Staff Leadership

The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund operates under the direction of Tiffany Tolbert and Erica Smith-Goetz, co-directors of the Action Fund.

National Advisory Council

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, Founder & CEO, Benton Street Holdings
• 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