Meet the Board of Directors
Malik Bell
Malik Bell is currently a Business Operations Supervisor for Maui Health Systems, a Kaiser Permanente hospital affiliate.
He began his career in investment management with Moors & Cabot, in Boston, MA, moving on to work for top Wall Street firms such as Morgan Stanley, International Netherlands Group, and Standard Insurance.
W. Imara Cannady
W. Imara Cannady currently serves as National Director for Communications & Community Engagement for AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the world’ s largest, non-profit, HIV/AIDS service and advocacy organization, and Chair, Black Leadership AIDS Crisis Coalition (BLACC).
Canady is a highly respected executive leader, nationally known for building partnerships and collaborations that have a sustainable community impact.
Traci L. Gholar
Traci L. Gholar is a retired educator with over thirty years of experience in education. She served as Principal at Morningside High School in the Inglewood Unified School District in California from 2017 to 2020.
Additionally, she was a principal in the Los Angeles Unified School District and Greenfield Union School District as well as Coordinator of Student Services for Greenfield.
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Dana Ellis Knight
Dana Ellis Knight is a retiree from AT&T with 41 years of service. Over her career, she held 15 different roles in both occupational and management positions. Beginning as a mail clerk, she worked hard and achieved the role of Director-Integrated Services in which she led teams across the country responsible for technical support for AT&T’s Fortune 500 customers.
After retiring from AT&T in 2019, Dana has remained active working with other non-profit organizations, sharing her experience and skills in leadership, people management, and career development. She believes deeply in the power of positive thinking and the benefits of self-investment. She continues to attend conferences and seminars to stay connected and inspired.
Masud Olufani
Masud Olufani is an Atlanta based
multidisciplinary artist who has exhibited his work in group and solo shows nationally and internationally. He is the 2021-22’ inaugural Visual Arts Fellow at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. Masud is the creative director of Blocked: A Global Healing Project, a multimedia performance memorializing spaces marked by the trauma of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
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An actor, Olufani has appeared in numerous television shows including The Quad, Greenleaf; Being Mary Jane, Devious Maids, Satisfaction, and Nashville.
Dr. Arta Monjazeb
Dr. Arta Monjazeb is a clinician scientist and Professor of Radiation Oncology at UC Davis. He leads the clinical care of patients, a high-powered basic science research enterprise, and cutting-edge human clinical trials. He is an internationally recognized expert and has published over 90 peer reviewed manuscripts.
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His research is truly translational in nature spanning from basic
mechanistic studies to murine models to large animal companion canine clinical trials and human
clinical trials.
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He serves in leadership roles on an institutional and national level at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute. He has designed,
initiated, and served as principal investigator for a number of novel institutional clinical trials
testing combinatorial immunotherapy strategies as well as international multi-institutional
clinical trials through the ETCTN and SWOG/NRG.
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Leili Towfigh
Leili Towfigh is an educator, artist, designer, writer, researcher and businesswoman. As an artist, she works in clay, metal, paint, pen, bead, film and pixel. As an educational technologist, and user experience researcher, she has been able to offer the tools of consultation, creativity and reflection to innovative companies and social movements in diverse cultural settings.
She also helps to run the architectural design company her parents founded 50 years ago
Edwin J. Nichols, PhD
Edwin J. Nichols, PhD, is a Clinical/Industrial psychologist and Director of Nichols and Associates, an applied behavioral science firm. He is a founding member of The Association of Black Psychologists. He was the first Black Center Chief at the National Institute of Mental Health -- Chief, Child and Family Mental Health.
His national and international work is guided by his hallmark paradigm: The Philosophical Aspects of Cultural Difference, first presented in 1976 at the World Psychiatric Conference, held at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
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He was educated at Assumption College, Canada; Tübingen Universität, Germany;
and received his PhD in psychology and psychiatry, cum laude at Innsbruck
Universität, Austria.
lua Kamál Yuille
Lua Kamál Yuille joined the Northeastern University faculty in 2021 as professor of law and business within the School of Law and the D’Amore-McKim School of Business.
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Yuille is a recognized praxivist, which is a philosophy that involves using her theoretical scholarship to inform her engagement in social change. Her current interdisciplinary work draws into conversation property law, heterodox economics, business law, critical pedagogy and group identity.
Yuille’s diverse professional formation–federal law clerk, Latin Americanist socio-economic development lawyer, Wall Street corporate transactional attorney, public school teacher, and pro bono immigration litigation practitioner–provides a strong foundation for her engaged scholarship on a wide range of questions.