Secretary and Special Projects

Jamara Wakefield

Wakefield is a Black queer arts and culture writer. She writes for publication and stage. She produces and directs projects about the experiences of Black people in America, Black women, vulnerability, liberation practices, and debt as a system of oppression. She currently has bylines for Shondaland, Playboy, Very Smart Brothers, Broadway Black, B- Word Magazine and Broadway World. She is currently filming a documentary titled "Black House. Black Joy. New Jersey".

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Treasurer

Carlyle Leach

Carlyle Leach has created and assumed leadership positions in his businesses, as an educator, and during his service at the city, state, and federal levels of government. His career and personal life have been devoted to the achievement of social, political, and economic justice for all people.

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Angela Yee

Angela Yee, co-host of the Breakfast Club at iHeart Media, has been breaking stories, conducting groundbreaking interviews and giving earnest, expert advice alongside her co-hosts DJ Envy and Charlamagne for the past 9 years. She has also been focused on entrepreneurship, opening the Juices for Life juice bar in Bed-Stuy and starting a subscription based pressed juice business called Drink Fresh Juice. In addition to prioritizing health based businesses she is actively involved in the community, becoming the first NY Public Library ambassador and the first ever global ambassador for diversity, inclusion and community engagement for Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment (BSE) which includes the Barclays Center and the Brooklyn Nets.

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Cheryl Davis

Cheryl Davis is a practicing attorney in Manhattan and is the General Counsel of the Authors Guild. She is the Vice President of Theater Resources Unlimited, a producers’ networking organization, and is the outside Counsel for the League of Professional Theater Women. She is an award winning playwright and TV writer, and is a freelance writer for Law and Order: SVU.

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Miko Branch

Miko Branch is the Co-Founder and CEO of Miss Jessie's, the Award Winning Hair Care Brand. She is also a Pioneer, National Best-Selling Author, Philanthropist, Proud Mother & Sister to Titi Branch. Miko and her Co-Founder and sister Titi, revolutionized the hair care industry by being the first to develop original and groundbreaking hair products designed to enhance and enrich every type of textured curly hair for people of every ethnic background. They named their brand after their fiercely independent grandmother – Miss Jessie.

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Honorary Board Members

Beverly Jones-Lawrence

Beverly Jones-Lawrence served as an active member of the Shirley Chisholm Cultural Institute for decades. Her Aunt Margarite Johnson a close friend of Shirley Chisholm and the first President of the Shirley Chisholm Cultural Institute for many years recruited Ms. Lawrence to the organization. Aunt Margarite would always say, "do not join any organization because of your friends, always join for the cause".

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William R. Howard

At the young age of 23, the legendary political figure Wesley McD. Holder asked William (Bill) R. Howard to be the Finance Chair for the Shirley Chisholm congressional campaign. William became a party to history when Shirley Chisholm became the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress breaking a color and gender barrier, which subsequently lead to him working on Shirley Chisholm’s groundbreaking presidential campaign. William always maintained that his personal relationship with Shirley Chisholm opened many doors. This relationship allowed him to meet Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, and the entire US Supreme Court, and in his own words “anybody who was anybody in Washington, DC.”

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William E. Howard

William E. Howard (1968 – 2020), son of William (Bill) R. Howard, Finance Chair and Longtime Friend of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, served as Construction Executive for Turner Construction. In his spare time, he sponsored the Project Win Summer Basketball Tournament and many community projects. He was about Brooklyn. Godson to the late Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, William continued the legacies that have came before him.