Luvvie Ajayi is a writer and social media strategist who’s been blogging for a decade. Her award-winning pop culture humor blog, AwesomelyLuvvie.com is a respected space online, and was winner of the Best Humor Blog of 2009 from the Black Weblog Awards, chosen as one of BlogHer’s 2010 Voices of the Year, and was recognized as one of blogosphere’s best by Black Enterprise in 2012. She’s a former columnist for EBONY.com, has contributed her writing to Clutch Magazine and Uptown Magazine, and has been featured on Essence.com, The Root and Madame Noire.

In 2012, she made history by being one of the first brown/black bloggers to get credentialed and do press coverage at the Academy Awards. Luvvie is also winner of the Women’s Media Center’s 2012 Social Media Award for using her voice and humor for pop culture, gender and racial justice.

An alum of the University of Illinois, her background is in Marketing, Communications and New Media. As a social media strategist, her goal is to help individuals and organizations further their missions using digital tools effectively. She has presented at several conferences, including the Nonprofit Technology Conference, BlogHer, AFTRA Broadcast Conference, Social Media for Nonprofits Conference and the Chicago Social Media Summit, among others.

Luvvie’s passionate about social justice and she’s addicted to shoes. She combined these loves and founded The Red Pump Project with Karyn Watkins in 2009. Red Pump is a national nonprofit that raises awareness about the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls. Their work has earned them a Congressional Record from the U.S. House of Representatives as well as Resolution adopted in their name by the City Council of Chicago. Red Pump has also been featured on the Huffington Post, in EBONY Magazine, the Chicago SunTimes, NBC and many more outlets. The Black AIDS Institute recognized Luvvie as a 30 under 30 leader in HIV/AIDS.

She’s served on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Women’s AIDS Project, the Blogger Advisory Board of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatrics AIDS Foundation, and is a New Leaders Council fellow. She was formerly the technology chair for the Chicago chapter.