Our People

Advisory Board

Made up of accomplished social impact leaders and public figures, the Advisory Board supports our mission with strategic and programmatic recommendations.


DR. JANET DEWART BELL (SHE/HER)

DR. JANET DEWART BELL (SHE/HER)

Dr. Janet Dewart Bell is a lifelong social justice advocate, Civil Rights Movement veteran, and communications expert with a doctorate in Leadership and Change from Antioch University. She has been a key strategist and senior executive at several national organizations, including the National Urban League, PolicyLink, and the Opportunity Agenda. Among her accomplishments are an Emmy® for outstanding individual achievement (CBS-TV affiliate in Washington, DC) and programming for National Public Radio, which was honored with a Peabody award.

Bell is the author of the acclaimed Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement, which was a nominee for the NAACP Image Award, and is co-editor of a book of the Derrick Bell Lectures on Race in American Society, the ongoing series she founded in 1995. Her forthcoming book is Blackbirds Singing: Inspiring Black Women’s Speeches from the Civil War to the 21st Century. She chairs the Women’s Media Center and is the founder and president of LEAD InterGenerational Solutions, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing and promoting intergenerational leadership.

ERIN CAPONE (SHE/HER)

ERIN CAPONE (SHE/HER)

Erin Capone serves as the Senior Director of Development, New Brunswick for Rutgers University Foundation, overseeing major and principal gifts for the School of Social Work, Graduate School of Education, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, and the Honors College. She also serves as a part-time lecturer teaching Fundraising and Marketing in the graduate social work program. Erin previously served as development director of The Andrew Goodman Foundation and executive director of Overcoming Obstacles, which are both nonprofit organizations dedicated to developing critical skills in today’s youth. Erin has presented nationally on this topic and made media appearances on NBC, FOX, and the Solutions Webcast hosted by Clemson University. Erin began her career as a children’s social worker after graduating with an MSW from New York University and a BA in Social Work from Rutgers University, and she is currently a candidate in the Doctorate of Social Work program at Rutgers with a research agenda focused on the intersection of philanthropy and social justice.

MATTHEW CHANIN (HE/HIM)

MATTHEW CHANIN (HE/HIM)

Matt Chanin, CFA, is the sole member of Mira Vista Consulting LLC, which he established in 2012 to house his consulting and other business activities. Mr. Chanin retired from Prudential Investment Management in 2011 after 35 years, and currently serves on the Board of Supervisors of Suburban Propane LP on the Advisory Board of Yorktown Partners LLC. He also consults with Berson & Corrado LLC, and has been a member of the Board of Trustees of Integrity House since 2005. Mr. Chanin holds a BS from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Rutgers University.

DAVID DENNIS, SR. (HE/HIM)

DAVID DENNIS, SR. (HE/HIM)

Dave Dennis, Sr. was a Freedom Rider and Co-Director of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) in Mississippi, which organized activists for a voter registration drive during “Freedom Summer.” Mr. Dennis spoke at the funeral of James Chaney, and he worked closely with both civil rights icons Bob Moses and Medgar Evers.

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN (SHE/HER)

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN (SHE/HER)

Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), has been an advocate for disadvantaged Americans for her entire professional life. Under her leadership, CDF has become the nation’s strongest voice for children and families. The Children’s Defense Fund’s Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.

CONGRESSWOMAN VERONICA ESCOBAR (SHE/HER)

CONGRESSWOMAN VERONICA ESCOBAR (SHE/HER)

Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, a third-generation El Pasoan, proudly represents Texas’ 16th Congressional District. She is the first woman elected to this seat and the first of two Latinas from Texas to serve in Congress.

Congresswoman Escobar serves on the prestigious House Judiciary Committee, House Armed Services Committee, Ethics Committee, and the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.

In Congress, she has established herself as a national leading voice on immigration, gun violence prevention, and voting rights protection. She has led legislation to address our nation’s immigration challenges in a responsible and humane manner ensuring accountability, transparency, and oversight.

In 2020, Congresswoman Escobar delivered the Spanish-language Democratic response to Donald Trump's last State of the Union address. She gave the nationally televised speech from a community health clinic, in El Paso.

RUTH FRIENDLY (SHE/HER)

RUTH FRIENDLY (SHE/HER)

Ruth Friendly is the Director of Fred Friendly Seminars, award-winning television programs that explore ethical, legal and public policy questions. She continues to produce the television seminars at the Columbia University School of Journalism.

