These leaders in academia, arts, business, government, and preservation have answered our call to form a National Advisory Council for the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.

• Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation, Co-Chair of Advisory Council
• Phylicia Rashad, Actor and director, Co-Chair of Advisory Council
• Dana Bourland, Vice President of the Environment Program at The JPB Foundation
• Randy Bryant, President & CEO, Ten Chimneys Foundation
• Dr. Lonnie Bunch, Secretary of the Smithsonian
• Susan Chapman-Hughes, Senior Vice President, Global Digital Capabilities, Transformation, and Operations, Global Commercial Services division, American Express
• Congressman James Enos Clyburn, elected in 1993 as the U.S. Representative for South Carolina's 6th Congressional District, Assistant Democratic Leader since 2011
• Ava DuVernay, Award-winning Producer, Director, and Screenwriter
• Dr. William Ferris, Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History Emeritus, Senior Associate Director Emeritus, Center for Study of the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Director of the Hutchins Center for African American Studies, Harvard University
• Irvin Henderson, President of Irvin M. Henderson & Co.
• Dr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Chairwoman of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Harvard University Professor
• Cathy Hughes, Founder and Chairperson of Radio One, Inc. (Urban One, Inc.)
• Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
• Marita Rivero, Trustee Emeritus, National Trust for Historic Preservation Board of Trustees
• Alice Rosenwald, Principal and Former Co-Chair of the Board, American Holdings Securities Corporation; and President, Alice Rosenwald Fund
• Tre' Scott, General Partner, Folk Media Group
• Congresswoman Terrycina Andrea "Terri" Sewell, elected in 2010 as the U.S. Representative for Alabama's 7th Congressional District
• Robert Stanton, Former Director, National Park Service
• Bryan Stevenson, Director, Equal Justice Initiative
• Germonique Ulmer, Managing Director, Social Impact, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
• Mtamanika Youngblood, President & CEO of Sweet Auburn Works

The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund operates under the direction of Brent Leggs, executive director of the Action Fund and senior vice president of the National Trust.