Board of Directors

Ms. Brown-Graham is a Professor of Public Law and Government at the UNC School of Government, where she leads a special initiative that seeks to expand the school's capacity to work with public officials on policy issues that affect North Carolina communities. Before that, she was director of the Institute for Emerging Issues (IEI) at N.C. State University. Before joining IEI in 2007, she served an earlier stint as a Professor of Law and Government at the UNC School of Government. In 2004, then-N.C. Gov. Mike Easley appointed Brown-Graham to the board of the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center. She also serves as a Trustee of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and is active on boards and committees of several not-for-profit organizations.

Ms. Hauptfuhrer is a community volunteer from Charlotte, N.C. She is chair of Cornerstone Children's Initiative, a nonprofit partnering with the Charlotte Housing Authority, Thompson Child Development Center, Nurse Family Partnership, YMCA, and Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools to build a cradle-to-career continuum of education and human services in a redeveloping housing project.

She also serves on the boards of Mecklenburg Ministries, Duke Divinity School, and North Carolina Humanities Council. 

Labor economist Dr. Christopher King served as lecturer at The University of Texas at Austin’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and senior research scientist at the School’s Ray Marshall Center, which he directed from 1991 to 2014, until his retirement in June 2017. He currently serves as a senior researcher on several center projects on workforce development and 2-generation antipoverty policy.

In 2012, Dr. King was selected as one of 20 leaders in the Aspen Institute’s inaugural class of Ascend Fellows. In 2009, he co-led a team that designed and implemented CareerAdvance®, Tulsa’s award-winning 2-generation program and, since 2011, has been part of the team evaluating the program with colleagues at Northwestern, New York and Columbia universities. He initiated and co-chairs Austin’s 2-Generation Advisory Committee. He serves on the boards of MDC, as well as the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce and The Austin Project.

Dr. King was assistant professor of economics at the University of Utah (1973-1976), an economist with the U.S. Secretary of Labor (1976-1980), and director of research and evaluation for job training programs in the Texas Governor’s Office (1983-1985).

Dick Molpus is president of Molpus Woodlands Group, a timberland investment management organization headquartered in Jackson, Miss.

Mr. Molpus was Mississippi Gov. William Winter's first appointee, serving as executive director of the Governor's Office of Federal‐State Programs, and later served three terms as Secretary of State of Mississippi.

He founded Project Democracy, an initiative chaired by former presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter to increase voter participation in the United States. Mr. Molpus and his wife, Sally Molpus, co-founded Parents for Public Schools.

Mr. Molpus was also founding chairman of the United States Endowment for Forestry and Communities, a $200 million endowment focused on improving forest health and assisting timber-reliant communities in the United States. 

Ms. Nielsen was president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham from 2000 to 2013 after becoming its first development officer in 1995. She was also active in the community foundation field, serving on the National Community Foundation Leadership Team and Alabama Giving.

In Birmingham, Ms. Nielsen has served on a number of boards, including the Rotary Club of Birmingham, Eyesight Foundation of Alabama, Alabama Association of Nonprofits, and  Birmingham Museum of Art. She was named Fundraising Executive of the Year by the Alabama Association of Fundraising Executives.

She serves on the board of Create Birmingham and as a regent of the University of the South, and she actively supports the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Railroad Park, and Cathedral Church of the Advent.

A founding partner of Farmer Purcell White & Lassiter PLLC, Bill Purcell has spent more than 30 years in law, public service, and higher education. During his eight-year tenure as mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tenn. (1999-2007), the city saw unprecedented economic expansion, an increase in Metro school funding of more than 50 percent, and the development and preservation of more than 26,000 affordable housing units. He was elected to his second term as mayor by a record-setting 84.8 percent of the vote. Mr. Purcell’s accomplishments as a civic leader earned him Public Official of the Year honors in 2006 by Governing magazine. During his term, Nashville was ranked as the number one city for corporate headquarters and twice ranked as the hottest city in America for expansion and relocation of business.

Following his service as mayor, Mr. Purcell was named a Harvard University Institute of Politics Fellow in 2007. He then served as founding and interim dean of the College of Public Service and Urban Affairs at Tennessee State University before returning to the Harvard Institute of Politics as Director (2008–2010), and a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Purcell served as founder and director of the Child and Family Policy Center at Vanderbilt University (1996-99), a nationally recognized center building a bridge between academic research, politics, and best practices to benefit children and their families. 

Mr. Purcell was elected to five terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives (1986-96), serving as Majority Leader (1990-96). During his decade in the General Assembly, he sponsored and passed legislation undertaking major reforms in Tennessee’s schools, courtrooms, industrial plants and boardrooms, criminal and juvenile justice, hospitals, and voting booths. He served as Chair of the House Rules Committee, Committee on Open Records, and the Select Joint Committee on Children and Youth, and as a member of the Judiciary, General Welfare, Finance Ways and Means, and Ethics Committees. During his service Tennessee was twice ranked the best managed state in America.

Purcell earned his bachelor’s degree at Hamilton College and his law degree at Vanderbilt University School of Law, where he was honored as the 2004 Distinguished Alumnus.

Wendy D. Puriefoy is a nationally recognized expert on issues of school reform and civil society. Ms. Puriefoy is well known for her passionate advocacy of education equity for poor and disadvantaged children and has written and spoken extensively on the issues.

She was the president of Public Education Network (PEN) from 1991-2012. PEN is the nation’s largest network of community-based school reform organizations, founded in 1991. Under her visionary leadership, PEN grew into a national network of local education funds reaching more than 11 million children in 1,220 school districts and 18,000 schools nationwide.

