Welcome to the official landing page for Style’s Top 40 under 40, class of ’24!
This feature has been available to the public since our quarterly print publication, The People Issue, hit the streets on Dec. 6. If you haven’t seen it, the glossy cover features Top 40 under 40 winner, Liza Mickens, who is doing meaningful work as co-founder and spokesperson for Vote Equality US, a nonprofit working to get the Equal Rights Amendment added to the U.S. Constitution. Fun fact: She’s also the great-great-granddaughter of historic Richmonder Maggie L. Walker, the first African American woman to charter a bank and become a bank president in our nation’s history.
So how did we pick the winners, you ask? In early June, we put the call out on social media, you filled out the forms and entered your nominations. This year, we chose roughly half of the winners from your picks, some of them receiving multiple nominations, while our editorial staff and freelance team filled the rest with interesting folks we learned about or covered during the past year, which helped make this class even more diverse.
A big shout out and thank you to all of this year’s deserving winners, who we hope will take this award as real inspiration and validation of their efforts to make Richmond a better, more unique and welcoming place. To learn more about the 25-year history of this issue and its impact, keep an eye out for former Style Editor Jason Roop’s feature, “A Thousand Reasons,” which also goes online this week.
Remaining print issues are going fast, but you can still find them at some of the over 100 newsstands that carry them around the city, which you can locate on our distribution map. An even better strategy, though, would be supporting local journalism and buying a subscription for the low, low price of $25 a year, which gets you all four quarterly issues delivered to your door, or someone else’s. Yes, there’s still time to buy them as a holiday gift this year (which reminds me, I need to get one for my parents.)— Editor Brent Baldwin
Winners arranged alphabetically by last name:
Jay Ell Alexander
Owner/CEO, Black Girls Run! and The Vaughn Strategy
Ashleigh Barney
Director of Treatment Foster Care, Extra Special Parents
Brian Baynes
Publisher, Bubbles Zine and founder, Bubbles Con
Cameron Booth
Recreation services supervisor, Dogwood Dell
Matthew Brooker
Senior director and associate counsel, National Basketball Association
Adolph Brown IV
College program coordinator, Virginia Department of Corrections and professor at Virginia
Union University and Virginia Commonwealth University
Jovan Burton
Executive director, Partnership for Housing Affordability
Jared Calfee
State Advocacy Director, AARP Virginia
Kimmy Cummings
Head coach, Richmond Ivy Soccer Club
Marie D’Angelo
Creative Problem Solver, Richmond Makers Market
Kevin Elliker
Counsel, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
Tisha Erby
Super-mom and student advocate, Richmond Public Schools
Amber Esseiva
Acting Senior Curator, Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University
Donnie Glass
Chef and restauranteur
Kalia Harris
Executive director, Virginia Student Power Network
Siera Hyte
Schiller Family Curator of Indigenous American Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Maeve Jones
Executive director, Poe Museum
Mo Karnage
Owner and Captain of Chaos, Karnage Construction and owner, By Any Beans Necessary
Taylor Keeney
Founder & Executive Director, Little Hands Virginia
Louise Keeton
Director of operations, Downtown Ashland Association
Lance Lemon
Actor, owner of Penny’s Wine Shop, new business development specialist
Justin Lo
Senior counsel for the Virginia State Corporation Commission; dining critic for The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Heather Lyne
Executive director, Hopewell Downtown Partnership
Chris Martin
Owner and founder, Tri-City Chili Peppers and Cosmic Baseball
Kim McKnight
Anna Lou and Bob Schaberg Endowed Chair of Practice, Director of VCU’s Center for Teacher Leadership and RTR Teacher Residency
Will Melton
Founder and CEO, Xponent21; host, America’s Healthiest City
Liza Mickens
Co-founder and spokesperson, Vote Equality US
Ash Moore
Arts advocate
Rian L. Moses-Hedrick
Artist and co-founder of HeartRVA and Richmond Music Week
Doug Nunnally
Founder, The Auricular and president, Newlin Music Prize
Penny Page
Activist and case manager, YWCA of Richmond
Michael Phillips
Editor and founder, The Richmonder
Nikki Polk and Paul Polk Jr.
Owners, Charlotte’s Southern Deli
Erin Frye Provencher
Lead story marketer, Richmond Grid
Shep Roeper
Executive director and co-founder, Beyond Boundaries
Irina Rogova
Digital Initiatives Librarian, VCU Libraries
Cassidy Snider
Singer-songwriter
Ant the Symbol
Hip-hop producer
Laura Thomas
Director, Office of Sustainability, City of Richmond
