Janell Mayo Duncan, Founder and Board Chairman
Janell Mayo Duncan is the President and Founder of Living Well Black, Inc. (LWB), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization created to educate, empower, and advocate in an effort to improve health, wealth, and success in the Black community. The initial focus of LWB is to reduce health disparities. Through LWB, Ms. Duncan has worked on several national policy issues to address health disparities and raise public awareness, including to mitigate climate change, to decrease pollution, and to improve prescription drug safety.
Ms. Duncan has over twenty-five years of experience as a corporate regulatory attorney, government lawyer and consumer advocate. She is the Co-Founder of Potomac Policy Advisors, a government affairs and business consulting firm, where her specialty is representing nonprofit organizations in the areas of health, civil justice, and consumer protection.
Between 2012 and 2016, Ms. Duncan was a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Health Disparities Solutions at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Prior to her appointment as a postdoctoral fellow, Ms. Duncan served as Senior Counsel to the Chairman of U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) during the Obama Administration where she provided high level legal and strategic advice to the Chairman. While at the CPSC Ms. Duncan also represented the CPSC on the Federal Interagency Health Equity Team and on Presidential task forces relating to children’s health and emerging technologies (nanotechnology).
Ms. Duncan served as a member of the Obama-Biden Administration Agency Transition Team for the CPSC. In this capacity she advised the CPSC Agency Review Team Leads on the state of the agency and identified areas most in need of reform. Before joining the CPSC, Ms. Duncan served in Washington D.C. as Senior Counsel at Consumers Union (CU), the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine. For nearly a decade, she worked with federal regulatory agencies, Congress, and the media to create policies beneficial to consumers. She focused on the areas of product safety, toy safety, dietary supplements, pharmaceutical safety and affordability, drug industry marketing practices, and managed care reform. While at CU, she served as advisor to the organization’s “PrescriptionForChange” grassroots pharmaceutical industry consumer education and e-reform campaign. Ms. Duncan provided additional expertise to regulators and Congress in the area of banking and financial service reform. In addition to advocacy, Ms. Duncan advised writers for Consumer Reports on current laws, regulations, and pending legislation, reviewed Consumer Reports health and product safety articles to ensure accuracy and consistency with CU’s policy objectives, and assisted CU’s General Counsel on legal matters, including drafting and reviewing contracts, and providing legal counsel to CU’s business departments.
Before her tenure at CU, Ms. Duncan was an associate with the law firm of Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn, PLLC (Arent Fox), in Washington, D.C., where she concentrated her practice in the areas of food and drug, product safety, and advertising law. Prior to joining Arent Fox, Ms. Duncan worked to preserve the integrity of the nation’s food and drug supply as an Assistant Chief Counsel for Enforcement in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Office of the Chief Counsel. She began her professional career as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Foley & Lardner, where she worked on litigation matters, as well as regulatory issues involving the FDA and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
Ms. Duncan has served on the boards of local organizations dedicated to consumer protection and has worked with local organizations dedicated to the elimination of disparities and improving the number and quality of years of life for African Americans and people of African descent. She has also volunteered her time sharing child health and safety information with local groups of pregnant women and mothers and fathers of young children.
Ms. Duncan received her Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School, and was graduated from Wellesley College, cum laude, with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and psychology.
Sabrina A. Hamady, Treasurer
Ms. Hamady has an AB in Art/Semiotics from Brown University and has worked since 2000 as Financial Controller, Part-time CFO and Business Consultant for small businesses and entrepreneurs. She works with for-profit and non-profit companies based in and around New York City. Her clients tend to work in creative, cultural and educational fields.
Ms. Hamady works with new and existing businesses performing a variety of functions. Initially, she sets-up systems or reviews clients’ existing ones. She then sets controls, oversees and trains staff, and works with the client’s accountant. She assists in reconciling, financial planning, personnel structure, monthly and annual close, cash-flow, revenue recognition, profitability, audits etc. Ms. Hamady also works with company owners managing cash flow and overseeing the development and growth of the companies. She consults for companies that do not require a full-time controller or CFO but need for that skill set. For clients that maintain overseas subsidiaries and/ or foreign currency accounts she oversees their accounting, consolidates their financials and assists in audits per the various government regulations.
She has unique experience with various tax filings which enables her to help clients understand the information needed for tax filings as well discerns the tax filings clients are required to submit. In this way she is able to work internally with her clients’ accounting to help them gather the information they need for their tax preparers.
