3:30-4:45pm: Breakout Session Group 1, WCC
- The Front Lines: Lawyering with Grit and Compassion
Avis E. Buchanan ’81
Director, Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS)
Avis E. Buchanan is the Director of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS), which provides defense and other legal and non-legal services to adults and children charged in the District of Columbia’s criminal and family courts. After graduating from Michigan State University, then Harvard Law School, she worked as a law clerk for the Honorable Theodore J. McMillian of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Next, she joined PDS as a staff attorney, doing criminal defense work for six and a half years. For the next 13 years, Ms. Buchanan served as staff attorney, Director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Project, and then Director of Litigation at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs; she was primarily responsible for litigating individual and class action employment and public accommodations cases in various federal and local courts. Ms. Buchanan returned to PDS as its deputy director in 2002 and became director in 2004.
Michaele N. Turnage Young ’06
Senior Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
Michaele N. Turnage Young serves as Senior Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (“LDF”), where she litigates education and voting rights cases.
Prior to joining LDF in 2017, Ms. Turnage Young served as a Trial Attorney with the Educational Opportunities Section of the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. There, she prosecuted 13 school desegregation cases in seven federal court jurisdictions across the country. Her efforts led school districts to desegregate their students and faculties, equalize access to course offerings, equalize their facilities, transform their discipline practices, and dramatically reduce the amount of instructional time students lost to exclusionary discipline. Ms. Turnage Young received the Attorney General’s Special Achievement Award in recognition of her work advancing educational equity.
Ms. Turnage Young clerked for the Honorable Joan B. Gottschall of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She received her law degree from Harvard Law School, where she served as a student attorney with the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau and as an editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Ms. Turnage Young earned her undergraduate degree from UCLA. She is licensed to practice in California.
David A. Singleton ’91
Executive Director, Ohio Justice & Policy Center
David A. Singleton received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1991, and his A.B. in Economics and Public Policy from Duke University in 1987. Upon graduation from law school, David received a Skadden Fellowship to work at the Legal Action Center for the Homeless in New York City, where he practiced for three years. He then worked as a public defender for seven years, first with the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem and then with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. After moving to Cincinnati in 2001, David practiced at Thompson Hine until 2002, when he became the Executive Director of the Cincinnati-based Ohio Justice & Policy Center. David is also a tenured Professor of Law at NKU Chase College of Law, where he teaches the Constitutional Litigation Clinic and Criminal Procedure, among other courses.
Joi Chaney ’03
Executive Director and Campaign Director, Equal Pay Today!
Joi Chaney is the Executive Director and Campaign Director of Equal Pay Today! – an innovative collaboration of women’s legal and advocacy groups formed to address the long-standing gender wage gap and engage new constituencies in the fight for equal pay. Joi is also founder and principal of J.O.I. Strategies, which develops strategies for organizations seeking to achieve justice, opportunity, and inclusion for the nation’s underserved communities, beginning with women of color. Previously, Joi served in the Obama Administration at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as a counsel in the Office of the Chair. Earlier in her career, she served as Policy Director and Counsel of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, working on judiciary, labor, immigration, commerce, and housing issues, as well as issues impacting women, racial and ethnic minorities, and LGBT persons. She is also an alumnus of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Joi graduated fraom Howard University and Harvard Law School, where she Chaired the BLSA Spring Conference in 2001 and 2002. She is from Orlando, FL but lives in Washington, DC with her partner and his son, her “bonus son.” Follow her on Twitter @joitweets and Equal Pay Today at @equalpay2dayorg. Don’t forget that Equal Pay Day 2018 is being observed on April 10, but Black Women’s Equal Pay Day isn’t until August 7because the true wage gap for Black Women compared to White men is far larger. Learn more about all equal pay days atwww.equalpaydayforall.org.
- Running for Office: Why Black Political Power Needs You
Karen Freeman-Wilson ’85
Mayor of Gary, Indiana
Karen Freeman-Wilson has been the Mayor of her hometown of Gary, Indiana since January 2012. Mayor Freeman-Wilson is the first female to lead the city of Gary and the first African-American female mayor in the state of Indiana.
Mayor Freeman-Wilson has served in the public arena most of her professional life. She was previously the Indiana Attorney General, the Director of the Indiana Civil Rights Commission and the presiding judge of the Gary City Court. She was also a leader in the national drug court movement having served as the CEO of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals and Executive Director of the National Drug Court Institute.
Freeman-Wilson is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Freeman-Wilson has been honored by the White House of Drug Control Policy, Governors of Indiana and various organizations throughout the United States. She was one of the 25 female governmental officials selected for the Governing Institute’s Women’s Leadership cohort for 2017.
A champion for children, seniors, the disabled, the disenfranchised and those suffering from addiction to alcohol and other drugs, Mayor Freeman-Wilson quickly attributes the signs of progress in Gary to the efforts of “Team Gary,” which includes city staff, members of other branches of government at the federal, state and local levels and those in the corporate, educational and non-profit arena who have joined the effort to rebuild the city of Gary.
Mayor Freeman-Wilson is the First Vice President of the National League of Cities, chair the Criminal and Social Justice Committee of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. She also chaired the committee that authored the U.S. Conference of Mayors publication on community policing. Mayor Freeman-Wilson and her husband Carmen Wilson, II have a blended family of four children.
