Who leads YBAA

Leadership

YBAA is governed by an all-volunteer national board of Black Yale alumni. Select anyone below to read more about them.

Board Members

  • Ivuoma “Ivy” Onyeador

    YC ’11 · National President

    Location
    Chicago

    Ivy is an Assistant Professor in the Management and Organizations Department at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Her research is motivated by a contradiction: while equality is ostensibly a core American value, the United States is marked by a profusion of inequalities, and when confronted with evidence of those inequalities, many Americans’ first impulse is to deny, dismiss, or justify them. Her involvement with YBAA began as a student and has continued through committee leadership, chapter work in Los Angeles and Chicago, and service as Interim Vice President during the 2023 relaunch.

    Ivuoma “Ivy” Onyeador on LinkedIn

  • Jason Lightning

    YC ’15, SOM ’17 · National Treasurer

    Location
    NYC
    Committees
    Finance & Fundraising (Co-Chair)

    Born and raised in Harlem, Jason earned his bachelor’s degree in History from Yale in 2015. As an undergraduate he spent much of his time with organizations affiliated with the Afro-American Cultural Center, serving as Vice President of the Black Student Alliance at Yale and Financial Chair for the Black Solidarity Conference. He also played on the club basketball team that won a national championship in 2014. He received his MBA from the Yale School of Management in 2017 through the Silver Scholars program, which admits students directly out of undergrad.

    Jason Lightning on LinkedIn

  • Adrienne Lighten

    YC ’10 · National Secretary

    Location
    NYC
    Committees
    Programming (Co-Chair)

    Adrienne Lighten on LinkedIn

  • Carl Horton

    YC ’90 · National Parliamentarian

    Location
    Boston
    Committees
    Nominating & Governance (Co-Chair)

    Carl brings over 25 years of leadership experience in business, marketing, and technology across retail, hospitality, travel, and financial services. He has led strategy, loyalty, digital, and CRM functions at companies including J. Crew, Dell, and Accenture, and advised Fortune 500 clients as a consultant at Bain, Accenture, and IBM. At Salesforce and IBM he oversaw C-suite relationship management and technology deployments, including AI-driven solutions that shaped customer engagement and digital transformation. At Dell he served as Global Lead for Consumer and Small Business CRM, driving more than $500 million in global sales. An award-winning leader and public speaker, he has designed AI-powered customer experiences, loyalty programs, and data-driven strategies that create measurable value for customers and shareholders. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Yale.

    Carl Horton on LinkedIn

  • Marvin Blakely

    YC ’77 · National Historian

    Committees
    Programming (Co-Chair)

    Marvin counts himself blessed to have been a founding member of the gospel choir, a tutor at UIC, Vice President of the BSAY, and assistant to House Director Khalid Lum, who brought “For Colored Girls” to the House before it went to Broadway. He performed at the University and Cabaret theaters and served as an advisor to the Yale Alumni Association. After Yale he attended Hastings College of the Law, where he was president of the Associated Students of Hastings, an ad hoc member of the Hastings Board of Governors, and a competitor in the Frederick Douglass Moot Court competition, before joining the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s office. He went on to serve as trial counsel for organizations including the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and AIG, retiring as Partner and national trial counsel at McGivney, Kluger, Clark & Intoccia in 2022. He enjoys cooking, fishing, and gardening when he is not being an avid Knicks fan.

  • Theodore Agbi, Ph.D.

    YC ’17 · Chair, Membership & Chapter Development

    Location
    Atlanta
    Committees
    Membership & Chapter Development

    Theo is passionate about expanding alumni engagement nationwide and advancing Black futurity through strong, connected networks. Professionally he is a commercial transformation leader driving strategic pricing excellence in the chemical industry. Before that he was at McKinsey & Company, where he focused on business transformation through revenue management, organizational efficiency, and pricing strategy. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2022, researching sustainable technologies for industrial natural gas utilization, and holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Yale. In his free time he enjoys art as both creator and viewer, volleyball, and comedy.

