Diversity consultant Dani Monroe was born on May 6, 1952 in Salinas, California to Joseph and Josephine Perkins. She received her A.A. degree from Monterey Peninsula College in Monterey, California, in 1972, her B.S. degree in public administration from California State University, Dominguez Hills, in Carson in 1980; and, her M.S. degree in organizational development from Pepperdine University in Los Angeles, California.

Monroe served as the director of diversity, equity and inclusion at the Bank of Boston from 1993 to 1995. She also worked as the president of Center Focus International, Inc. from 1994 to 2006. In 2007, Monroe became the senior global director of diversity, education and organizational effectiveness at Pfizer, Inc., where she served for two years. In 2014, she joined Mass General Brigham, a leading healthcare system, as senior vice president and chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer, a role she held for five years. In 2013, Monroe published her book Untapped Talent: Unleashing the Power of the Hidden Workforce. She has authored numerous articles in journals such as the Boston Business Journal.

During her career, Monroe served on the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women from 2011 to 2012, and on the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education from 2012 to 2017. In 2018, she served as an advisor to the African Bridge Network’s research project on Untapped Talent. She was appointed to the Governor’s Council on Economic Development and joined Vertex, Inc.’s DE&I advisory board in 2019. From 2019 to 2020, Monroe also served on the American Hospital Association’s Equity of Care Award Committee. In 2020, she joined the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s Council on Economic Development; and, in 2021, she became a member of the Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership Advisory Board.

Monroe has received numerous awards and honors, including the Academy of Women Achievers Award from the YWCA in 2000 and the Lifetime Achievers Award from the Boston Business Journal that same year. She received a Recognition Award from the Brookview House in 2015 and the Pinnacle Award for Achievement in a Profession from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce in 2019. Monroe was also featured on Get Konnected’s “50 Most Influential People of Color in Healthcare & Life Sciences” list in 2017, and on Colette Phillips Communication’s “50 Most Powerful Women of Color in Boston” list in 2021.

Monroe resides in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts.

Dani Monroe was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 29, 2024.

Lawyer Sandra L. Phillips was born on December 11, 1965 in Beaumont, Texas to Eloise Phillips and Felix Phillips, Sr. She graduated from Beaumont Charlton-Pollard High School in 1984 and went on to earn her B.A. degree in journalism from the University of Texas in Austin in 1988 and her J.D. degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 1991.

From 1991 to 1993, Phillips served as in-house counsel for Chevron Corporation in Houston, Texas before joining the law firm of Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Martin as an associate. She became a partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. in 1995 and remained there until 2003, when she joined BakerHostetler. Phillips then returned to at Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. as a managing partner in 2004. That same year, she joined Pfizer Inc. in New York City as senior vice president, associate general counsel, and chief litigation counsel before returning to Houston as a partner at the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius L.L.P. In 2012, Phillips was hired as group vice president, assistant general counsel, chief legal officer, and corporate secretary at Toyota Motor North America. She was later promoted to deputy general counsel, group president, and chief diversity officer.

Phillips was a founding member of the Center for Women in Law at the University of Texas School of Law in 2009. In 2017, she served as the chair of the Women’s Power Summit for the center and became a director of Mine Safety Appliances, where she was a member of the audit committee and chair of the law committee. Phillips also served on several boards, including the YWCA USA, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, and the University of Texas Law School Foundation.

Phillips has received numerous awards throughout her career. She was the recipient of the 2008 Defense Research Institute’s Diversity Pioneer Award, the 2016 Legacy Award from the Brennan Center for Justice, the 2017 Champion of Diversity Award from DCEO, and the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the University of Texas School of Law in 2018. In 2017, she was named one of the Most Powerful Women in Business by Black Enterprise and General Counsel Impact Player of the Year by Texas Lawyer. She was also named as a Burton Foundation Legend in Law.

Phillips resides in Plano, Texas.

Sandra L. Phillips was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on August 2, 2024.