Amanda Edwards ’07
Houston City Council, At-Large Position 4
Amanda K. Edwards serves as the Houston City Council Member in At-Large Position 4. She is also an attorney and native Houstonian with a passion for building communities through public service. Currently, Amanda serves as Vice Chair of the Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee and serves on the Economic Development and Transportation, Technology and Infrastructure Committees. She strives to innovatively address the city’s fiscal challenges and its urban core needs in order to move all of Houston forward so that it can be the place where the Gulf Coast and the world’s future meet.
Amanda is a graduate of Eisenhower High School in Aldine ISD. She earned a B.A. in Political Science from Emory University, where she served as president of the undergraduate student body and was later inducted into the Emory University Hall of Fame. Amanda completed her education by earning her J.D. from Harvard Law School. Amanda has served on a litany of boards, and remains active with service organizations ranging from Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. to the American Leadership Forum. She resides in Midtown and attends St. Monica Catholic Church in Acres Homes.
Andrea Zopp ’81
President and CEO, World Business Chicago
Andrea Zopp is the President and CEO of World Business Chicago, where she leads the organization’s mission of inclusive economic growth, supporting businesses, and promoting Chicago as a leading global city. Most recently, she served as Deputy Mayor, Chief Neighborhood Development Officer for the City of Chicago. Andrea has dedicated her career to being a force of change. She has championed job creation, access to education, corporate responsibility and promoting economic development initiatives in underserved communities.
Andrea served in the United States Attorney’s Office and was the first woman and African American to serve as the First Assistant in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. In these roles, she fought to keep neighborhoods safe by taking on illegal guns, violent crime and gangs, worked to protect victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse.
Andrea is a successful businesswoman and has held executive leadership positions at several Fortune 500 companies, including Sara Lee, Sears Holdings and Exelon. As the former President and CEO of the Chicago Urban League, she led the nationally-recognized organization’s focus on expanding economic opportunity in underserved communities, helping youth and young adults achieve academic and career success, and advocacy for social justice.
Andrea has held multiple civic and business appointments. She was appointed to the Chicago Board of Education by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and to the Cook County Health and Hospital System Board by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. Andrea also currently serves on the board of the Urban Partnership Bank.
Andrea Zopp is a graduate of Harvard College and Law School. She lives on Chicago’s South side with her husband Bill. They are the proud parents of Alyssa, Kelsey, and Will and the proud owners of three cats and three dogs.
Jim Johnson ’85
Special Counsel to the Governor of New Jersey
Jim Johnson is a lawyer, activist and former candidate for Governor in NJ, finishing second in a crowded field in the 2017 Democratic Primary. He launched his run after retiring as a senior partner at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.
Jim served in the Clinton Administration as Under Secretary of the Treasury for Enforcement where he led, among other things, the Customs Service, the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. He also was a federal monitor in connection with a housing settlement and led New Jersey’s Advisory Committee on Police Standards which dealt with the issue of racial profiling.
Jim was chair of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School, a member of the board of the NJ Institute for Social Justice and currently serves on Harvard’s Board of Overseers. He is an advisor to Jazz House Kids and a board member of the Montclair Film Festival. He was a co-founder of NJ Communities Forward that helped NJ make significant strides forward on police-community relations.
Jim now serves as special counsel to NJ Governor Phil Murphy. He leads the effort to reset the state’s relationship with Atlantic City following the takeover of its finances in 2016. He has returned to the Brennan Center as a fellow.
- JD Yoga: Channeling the Versatility of a Law Degree
Rory Verrett ’95
Managing Partner, Protégé Search
Rory E. Verrett is the founder and managing partner of Protégé Search, a boutique leadership advisory firm which recruits and develops diverse talent. A former leader in the diversity practices of two global executive search firms, the first-ever head of talent management at the National Football League, and host of Protégé Podcast, an awardwinning podcast on career success, Rory has 20 years of experience mentoring, advising, and recruiting high performing executives from diverse backgrounds.
Rory has spoken to dozens of audiences, including NFL coaches, corporate executives, environmental leaders, attorneys and students on leadership, career strategy, and diversity and inclusion at venues including Harvard Law School, Stanford, Wharton and Duke business schools, and national and international leadership conferences.
Rory is the host of the iTunes New & Noteworthy podcast selection, Protégé Podcast, which focuses on career success for aspiring professionals. Rory has interviewed executives from Google, ESPN, and Goldman Sachs, as well as innovative entrepreneurs and accomplished professionals on this engaging and educational career talk show.
Rory is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where he was Class Marshal, and Howard University, where he was the student member of the Board of Trustees and a Harry S. Truman Scholar. He resides in Bethesda, Maryland with his wife and daughter.
Valerie Beck ’96
Founder/CEO, Valerie’s Original Chocolate Tours & Chocolate Uplift
Chocolate expert Valerie Beck is a pioneering entrepreneur in chocolate and hospitality. Creator of the original chocolate tours, which she expanded across the US, Valerie’s business also provides chocolate brokering, distribution, and consulting services to cacao growers and artisan chocolate makers, with a focus on sustainability. In addition, Valerie recently launched a premium soy-free craft chocolate subscription box.
A Chicago native, Valerie graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. After practicing law in Europe and the US, she founded Valerie’s Original Chocolate Tours and Chocolate Uplift, and is also a popular speaker and media personality.
She started the Chocolate Freedom Project to end child slave labor on the cacao farms that produce cocoa beans for big chocolate brands, and with every chocolate subscription box sold she donates a meal to formerly trafficked kids at a West African rescue center.
