Justin Laing is the founder of Hillombo LLC. “Hillombo” combines the “Hill,” a neighborhood in Pittsburgh where its office is located, and “Quilombo,” which are maroon communities developed by Africans escaping enslavement in Brazil.  The name carries a commitment to building Black-led institutions and securing resources from White-led ones, which Justin has applied in arts, youth education, & organizational and community development for thirty years. Our work is facilitation, strategy and program reflection. In this work, Justin values what Paulo Freire called “critical consciousness,” or a capacity to see how oppression is working and ways to resist.

Justin was a Senior Program Officer for Arts & Culture at The Heinz Endowments & the Assistant Director of Nego Gato, Inc. Justin has a BA from the University of Pittsburgh in Black Studies and Political Science and a Master of Public Management from Carnegie Mellon University. Justin is on the coordinating committee of the Black Socialist Formation, and a member of the Black Alliance for Peace as well as Omega Psi Phi, and in this capacity, he is a founder of the Omega Dr. Carter G. Woodson Academy. Justin helped begin and played an active part in The Village 4 An Afrikan Cultural Center, #ArtsinHD, and One Hill CBA. Justin is also an initiated member/priest of the Lukumi Tradition and was initiated to Oshun in 2019 by Baba Bill Lowman.