Board of Directors
The National Civil Rights Museum is a non-profit organization operated by the Lorraine Civil Rights Museum Foundation board of directors.
Mr. Herbert Hilliard
Retired Executive VP of Risk Management
First Tennessee Bank
Chairman, Board of Directors
Mr. Joseph R. Hyde III
President, Pittco Management, LLC
Chairman, Executive Committee
Dr. Esmond Arrindell, MD
State Senator Raumesh Akbari
Ms. Pamela Alexander
Director, Community Development
Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services
Mrs. Nelda Burroughs
Mr. Darrell T. Cobbins
President & Principal Broker
Universal Commercial Real Estate, LLC
Mr. Don Clanton
President, Small Business Administration Division
Ev0lve Bank & Trust
Mr. Gregory Duckett
Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer
Baptist Memorial Health Care Systems, Inc.
Vice Chair
Mr. Nnaemeka "Meka" Egwuekwe
Founder
CodeCrew
Mrs. Rose Jackson Flenorl
Manager, Global Citizenship-Signature Programs
FedEx
Secretary
Mr. Preston Frazer
Vice President of Internal Audit, AutoZone
Mrs. Kathy Buckman Gibson
President & COO
KBG Technologies, LLC
Rabbi Micah Greenstein
Temple Israel
Ms. Shaila Karkera
Ms. Lisa Krupicka
Burch Porter & Johnson, PLLC
Mrs. Connie Lewis Lensing
Mr. Johnny B. Moore, Jr.
President, SunTrust Bank
Mr. William "Billy" Orgel
CEO, Tower Ventures
Mr. Elliot L. Perry
Community Advisor, The Poplar Foundation
Mr. Bill Rhodes
President, CEO & Chairman of the Board, Auto Zone
Treasurer
Ms. Cathy Ross
Ms. Bathsheba Sams
Vice President, Human Resources, Industrial Packaging the Americas
International Paper
Mr. Michael Ugwueke
President, COO, Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare
Mr. Maurice Wexler
Dr. Russ Wigginton
Vice President, Office of External Affairs
Rhodes College
Mr. Spence Wilson, Jr.
Vice President, Kemmons Wilson Companies
Terri Lee Freeman, Museum President
Terri Lee Freeman was appointed president of the National Civil Rights Museum in November 2014. As president, Freeman is responsible for providing strategic leadership in furthering the museum’s mission as an educational and cultural institution.
In addition to updating the organization’s vision and mission, Freeman has placed her emphasis on building the organization’s reputation as the new public square. While stewarding the integrity of the Museum’s historic content, Freeman has expanded the public programming to increasingly focus on contemporary civil and human rights issues such as criminal justice, education, and basic human rights for marginalized populations. A safe space for difficult conversations, Freeman created “Unpacking Racism for Action” a six-month dialogue program to go deep into issues of implicit bias and structural racism. Through her collaborative approach to the work, she has increased the public engagement four-fold, with visitors to public programs increasing exponentially, more than 300 percent.
Most recently Freeman led the international MLK50 commemoration, with a message of King’s Legacy, involving the Nation and the World through a coordinated bell tolling to note the significance of the tragedy that occurred at 6:01 p.m. in 1968. The commemorative events were attended by 30,000+ and were seen through broadcast and streaming worldwide.
Prior to joining the Museum, Ms. Freeman served as president of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region for 18 years. She distinguished herself for her community building, and her ability to grow the Foundation’s reputation as an effective and strategic funder in the metropolitan DC region. And prior to Joining the Community Foundation she served as the founding executive director of the Freddie Mac Foundation, at the time, one of the five largest corporate foundations in the metropolitan Washington region.
A graduate of the 2016 class of Leadership Memphis, Ms. Freeman currently serves on the boards of the Community Foundation for Greater Memphis; the Memphis Convention and Visitors’ Bureau; the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce; the Memphis Brand Initiative; New Memphis Institute; and most recently, the Orpheum. She is also a member of the Tennessee Education Equity Coalition. Recently identified as one of the 18 Tennesseans to Watch in 2018, by the Commercial appeal and the Tennessean, she has also been identified as a Memphis Mover & Shaker by Memphis Magazine, and has been featured in Memphis Business, the Commercial Appeal and Style Blueprint. A frequently sought after speaker, Ms. Freeman lives by the saying that what’s most important is what people say about you when you aren’t in the room.
Freeman received her bachelor’s degree in journalism/communication arts from the University of Dayton and her Master's degree in organizational communications from Howard University. She is married to Dr. Bowyer G. Freeman and is the proud mother of three daughters and grandmother of three.