Ericka Huggins, a human rights activist, poet, innovative educator, and former internationally renowned political prisoner who helped lead the Black Panther Party for 14 years, is currently a professor of Sociology and African-American Studies at Merritt College in Oakland, California and has a decades' long track record of community service, including teaching meditation in prisons, and working with at-risk and incarcerated youth, adopted children, pregnant teens, and women and children with HIV.