Juma Inniss is a social entrepreneur, marketer, and internationally recognized media literacy educator with over 15 years of experience helping youth thrive in a media-saturated world. As the founding director of the Message, he has reached thousands of middle and high school students across the U.S. and Canada with culturally relevant media literacy education.

Juma began his career as an independent recording artist, using music to promote critical thinking and social awareness among teens. His first self-produced album, Blast Music, features Grammy Award-winning artist John Legend. Its follow-up, Fall of the Giants, merged media literacy and hip-hop in the lead single, “Till the DJ’s Gone,” earning a music video feature on VH1. He leveraged insights from his music journey to build the foundation for his media literacy education and activism work today.

Juma created and led the world’s first live music show promoting critical thinking in digital culture—introducing a groundbreaking new format for media literacy education. Today, he designs standards-aligned programming for teens and trains educators, parents, and public library systems in best practices for media literacy and program development.

As a consultant, he has worked across sectors supporting clients like GBH/PBS Kids, the Lemelson Foundation (a global leader in invention education), and cultural brands such as PUMA North America. In addition to his media literacy and marketing work, Juma guest lectures on Media Design and Social Entrepreneurship for graduate programs at institutions like Emerson College and Boston College.

He was a contributor for the Wall Street Journal best-selling business strategy book Fanocracy, and his voice has been featured on stages such as HubSpot’s INBOUND conference and Canadian Music Week’s Digital Media Summit.

Juma currently serves on the Board of Directors for Media Literacy Now, the leading grassroots organization advocating for media literacy education policy in the U.S. He holds degrees in Marketing Communication (B.S., Emerson College) and Broadcasting (A.S., New England Institute of Art).