Education, Philanthropy and Community Development champions extend governance legacy for youth
Media Contact:
John Henry, jhenry@childrensdefense.org, CDF Media Relations Manager, 708-646-7679
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Children’s Defense Fund, the nation’s premiere child advocacy organization, has elected five new members to its governing Board of Directors, beginning in January 2025. The incoming class of child advocates is a coast-to-coast representation of volunteers previously engaged in the organization’s multi-issue policy advocacy and organizing for child well-being. At the group’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. just after the presidential election in November, seated board members voted to invite five stellar leaders from the fields of education, philanthropy, and community development to the body, while celebrating retiring members, and electing officers for 2025.
The new board members are:
- Dakarai I. Aarons, of San Francisco, California, who serves as Senior Director or Employee Philanthropy Programs for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and a former Board Member for American Youth Policy Forum which merged with CDF in 2023;
- Annie Donovan, of Washington, DC, who is President & CEO of Raza Development Fund and former Director of the Community Development Financial Institution Fund within the U.S. Treasury Department;
- Brittany Packnett Cunningham, also of Washington, DC, who is the Host and Executive Producer of the popular social justice podcast UNDISTRACTED, Principal of Love & Power Works, and member of the CDF Action Policy Council;
- Dr. Betty A. Rosa, of New York, New York, who guides the nation’s largest public-school systems as Commissioner of Education and President of the University of the State of New York; and
- Dr. Rhea Williams-Bishop, of Jackson, Mississippi, who leads as Director of Mississippi and New Orleans Programs for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and former Deputy Director of CDF’s Southern Regional Office.
“Strong governance is vital to our work of building community so young people grow up with dignity, hope, and joy,” noted Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson, Children’s Defense Fund President & CEO. “We are delighted to welcome this group of servant leaders familiar with varying aspects of our work to inform future strategy and strengthen ties to our constituents in this challenging time for public policy impacting America’s children and youth.”
The new members join a strong table and storied history of board leadership for the movement-building organization. Board officers elected for 2025 include:
- The Rev. Dr. Don Darius Butler, of Huntsville, Alabama, Senior Pastor of the Concord Fellowship, was elected Board Chair;
- W. Clay Grubb, of Charlotte, Noth Carolina, Chief Executive Officer of Grubb Properties is the Board Treasurer; and
- Dr. Deborah Jewell-Sherman, of Richmond, Virginia, Gregory R. Anrig Professor of Practice, Emerita at Harvard Graduate School of Education is Board Secretary.
On December 31, 2024, two members retired from the CDF Board after providing more than a decade of engaged volunteer leadership to the body. Malaak Compton-Rock, of New York, a philanthropist and founder of the AngelRock Project Foundation, and Marty Rodgers, of Falls Church, Virginia, Accenture’s United States Lead for the Health and Public Service Client Group, were honored with the distinction of Board Emeritus status. In this category, Compton-Rock and Rodgers join a remarkable list of exemplary child advocates; including former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, attorney and human rights leaders Bryan Stevenson, former United States Senator Laphonza Butler, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, and Harlem Children’s Zone Founding President Geoffrey Canada.
Read below to learn more about the newest members of Children’s Defense Fund’s Board of Directors.
Meet the newest members of Children’s Defense Fund’s Board of Directors:
Dakarai Aarons heads employee philanthropy programs for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, where he leads efforts to leverage volunteering, giving, and learning to help connect employees with communities and issues closest to the philanthropy’s work. In 2018, he was the Vice President of Strategic Communications for the Data Quality Campaign, where he oversaw staff and strategy for their national efforts focused on building public will. Aarons is also chairman of the Wayfinder Foundation’s board of directors and serves on the advisory board of the Black Funders Network of the Bay Area.
Annie Donovan is Raza Development Fund’s president and chief executive officer. She leads an experienced team of servant leaders who are passionate about building communities of opportunity where everyone in America can thrive. Donovan has a wealth of experience in the CDFI sector. For decades she has been driving impact investing strategies to spur economic opportunity and revitalize communities. She previously served in the White House Office of Social Innovation and as the director of the U.S. Department of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund where she directed a multi-billion-dollar portfolio of programs aimed at improving access to capital for disinvested communities across the country.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham is host of UNDISTRACTED, a news and justice podcast with an intersectional lens on the world. Brittany was co-host of the 2019 iHeart Radio Best Political Podcast Pod Save The People for three years, and a three-time fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics. She is the Founder and Principal Love & Power Works a full-service social impact firm focused on creating justice and equity in every sector. Previously, she served as Vice President of Social Impact for BET Media Group and launched BET Thrive, which drove charitable giving to grassroots organizations. Her TED Talk, The Revolution of Confidence, has been translated into 22 languages and and viewed nearly 8 million times worldwide, making it one of the top ten TED Talks of 2019.
Dr. Betty A. Rosa is the Commissioner of Education and President of the University of the State of New York. She is the first Latina woman to serve in the position. Dr. Rosa previously served as interim commissioner and chancellor of the Board of Regents. Dr. Rosa received an Ed. M. and Ed. D. in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University. She also holds two other Master of Science in Education degrees, one in Administration and Supervision and the other in Bilingual Education from the City College of New York and Lehman College, respectively, and a B.A. in psychology from the City College of New York.
Dr. Rhea Williams-Bishop is the Program Director for Mississippi and New Orleans, Louisiana, for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, a position she has held since 2016. In recent years, Dr. Williams-Bishop has served CDF as a member of the 50th Anniversary Campaign Cabinet, point of contact for W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and volunteer host for both the 50th Anniversary Gala in Washington, D.C., and CDF Board Reception in Jackson, Mississippi. Williams-Bishop previously served as executive director of the Mississippi Center for Education Innovation after service in Children’s Defense Fund’s Southern Regional Office from 1996 to 2009. Prior to joining CDF, Dr. Williams-Bishop was a State Director of Communities In Schools, Mississippi Forum on Children and Families, and a Management Analyst for the Internal Revenue Service – U.S. Department of the Treasury.