Valerie’s mission is Uplift Through Chocolate, because chocolate can improve our mood and the world!
James Bernard ’92
Executive Director, Public Allies New York
James Bernard is a proven leader as a social entrepreneur and cultural activist. James led the teams that created both The Source and XXL. His column in The Source, “Doin’ The Knowledge,” was among the first discussions of the intersection of hiphop music, culture and politics. For 19 years, James has served on the Nominating Committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
James was on the founding committee of the National HipHop Political Convention, which drew 7,000 young activists to its inaugural event. Later that year, he founded and ran the HipHop Civic Engagement Project, the third largest nonpartisan voter registration campaign with 350,000 new voters in 14 states.
As a labor leader, James coordinated a national campaign to organize security officers for the Service Employees International Union, the largest effort to organize a predominantly Black male workforce since A. Philip Randolph and the Pullman Porters. For several years, James devised civic engagement and communications strategies for the Rockefeller Foundation.
In Brooklyn, James is a founding board member of both Brooklyn Prospect Charter School and Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School. For seven years, he served on the Executive Committee of Community Board 6. He was also the co-chair of the Youth and Education Committee. He also serves on the Friends Committee of Celebrate Brooklyn, the summer-long cultural festival, and he and his wife are partners in The Bell House, a music and cultural events venue in Gowanus.
James has written for the New York Times, the Village Voice and Entertainment Weekly and is coauthor of the Book of Rock and Rap Lists (1994). More recently, he was a senior editor for Cuepoint, Medium.com’s music section.
- Debate: Criminal Justice Reform in 2018
Randall L. Kennedy
Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Randall Kennedy is Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School where he teaches courses on contracts, criminal law, and the regulation of race relations. He was born in Columbia, South Carolina. For his education he attended St. Albans School, Princeton University, Oxford University, and Yale Law School. He served as a law clerk for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United States. Awarded the 1998 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Race, Crime, and the Law, Mr Kennedy writes for a wide range of scholarly and general interest publications. His most recent books are For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law(2013), The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency(2011), Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal (2008), Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption (2003), Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word (2002), The Persistence of the Color Line (2011) and For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law (2013). A member of the American Law Institute, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Association, Mr. Kennedy is also a Charter Trustee of Princeton University.
Ronald S. Sullivan, Jr.
Clinical Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Professor Sullivan is a leading theorist in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure, trial practice and techniques, legal ethics, and race theory. He is the faculty director of the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute and the Harvard Trial Advocacy Workshop. Professor Sullivan also serves as Faculty Dean of Winthrop House at Harvard College. He is the first African American ever appointed Faculty Dean in Harvard’s history. He is a founding member and Senior Fellow of the Jamestown Project.
Professor Sullivan has merged legal theory and practice over the course of his career in unique and cutting-edge ways.
In 2014, Professor Sullivan was tasked to design and implement a Conviction Review Unit (“CRU”) for the newly elected Brooklyn District Attorney. The CRU, designed to identify and exonerate wrongfully convicted persons, quickly became regarded as the model conviction integrity program in the nation. In its first year of operation alone, Professor Sullivan discovered over 10 wrongful convictions, which the DA ultimately vacated. Some of the exonerated citizens had served more than 30 years in prison before they were released.
In 2008, Professor Sullivan served as Chair, Criminal Justice Advisory Committee for then-Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. In this capacity, Professor Sullivan’s committee made policy recommendations on a range of issues in an effort to put into practice some of the best research in the field. He also served as a member of the National Legal Advisory Group for the Barack Obama Presidential Campaign. Finally, Professor Sullivan was appointed Advisor to the Department of Justice Presidential Transition Team.
In 2007, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Professor Sullivan was asked to create a system to solve a criminal justice crisis. Over 6000 citizens were incarcerated in and around New Orleans without representation and with all official records destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Professor Sullivan designed an indigent defense delivery system that resulted in the release of nearly all the 6000 inmates.
In 1994, Professor Sullivan was a visiting scholar for the Law Society of Kenya, where he sat on a committee charged with drafting a new constitution for Kenya. He also worked with the Kenyan Human Rights Commission on monitoring and challenging human rights abuses.
Prior to joining Harvard’s faculty, Professor Sullivan was on the Yale Law School faculty where he won the award for outstanding teaching after his first year. Before joining the legal academy, he served as the Director of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. He also spent several years in private practice in two major Washington, D.C. law firms where he specialized in white-collar criminal defense and complex commercial litigation.
Professor Sullivan still maintains an appellate and trial practice. He has represented persons ranging from politicians to professional athletes to recording artists to pro bono clients in criminal jeopardy. Representative clients include: The family of Michael Brown; Former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez; The family of Usaamah Rahim.
Professor Sullivan has provided legal commentary for CNN, FoxNews, PBS, and all the major networks. He has been quoted in the nation’s leading newspapers and periodicals, and he has testified before the United States Senate and House of Representatives on numerous occasions.
Professor Sullivan is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Morehouse College and the Harvard Law School, where he served as President of the Harvard Black Law Students Association and as General Editor of the Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal.
5:00-6:15pm: Breakout Session Group 2, WCC
- “Why Should White Guys Have All The Fun?”: Remembering Reginald F. Lewis and Building Black Wealth
Kenneth I. Chenault ’76
Chairman and Managing Director, General Catalyst
As a managing director at General Catalyst, Ken focuses on investing in fast-growing companies that have the potential to become large, fundamental institutions. He also provides invaluable guidance to portfolio companies, particularly to those with an eye towards global markets and responsible innovation, as they scale their teams and products. As chairman, Ken leverages his renowned leadership abilities and experience to continue to evolve General Catalyst into a formidable and enduring firm.