Automobile dealer Ryan Fitzpatrick was born on April 27, 1977, in Newport Beach, California, to Bertha and Benjamin Fitzpatrick. He attended Norman Rockwell Elementary School and Redmond Middle School before graduating from Redmond High School in Redmond, Washington, in 1995. Fitzpatrick went on to earn his B.A. degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2000, where he played on the university’s men’s soccer team. He later completed executive coursework at the BMW Business School and graduated from the National Automobile Dealers Association Academy.

Fitzpatrick began his professional career in 2000 as a subcontract analyst at Lockheed Martin, where he worked in defense systems procurement. The following year, he joined his family’s business, the Fitzpatrick Dealership Group in Modesto, California, as general manager of Valley Lexus. Under his leadership, the dealership grew into one of the group’s most successful operations and was recognized as among the largest Black-owned dealerships in California by 2006.

After ten years managing Valley Lexus, Fitzpatrick was appointed general manager of Valley BMW in 2012, overseeing all aspects of dealership operations and customer relations. In 2015, following the retirement of his late father, Benjamin Fitzpatrick, he succeeded him as president of the Fitzpatrick Dealership Group, guiding the company through a period of modernization and market expansion. In 2018, Fitzpatrick also became general manager of Valley Kia of Modesto, and remained in this position until 2021.

Beyond his business career, Fitzpatrick has been an active civic and industry leader. In 2014, he joined the Foundation Board of California State University, Stanislaus, in Turlock, California, later serving as board president from 2022 to 2024. From 2020 to 2023, he was appointed to the California New Motor Vehicle Board, advising on automotive regulatory and consumer issues. In 2022, he was elected chairman of the Lexus National Dealer Council Advisory Board, representing Lexus dealerships nationwide.

Fitzpatrick and his wife, Jenise Fitzpatrick, have three children: Devin, Darius, and Danika Fitzpatrick. They reside in Ripon, California.

Ryan Fitzpatrick was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 31, 2024.

Journalist Joel Dreyfuss was born on September 17, 1945 in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti to Anne-Marie Timothee Dreyfuss and Roger Edmund Dreyfuss. He received his B.S. degree in sociology from the City College of New York in 1971.

After graduating from the City College of New York, Dreyfuss was hired as a reporter for the New York Post. He also served as an urban journalism fellow at the University of Chicago in 1972 prior to being hired, in 1973, as a reporter for The Washington Post. In 1976, Dreyfuss moved to San Francisco, California, where he worked first as a freelance journalist for various magazines before joining KPIX-TV as a news producer and KQED-FM as a news reporter. In 1980, Dreyfuss joined Black Enterprise magazine in New York as the executive editor before being hired as the New York bureau chief for USA TODAY and by Fortune Magazine as an associate editor and Tokyo bureau chief in 1983. Dreyfuss then worked as the editor of PC Magazine until 1994. During this time, Dreyfuss served as editor-in-chief of InformationWeek at CMP Media and as editor-in-chief of Our World News, a start-up national weekly news publication written for African American readers. In 1997, he returned to Fortune Magazine as a senior editor and personal technology columnist. Dreyfuss then joined Bloomberg LP as a senior writer for Bloomberg Markets magazine in 2001. He worked as editor-in-chief of Red Herring in 2004 and as managing editor for The Root in 2009. Dreyfuss was hired as the editor-in-chief of Urban Box Office before founding Dreyfuss & Co., an editorial consulting and freelance writing firm in 2011, whose clients included CNBC and The Huffington Post.

In 1979, Dreyfuss and Charles Lawrence, III published the book The Bakke Case: The Politics of Inequality with Harcourt publishing. He has written for numerous publications including the Associated Press, The New York Times Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Redbook, Book Review, and The Progressive. His articles and essays have also appeared in The Butterfly’s Way, an anthology of Haitian diasporic writers edited by Edwidge Danticat in 2001.

Dreyfuss co-founded the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in 1975. He also served as a Pulitzer juror and as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Haitian Roundtable board, and the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) board of directors.

Dreyfuss has received numerous awards and honors including an induction into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame, an induction into the City College of New York’s Communications Hall of Fame in 2011, and the Townsend Harris Medal from the City College of New York in 2021.

Joel Dreyfuss was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 15, 2024 and July 16, 2024.

