Board of Directors
Sue Ballew St. Clair
Sue is a professional nurse with Master of Science degrees in nursing and international public health. Although partially retired, she works part-time as a psychiatric nurse practitioner. Sue has served in many different roles within the Baha’i community, including on administrative institutions, cluster level community building, along with home front and international pioneering. In the last few years, Sue’s focus has been on the importance for people of African descent, the Pupil of the Eye, to be in the forefront of the work to develop spiritually just and loving communities.
Dwayne Rayner
Dwayne Rayner is Executive Director of Partners In Racial Justice and the Managing Director of Renaissance Capital Advisors, LLC., a boutique investment firm specializing in real estate, investment management, and business advisory services. He also serves on the board, and as the director of curriculum, for Youth About Business, a not-for-profit focused on financial literacy, entrepreneurial training, and demystifying the world of finance for students between the ages of 14-21. Mr. Rayner has more than 25 years of experience in the financial sector and working with youth and involvement in community building initiatives. Mr. Rayner received his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business. Mr. Rayner currently resides in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his wife and their four children.
David Hoffman
David Hoffman is PRJ’s founding board member. He is a retired entrepreneur, having sold his interests in his real estate development and marketing companies in 2006. In 2012, David created and led the Education Under Fire human rights initiative to help defend the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) from coordinated and sustained attacks in its country of origin. In 2016, David currently serves as board president for the Raising Haiti Foundation, a U.S. based 501(c)3 providing funding for higher education scholarships, micro credit loans, reforestation, and agricultural services support to thousands of rural Haitian farmers.
Derik Smith
Derik Smith is a professor in the Department of Literature at Claremont McKenna College; he is currently chair of the Intercollegiate Department of Africana Studies at the Claremont Colleges. His work is anchored in the analysis of American culture and, particularly, African American literary culture. He is the author of many articles, and the book, Robert Hayden In Verse: New Histories of African American Poetry and the Black Arts Era.
Mary Susan Carlson, M.D.
Mary Susan Carlson, M.D. retired from her general ophthalmology position after working at Kaiser Permanente for 28 years. She has been the chair of the Haiti Committee at Our Lady Queen of Peace church in Arlington, Virginia since 2000, helping support the education, school lunch, agro-forestry, clean water, sanitation and solar programs in its twin parish, St. Joseph of Medor. She accepted the volunteer executive director position at the Raising Haiti Foundation in 2017, an organization that empowers rural Haitian communities to improve livelihoods. She has been a board member of Partners in Racial Justice since it was founded.
Charles Bullock, PhD
Having grown up in a period of segregation and injustice, Charles was driven by the notion that “education” coupled with “determination “ could change the world.
For over 50 years, Dr. Bullock’s work and volunteer services has been focused on this objective. This work includes time spent as education administrator; human resource professional; program developer in US and Africa for universities, governmental agencies, UN programs -consistently with focus on “inclusion” in eradicating gender and racial biases, and education for All.
Steve Sarowitz
Steve Sarowitz is Founder and Chairman of Paylocity (Nasdaq: PCTY), a leading U.S. provider of payroll and HR solutions. In addition, Steve also serves as Director of Payescape, a UK payroll provide, and partner in Wayfarer Entertainment. He is also an international philanthropist with an interest in promoting unity by and promoting universal education and advocating for the elimination of racism, sexism, nationalism and religious prejudice. He also serves on the board of NCAT, an organization that builds state-of-the art training centers in urban areas. Steve served as Executive Producer for the award-winning documentary Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise and The Gate: Dawn of the Bahai Faith, a groundbreaking documentary about the founding of the Baha’i Faith. Steve is an avid runner who has been inducted into the Chicago Area Runners Association Hall of Fame. Steve is married with 2 children and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of Illinois. Steve is a passionate Baha’i who has given presentations about the Baha’i Faith and its vision of world unity at several universities, the Parliament of the World’s Religions and other venues around the world.
©2021 Partners in Racial Justice. All rights reserved. EIN: 86-2143371
