Given the title, “The love child of Oprah, Beyonce, and Michelle Obama”, Briona Jenkins is a public speaker, and activist for the LGBTQIA+, female, and people of color communities, and has years of experience using her platform to evoke change.

Originally from Hamden, Connecticut, Bri attended Albertus Magnus College, in New Haven, CT., where she completed her undergrad as a Sociology major with a concentration in Social Work.

Bri has over ten years of experience in the nonprofit sector. She has worked for various organizations where she worked directly with clients as social worker before diving into the field of Development (fundraising, marketing, volunteer management, and community engagement).

Since October 2019, she has hosted a podcast called The Tea with Bri where she sits and chats with a different guest every week about whatever topic the guest chooses. Bri started ‘The Tea with Bri’ to have a deep-dive conversation with her friends and colleagues in Austin, TX. She strongly believes in sharing stories and having conversations as a way for us to expand our views. As she always says, “Change happens in the uncomfortable spaces.”

In the summer of 2020, Briona decided to start her consulting business, Briona Jenkins Consulting, where she helps small nonprofits and for profit business with their philanthropic and DEI needs.

She has served on several nonprofit boards: Keep Austin Fed, Austin Black Pride, Lone Star Victims Advocacy Project, New Leaders Council’s Austin Chapter Board, and The Equality Alliance, Texas Health Action Community Advisory Board (THA CAB), Equality Texas, and currently sits on the board of Random Acts.

She has spoken at the 2020 Women’s March Rally in Austin, Future Front Texas’s Annual State of the Uterus event, Texas State University’s Business Week, on a virtual SXSWEdu panel, two GISH panels about Racial Equality & Justice, and was a SXSW 2022 Wellness Panelist.

On December 4, 2019, she won the Austin LGBT Chamber of Commerce's Rising Star Award. In February 2020, she was the subject of a documentary entitled, “Uncomfortable Spaces”. In May 2021, she was awarded the Premier Achievement Award from her Alma Mater, Albertus Magnus College.

In September 2024, she moved back to her home state of Connecticut to be closer to her family and is continuing her career as the Director of Development and Communications at a local nonprofit.