SHELDON GILBERT (HE/HIM)

SHELDON GILBERT (HE/HIM)

Sheldon Gilbert is the Founder and CEO of Proclivity Systems. Proclivity is recognized as one of the industry’s most advanced predictive analytics and real-time electronic trading platforms for data and digital media and has been featured in Fast Company, The New York Times, AdExchanger, Internet Retailer, and many other major publications on technology and innovation.

An inventor, with numerous patents in machine learning and computational advertising, Gilbert pioneered the use of large volumes of unstructured online data with offline data from retail stores to effectively predict the purchase likelihood and transactional value of consumers relative to any product to maximize sales and profits for brands. This has led to novel applications in the emerging field of real-time automated exchanges where Proclivity enables entities to buy and sell digital ads and data signals at optimal prices in milliseconds to maximize sales.

Gilbert's passion for mining large unstructured data sets began with his early academic research career in molecular genetics, which he studied during his undergraduate years at Yale University, and thereafter at The Rockefeller University and Cornell University Medical Center. In addition, Gilbert is actively involved in a number of non-profits including The Student Diplomacy Corps, The Neighborhood Trust, The Andrew Goodman Foundation, and The Recording Academy Grammy Awards, and regular guest lecturer at Columbia University.

DANNY GLOVER (HE/HIM)

DANNY GLOVER (HE/HIM)

Mr. Glover is a critically acclaimed actor and film director. For decades he has also been on the front lines of civil rights and workers’ rights campaigns both in the United States and around the world. While attending San Francisco State University, Glover was a member of the Black Students Union, which not only created the first Department of Black Studies but also the first School of Ethnic Studies in the United States. Mr. Glover champions causes that span from anemia awareness to the AIDS crisis in Africa to mathematics education in the United States. Both the United Nations Development Program and UNICEF have appointed him as a goodwill ambassador. He is a major supporter of the Algebra Project—a math empowerment program developed by civil rights veteran Bob Moses.

BOB HERBERT (HE/HIM)

BOB HERBERT (HE/HIM)

Bob Herbert is an author, journalist and former New York Times op-ed columnist. Mr. Herbert frequently writes on poverty, the Iraq war, racism and American political apathy towards race issues. His journalistic awards include the Meyer Berger Award for coverage of New York City and the American Society of Newspaper Editors award for distinguished newspaper writing. Mr. Herbert is now a fellow at Demos.

CLARENCE B. JONES, ESQ. (HE/HIM)

CLARENCE B. JONES, ESQ. (HE/HIM)

Clarence B. Jones was a counsel and speechwriter for Martin Luther King, Jr. During his residency at the King Institute, Jones has worked on his memoirs and has published two books: What Would Martin Say? (2008) and Behind the Dream: The Making of the Speech that Transformed a Nation (2012). He has received numerous state and national awards as well as an honorary doctorate in recognition of his significant contributions to American society. In addition to his accomplishments in the civil rights movement, Jones was the first African-American partner in a Wall Street investment banking member firm of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and was selected twice by Fortune Magazine’s as “A Business Man of the Month.”

MARVIN KRISLOV, ESQ. (HE/HIM)

MARVIN KRISLOV, ESQ. (HE/HIM)

Marvin Krislov is the president of Pace University, committed to Pace’s mission of Opportunitas—providing all students, regardless of economic background, access to the transformative power of education. He was previously the president of Oberlin College, and, prior to that, vice president and general counsel at the University of Michigan, where he led the legal defense of the University’s admission policies that resulted in the 2003 Supreme Court decision recognizing the importance of student body diversity. As a professor, he has taught courses on election law and on public policy.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Krislov was associate counsel in the Office of Counsel to the President under President Bill Clinton and in the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting cases involving police brutality and racial violence.

Mr. Krislov earned a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from Yale University and was a Rhodes Scholar. He earned master’s degrees at Oxford University and Yale, and a juris doctor degree at Yale Law School.

NICHOLAS LEMANN (HE/HIM)

NICHOLAS LEMANN (HE/HIM)

Nicholas Lemann is a journalist and the former Dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has published five books and continues to contribute to The New Yorker as a staff writer. Mr. Lemann has also written widely for such publications as The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, and Slate.

DANNY LYON (HE/HIM)

DANNY LYON (HE/HIM)

Danny Lyon is a photographer, filmmaker and writer. In 1963, he was a staff photographer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). His photos for SNCC appeared in the documentary book, Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement.

