See the full 2025 Closers list here.
Despite the mostly celebratory atmosphere at the TIME Impact Dinner for The Closers 2025—a list highlighting 25 Black leaders making strides to advance racial equity—the tense U.S. political climate cut through chants of “Happy Black History Month” and “Amens” throughout the evening.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]“When we launched this community last year, the moment felt urgent—now, it feels even more so,” TIME Chief Marketing and Impact Officer Sade Muhammad said Thursday night in New York in a room of honorees including Emmy Award-winning actor Niecy Nash-Betts and Tara Duncan, president of the Onyx Collective, which amplifies content from creators of color.
The panel and dinner took place just weeks after President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order calling for the end of what he called “DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] discrimination in the federal workplace.” The directive impacted all corners of the federal government: prompting the Environmental Protection Agency to shut down its DEI office, and leading Secretary of State Marco Rubio to bar U.S. embassies and consulate offices from flying Pride or Black Lives Matter flags, which were previously permitted by the Biden Administration. A number of private corporations have also followed suit in shutting down DEI initiatives to align with the new administration’s policy.
“We’re living in a moment of counter-factual, of misinformation, of disinformation, of false equivalency and the normalization of anti science, and it’s infectious,” warned Lisa Holder, president of the Equal Justice Society and civil rights attorney.
But the trailblazers still centered hope in conversations with one another.
Panelist La June Montgomery Tabron, CEO of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, which sponsored the event, seemed resolved in her commitment despite the challenges impacting the work of the leaders in the room. “In this moment, we are so steadfast in what we are doing,” Montgomery said, mentioning that many companies were engaged in bridging the racial equity gap even before George Floyd protests spurred conversations about systemic racism around U.S. dinner tables in 2020—and would continue to do so despite rollbacks in government. “We are with you.”
To achieve that equity that leaders are working hard to champion, some honorees challenged people to remove themselves from the political silos they find themselves in. “So much of what’s happened since November is that we’ve been retreating,” said National Black Justice Collective CEO and executive director David J. Johns in a panel discussion moderated by journalist and founder of birthFUND Elaine Welteroth. “I’m asking you to do the tough work of staying in relationship with people who need to come closer to us and to show up with love.”
Engaging in that work might also involve code switching to better cater to those who may not be receptive to the work activists are doing. “We’re in a moment where we’re systematically under attack. How do we reframe the narrative around what it means to care and do the work of DEI?” said Elise Smith, CEO and co-founder of the tech startup Praxis Labs.
The significance of leaning on those who came before you also dominated discussions across the dinner table. Olympian Gabby Thomas dedicated her speech to the inspirational women that shaped her: her mother, Allyson Felix, and Sanya Richards Ross. “There’s always someone ahead of us showing us what is possible,” Thomas said.
Emmy Award-winning actor, director, and producer Colman Domingo, who graced the cover of TIME’s most-recent issue, ended the night with a call to solidarity and perseverance. In order to truly heal, he said, it’s important to rely on one another to foment strength and love. “The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out,” Domingo said, citing writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin. “It is all of our responsibility to close the racial equality gap, the racial equity gap. We will all win when we look at our fellows and see them thriving.”
TIME Impact Dinner: The Closers was presented by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
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