Ashley Bennett, Samantha Whitfield Among 2019 NAACP NextGen Class
AC JosepH Media
BALTIMORE – Atlantic County freeholder Ashley Bennett and Willingboro Township council member-elect Samantha Whitfield are a part of six South Jersey young leaders who are participating in the latest NAACP NextGen program.
The NAACP NextGen program, which just recognized its first graduating class at this year’s NAACP national convention being held in Detroit this week, is a 12-month leadership development training program for young adult NAACP members between the ages of 21 and 35.
READ: Yolanda Melville To Be Recognized by NAACP NextGen Program
Participants complete a rigorous training program, including classroom trainings, webinar trainings, case studies, group assignments and special projects on leadership fundamentals, political action, economic empowerment, criminal justice, environmental justice, health advocacy, budgeting, fundraising, technology and direct action.
The NAACP said that NextGen participants are civically engaged young professionals committed to equality and social justice.
Bennett, representing the Mainland Pleasantville NAACP branch, made national headlines when she upset an Atlantic County freeholder incumbent after he mocked the national Women’s Right March in 2017.
READ: Ashley Bennett Settles In After Stunning Election That Booted Women’s March Foe
Whitfield, who has led the Willingboro NAACP for several years, recently completed her master’s degree in city planning from the University of Pennsylvania and topped all vote-getters in recent Democratic primary for Willingboro Township council.
READ: Podcast: Willingboro NAACP Calls Out Gerrymandering
In June, Whitfield, along with Kaya McIntosh and Tiffani Worthy, defeated three incumbents in the township council’s Democratic primary with no challengers slated for the November election.
Ciera Logan, scholarship chair for the Atlantic City branch NAACP, and an associate attorney at Fox Rothchild in Atlantic City, is also part of the 2019 NextGen class as well. Other Atlantic City NAACP members participating in the NextGen Class are Nastassia Davis, Kayla McDermott-Cobb and Cory Young
Other New Jersey participants include Shazneka Blue, Maplewood Orange Branch; Austin Edwards, Trenton Branch; and Afiya Rawls, Maplewood Orange Branch.
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Is registration still open to join the current NextGen class? Does the class run from Aug-July?