believe we that will win, and I hope to work every day to make that dream a reality. Whether through music, philanthropy, social justice, or something else, we will win.