Prior to joining General Catalyst, Ken Chenault was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American Express Company, a position he held from 2001 to 2018. He joined American Express in 1981 as Director of Strategic Planning and served subsequently in a number of increasingly senior positions, including Vice Chairman and President and Chief Operating Officer, until his appointment as CEO. Under his leadership, American Express built one of the world’s largest customer loyalty programs – Membership Rewards – and earned global recognition as a leader in customer service.
Ken is recognized as one of the business world’s experts on brands and brand management and has been honored by multiple publications including Fortune Magazine, which named him as one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders in its inaugural list in 2014.
Ken serves on the boards of Airbnb, Facebook, IBM, The Procter & Gamble Company, the Harvard Corporation and numerous nonprofit organizations, including the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, the Smithsonian Institution’s Advisory Council for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, and the Bloomberg Family Foundation. He is also is a member of the Business Council and serves on the Executive Committee of the Business Roundtable.
Ken holds a JD from Harvard Law School and a BA in history from Bowdoin College. He has also received honorary degrees from several universities and awards from a wide variety of civic, social service, and community organizations.
He and his wife, Kathryn, live in New York City, and they have two sons.
Debra L. Lee ’80
Chairman & CEO, BET Networks
With a trailblazing year career spanning over 3 decades, Debra L. Lee is arguably one of the most influential female voices in the entertainment industry. Lee currently serves as the Chairman & CEO of BET Networks, the leading provider of entertainment for the African-American audience and consumers of Black culture globally.
During her tenure, Lee has helmed BET’s reinvigorated approach to corporate philanthropy & authentic programming that lead to hits such as The New Edition Story, Being Mary Jane, The BET Awards, Black Girls Rock!, BET Honors and many more.
In September 2009, Lee managed the launch of Centric, a 24-hour music and entertainment network. Under her guidance, Centric was rebranded in 2014 as the first network designed for Black women. She also oversees the company’s current growth initiatives, including international distribution of the brand in Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, France, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.
Prior to her being named Chairman and CEO, Lee was President and COO of BET Networks for almost 10 years, during which she guided the company to consistent increases in viewership, revenue, and earnings. She first joined BET as Vice President and General Counsel in 1986 after serving more than five years as an attorney with Steptoe & Johnson, a Washington D. C. based corporate law firm. Prior to that, she served as a law clerk to the late Honorable Barrington Parker of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Lee earned her Juris doctorate at Harvard Law School, while simultaneously earning a master’s degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government. She graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in political science with an emphasis in Asian politics. In 2014 she was awarded with a Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) from Brown University.
Theodore V. Wells, Jr. ’76
Partner & Co-Chair of the Litigation Department,
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
A partner and co-chair of the Litigation Department, Theodore V. Wells, Jr. has extensive litigation experience in white-collar defense, complex civil and corporate litigation, SEC regulatory work, healthcare fraud, FCPA, AML and OFAC investigations, environmental matters and class action litigation.
In 2010 The National Law Journal named Ted one of “The Decade’s Most Influential Lawyers” and over the years has repeatedly selected him as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America, including naming Ted as the Lawyer of the Year in 2006. Ted also has been recognized as one of the outstanding jury trial lawyers in the United States by numerous publications including Chambers USA, which has noted that Ted “is considered by many to be ‘the best trial lawyer in the country.’” Since 2013, Chambers USA has named Ted a Star Performer in three categories: nationwide trial litigation, New York general commercial litigation and New York white-collar crime and government investigations, and Benchmark Litigation named him in similar categories. The Legal 500 has recognized him as a Leading Lawyer in white-collar criminal defense and as a Leading Trial Lawyer. Recently, in 2017, Ted was named a recipient for the New York Law Journal’s“Lifetime Achievement” award.
Ted is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He has served as co-chair of the White-Collar Criminal Section of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He has been a faculty member of the Practising Law Institute Trial Advocacy Program, a teaching team member of the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop and a lecturer at the Securities Regulation Institute. He has lectured on the use and scope of the RICO statute, the defense of securities, healthcare and environmental criminal and civil matters, federal grand jury procedures and federal sentencing guidelines.
Active in social, political and community affairs, Ted served as national treasurer for Senator Bill Bradley’s presidential campaign and is the chairman emeritus of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Board of Directors. He previously served, on a pro bono basis, as general counsel to the New Jersey NAACP, New Jersey co-chairperson of the United Negro College Fund and general counsel to the New Jersey Democratic Party. Ted is a Fellow of the Harvard Corporation, the governing body of Harvard University.
Ted served as an editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.
Sengal Selassie ’95
Co-Founder, Brightwood Capital Advisors, LLC
Sengal Selassie is co-CEO and co-Founder of Brightwood. He serves on the Investment, Executive and Valuation Committees of the firm. Sengal has served on a number of portfolio company boards of directors, including: Poco Graphite, Viawest Internet Services, Ricerca Biosciences, MC2 and Five Star Food Services.
