Audre Smikle is a San Francisco native working in Chicago as a Communications Assistant for the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago and as a Communications Analyst for the GenForward Survey at the University of Chicago. Audre is deeply passionate about caring for her community through education, activism, and service.

 

Audre completed her Master of Science in Communication from Northwestern University in 2023 with a capstone project that focused on using social media for activism. There she learned how to implement strategic communication strategies, translating data into graphic communications, and how to implement organizational change.

 

In 2022, Audre completed her second year in AmeriCorps, where she served as an AmeriCorps VIP fellow at the Black Academic Excellence Center (BAEC) at Cal Poly. At BAEC, Audre established new strategies and partnerships on and off-campus to elevate programming centered on Black-identified people. She developed and implemented a volunteer program that communicated opportunities, coordinated events efficiently and tracked volunteer engagement. She also created educational presentations and hosted dialogues surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. Using her graphic design skills, Audre created social media content for Instagram and designs for promotional materials. Audre was awarded the Black Love Award and the AmeriCorps of the Year Award during her service. As a graduate of Northwestern University, Audre double majored in Radio/Television/Film and African American Studies. In her final year, Audre wrote, directed and edited the award-winning film, Everything’s Fine (2019), about a young-mixed Black woman’s experience with sexual assault.