Amistad Research Center names Kim Boyle as new board chair

The Louisiana Weekly Staff Reports

The Amistad Research Center has announced changes to its roster of board of directors, including a change in leadership. Phelps Dunbar attorney and partner Kim Boyle was selected to serve as chair of the Amistad Board of Directors at its recent meeting.

“I am honored to be elected chair of Amistad’s board, and I will immediately work to become extremely familiar with every aspect of this great organization and the challenges it faces,” Boyle said.

BOYLE

Boyle is engaged in various other community organizations and initiatives throughout New Orleans. In 2013, she served as Chair of the NCAA Women’s Final Four, and currently serves on the Touro Infirmary Board of Trustees and the Tulane University Board of Trustees.

Boyle replaces longtime board chair Dr. Andrea Jefferson who’d served as the board chair for 18 years.

“Dr. Jefferson has served Amistad and its Board with distinction, providing invaluable direction which guided us through important periods in the center’s history,” said Lee Hampton, Amistad’s Executive Director. “The leadership change was undertaken as part of the board’s succession process, in which attorney Kim Boyle was identified as new chair to effect an orderly transition.”

Joining Boyle as a new officer is Dr. Janice Sumler-Edmond, who will serve as board secretary. Sumler-Edmond is a professor of United States History, African American History, and constitutional history and law at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas. She replaces former secretary Sybil Morial.

Other additions to the board include The Honorable Terri Love and Dr. Edgar Chase, III. Judge Love sits on the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal and Dr. Chase is a retired educator, lawyer and CPA.

The Amistad Research Center is located in the Tilton Memorial Library at Tulane University. The center’s mission is to collect, preserve and provide open access to original materials that reference the social and cultural histories of African Americans and other ethnic groups dating from the 18th century to the present.

“Backed by board colleagues and an outstanding professional staff, I look forward to playing a leadership role in Amistad attaining an even greater level of excellence,” Boyle said.

This article originally published in the February 10, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.