    Theodore Agbi, Ph.D. on LinkedIn

  • Darryl Auguste

    YC ’09 · Chair, Communications

    Location
    Boston & NYC
    Committees
    Communications, Finance & Fundraising, Nominating & Governance

    Darryl was a proud member of the House and La Casa during his undergraduate years, and some of his fondest Yale memories come from time spent at the center, reffing intramural hoops, and working with New Haven students through Dwight Hall. Professionally he has spent over 15 years helping build start-ups into scalable businesses, most notably EverQuote, which he helped grow from a 20-person start-up into a 700-person public company before joining its Board of Directors. He stays active as a mentor through NSBE Boston and Pay Forward Coaching. He joined the YBAA board to give back to the community that shaped so much of who he is, and he is looking forward to helping YBAA grow and thrive for years to come.

    Darryl Auguste on LinkedIn

  • Tari Owi

    YC ’09 · Co-Chair, Nominating & Governance

    Location
    Atlanta
    Committees
    Nominating & Governance (Co-Chair)

    Tari is a healthcare leader with extensive experience in academic medicine, clinical operations, and strategic program development. She is the Vice President of Operations for AllCare Primary & Immediate Care in Georgia. Prior to this role she most recently served as the Administrator for the Department of Urology at Emory University’s School of Medicine and Emory Healthcare, where she leads the department’s nationally ranked clinical, academic, and research enterprise. Earlier in her career she held consultant roles at IBM Watson Health, formerly Thomson Reuters, and at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she supported national health information exchange initiatives at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. She holds an M.S. in Management from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a B.A. in Political Science from Yale, with an interdisciplinary concentration in Health Politics and Policy. Tari is a graduate of LEAD Atlanta’s Class of 2020 and served as Co-Chair for the Class of 2025. Beyond the YBAA National Board, she is active in civic and alumni leadership through Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and the YaleWomen National Council and Atlanta Chapter.

    Tari Owi on LinkedIn

  • Elizabeth Gray Bayne

    YSPH ’06 · Board Member

    Location
    Los Angeles

    Elizabeth is an award-winning filmmaker and Founder/CEO of two production companies dedicated to using storytelling for health and social impact: graybayne film/media, which creates social and health messaging content for marginalized communities, and Chocolate Milk LLC, focused on Black maternal health. A scientist turned storyteller, she combines a public health background with community-based filmmaking to produce digital content and films with meaningful, measurable impact — a portfolio that includes more than 400 online videos, 15 documentary and narrative shorts, 5 PSA campaigns, and her first feature documentary, “Chocolate Milk,” which screened in 11 film festivals and won two awards for Best Feature Documentary.

    She has lived and worked in Chile, El Salvador, and St. Kitts and Nevis, bringing a global, community-centered lens to her storytelling. Elizabeth holds an MPH from Yale University and an MFA from the Art Center College of Design, and is a grant recipient of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Glassbreaker Films, and the Center for Cultural Innovation.

    She is currently developing scripted content for film and television, producing short documentaries commissioned by nonprofits and health agencies, and training youth to use film as a tool to communicate important issues in their own communities.

  • Constance Collins

    YC ’11 · Board Member

    Location
    Singapore & Atlanta
    Committees
    Membership & Chapter Development, Communications

    Constance is an international educator and leader whose work centers on preparing the next generation for a more globalized and interconnected world, harnessing joy, creativity, and imagination to advance equity and justice. She has lived and worked in Uganda, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Switzerland, and is now based in Singapore, where she teaches at the Singapore American School. Having received two life-saving kidney transplants, she is also a global advocate for organ donation and health equity, working to counter stigma through storytelling and sports. She is passionate about strengthening the network of Black Yale alumni worldwide, fostering community, and creating spaces of connection both in person and online. In addition to her Yale degree, she holds graduate degrees from Columbia University and Harvard University.

