Board of 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 the Executive Director of Berkshire Community Land Trust (BCLT). A former partner in Silo Media, a design firm specializing in graphics, websites, and video production, she has worked with multiple nonprofits on events, fundraising, and campaigns, including BCLT’s Farmsteads for Farmers Initiative. She served for several years as president of the board of Dewey Memorial Hall in Sheffield, and is credited with leading the team that brought about the revival of the historic space. Her music production credits include Warm Up the Winter (Construct), TapRoot Sessions, and the Oldtone Roots Music Festival.

Johnathan Speer, Interim Board Chair, is a doctoral student in Transformative Leadership at Northeastern University who has been teaching for 16 years, and is currently a Grade Level Chair at JCMS IB school in Montgomery, Alabama. The former Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion at Berkshire School, where he was also a member of the English and History faculty, John specializes in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on social justice pedagogy and leadership frameworks. He has served as a curriculum specialist and coach in Asheville, Atlanta, and Seattle independent schools for many years.

Dan Bolognani, ex officio, is Executive Director of the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area, a system within 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.

Virginia Conway was a member of the Clinton Church congregation for more than three decades and has served on several committees to help inform the restoration and transformation process. A resident of The Berkshires, Virginia grew up in the South at a time when African-Americans were often denied access to freedom. Virginia is committed to ensuring that all can access the freedoms and rights that are at the core of our constitution. As the sister-in-law of Rev. Esther Dozier, we are honored to have Virginia's guidance as we move forward.

Sharon Mathieu is the Manager of Curriculum & Instruction, Commonwealth of Massachusetts - MADOC. Ms. Mathieu is a highly skilled education manager with a proven ability to execute projects that align with business goals and priorities, and has a successful background leading people, scheduling tasks, and exceeding expectations in fast-paced, progressive, deadline-driven environments.

She has a deep knowledge of education and operation management acquired during 22 years of hands-on experience managing the full project cycle, including identifying risks, requirements, analyzing , stakeholder relations, collaboration, deliverables, quality, and reporting.

Staff

Dr. John D. Lloyd, Interim Executive Director is an accomplished executive with over two decades of leadership experience in the nonprofit sector. He is the principal of Agile Consulting Group, a management consulting practice that offers a wide range of strategic management services, including assessment and evaluation, financial management, fundraising, board development, and training/facilitation, all tailored to nonprofit organizations in the Northeast region.

Additionally, through strategic partnerships, Dr. Lloyd provides interim executive director services, as well as executive search and transition services to nonprofit organizations. Beyond his consulting work, Dr. Lloyd is an adjunct faculty member at Bentley University, where he teaches strategic management, human dynamics in organizations, and leads the capstone course for the undergraduate honors program.

A Massachusetts native, Dr. Lloyd holds a Doctorate in Organizational Learning and Development from University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from Bentley University, and a Bachelor of Science from Plymouth State University.

Jesslyn Katherine, Operations and Communications Coordinator is an international & interfaith strategist, the CEO of Indonesia Patisserie School and Secretary of Sinode Gereja Reformed Kharismatik Indonesia (GRKI). She has worked across government, nonprofits, and electoral campaigns in both Indonesia and the U.S., with organizations including ActBlue, the American Jewish Committee, Tri-State Maxed-Out Women’s PAC, Indonesia’s Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investment Affairs, and the Golkar Institute, where she helped launch Indonesia’s first online campaign education platform. In 2024, she made history as the first female Chinese- Indonesian candidate of Dayak descent to run with the Golkar Party for North Jakarta’s Provincial Legislature, championing grassroots engagement and campaign finance transparency. Jesslyn holds a B.A. in Political Science from Boston University and a dual MPA–MA in Public Administration and Judaic Studies from New York University.

Marcus P. Smith, DFC History and Interpretative Fellow 2025-2026 is a historic preservationist, public historian, and Ph.D. candidate in Afro-American Studies and Public History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His work centers on preserving and interpreting historically African-American communities and heritage sites through community-driven approaches. He is the founder of the Black Grassroots Heritage Preservation Network, a national platform that uplifts Black-led preservation projects. His scholarship and public history work have been recognized by leading organizations including the National Council on Public History and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. At the Du Bois Freedom Center, Marcus has supported programming and interpretation initiatives since 2023. He also served as a docent at the W. E. B. Du Bois National Historic Site and Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church. In 2024, he was named a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellow and a Graduate Research Fellow at the W. E. B. Du Bois Center at UMass Amherst, where he studies Du Bois’s role as a public historian.