the board

Hazel Broadnax is a member of the Executive Committee of UrbanMatters Development Partners, L.L.C.  She currently serves as the President to the Board of Directors and Interim Executive Director of the Emory Beacon of Light, Inc.  She has worked as a consultant to KPMG. Hazel served as the Deputy Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.  Before assuming this role, she served as the Director and Deputy of Financial Operations, the Treasurer and Controller of the agency. She has also worked for the District of Columbia in several financial positions including the Controller of the Department of Human Services, for private industry and nonprofit corporations. Hazel currently chairs the audit committee of the Goodyear Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA). 

Dr. Barbara Hutchinson is a pioneer in preventing and treating cardiovascular disease, the number one cause of death globally. Her trailblazing blend of medical expertise, powerful insights and business acumen is helping change the quality of and access to healthcare. As a world-recognized physician, Dr. Hutchinson is a triple threat to heart disease with credentials in cardiology, sleep medicine and pharmacology. As a thought-leader, she is an influencer, speaker and advisor focused on improving the health of women and people of color. As an award-winning businessperson, she has built a strong company from the ground up and launched innovative start-ups.

Merrick Malone is a real estate developer, transactional attorney and former public administrator combining more than 30 years of demonstrated urban real estate and economic development experience in the public and private sector as a private developer/consultant and cabinet-level official in Washington, DC and Detroit, Michigan.

Dakotah Jennifer is a twenty one-year-old black writer and graduate of Washington University in St. Louis. Jennifer has been published in Across the Margin, HerStry, Popsugar, The Pinch Journal, Protean Mag, Laurel Moon, Apartment Poetry, and more. She was accepted into the Writing Workshops Paris with Carve Magazine for the 2021 year. She won Washington University's Harriet Schwenk Kluver award for the 2018-2019 year and The Dramatics of St. Louis Prize for the 2020- 2021 year. She has also published two chapbooks, Fog (Bloof Books) and Safe Passage (Radical Paper Press).