Ms. Puriefoy has been deeply involved in school reform since the 1970s, when she served as a special monitor of the court-ordered desegregation plan for Boston’s public schools. As president of PEN, Ms. Puriefoy was been the leading force behind systemic reform initiatives in school finance and governance, curriculum and assessment, parent involvement, school libraries, and school health. With support from national foundations, PEN launched multi-million dollar public engagement initiatives focused on teacher quality, standards and accountability, and schools and community services.

Ms. Puriefoy is also a noted leader in the philanthropic world. Prior to being recruited as president of PEN, Ms. Puriefoy was executive vice president and chief operating officer of The Boston Foundation, a community foundation with an endowment of over $750 million supporting public health/welfare, educational, cultural, environmental, and housing programs in Boston, Mass.

Ms. Puriefoy serves on the boards of numerous high-profile national organizations including DEMOS, Hasbro Children’s Foundation, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), and National Center for Family Philanthropy. In the past, Ms. Puriefoy served on the boards of FairTest, Jobs for the Future, Milton Hershey School, Ms. Foundation for Women, The PEW Forum on Standards-Based Reform, Women and Philanthropy,  National Charities Information Bureau, Council on Foundations, Teach for America, Children’s Express, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and Boston Annenberg Challenge.

Ms. Puriefoy received a Bachelor of Arts degree from William Smith College and holds three Master of Arts degrees—in African American Studies, American Studies, and American Colonial History—from Boston University.

Mr. Sepúlveda is the senior vice president for station services at the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). He represents the perspective of PBS’ independent member stations in the ongoing management and strategic direction of PBS to ensure that PBS programs, products, and services support each station’s connection to its community and audience.

Prior to joining PBS, Mr. Sepúlveda served as the senior advisor for Hispanic affairs at the Democratic National Committee (DNC). He led the DNC portion of the Latino Obama 2012 team that helped re-elect President Barack Obama with a record-level of Hispanic support. Prior to joining the DNC, Mr. Sepúlveda led the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, where he built a national education network of Latino leaders and key community stakeholders.  

Before joining the Obama Administration, Mr. Sepúlveda was a senior executive, strategist, and advocate for more than 20 years in the nonprofit and philanthropic communities, with a focus in community development, capacity building, and transformational management. He was president of The Common Enterprise, which he founded in 1995 as an outgrowth of a national Rockefeller Foundation initiative to help build stronger communities across America by making nonprofits, philanthropic organizations, governments, businesses, and communities more effective as they tackled significant critical social issues nationally and in more than 35 states.

Marie Washington over a 30-year professional career has held senior financial leadership positions within the corporate and nonprofit sectors in New York City and San Francisco.

Following extended tenures at JP Morgan in corporate financial services and Pacific Telesis in corporate financial planning and strategy, she led treasury organizations for technology startups in Silicon Valley. Subsequently she held CFO positions at the KIPP Foundation and Stuart Foundation. 

While residing in San Francisco and later in Los Angeles, Mrs. Washington also served on the boards of several educational nonprofit organizations, the California Community Foundation and Engender Health, an NGO working in some of the poorest countries in the world.

Since relocating to Durham, Mrs. Washington volunteers on the boards of the Center for Documentary Studies and Friends of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University and serves on the board of MDC Inc.

She completed her undergraduate degree at Wellesley College and earned an MBA from Stanford University.

Leslie J. Winner is a lawyer with a 40-year career of public service, primarily in North Carolina. She works as a consultant to nonprofit organizations on strategic planning and issues related to bridging divides. Previously, she served as executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and as a member of the North Carolina Senate.

Ms. Winner is currently engaged in many civic leadership roles, serving as the co-chair of the North Carolina Leadership Forum, an effort to increase bi-partisan dialogue and cooperation. She leads a local interfaith scriptural reasoning group. She serves on the boards of the North Carolina Justice Center and MDC, organizations that promote equity and reduce poverty in North Carolina and the U.S. South. She also serves on the Executive Committee and as chair of the Interfaith Working Group of Beth El Congregation.

Ms. Winner served three terms in the North Carolina Senate during the 1990s, representing a portion of Mecklenburg County. During this time, she served as Majority Whip, Education/Higher Education Committee co-chair, Appropriations--Education Subcommittee co-chair, and Judiciary Committee vice-chair. She served for seven years as vice president and general counsel to the University of North Carolina and three years as general counsel for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education.

She worked for 16 years as a public interest trial lawyer. As a partner at Chambers, Ferguson, Watt, Wallas, Adkins & Gresham, P.A. she served as lead attorney on cases involving voting rights and other civil rights issues.

Ms. Winner received an A.B. from Brown University and J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law. She is a native of Asheville, N.C.

The Honorable William F. Winter is special counsel in the Jones Walker law firm's Government Relations Practice Group. He focuses his practice in state and local government finance, legislative, and governmental relations.

Governor Winter served Mississippi in numerous official capacities, including Governor 1980–1984, Lieutenant Governor 1972–1976, State Treasurer 1964–1968, State Tax Collector 1956–1964, and Representative in the House of Representatives 1948–1956.

In June 1997, Governor Winter was appointed by President Clinton to the National Advisory Board on Race Relations. He is past president of the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and past chair of the National Civic League,  Kettering Foundation, and Foundation for the Mid-South, an organization of leaders from Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana dedicated to improving the economic and social conditions of the three-state area.

Governor Winter received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award and is a Fellow of The Mississippi Bar Foundation. In 1998, he was the recipient of The Mississippi Bar’s Lifetime Achievement Award. 

He is a graduate of The University of Mississippi School of Law, where he received a juris doctor degree, and served as editor-in-chief of the Mississippi Law Journal.