Judge Milton L. Wright, Jr. was born on January 28, 1944 in Miami, Florida to Milton Wright, Sr. and Rosa Lee Akins. Wright received his B.A. degree in Spanish and literature from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia in 1966 and his J.D. degree from the Boston University School of Law in Massachusetts in 1971.

Wright worked as a staff attorney for the Boston Legal Assistance Project in 1971, where he was promoted to supervising attorney in 1973. From 1977 and 1980, Wright served as an attorney for the Florida State Hospital and North Florida Legal Services. Wright returned to Boston in 1980 and worked as a senior and supervising attorney for the Roxbury Defenders for thirteen years. Wright joined the Roxbury District Court as an associate justice in 1993. He was selected as the first justice in 1999. In 2006, Wright was then appointed associate justice for the Boston Municipal Court. After retiring from the court in 2009, he worked as a commissioner for the Licensing Board of the City of Boston from 2011 to 2014.

In addition to his judicial service, Wright also performed internationally as an actor, director, musician, music producer, and songwriter. His sister was R&B singer Betty Wright. He released his first album, Friends and Buddies in 1975 and his second album, Spaced in 1977. Wright performed as the narrator and lead soloist of Boston’s annual production of The Black Nativity in 1986, later serving as interim music director in 2006. In 2010, Wright played the role of Frederick Douglass in the musical There’s A Meeting Here Tonight. He then worked as an executive producer on the Grammy-nominated song “Go!” by Betty Wright and the Roots, which was released in 2011. In 2014, Wright wrote a musical entitled Jobe. He has also served as the CEO of the nonprofit organization Common House Theater and Production, Inc. since 2014.

Wright served on the board of directors for the National Center of Afro-American Artists in 2002 and the Boston Landmark Orchestra in 2013. He co-founded the nonprofit, the Butterfly Project, in 2007 and served as co-director and instructor of humanities and Afro-American History at the Eliot Summer Collaborative from 2013 to 2015.

Wright has received numerous awards and honors during his career including the Edward J. Duggan Public Defenders Award from the Committee for Public Counsel Services in 1989, an Honorary Doctor of Law degree from the New England School of Law in 1999, the Judicial Excellence Award from the Massachusetts Judges Conference in 2004, the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association Award in 2009, and the Spirit of King Award from the Golden Decade Foundation at Boston University in 2023.

Wright and his wife, Judith Ann Alston, have one son and two grandchildren.

The Honorable Milton L. Wright, Jr. was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on June 14, 2024.

Educational consultant Jeff Howard was born on May 29, 1948 in Chicago, Illinois to Florence Howard and George Howard. He graduated from Chicago’s Martha M. Ruggles Elementary School in 1961 and Tilden Technical High School in 1965. Howard received both his B.A. degree in government in 1969 and his Ph.D. degree in social psychology in 1980 from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While attending Harvard University, Howard served as the head of the Harvard Black Student Association in 1967.

After earning his B.A. degree, Howard founded the Efficacy Group in 1974, an organization focused on educational reform, where he worked until 1983. In 1977, he established a corporate consulting firm, J. Howard & Associates, and served as its CEO for 28 years until his retirement in 2005. In 1983, he founded the Efficacy Institute—a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to education reform and committed to helping children meet high academic standards. Howard has served as president of the Efficacy Institute for over forty years.

Throughout his career, Howard published numerous scholarly articles, including “Rumors of Inferiority” with Ray Hammond in The New Republic in 1985, “The Third Movement: Developing Black Children for the 21st Century” in the National Urban League’s publication The State of Black America in 1993, “You Can’t Get There from Here: The Need for a New Logic in Education Reform” in Daedalus Magazine in 1995, and “Still at Risk: The Causes and Costs of Failure to Educate Poor and Minority Children for the Twenty-First Century” with The Harvard Education Publishing Group in 2003. He also co-authored “A Manifesto for Educational Recovery”, with Kim Marshall, Douglas Reeves, Jon Saphier, and Sue Szachowicz, in 2021.

Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick appointed Howard to serve on the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in 2008, where he remained until 2012. Howard served as a board member of the Black Philanthropy Foundation from 2012 to 2019 and The Basics, Inc., a nonprofit childhood development organization, since 2013.

Howard received the W.E.B. DuBois Medal from Harvard University in 2000.

Howard resides in Reading, Massachusetts with his wife, Cheryl Howard.

Jeff Howard was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on June 14, 2024.

University president and business professor Lynn Perry Wooten was born on August 18, 1966 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Deloris Stallings Perry and Charles Perry. Wooten received her B.S. degree in accounting from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1988; her M.B.A. degree in business administration and general management from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina in 1990; and her Ph.D. degree in corporate strategy business from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1995.

Wooten worked for the General Motors corporate audit team while attending North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University. After graduating from the University of Michigan, Wooten served as an assistant professor of management at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business in Gainesville, Florida. In 1998, Wooten was hired as a clinical associate professor at her alma mater, the University of Michigan, and was promoted to clinical professor in 2014. Wooten also worked at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business as co-director of the Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship in 2008, co-director of the Executive Leadership Institute, and associate dean of the undergraduate program in 2011. In 2017, Wooten joined Cornell University in Ithaca, New York as the David J. Nolan Dean of the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics & Management. Wooten then was hired as the first African American president of Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts in 2020.

Throughout her career, Wooten has published numerous book chapters, academic articles, and books including Leading Under Pressure: From Surviving to Thriving Before, During, and After a Crisis with Erika Hayes James in 2010, Positive Organizing in a Global Society: Understanding and Engaging Differences for Capacity Building and Inclusion with Laura Morgan Roberts and Martin N. Davidson in 2015, Arrive and Thrive: 7 Impactful Practices for Women Navigating Leadership with Susan MacKenty Brady and Janet Foutty in 2022, and The Prepared Leader: Emerge from Any Crisis More Resilient than Before with Erika Hayes James in 2022.

During her career, Wooten has served on the boards of the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, the Washtenaw Community College Foundation, the Center for Effective Philosophy, the Aspen Institute’s Business & Society Program Advisory Board, and the Aspen Institute’s Rethinking Undergraduate Business Education Advisory Committee. She also served as a trustee of the Greenhills School in Ann Arbor, Michigan and as a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., The Links, Inc., Jack & Jill of America, and the Junior League.

Wooten has received numerous awards and honors including the BBA Student Award for Teaching Excellence and the Andy Andrews Distinguished Service Award from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. She was also included on the Financial Times’ “Next Generation Business Thinker” list.

Wooten and her husband, David Wooten, reside in Boston, Massachusetts. They have two children: Jada and Justin Wooten.

Lynn Perry Wooten was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on June 13, 2024.

Lawyer and financial advisor Don M. Roman, Sr. was born on March 4, 1948 in Memphis, Tennessee to Charlie Mae and Leroy Roman. He received his B.A. degree in African American studies from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut in 1971 and his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1976.

After graduating from law school, Roman served as a law clerk for the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee before becoming an associate in the law firm of Rosenfield, Borod, Bogatin & Kremer PC, Attorneys in 1977. In 1980, he founded Roman and Carpenter, PC Attorneys at Law, where he served as partner until 1984. That same year, Roman worked as general counsel for the Tennessee Valley Center for Minority Economic Development, Inc. Roman joined Arrington & Horne PC, Attorneys as an associate in 1985. In 1988, he transitioned to financial advising as a financial planner for MetLife. He then served as a financial services representative with National Financial Atlanta from 1995 to 1998 before returning to MetLife in 1998, where he served as a financial services representative, financial advisor, and financial planner from 1998 until his retirement in 2016. Roman also provided financial advice in a monthly column in the Atlanta Tribune called “Investment Smarts.” In 2004, Roman was named MetLife’s National Financial Planner of the Year.