Prior to co-founding Brightwood in 2010, Sengal co-founded Cowen Capital Partners (“CCP”) and served as Managing Partner. At CCP, he successfully led the fund’s spinout from Société Générale, forming Trinity Equity Holdings. Sengal joined CCP from SG Capital Partners (“SG Capital”), CCP’s predecessor fund where he worked from 1998 through 2006. At SG Capital he was a Managing Director and served as group head starting in 2002 and served as President and CEO of the fund’s captive small business investment company, SGC Partners II, from 2002 to 2004. Prior to SG Capital, he worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Morgan Stanley, specializing in Media and Telecommunications. He began his career at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in 1990.
Teri Williams
President & Chief Operating Officer (COO), OneUnited Bank
Teri Williams is President & COO and owner of OneUnited Bank, the largest Black owned bank in the country and supporter of the #BankBlack movement. She is responsible for the Bank’s strategic initiatives, as well as the day to day operations, including all retail branches, marketing, compliance, lending, information technology, customer support, legal, and human resources. Ms. Williams brings 30 years of financial services expertise including Bank of America and American Express, where she was one of the youngest Vice Presidents. Ms. Williams holds an M.B.A. with honors from Harvard University and a B.A. with distinctions in Economics from Brown University. She currently serves on the Boards of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA) and the 79th Street Corridor Initiative in Miami, Florida. Ms. Williams is author of I Got Bank! What My Granddad Taught Me About Money (Beckham Publishing), a financial literacy book for urban youth. She is married and has two millennial children.
- Writing while Black: Choosing your Voice, Style, and Subject Matter in Legal Writing
Danielle Holley-Walker ’99
Dean, Howard University School of Law
Danielle Holley-Walker is the Dean and Professor of Law at Howard University School of Law. Dean Holley-Walker earned a B.A. from Yale University and her J.D. from Harvard University. After law school, she clerked for Chief Judge Carl E. Stewart of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She also practiced civil litigation at Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP in Houston, Texas. Prior to joining the Howard faculty, she was the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina.
Dean Holley-Walker teaches Civil Procedure, Administrative Law, Legislation and Regulation, Federal Courts, and Inequality and Education. Dean Holley-Walker’s ongoing research agenda deals with the governance of public schools, and diversity in the legal profession. She has published articles on issues of civil rights and education, including recent articles on No Child Left Behind, charter school policy, desegregation plans, and affirmative action in higher education.
Dean Holley-Walker has won numerous awards and is active in her community. She has been awarded the GWAC Trailblazer Award, and the Lutie Lytle Conference Outstanding Scholar Award. She also received the University of South Carolina Educational Foundation’s Service Award for performing significant service to the University and the community. She was twice awarded the law school’s Outstanding Faculty Member award during her time at the University of South Carolina. She was named by The State newspaper as one of the top “20 Under 40” leaders for the state of South Carolina. Dean Holley-Walker has served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the South Carolina HIV/AIDS Council. She is a Liberty Fellow through the Aspen Global Leadership network. She currently serves on the Board of the Middle School for Math and Science in Washington, DC. She is also on the board of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights.
Paul Butler ’86
Bennett Boskey Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School
Paul Butler is the Albert Brick Professor in Law at Georgetown University Law Center. During the 2017-18 academic year he is the Bennett Boskey Visting Professor at Harvard Law School. Professor Butler is also a legal analyst on MSNBC.
Professor Butler is one of the nation’s most frequently consulted scholars on issues of race and criminal justice. His work has been profiled on 60 Minutes, Nightline, and The ABC, CBS and NBC Evening News. He lectures regularly for the American Bar Association and the NAACP, and at colleges, law schools, and community organizations throughout the United States. He serves on the District of Columbia Code Revision Commission as an appointee of the D.C. City Council.
Professor Butler’s scholarship has been published in many leading scholarly journals, including the Georgetown Law Journal, Yale Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review and the UCLA Law Review. He was named the Professor of the Year award three times by the GW graduating class. He was elected to the American Law Institute in 2003. Professor Butler’s book “Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice” received the Harry Chapin Media award.
His book “Chokehold: Policing Black Men” was published in July 2017. It has been nominated for a 2018 NAACP Image Award, and The Washington Post named it one of the 50 best non-fiction books of 2017. The New York Times described Chokehold as the best book on criminal justice reform since The New Jim Crow.
Professor Butler served as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, where his specialty was public corruption. His prosecutions included a United States Senator, three FBI agents, and several other law enforcement officials.
Professor Butler is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.
Covington and Burling Distinguished Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School
Peggy Cooper Davis is the John S. R. Shad Professor of Lawyering and Ethics at New York University. She serves this term as the Covington and Burling Distinguished Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. She joined the NYU faculty after having served for three years as a judge of the Family Court of the State of New York and having engaged for ten years in the practice and administration of law. She has published more than fifty articles and book chapters, most notably in the premier journals of Harvard, Yale, NYU and Michigan law schools. Her analyses of judicial reliance on the social and psychological sciences have been pivotal to thinking about child placement decision-making. Her recent book, Enacting Pleasure, is a collection of essays exploring the implications of Carol Gilligan’s relational psychology. Her 1997 book, Neglected Stories: The Constitution and Family Values, and her book in progress, Enacting Freedom, illuminates the importance of anti-slavery and civil rights traditions as guides to the scope and meaning of Fourteenth Amendment liberty interests. Davis’s scholarship has also influenced the critique and evolution of legal pedagogy. She now directs the Experiential Learning Lab, through which she develops learning strategies for addressing interpretive, interactive, ethical, and social dimensions of legal practice.