Prior to her work in business consulting, Ms. Hamady worked in movies as well as freelance writing. She continues to maintain an art practice, working mainly with photography and has exhibited her work at Upstream Gallery, MANA Contemporary, International Center for Photography (ICP) Gallery in NYC and currently has work on display at SLA Art Space in Manhattan.
Ms. Hamady has volunteered for nearly 2 decades at the ICP working as a volunteer Teaching Assistant for adult and teenage classes.
Kiki Somerville, Secretary
An entertainment industry veteran, speaker, lawyer, and author with 20 years of media experience, Kiki Somerville is the founder and CEO of The Fearless Artist and the Executive Producer of TFAPOPUP, one of the most popular popup galleries in the country.
Kiki Somerville is a graduate of The College of William and Mary with a degree in Sociology, and earned her Juris Doctorate from Fordham University School of Law. After working in the business and legal affairs departments of major companies such as MTV Networks, Sony BMG, and Austin Nichols, Kiki Somerville took a sabbatical to reside in Paris and live, write her first book, and travel the world, visiting the great museums and galleries of the world to cultivate her love and knowledge of art.
In 2009, Kiki produced her first art exhibition “Spirits of Haiti” with renowned artist Jude Papaloko “Thegenius.” In 2011, she created Fearless Artist Media/The Fearless Artist and began providing business services to major artists, writers and media personalities like Kerry Lutz, Danny Simmons, David Sena and Kenji Jasper. In 2014, Fearless Artist Media produced the first TFAPOPUP (The Fearless Artist Pop Up Gallery) to serve emerging and undiscovered contemporary artists who wanted access to exhibit during Art Basel Miami/Miami Art Week, the biggest art fair in America, which attracts over 200,000 people annually to Miami, Florida to see hundreds of exhibitions and art fairs. Since its debut in 2014, TFAPOPUP has consistently grown in size and popularity, having featured over 300 artists and regularly attracting between 500-2000 visitors daily.
In 2021, Kiki launched The Fearless Artist Young Curators Program, which teaches artists and creatives the business side of the art world and how to produce a successful event. The international cohorts of students recently showed their work as part of the 7th annual TFAPOPUP event in Miami in December 2021 and first TFAPOPUP event in New York City in June 2022.
Belinda Hankins, Founder and Board Vice Chair
Belinda Hankins is an award-winning businesswoman with over 20 years of progressive experience with industry leaders and Fortune 100 companies, including over 15 years of outstanding contributions in Digital & Social Media. Her areas of expertise include digital strategy, planning, implementation, marketing, website analysis and business development. Currently serving as an independent consultant, Ms. Hankins has served as executive advisor and consultant to businesses, helping them to achieve their digital media and organizational goals.
Prior to serving as an independent consultant, Ms. Hankins served as a Vice President to start-up Revolution Health Group (RHG), where she spearheaded strategic vision, creative development, and planned and implemented Social Networking, Consumer Advocacy and Patient Expert Programs for the initial launch of the Revolution Health website. Before her tenure at RHG, Ms. Hankins served as Vice President, General Manager for American Online (AOL), where she directed strategic planning and all aspects of interactive programming, strategic business initiatives, and community operations. While at AOL, to create synergistic partnerships, she brokered partnerships within Time Warner Inc., with businesses that include, Time Inc. Publications, Warner Brothers, HBO, and New Line Cinema. She also created targeted content and social media strategies for market segments, including health, education, entertainment, news and life-styles. While at AOL, she conceived of and coordinated the launch of a new premium offering targeting African-Americans, capitalizing on a growing and under-served market segment. The site ranked among the top three African-American and urban websites for unique users within three months of launch. Before joining AOL, Ms. Hankins worked in marketing and sales for Computer Data Systems and Xerox Corporation.
Ms. Hankins has been recognized for her work, including being named as one of the “Top 50 Most Important African-Americans in Technology” in 2009, receiving the “New Media Leadership Award” from Women of Color National Technology and Business. She has been sought after for comment by the press and has been interviewed by USA Today, ADWEEK, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Washington Post, and Internet.com. In addition, she was profiled in the article “AOL True Believers” for Fast Company Magazine.
Ms. Hankins received her Bachelor of Science in Marketing and Management from Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia.