Directors

Wray Gunn, Sr., President Emeritus, was a trustee of the Clinton A. M. E. Zion Church, which he attended for more than 70 years. A fifth-generation descendant of Agrippa Hull, his family roots in the Berkshires date back to the Revolutionary War. Wray retired from Pfizer Industrials after a 40-year career as an analytical chemist. He currently serves on the board of the Olga Dunn Dance Company and is a member of the W.E.B. Du Bois National Historic Site Working Committee, Friends of the W.E.B. Du Bois Homesite, and the advisory council of the Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail.

Cora Portnoff, Director Emeritus, a former teacher of the hearing impaired, was a longtime member of the Clinton A. M. E. Church, where she was involved in various church activities with the late Reverend Esther Dozier, the Church’s first female pastor. She has served on the board of the Olga Dunn Dance Company for more than 30 years and is a member of the W.E.B. Du Bois National Historic Site Working Committee.

Beth Carlson, Treasurer, is a partner in Silo Media, a design firm specializing in graphics, website and video production. She serves as board president of the historic Dewey Hall in Sheffield, and is a producer of TapRoot Sessions, a traditional music series. As a community activist, Beth was a key player in the effort to save the historic Searles School in Great Barrington.

Johnathan Speer, Interim Board Chair, is Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion at Berkshire School, where he is also a member of the English and History faculty. He specializes in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on social justice pedagogy and leadership frameworks, and has served as a curriculum specialist and coach in Asheville, Atlanta, and Seattle independent schools for over 9 years.

Dan Bolognani, ex officio, is Executive Director of the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area, a program of the National Park Service. Housatonic Heritage’s initiatives include the Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail, the W. E. B. Du Bois National Historic Site initiative, the Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College, and Reclaiming Our Local Heritage.

Staff

Ny Whitaker, Executive Director, a nonprofit executive and strategic consultant, has successfully implemented multi-million dollar fundraising and awareness campaigns for NYC Health & Hospitals Corporation, Ogilvy, and the Magic Johnson Foundation, and produced events for the United Nations and the Altman Foundation. Whitaker served as Vice President of Programs & Sponsorship on the board of the Association of Fundraising Professionals – NY Metro Chapter, and has extensive experience in development, marketing, the creation of strategic partnerships, and building coalitions with elected officials and community organizations.

Eugenie Sills, Project Manager, previously served as the Center’s interim executive director (2018-2023). She spent nearly two decades as publisher of the award-winning regional publication The Women’s Times, before forming a digital strategy and business consultancy in 2011. She co-founded the biannual festival Lift Ev’ry Voice: Celebrating African American Heritage and Culture in the Berkshires, was a founding board member of the Berkshire Creative Economy Council and the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts and has served as a board member and advisor for numerous other nonprofits.

Kendra T. Field, Du Bois Forum Director, is Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Tufts University. Her first book, Growing Up with the Country (2018), traced the migration of her Afro-Native ancestors after the Civil War. Her current book project, The Stories We Tell, is a history of African American genealogy from the Middle Passage to the present. Dr. Field abridged David Levering Lewis' Pulitzer-prize winning W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography (2009). She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Harvard University's Charles Warren Center. Dr. Field has advised and appeared in historical documentaries including Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s “The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross,” "Roots: A History Revealed,” and “Tulsa Burning.”