Taj Brown has provided broadscale management services for diverse nonprofits, businesses and individuals specializing in programs, strategy and training for more than 25 years. He has built organizational capacity and delivered services through multilateral efforts for organizations such as the Children’s Defense Fund, Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute, U.S. Soccer Foundation, Equal Rights Amendment Coalition, Black Women of Chester County in Action, LEAD InterGenerational Solutions, Opportunities and Industrialization Centers of America, GlobalHue and the Conference of National Black Churches, among other groups.

Wylie Chen is an accomplished executive with over 20 years of experience in community health, youth development, sports philanthropy, community empowerment, and technology. He has provided strategic planning, management, fundraising, and programmatic support for several national and regional nonprofit organizations, foundations, and municipalities.

Jim Koppel holds over 40 years of leadership experience in the public and private sectors focused on heath, child welfare, and human services. A veteran state health official and longtime child welfare advocate, Jim led statewide legislative and policy efforts to secure universal health care in Minnesota with MN Health Care Access and the Council of Community Hospitals, and led the Children’s Defense Fund state office advocating for children’s rights through policy and programming, impacting hundreds of thousands of children and securing millions of dollars to support efforts.

Jeanne Middleton Hairston is the fourth child born to Chaplain (Colonel) Richard T. Middleton, II and Johnie Beadle Middleton, both families with roots in Mississippi that date to the 1860s. While Jeanne grew up in Mississippi, she attended elementary school in Fort Lewis, Washington and middle school in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. In the summer of 1964, the family returned to Jackson where she graduated from Jim Hill High School and Millsaps College.