Kaia Shivers is a media scholar, entrepreneur and creative who launched Black Farmers Index in 2020 as a solution to the coming food security issues in the U.S. The organization centers an online directory connecting consumers to Black farmers. With a listing of over 1,000 traditional and non-traditional growers, it also engages in events, campaigns and collaborations in efforts to diversify U.S. agribusiness by bringing more exposure to Black growers. A professor in Liberal Studies at New York University, she has been in numerous DEI initiatives and talks at the institution. Shivers also leads the online news company Ark Republic, a boutique media firm committed to telling rich and robust stories, all the while, reporting news from an innovative, global lens.