Beyond his professional achievements, Roman remains active in the visual arts. He served as president of the board of the Steffen Thomas Museum of Art in Buckhead, Georgia and founded the Roman Gallery in Stone Mountain, Georgia in 2021. In addition, Roman served as board chair of Students Without Mothers, Inc. from 2017 to 2021 and went on to serve as the chairman of the board of directors of the Fulton Senior Services Meals-on-Wheels program and as a member of the board of directors of 100 Black Men of America, the Estate Planning Council of North Georgia, and the Commerce Club of Atlanta. In 2021, Yale University’s Pierson College created the Dawson-Roman Prize in his honor.

Roman resides in Stone Mountain, Georgia. He has three children, Michael, Alexandria, and Don M. Roman, Jr., as well as one grandchild, Elijah Nasi Roman.

Don M. Roman, Sr. was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on June 20, 2024 and April 16, 2025.

Judge Bernette Joshua Johnson was born on June 17, 1943 in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, to Frank Joshua, Jr. and Olivia Wire Joshua. She received her B.A. degree in political science and English from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia in 1964 and her J.D. degree from the Louisiana State University Law School in Baton Rouge in 1969.

After graduating from law school, Johnson worked as a managing attorney with the New Orleans Legal Assistance Corporation (NOLAC) in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1978, Johnson served as a director for the American Foundation for Negro Affairs (AFNA) before joining the New Orleans City Attorney’s Office in 1981, where she was promoted to deputy city attorney. Johnson was then elected to the Orleans Parish Civil District Court in 1984, becoming the first female to serve on the court. She worked at the Orleans Parish Civil District Court for ten years and served as chief judge in 1994. Johnson also became the first African American woman to serve in the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1994. Furthermore, Johnson swore in as the chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court on February 1, 2013, making her the first African American to serve in this position. Johnson retired from the Louisiana Supreme Court in 2020.

Johnson also served as a member on the boards of the National Bar Association Judicial Council, the New Orleans Aviation Board, and the Innocence Project.

Johnson has received numerous awards and honors including the Margaret Brent Award from the American Bar Association in 1998, a Distinguished Jurist Award from the Louisiana State Bar Association in 2009, the Spirit of Excellence Award from the American Bar Association in 2010, and the Gertrude E. Rush Award from the National Bar Association in 2019. Johnson was inducted into the Louisiana State University Law Hall of Fame in 1996 and the National Bar Association Hall of Fame in 2010. Johnson also received an honorary doctorate degree in law from her alma mater, Spelman College, in 2001. The Louisiana State Bar Association established the Chief Justice Bernette Joshua Johnson Trailblazer Award in 2016.

Johnson lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The Honorable Bernette Joshua Johnson was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on December 14, 2023.

Surgeon and museum founder Dr. Dwight McKenna was born on December 15, 1941, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Leah and George McKenna. He graduated from St. Augustine High School in New Orleans, earned his B.S. degree from the University of New Orleans in 1962, and received his M.D. degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1966. McKenna completed his internship at the University of Missouri–Kansas City General Hospital and his residency in surgery at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C.

In 1968, McKenna was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served as a surgeon until his retirement in 1973 with the rank of major. Returning to New Orleans, he established a private medical practice and worked as a surgical contractor for Flint-Goodrich Hospital and later for St. Claude General Hospital (United Medical Center). A leader in both medicine and civic life, McKenna first ran for the office of Orleans Parish Coroner in 2010 and was elected to the position in 2018. Beyond medicine, McKenna and his wife, Beverly McKenna, have made significant contributions to preserving African American history and culture. In 1985, they relaunched The New Orleans Tribune, the city’s historic African American newspaper, under McKenna Publishing Company, alongside Kermit Thomas and James Borders. In 2007, they founded the George and Leah McKenna Museum of African American Art, named in honor of his parents. A year later, they opened Le Musée de F.P.C., dedicated to preserving the stories of free people of color prior to the Civil War.

McKenna also served on the board of directors of First Federal Savings Bank of New Orleans beginning in 1987, and in 1988, he was elected president of the Orleans Parish School Board, serving until 1992.

Throughout his career, McKenna has been recognized for his leadership and community impact, receiving numerous honors, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the SCLA Memorial Program in 2015.

McKenna and his wife, Beverly McKenna, reside in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Dr. Dwight McKenna was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on December 13, 2023.