Our Team

Steering Committee

Belisa Gonzalez, PhD
Professor, Sociology
Dean of Faculty Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
Ithaca College

Sofia Villenas, PhD
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Interim Director, Asian American Studies Program
Director Graduate Minor, Latina/o Studies
Cornell University

Ann W. Martin, PhD
Labor-management consultant; participatory action researcher,
retired Labor-management consultant;
participatory action researcher, retired
Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations
Senior Consultant
Praxis Group, Inc.

Dr. Dorothy Foreman Cotton
DCI Founder and Distinguished Fellow
(1930-2018)

Margo J. Hittleman, PhD
Senior Fellow and DCI Co-Founder
Margo Hittleman Consulting
(Ex-Officio Steering Committee member)

Laura W. Branca
Senior Fellow and DCI Co-founder
DCI Project Director

Dr. Anke Wessels
Executive Director,
Center for Transformative Action
(Ex-Officio Steering Committee member)

Kirby V. Edmonds
Senior Fellow
DCI Co-Founder and Program Coordinator
(1951-2020)

National Advisors

Carl Anthony
Co-Director, Breakthrough Communities Project
Architect, regional planner, social justice activist, and author.
Founder and co-director of Breakthrough Communities
Former President of the Earth Island Institute,
Co-founder and former executive director of its Urban Habitat program

Paloma Pavel, PhD
President of Earth House Center
Co-founder of the Breakthrough Communities Project

Ms. LaTosha Brown
Community organizer, political strategist, and consultant
Co-Founder, Black Voters Matter

Dr. Clayborne Carson
Founding Director. the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute in 2005, retired
Martin Luther King, Jr., Centennial Professor of History, emeritus at Stanford University

Jeff Furman
Trustee, Ben & Jerry’s Foundation
Founding National Advisor

Ms. Aljosie Harding
Elder in Residence
Project South

Dr. Robert L. Harris, Jr
Professor Emeritus,
Africana Studies and Research Center
Cornell University

Reverend Lucas Johnson
Executive Vice President of Public Life & Social Healing at The On Being Project.
Director, Civil Conversations Project of On Being
Former leader of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation

Reverend Carolyn Maul McKinstry
Board President, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Foundation
Second Vice President and Program Committee Chair for the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
Birmingham, Alabama

Ambassador Andrew Young
Civil Rights Leader, diplomat, and activist
Former Exec. Director, SCLC
U.S. Congressman from Georgia
United States Ambassador to the United Nations in the Carter Administration
55th Mayor of Atlanta, GA

(Advisors who have passed):
Richard Deats
DCI National Advisor
Fellowship of Reconciliation
(1932-2022)

Dr. Vincent G. Harding
Founding DCI National Advisor
Civil Rights Activist, historian, theologian, author,
Chairperson of the Veterans of Hope Project
Professor of Religion and Social Transformation,
Iliff School of Theology in Denver, CO
(1931-2014)

Congressman John R. Lewis
Founding DCI National Advisor
Civil Rights Activist, Freedom Rider, he led the march from Selma to Montgomery
Chairman of the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)
US Congressman from Georgia from 1987 until his death.
(1940-2020)

Dr. James Turner
Founding National Advisor
Founding Director of the Africana Studies & Research Center
Professor Emeritus of African and African American Politics and Social Policy
Cornell University
(1940-2022)