Kenneth W. Mack ’91
Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Kenneth W. Mack is the inaugural Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law and Affiliate Professor of History at Harvard University. During 2016-17, he was a Radcliffe Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. He is also the co-faculty leader of the Harvard Law School Program on Law and History. His 2012 book, Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer (Harvard University Press), was a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, a National Book Festival Selection, was awarded honorable mention for the J. Willard Hurst Award by the Law and Society Association, and was a finalist for the Julia Ward Howe Book Award. He is also the co-editor of The New Black: What Has Changed – And What Has Not – With Race in America (New Press, 2013). His work has been published in the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Journal of American History, Law and History Review and other scholarly journals. He has written opinion pieces for TIME, the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, The Root, Baltimore Sun, and other general interest publications. In 2007, he was named a Fletcher Fellow by the Fletcher Foundation. He has served as the co-director of the Workshops on “The History of Capitalism in the Americas” (2015-16) and “The Long Civil Rights Movement” (2008-09) at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University.
He has taught at Harvard, Stanford, and Georgetown Universities, and the University of Hawai’i, and has served as Senior Visiting Scholar, Centre for History and Economics at Cambridge University. In 2010, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Public Service by Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. In 2016, President Obama appointed him to the Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise. In 2016, he was also elected as a member of the American Law Institute. He began his professional career as an electrical engineer at Bell Laboratories before turning to law, and history. Before joining the faculty at Harvard Law School, he clerked for the Honorable Robert L. Carter, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and practiced law in the Washington, D.C. office of the firm, Covington & Burling. More information available at: http://kennethwmack.com.
- The Obama Legacy: Policies Worth Fighting For
Jocelyn Frye
Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Jocelyn Frye is a senior fellow at American Progress, where her work focuses on a wide range of women’s issues, including work-family balance, pay equity, and women’s leadership. Prior to joining American Progress, Frye served for four years as deputy assistant to the president and director of policy and special projects for the first lady, where she oversaw the broad issue portfolio of the first lady, with a particular focus on women, families, and engagement with the greater Washington, D.C., community. Her responsibilities included working on the first lady’s two signature initiatives, combating childhood obesity and supporting military families, and managing the young women’s component of the White House Leadership and Mentoring Initiative, a program connecting selected local high school students with current and former White House staff as mentors, and providing students with a mix of career exploration, college preparation, and educational opportunities.
Before joining the Obama administration, Frye served as general counsel at the National Partnership for Women and Families, where she concentrated on employment and gender-discrimination issues, with a particular emphasis on equal-employment-enforcement efforts and employment barriers facing women of color and low-income women. During her 15-year tenure at the National Partnership, she testified before Congress and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on federal enforcement of employment-discrimination laws and analyzed the effectiveness of federal equal-employment-enforcement efforts. Prior to her work at the National Partnership, she worked for four years as an associate at Crowell & Moring, a Washington, D.C., law firm, concentrating in the white-collar crime-practice area.
Frye received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and her law degree from Harvard Law School. She is a proud native of Washington, D.C.
Cecelie Counts ’83
Lead Lobbyist for Immigration, Voting Rights, Judicial Nominations, and Education, AFL-CIO
Cecelie Counts is the lead lobbyist for immigration, voting rights, judicial nominations, and education at the AFL-CIO. As the first woman Director of the AFL-CIO’s Civil, Human, and Women’s Rights Department, she initiated the voter protection campaign that now is a fundamental component of the labor movement’s electoral work. She also developed and led nationwide popular education campaigns on immigration, retirement security, and the global economy.
Prior to joining the AFL-CIO, Cecelie played a vital role as a leader in the NAACP’s effort to oppose the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas and a federal proposal that would have prohibited colleges and universities from implementing affirmative action programs and offering minority scholarships. Her work to end discriminatory lending practices in primary and secondary mortgage markets resulted in new regulatory authority over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the strengthening of both the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) & Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). These efforts were precursors to the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Board (CFPB).
Cecelie is widely recognized for her leading role with TransAfrica, the foreign policy organization focused on Africa, the Caribbean, and the African Diaspora. The work of the Free South Africa Movement she coordinated through TransAfrica led to the imposition of economic sanctions against the South African apartheid regime, the first Congressional override of a Presidential veto on a foreign policy measure, and the ultimate collapse of apartheid–as memorialized in the 2010 documentary Have You Heard from Johannesburg?
The Congressional Black Caucus and NAACP are among the organizations that have honored Cecelie for her life-long work as a community activist and political organizer. She continues to address public school inequities and the racial educational divide as a parent volunteer in Montgomery County, MD.
Cecelie Counts received her undergraduate degree from Howard University and her law degree from Harvard Law School.
Jeohn Favors ’17
Associate, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
Jeohn Salone Favors is an associate in the litigation department at the New York-based law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Before attending law school, Mr. Favors worked as a national security professional for more than a decade. His government service includes domestic and overseas assignments as a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State, as an operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, and as a member of the National Security Council staff at the White House.
During his time in the Obama White House, Mr. Favors helped manage the Administration’s response to post-Arab Spring instability and ever-evolving counterterrorism threats emanating from the Middle East, and was a member of the small team of White House personnel tasked by the President to orchestrate and oversee the Administration’s historic outreach to Iran, which ultimately culminated in the Iran nuclear deal. Mr. Favors’s expertise and interests span a host of foreign affairs, defense, intelligence, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, cybersecurity, weapons proliferation, sanctions, homeland security, and law of war matters.
