Members
Margaret Davis • Chief Financial Officer – Ms Davis is a native Washingtonian who graduated from Howard University with an M.S. in Nutrition Education and a minor in Chemistry. In addition, Ms. Davis worked on a research grant as a technician in the Department of Pharmacology at Howard University Medical School while pursuing her undergraduate and graduate degree. She has taken courses in Psychology at George Washington University. She was certified by the DC Board of Social Work as a Social Work Associate when working for the District’s Work Incentive Program. She took courses in Sign Language from Gallaudet University and courses in Spanish at the University of the District of Columbia to accommodate her clientele. Along with this, she pursued courses in Business with an emphasis in Accounting. Included in her work history, she was a buyer for a men’s clothing store. She retired from the position as Training Coordinator for the Randolph-Sheppard Vending Facility Program with the Rehabilitation Services Administration of the D.C. Government. Ms. Davis is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and her interests include collecting African art and textiles. She was a senior member of the KanKouran West African Dance Company and remains on the Board of Directors. She is currently a docent at the National Smithsonian Museum of African Art and has appeared in the play ‘Njinga’ at the Folger Shakespeare Theater in the role of Grandma Ginny. Ms. Davis is a member of Sigma XI and Beta Kappa Chi National Scientific Honor Societies. Following her love for animals, she is volunteering her services as an accountant at the Adams Morgan Animal Hospital.
Karla M. Wynn Diouf • Director of Public Relations and Web Content Manager – is a consistent promoter of global cooperation and understanding. Her personal philosophy and love for humanity led her to earn a political science degree from Hampton University in 1987, and expand her interests by serving the Baltimore community through workforce development. These skills – developed at the local level – allowed her to assist Namibia’s youth as a Peace Corps Volunteer (1997-1999) in the areas of small enterprise development; environmental, life-skills, and HIV/AIDS education; institution building; marketing and staff development for employees of the Khorixas Regional Office of the Ministry of Youth and Sport. An adherent of the Bahá’í Faith for more than 25 years, Ms. Wynn is an active member of the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Communities. She served on the Faith’s appointed and elected institutions; taught children’s classes; produced radio programs for the Faith, and performed with the Metropolitan Washington Bahá’í Chorale.
A life-long student of the performing arts, she has studied with Nubian Arts Performing Society; KanKouran West African Dance Company; and performed with Charisma in two plays featured at the National Theatre in Washington in 1996 and 1997.
Ms. Wynn also provides promotional services to the Baltimore Bahá’í Community, KanKouran West African Dance Company, and Mary’s First Child, A.D., Productions by Charisma.
The native New Yorker is an independent consultant whose civic and professional affiliations include the African and American Women’s Association, Inc., Association of Black Media Workers; Public Relations Society of America and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Ms. Wynn has an extensive travel background that includes Senegal, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, the Bahamas, Canada, Israel and Hawaii. She is the proud wife of Cheikhou Diouf.
Nadine Ellis • Director of Youth Programs – A native Washingtonian who worked as the Coordinator for the Office of Faculty and Administrative Services and the EEOC Diversity Representative for The American University Kogod School of Business, and later as the Administrative Manager at Roots Activity Learning Center. At Stanford University Medical Center, she was employed as the personnel liaison and employment representative working exclusively on behalf of the African-American community in Palo Alto, California and the employees at the Medical Center. Her professional activities at American University included membership in the University Black Staff and Faculty Association, and Chair for the African American Students at AU Retention and Development Organization. In those capacities, she presented films, lectures and guest speakers to address issues concerning the African-American community at American University, and sponsored lectures concerning holistic healing methods. She organized a memorial service for Brother James Byrd, the Black man who was so brutally dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas.
The Mother of two – Malik and Rashida, and the grandmother of three – Ms. Ellis’ personal interests are yoga, spiritual and holistic healing, African and Native American cultural studies, swimming, and meditation.
Glo Ivory • Director of Operations – A native of Pittsburgh, Pa. who earned her undergraduate degree from Northeastern University in Civil Engineering and Criminal Justice. She has also received an M.A. in African and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Colorado, as well as an M.A. in International Economics from George Washington University, where she has completed her work towards a doctorate.
A participant in Crossroads Africa, she has lived and worked in Ghana, and has traveled extensively throughout West and Southern Africa to such countries as Senegal, the Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland, Malawi, and Mozambique. She is a consultant on international issues, political campaigns, and event planning and special events. She presently consults with Julianne Malveaux’s organization, Last Word Productions.
