Donna Walker-Kuhne is an award-winning thought leader, lawyer, scholar, educator, writer and strategist for community engagement, audience development and social justice. Acknowledged as the nation’s foremost expert on Audience Development by the Arts & Business Council, Donna Walker-Kuhne, an accomplished arts administrator and adult educator, has devoted her professional career to increasing the accessibility and connection to the arts for our nation’s rapidly growing multicultural population. She has raised over $23 million in earned income promoting the arts to diverse communities. ―I firmly believe that the arts are the only pure vehicle we have in today‘s society that cross cultural and ethnic barriers and allow people to transcend their differences.

She is founder and President of Walker International Communications Group, Inc. a thirty-five-year-old boutique marketing, press and audience development consulting agency. Her team has over 50 years of experiences specializing in multicultural marketing, group sales, multicultural press and promotional events. She has developed numerous marketers whose have not only contributed to the growth and success of the company but who have also transitioned to share their skills at the nation’s leading arts organizations including Dance Theatre of Harlem, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, The Public Theater, WNYC Radio, The Apollo Theater and more. Her transformative leadership enables her staff and mentees to be able to discover and master their skills to be a valuable asset to the projects the company manages. 

Laura R. Walker, the eleventh president of Bennington College, leads a vibrant institution renowned for its rigorous and innovative intellectual and creative inquiry and its talented graduates. Since assuming the presidency in 2020, she has overseen remarkable growth: applications have doubled, the student body has reached historic numbers, and philanthropic contributions have increased dramatically. Under her leadership, the college has deepened its commitment to the arts and public action, exemplified by the expansion of programs like Beyond Plastics at the Center for the Advancement of Public Action. In the summer of 2024, when the University of the Arts closed abruptly, Walker led Bennington’s swift revival of the extraordinary dance BFA and MFA programs. Her current priorities include strengthening the college’s commitment to mental health and wellbeing, completing campus renovations, and planning a transformative capital campaign.

Before joining Bennington College, Walker served as the founding President and CEO of New York Public Radio, where her transformative leadership began with saving public radio in New York through the acquisition of WNYC AM and FM from the City of New York. The organization grew to encompass WQXR, New Jersey Public Radio, WNYC Studios, and the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, which launched under the visionary leadership of Indira Etwaroo. During her tenure, the organization won an unprecedented ten George Foster Peabody Awards and became a trailblazing producer of podcasts and radio programs, including Radiolab, On the Media, The New Yorker Radio Hour, Two Dope Queens, Studio 360, The Brian Lehrer Show, and All of It with Allison Stewart. A fourth-generation New Yorker, she has roots in Harlem where her great grandfather was an active member of the Board of Harlem Hospital and she grew up attending The Riverside Church, She also held leadership positions at Sesame Workshop and Carnegie Hall and was the founding chair of The Hudson Square BID.

Currently, Walker serves on the boards of the Commonwealth Fund and The New Press, as well as the Ruderman Family Foundation Mental Health Advisory Board and the Editorial Board of LearningWell Magazine. She holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and received her bachelor’s degree in History from Wesleyan University, where she was an Olin Scholar. Walker is married to Bert Wells and has two adult children and lives in Bennington Vermont and Brooklyn.

Lisa P. Jackson is Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives. She oversees Apple’s efforts to minimize its impact on the environment by addressing climate change through renewable energy and energy efficiency, using greener materials, and inventing new ways to conserve precious resources.

She also leads Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, focused on education, economic empowerment, and criminal justice reform — and is responsible for Apple’s education policy programs, its product accessibility work, and its worldwide government affairs function.

From 2009 to 2013, Lisa served as Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, the first Black person to hold the position. Appointed by President Barack Obama, she focused on reducing greenhouse gases, protecting air and water quality, preventing exposure to toxic contamination, and expanding outreach to communities on environmental issues.

She has also served as chief of staff to New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine and as commissioner of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection.

Lisa holds a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Tulane University. She serves as Board Chair of the Waverly Street Foundation. She also serves on the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and on the boards of Tulane, Conservation International, and the American Film Institute. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.