Mr. Favors received a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University in 2005 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2017. At Harvard, Mr. Favors served as a class marshal, Co-President of the National Security and Law Association, and as a member of the executive boards of the American Constitution Society and Black Law Students Association. As a student attorney with Harvard’s Criminal Justice Institute, Mr. Favors represented indigent clients in felony criminal matters, argued substantive motions in Massachusetts trial courts, and co-chaired a felony jury trial that resulted in an acquittal. Separately, Mr. Favors served under Professor Ronald Sullivan, Jr., as a member of the defense team that represented and won acquittal of former New England Patriots professional football player Aaron Hernandez in a trial for double murder.
Mr. Favors is a native of rural South Louisiana and is proficient in Arabic. He is a life member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., and is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Ambassador Walter C. Carrington ’55
Former Ambassador of the United States to Nigeria and Senegal
Walter Carrington has served as American Ambassador to Nigeria (1993-1997) and Senegal (1980-1981). Both governments have conferred upon him national honors. In addition, in recognition of his championing of human rights during his tour in Nigeria, the diplomatic enclave in Lagos on which the American and more than a dozen other Consulates are located was renamed Walter Carrington Crescent. In 2011 the American Embassy launched the Carrington Youth Fellowship Initiative (CYFI), which each year selects a group of Nigerian Fellows to design and implement projects, as the Embassy describes them, “committed to putting the ideals of Walter Carrington into practice.”
A book of his speeches promoting human rights and democracy, A Duty to Speak, was published in Lagos in 2010 and was launched at a state banquet in his honor. He is currently working on his memoirs and a book on Nigeria.
Upon his return from Nigeria Ambassador Carrington took up a resident fellowship at Harvard University’s W.E.B. DuBois Institute of African and African-American Affairs for the 1997-1998 academic year, where he remains as a non-resident fellow He spent the following semester as a Distinguished Visitor at the MacArthur Foundation in Chicago.
Ambassador Carrington’s career has intersected with diplomacy, academia, law, government, politics, and human rights. A civil rights activist during his university days, Carrington was the founding President of Harvard’s NAACP chapter and later became the first student elected to the National Board of Directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. During his term on the NAACP Board, from 1952-1955, he was an active participant in the deliberations concerning the filing and enforcement of the historic school desegregation cases.
A graduate of Harvard College and Law School, after two years of service in the United States Army, Carrington practiced law in Boston and served on the three member Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination becoming, at the age of 27, the youngest person to be appointed a Commissioner in the Commonwealth’s history. While there he was in charge of the case which led to the Boston Red Sox, the last remaining all white Major League Baseball Team, hiring their first black player.
His academic teaching and administrative experience has included Visiting Professorships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), Simmons College, Washington College and Marquette University, where he has taught courses on U.S. Foreign Policy, Islam in Africa and African Politics. At Howard University he created and developed the Department of International Affairs which oversaw the University’s international endeavors.
Upon the establishment of the Peace Corps in 1961, Carrington was appointed as one of its first overseas Country Directors. His 10 year service included directing programs in Sierra Leone, Tunisia and Senegal. Soon after returning to the United States he was named Regional Director for Africa.
After leaving the Peace Corps, Carrington became Executive Vice President of the African American Institute and publisher of its magazine, Africa Report. He left there after 10 years, upon his appointment by President Carter as ambassador to Senegal.
After returning from Senegal and working at Howard he went to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies where he specialized in the problems of human rights and democratic change in Africa. He returned to government in 1992 as chief of staff of the Washington Office of Congressman Mervyn Dymally who was then Chairman of the House sub-Committee on Africa.
Before becoming one of President Clinton’s early diplomatic appointments Ambassador Carrington was a senior advisor on Africa to the Clinton Transitional Team.
Ambassador Carrington has written and lectured widely in the United States and around the world on Africa and on the status of Blacks in America and hosted a television series in Washington D.C., The African World. In addition, he has been frequently interviewed on local and network TV and radio programs including ABC’s Good Morning America and several appearances on PBS’s The News Hour. He has been widely quoted on African issues in newspapers in the United States and abroad.
He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Council of American Ambassadors and the Association of Black American Ambassadors.
Carrington has broad experience in economic development issues as well. In addition to his decade with the African-American Institute, he has served as Chairman of the United Nations Donor Agencies Conference on the African Regional Plan for the Application of Science and Technology to Development (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – 1974). He has served on the Board of Directors of several development agencies including Africare, Appropriate Technology International, the International Development Conference, International Voluntary Services and Private Agencies Cooperating Together (PACT).
Carrington’s six decade involvement with Africa began two weeks after graduating from college when he represented the NAACP as a member of the American delegation to the World Assembly of Youth conference in Senegal in 1952. While in Law School he was again elected in 1954 as a member of the American delegation to a World Assembly of Youth conference, this time in Singapore.
In 1994 Ambassador Carrington was selected by the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine as one of the 100 most distinguished living graduates of Massachusetts’ public and parochial schools.
Ambassador Carrington is married; the father of a son and daughter; and a grandfather of a grandson. His Nigerian born wife, Arese, is a medical doctor and a public health specialist working on problems of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa. The two of them were joint recipients of the 2014 City of Newton, Massachusetts Lifetime Human Rights Achievement Award.
Danièle Jean-Pierre
Assistant General Counsel, USAID
Ms. Jean-Pierre began her legal career as an associate at Latham & Watkins LLP in Washington, DC, New York, NY and Paris, France in the finance group, where her practice focused on the arrangement and syndication of domestic and cross-border secured credit facilities, project finance, and general corporate matters. Ms. Jean-Pierre then joined American Capital, Ltd., a private equity firm and global asset manager as an Associate General Counsel.