Tendai (Paula) Johnson ● Director of Domestic and International Programs, is currently serving as Associated Vice Chancellor for Institutional Research, University Testing, and Title III grant programs at Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, North Carolina. Former Director of Institutional Research at Coppin State University and adjunct professor in the department of history at Morgan State University, Ms. Johnson originally came to FSU to serve as special assistant to the Chancellor for Title III programs, with additional responsibility for institutional effectiveness and assessment, and international programs.
A graduate of Southern Illinois University and the University of Minnesota respectively, her MA in The History of African People prepared her for the rigors of the various professional positions she has held. A native mid-westerner, Ms Johnson, made the Washington DC area her home for nearly two decades prior to accepting her current position at Fayetteville State University.
Ms. Johnson, a mother of three, views her children and mothering as her greatest accomplishment, reward, and challenge. She has been active in public and private schools, K-16, as well as being involved in community, international and educational social change efforts and programs.
Her former professional experiences include work in both public and private sectors. For numerous years Ms. Johnson worked as a corporate middle-level manager with a fortune 500 company where she provided services to both vocational education and K-16 academic institutions, and was involved in leading edge programming that influenced public policy. She has written and managed numerous international grants and activities primarily focused upon renewable energy and sustainability projects, and provided consulting services to several international businesses, universities, and organizations.
Her extensive international travel has provided her with rich and rewarding experiences to live, study and work in other cultures. These experiences encouraged her to continue her studies and to use historical events and activities of current and past situations to inspire and motivate her University students in Diaspora Studies, and her staff members to exceed expectations and goals. Tendai (Paula) Johnson is also a founding member of the Julius K. Nyerere Education Institute, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and the African Diaspora Ancestral Commemoration Institute (ADACI), Lagos, Nigeria.
Dietra Montague • Director of Aesthetics and Creative Services – An independent artist who has lived and studied the arts and crafts of North and West Africa, Central and South America, Mexico and Europe. Her passion was ignited as she began traveling in her late teens, first to Mexico where she visited all the finest arts and crafts centers, and then to Morocco where she lived and worked for two and one-half years, studying a wide diversity of subjects from gem identification to jewelry construction and weaving. Later in her travels, she studied bead technique, jewelry designing, basket weaving and textiles. Recently, she traveled to Egypt, where she spent three months studying the music, art, dance, language, and customs of that country.
Ms. Montague explains the significance of the altar in these words: “In an African worldview, an altar is a place or structure used for sacred purposes where sacrifices or offerings are made to a designated being or deity. An altar need not necessarily be a raised platform, but can also be located in any of nature’s wonders be it trees, rocks, or bushes. Regardless of where the altar is located or what form it happens to take, the primary purpose of the altar is to provide a focal point for the expression of feelings and emotions within sacred space.”
Ms. Montague’s altars have been installed in exhibits at the Banneker-Douglass Museum in Annapolis, Maryland, and at the Smithsonian Museums of African Art and American History and the Smithsonian’s Center for African-American Studies. She is also a recipient of a number of individual fellowship awards from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
Binti Renaa M. Sol • Director of Membership and Culinary Services – is a native of Philadelphia, PA, who is also a textile artist with an associate degree in Drafting and Architectural Design. Ms. Sol is presently a member of the banquet staff for the Marriott Hotel. As a talented textile artist in the African-based tradition, she has designed and tailored costumes for Melvin Deal’s African Heritage Dancers and Drummers, KanKouran West African Dance Company, and other Black dance companies in the Washington, D.C. area. Growing up in the “movement” of the 60s and 70s, she was greatly influenced by the many African-based cultural expressions which flourished at that time, and became committed to exploring the historical traditions behind the music, dance, and costuming which she was experiencing. She has traveled extensively throughout the Caribbean in Trinidad, Jamaica, Mexico, Barbados, the Bahamas, and all the Virgin Islands. Her philosophy is that African-based artistic and cultural traditions should heal, renew spiritually, uplift, and educate.
(Aza Zhenga) Donna Maria Smith • Director of Marketing and Community Affairs • is a native of Awendaw, South Carolina in Charleston County. A direct descendent of traditional Sweet Grass Basket Weavers, as an accomplished poet and author, Aza weaves words the way her grandparents weaved their famous baskets. Aza loves various African cultures and is determined to be a bridge between the African Diaspora. One of her missions is to reveal the positive aspects of Africa to everyday people whose only images of the continent are of poverty, war, disease and famine. Aza is a recipient of the prestigious 2009 ACHIEVERS Award, presented by Africa’s International Media Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She has studied in various cities in Egypt, toured the northern countryside of Ethiopia, and visited Caribbean countries.