DICK MOLPUS (HE/HIM)

DICK MOLPUS (HE/HIM)

Dick Molpus is Founder and President of Molpus Woodlands Group, LLC, a timberland investment management organization that oversees 1.5 million acres of timberland across the United States. Prior to his work with the Molpus Woodlands Group, Mr. Molpus served three terms as Mississippi’s Secretary of State. Mr. Molpus has also taken a special interest in education and racial healing throughout his career. He was instrumental in passing Mississippi’s historic Education Reform Act of 1982. In addition, along with his wife, Sally, he founded Parents for Public Schools, an organization that supports local public schools and works with parents to ensure high standards. This initiative now has seventeen chapters in twelve states. Mr. Molpus is a native of Philadelphia, Mississippi. As Mississippi’s Secretary of State he made a formal apology in 1989 on behalf of his home town and the State of Mississippi to the families of Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney. In 2004 he was involved in the founding of the Philadelphia Coalition, which resulted in the trial and conviction of Edgar Ray Killen, the organizer of the murders of Messrs. Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman.

CRAIG NEWMARK (HE/HIM)

CRAIG NEWMARK (HE/HIM)

Craig Newmark is the founder of Craigslist and craigsconnects. He began his business career at IBM, where he spent nearly 17 years, and later worked in programming for Charles Schwab, Bank of America and other firms.

JOHN QUIÑONES (HE/HIM)

JOHN QUIÑONES (HE/HIM)

John Quiñones is the Emmy award-winning co-anchor of ABC newsmagazine Primetime and has been with the network nearly 30 years. He is the sole anchor of the Primetime series What Would You Do?, one of the highest rated newsmagazine franchises in recent years. During his tenure, he has reported extensively for ABC News, predominantly serving as a correspondent for Primetime and 20/20. His work for What Would You Do? captures the way people react when confronted with dilemmas that compel them to either take action or walk away. An authority on diversity, he is a powerful and visible voice on social issues such as race, gender, and sexuality.

ROBERT REICH (HE/HIM)

ROBERT REICH (HE/HIM)

Robert Reich is a Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton. Mr. Reich has written twelve books and is the co-founding editor of The American Prospect magazine.

STUART SHORENSTEIN (HE/HIM)

STUART SHORENSTEIN (HE/HIM)

Stuart Shorenstein is a partner at Cozen O’Connor. A member of the Business Law Department, Mr. Shorenstein is a founder of the firm’s Public Strategies Group and heads its New York Public Strategies team. Over the past three decades, he has also been actively involved in national, local and state politics. Mr. Shorenstein and his firm provide pro bono services to The Andrew Goodman Foundation.

MARQUISE A. STILLWELL (HE/HIM)

MARQUISE A. STILLWELL (HE/HIM)

Marquise Stillwell is the Managing Director of Openbox, a strategic planning firm in New York City that uses design and technology to solve business problems. His firm partners with its clients to enhance and accelerate the experience that people have with their products, services and brands. Prior to founding Openbox, Mr. Stillwell held strategic positions in the financial, software, telecom, and internet industries.

DR. NANCY L. THOMAS (SHE/HER)

DR. NANCY L. THOMAS (SHE/HER)

Dr. Nancy Thomas is the Senior Advisor to the American Association of Colleges & Universities' President for Democracy Initiatives and serves as the Executive Director at the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education (IDHE) at Tufts University’s Tisch College of Civic Life, the nation’s leading applied research center on student political learning and participation in democracy. Her work and scholarship center on higher education’s democratic mission, college student political participation and voting, campus climates for democratic learning and engagement, and dialogue, free speech, inclusion, and academic freedom. She founded and oversees the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, NSLVE (“n-solve”), a study of student voter participation at nearly 1,200 U.S. colleges and universities nationwide. She is the author or editor of multiple book chapters, papers, articles, and collections on higher education’s role in democracy, including the monograph, Educating for Deliberative Democracy. Dr. Thomas holds a law degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law and a doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

AYỌ TOMETI (SHE/HER)

AYỌ TOMETI (SHE/HER)

Ayọ (formerly known as Opal) Tometi is a Black feminist writer, communications strategist and cultural organizer. She is a co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter, the historic political project and leader-full network was launched in the wake of the murder of Trayvon Martin in order to explicitly combat implicit bias and anti-black racism and to protect and affirm the beauty and dignity of all Black lives. Ms. Tometi is currently at the helm of the country’s leading Black organization for immigrant rights, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), a national organization that educates and advocates to further immigrant rights and racial justice together with African-American, Afro-Latino, African and Caribbean immigrant communities.

