Jessica Gordon Nembhard & Ahzjah-Netjer Simons Share Insights Learned from Black Women Cooperators

March 6, 2025 - Everything Co-op launches its Women’s History Month series. The 2025 theme, set by the National Women’s History Alliance, is “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations,” celebrating women leaders in education and mentorship. The inaugural episode of the series features cooperative advocates Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Ph.D., Professor at John Jay College, and Ahzjah-Netjer Simons, Co-Executive Director of the Georgia Cooperative Development Center. Dr. Gordon Nembhard Ahzjah-Netjer Simons discuss the insights gained from their interviews with Black women cooperators, and their future plans. Author of Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice (2014) and 2016 inductee into the U.S. Cooperative Hall of Fame, Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Ph.D., is a Professor at John Jay College, City University of NY. She is a political economist specializing in cooperative economics, community economic development, racial wealth inequality, Black Political Economy. She is a member of the Cooperative Economics Council of NCBA/CLUSA; the ICA Committee on Co-operative Research; an affiliate scholar with the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, University of Saskatchewan; and past board member of Association of Cooperative Educators. Ahzjah-Netjer Simons is a transformative leader committed to empowering cooperative businesses and communities through education, strategy, and innovation. She holds key roles such as Co-Executive Director of the Georgia Cooperative Development Center, P6 Ambassador for the NCBA, and President of Digico Global. With 25 years in media activism and 18 years as a cooperative leader, Simons has earned the CCMA Cooperative Service Award. She founded International Co-op Media and launched Co-op Nation to illuminate the cooperative movement and its impact. Additionally, she co-created Women In Cooperation, a pass the mic podcast, digital magazine, and community dedicated to uplifting and amplifying women in the cooperative space.