    Constance Collins on LinkedIn

  • Ashley Edwards

    YC ’12 · Board Member

    Location
    International

    Ashley Edwards is the Founder and CEO of MindRight, a mental health startup transforming how communities access care and healing. A trailblazer in tech and wellness, she made history as the first Black woman founder in New Jersey to raise $1 million in venture capital and was recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur. Forbes also named her among the top “Healers” shaping the next century for her work at the intersection of mental health and technology. Trained at Stanford and Yale, she is also an initiated Ìyánífá in the Yoruba practice of Ifá, an ancestral grounding that informs her vision for community-based healing powered by modern technology. She holds an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University and a BA in Economics from Yale University. Ashley serves on the National Board of the Yale Black Alumni Association and has also served as an Inaugural Visiting Social Entrepreneur at Stanford Graduate School of Business and a corporate advisor on mental health, social impact and racial equity.

    Ashley Edwards on LinkedIn

  • Nikkena Joseph

    YC ’00 · Board Member

    Nikkena is a strategy and finance professional committed to cultivating a vibrant, engaged Black Yale alumni network. As a Yale undergrad, Nikkena was an active member of The House, taking on leadership roles with the Black Student Alliance at Yale, the Black Solidarity Conference and Yale Gospel Choir. She brings deep experience across multiple industries working for organizations and companies, including Calvert Foundation, PepsiCo and most recently AstraZeneca. She received her undergraduate degree in Economics from Yale University and her MBA from Emory University, Goizueta Business School. Nikkena is a passionate people leader and looks forward to creating meaningful pathways for alumni to engage, give back, and stay connected with one another and to Yale.

    Nikkena Joseph on LinkedIn

  • Amber Palmer

    SOM ’26 · Board Member

    Location
    Chicago

    Amber Palmer is committed to building community and connecting capital to real-world impact. She is an executive leader operating across finance, strategy, and operations. Currently a Director at Fifth Third Bank, she designed and leads a key pillar of the bank’s community investment framework. She earned her Executive MBA from the Yale School of Management, a Master of Community Planning from the University of Cincinnati, and a B.A. from The College of New Jersey. In her free time, her favorite hobby is simply having a hobby — the latest being Saturday café hopping across Chicago.

    Amber Palmer on LinkedIn

  • Carolyn Streets

    YDiv ’26 · Board Member

    Location
    New Haven

    Carolyn brings more than 30 years of experience as a public school educator with expertise in curriculum design and culturally responsive theories and models of instruction. A two-time Fulbright award recipient and scholar of social justice, Carolyn earned her Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School in 2026. A proud New Haven native, Carolyn is deeply committed to advancing YBAA’s vision and mission through education, service, and community engagement.

  • Leonard Thomas

    YC ’14 · Board Member

    Location
    Los Angeles
    Committees
    Membership & Chapter Development, Finance & Fundraising

    Leonard is a strategic advisor, financial educator, and mission-driven leader committed to advancing economic empowerment and alumni engagement within the Yale Black community. He brings expertise across education, financial services, and the arts to strengthen YBAA’s sustainability and expand its national reach. He is a U.S. Senior Strategy Consultant at Crimson Education and is building a financial advisory practice focused on inclusive wealth creation. A nationally certified financial educator and co-founder of Money Friends, he develops tools that increase financial literacy and access for historically underserved communities. He is also a professional actor and founder of the Black Actor Collective, which advances opportunities for Black artists in entertainment. At Yale he earned his B.A. in Political Science, and he has remained engaged through mentorship, student outreach, and alumni initiatives.

    Leonard Thomas on LinkedIn

  • David Jon Walker

    MFA ’23 · Board Member

    Location
    New Haven
    Committees
    Communications, Finance & Fundraising

    David is a New Haven–based art director, type designer, and professor at the Yale School of Art. His work explores social cues and history through design, offering new perspectives on the past. He is the co-founder of WeType, a cultural and heritage-focused font foundry, and served as designer and co-curator for the exhibitions Shining Light on Truth: Yale, New Haven and Slavery and Shining Light on Truth: Black Lives at Yale and in New Haven. His work has been recognized by AIGA, GDUSA, TDC, and others, with clients including HarperCollins Publishers, the National Museum of African American Music, The Art Institute of Chicago, Princeton University Library, and Yale University.

    David Jon Walker on LinkedIn