In 2010, Ms. Jean-Pierre transitioned to public service as U.S. Diplomat for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and currently serves as an Assistant General Counsel in the Office of the General Counsel in Washington, DC. Prior to this position, Ms. Jean-Pierre served as a Diplomat and the Chief Legal Officer for the USAID Mission in Senegal (2015-2017) and as a Diplomat and Chief Legal Officer for the USAID Mission in Haiti (2011-2015) where she managed a complex legal portfolio associated with the $2.2 billion budget for the Haiti post-earthquake reconstruction efforts.
As the Chief Legal Officer for USAID/Senegal and USAID/Haiti, she provided legal guidance to the Missions on the structure, design, and implementation of foreign assistance activities with bilateral donors, international finance institutions, the Governments of Senegal and Haiti, and implementing organizations. Over the past six years in Senegal and Haiti, she has amassed a proven track record of outstanding leadership by meeting the legal exigencies of these dynamic portfolios.
In addition to her work, she was also active with the Harvard alumni community in Haiti, which serves as a conduit between Harvard and Harvard alumni with an interest in the development of Haiti. Thus, in the spring of 2013, she arranged for the Prime Minister of Haiti to speak at Harvard Law School and to participate in a town hall discussion moderated by Harvard Professor Charles Ogletree.
Ms. Jean-Pierre received her J.D. from Harvard Law School. She graduated with an M.A. in International Policy Studies and a B.A. in International Relations both from Stanford University. Ms. Jean-Pierre is a member of the New York and District of Columbia Bars and is fluent in French and English.
Susan D. Page ’89
Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH)
Susan D. Page serves as the Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH). Ms. Page has extensive managerial and leadership experience in diplomacy, international development and rule of law. She served as Deputy Special Representative for Rule of Law in MINUSTAH since January 2017 and was the first United States Ambassador to South Sudan, after which she served as the Acting United States Ambassador to the African Union and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
She held the position of Senior Adviser in the Office of the United States Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan and served as United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. Her United Nations experience includes positions as Director of the Rule of Law Advisory Unit in the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS) and Senior Legal Adviser for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sudan and in Rwanda.
Ms. Page holds a Juris Doctor degree from the Harvard Law School and a degree in English with high distinction from the University of Michigan.
Born in 1964 in Chicago, she is married and has a son.
Rabiat Akande ’19
S.J.D. Candidate, Harvard Law School
Rabiat Akande is an SJD candidate at Harvard Law School where her research explores the contestations over religion-state relations during Nigeria’s colonial encounter with the British Empire between 1841 and 1960.
She has taught International Law as an adjunct faculty at Northeastern University School of Law in the past two academic years. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as an associate at G. Elias Solicitors and Advocates in Lagos, Nigeria where her practice focused on taxation and corporate litigation. She is licensed to practice in Nigeria and New York.
Rabiat has engaged in several social entrepreneurial initiatives on the African continent. Currently, she serves as a Board Member of the African Development University and she has, in the past, served on the board of the African Women’s Advocacy Project.
Rabiat received her undergraduate law degree (First-class honors) from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria in 2009 and graduated from the Nigerian Law School (First-class honors) in 2011.
Saturday, March, 7
11:00-12:00pm: Documentary on Reginald F. Lewis featuring Q&A with L.Marilyn Crawford
L. Marilyn Crawford
RFL Legacy Specialist; President and CEO, Primetime POPS
Award-Winning Chief Marketing, Branding, Business Development, PR and Tourism executive with extensive global and national strategic marketing, leadership, entertainment. A creative and visionary communications specialist with expert interpersonal and professional skills. Additionally with a proven track record that compliments over a decade of elevated revenue generation and building audiences and consumers. Clients have included, but not limited too; Financial Institutions (AIC Canada, Epic Canada Capital, American Express EndorsEments, JP Morgan Private Clients, etc.), Technology (Cineview 3D, Epic Health Tech, Textunes, etc.), Countries (Turks and Caicos, Bermuda, Saudi Arabia Redha Alhaidar, UAE Sheikh Khalifa, South Africa, Africa, Jamaica, etc), Global Corporations (Mercedes Benz, Maybach, FedEx, Volvo, Master Card, American Express, AIC Canada, etc.), Foundations (Mandela Trust, RFL Foundation, etc), List Celebrities (partial list; Serena Williams, Akon, Beyonce/Matthew Knowles, Russell Simmons, P. Diddy, Naturi Naughton, Dionne Warwick, Patti LaBelle), and Entertainment organizations and Sports Organizations (partial list, ACOG-Olympics, pre-Grammy, pre-Oscars week, Golden Globes, World Cup Soccer, Sony International, Liberty Productions). Additionally, Amfar, TC Music Festival, Bermuda Music Festival, Shanghai Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival Receptions/ Luncheons, Business Development for Turks and Caicos Islands, Launch of NCB Bank Jamaica for Michael Lee-Chin, Sundance Distribution Outreach, P. Diddy’s Blue Flame Agency/CIROC Women’s Luncheon, Oprah’s Personal Growth Summit sponsored by Prudential, Dominican Republic events, and the list goes on. Served on the Board of Directors (partial list) for the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, Dress for Success International, Madison Square Boys and Girls Club.