KEITH WALTON, ESQ. (HE/HIM)

KEITH WALTON, ESQ. (HE/HIM)

Keith Walton is a Managing Director at Lafayette Square. His expertise combines legal training with executive and strategic leadership roles in investment, industry, university and the federal government. Prior to Lafayette, Keith held investment roles as founding Principal and Chief Administrative Officer at Global Infrastructure Partners and Venture Partner at Plexo Capital LLC. Keith served as Vice President of Government Affairs for Alcoa Inc., which was a leading supplier and manufacturer of aluminum and finished aluminum products, and as Executive Vice President for Strategy at Zero Mass Water LLC. He also has served as Executive Vice President and Secretary of Columbia University in the City of New York, and as Advisory Vice President for Strategic Industry Collaboration for Arizona State University.

Keith was Chief of Staff to the Undersecretary of Enforcement of the United States Department of the Treasury, its chief law enforcement official, and also Deputy Director of the White House Security Review. He is an honors graduate of Yale College, and the Harvard Law School, after which he clerked for the Honorable U.W. Clemon, Chief Judge (retired) of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama and then began his career at the Atlanta law firm of King & Spalding.

Keith serves on the boards of Bessemer Trust Old Westbury Funds, The Bessemer Trust National Gift Fund, and Virtus Funds, representing more than USD 80 billion in fiduciary obligations.

Keith is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and The American Law Institute. He is a Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, and is a former member of the Trilateral Commission.

MARTY WEINBERG (HE/HIM)

MARTY WEINBERG (HE/HIM)

Marty Weinberg, CPA, is a partner at Matthews & Co., LLP. He began his career in public accounting in 1980 and joined a mid-sized accounting firm in 1983. In 1987, the firm merged into KPMG Peat Marwick, and he started Matthews & Co. with Robert Matthews in November 1988. Mr. Weinberg and his firm provide pro bono accounting services to The Andrew Goodman Foundation.

AMBASSADOR ANDREW YOUNG (HE/HIM)

AMBASSADOR ANDREW YOUNG (HE/HIM)

Andrew Young is an American politician, diplomat, activist and pastor from Georgia. He has served as Congressman from Georgia’s 5th congressional district, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, and Mayor of Atlanta. He served as President of the National Council of Churches USA, was a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) during the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement, and was a supporter and friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He helped draw up the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 1981, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

IN MEMORIAM – HARRY BELAFONTE (HE/HIM)

IN MEMORIAM – HARRY BELAFONTE (HE/HIM)

Harry Belafonte was an award-winning singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. Mr. Belafonte was an early supporter of the civil rights movement in the 1950s, and one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s confidants. Throughout his career he was an advocate for humanitarian causes and was a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

IN MEMORIAM – DAVID N. DINKINS (HE/HIM)

IN MEMORIAM – DAVID N. DINKINS (HE/HIM)

The 106th Mayor of New York City, Mr. Dinkins began his public service career in 1966 as a member of the New York State Assembly. He was a founding member of the Black & Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus of New York State, the Council of Black Elected Democrats of New York State, and The One Hundred Black Men. Mr. Dinkins was also a Professor in the Practice of Public Affairs at the Columbia University School of International & Public Affairs (SIPA).

IN MEMORIAM – CONGRESSMAN JOHN LEWIS (HE/HIM)

IN MEMORIAM – CONGRESSMAN JOHN LEWIS (HE/HIM)

John R. Lewis was an American politician and civil rights leader. He served as the U.S. Representative for Georgia’s 5th congressional district from 1987-2020 and was the dean of the Georgia congressional delegation. Congressman Lewis was the last surviving “Big Six” leader of the American Civil Rights Movement until his death on July 17, 2020, having been the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and playing a key role in the struggle to end legalized racial discrimination and segregation.

IN MEMORIAM – ROBERT P. MOSES (HE/HIM)

IN MEMORIAM – ROBERT P. MOSES (HE/HIM)

Bob Moses was a prominent figure in the Civil Rights Movement as a field secretary for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1961, Moses initiated SNCC’s Mississippi Voter Registration Project, and was appointed its director in 1962. He received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1982-87), and subsequently started the Algebra Project (AP), which uses mathematics as an organizing tool for a Quality Education as a Constitutional Right (QECR) for all students.

IN MEMORIAM – MARGOT STERN STROM (SHE/HER)

IN MEMORIAM – MARGOT STERN STROM (SHE/HER)

Margot Stern Strom was the Founder and Executive Director and President of Facing History and Ourselves, an organization dedicated to combatting racism, anti-Semitism and prejudice, while nurturing democracy, through educational programs. She held this position from the organization’s inception in 1976.

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