Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs

Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs is a designer, fashion activist and organizer. She is the co-founder and designer of Tabii Just, a zero waste womenswear clothing label that is made ethically in Brooklyn from excess fabric. She is an advocate for fair working conditions for garment workers as well as ethical fashion. Tabitha has been featured on MTV, in MarketWatch, Al Jazeera and WWD  for her work with Tabii Just. Tabitha also co-founded LIVARI Clothing, an ethical clothing label that launched during Fashion Week Fall 2017 to rave reviews. LIVARI Clothing has been featured in WWD, NowThis, LA Times, Forbes, Nylon, Bustle, NY1, Huffington Post, Nylon, Sourcing Journal among others. She has held talks about the intersection of art and activism at several educational institutions including Gettysburg College, George Washington University and DePauw University, to name a few. Tabitha has also been a panelist about the topic of sustainable fashion at the Sustainable Textile Summit, NY & NJ Minority Supplier Development Council Sustainability Summit, the Women's Convention, Go Green Convention and more.

Tabitha is one of the women who spearheaded the organization of the Women’s March On Washington on January 21st, 2017, helping organize the largest demonstration in response to an election in U.S. history. She is the Youth Director at Women's March. Tabitha has led and been an adult ally to several youth initiatives through her work with Youth EMPOWER, the youth arm of Women's March. Most recently, she supported the 15 members of the Youth EMPOWER team in leading the Enough! National School Walkouts that saw about 1.6 million students walk out of schools demanding safety in their schools and communities. Tabitha coordinated the Youth Ambassador program which saw 31 young people from all over the country recognized for their outstanding activist work. She co-led the one day strike, A Day Without A Women, which saw participation from women all over the world. Tabitha is the coordinator of the EMPOWER toolkit, a tool for high school and college students that provides actionable tools for organizing, voter education and running for office. EMPOWER is a product of a coalition of organizations namely Women’s March, Rock The Vote, Teen Vogue, Rise to Run, The Gathering for Justice and Justice League NYC. Tabitha consulted with Penguin on the kids book, Little Activists, released in Fall 2017. Together with 24 other Women's March organizers, Tabitha was recognized as one of Glamour Magazine’s 2017 Women of the Year. She has been featured in the book, 200 Women Who Will Change The Way You See The World and was named one of 100 Women Who Stood Up To Trump In His First 100 Days. 

Tabitha draws from her life experience as an immigrant from Trinidad, who grew up in a low-income part of the town of Arima. Her early years were marked by a speech impediment. She stuttered so intensely that she could not say her name and she endured relentless teasing throughout her childhood. As time passed, she learnt different techniques to overcome her speech impediment, though it is never far from her mind as she now navigates being a public speaker. She seeks to empower children and young people to realize that having a speech impediment is not a life sentence and that it does not limit one's potential.