Presenter

Ayofemi Kirby

Senior Publicist/Communications Manager, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library

Ayofemi is a proven and trusted communications and public engagement professional who builds mission-driven brands, engaged audiences and active communities, on and offline. She is passionate about helping individuals, multicultural communities and organizations across sectors tell powerful stories, start provocative conversations and build the relationships necessary to achieve meaningful results and measurable impact. 

With more than 10 years of experience at the intersection of communications, civic engagement and culture, Ayofemi has managed online and corporate communications in the financial sector, developed award-winning programs that empowered Millennials across the country to be leaders in their communities and more active in our democracy, and led communications for the Congressional Black Caucus on Capitol Hill. She has also shaped community and media conversations about politics, policy, civic engagement, entertainment, community and cultural projects among key influencers on the ground and online as an independent consultant. 

Ayofemi's work has earned media coverage in and secured partnerships with media outlets including the New York Times, USA Today, ARTNews, Teen Vogue, CBS, Essence, Ebony, OkayAfrica, Latina, The Huffington Post, NBCBLK, BlogHer, among many others. She currently supports the New York Public Library (NYPL) and the Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture at the NYPL as a senior publicist, and continues to runs her own consultancy, CODE PR GLOBAL.

Ayofemi earned her M.A. in Public Communications from American University, her certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke, and her B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication from UNC Chapel Hill. She has also taken professional studies courses in Arts Business and Administration at NYU and is currently enrolled in the Harvard Extension School's Museum Studies graduate degree program, where she is focusing her studies on the intersection of culture, commerce and social change.