Michael Buman
Board Chair
Michael Buman is currently Executive Director at Leadership for Educational Equity. Previously, he was a partner in the New York office of McKinsey & Co., where he was a leader in the financial institutions practice focusing on insurance and asset management. He has also worked with many education organizations throughout New York City. Michael is a graduate of Michigan State University and the New York University Stern School of Business.
Lemonada Advisory Council
Chris Bannon
Advisory Council Member
Chris Bannon has worked in audio for more than 25 years, leading the development and production of everything from live comedy to breaking news and long-form documentaries. Most recently, he served as Chief Content Officer at podcast powerhouse Stitcher, where he launched a diverse array of audience favorites, including Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Office Ladies, The Dream, Heaven’s Gate, Unfinished: Deep South, LeVar Burton Reads, Marvel’s Wolverine, Science Rules! with Bill Nye, Bitch Sesh, and Chris Gethard’s Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People. As Program Director and VP of Content at WNYC, the country’s largest public radio station, he headed show development and launched Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, and Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin, among other projects. Bannon is a graduate of Brown University, where he serves on the board of WBRU, the student-run media lab. He received an M.A. in English from the University of North Carolina, and has taught creative writing at Columbia’s School of the Arts graduate writing program and courses in podcasting at CUNY’s Newmark School of Journalism.”
From our first meeting to talk about Last Day and the network Jessica and Stephanie wanted to launch, I’ve been excited by their creative vision and their business savvy,” he says. “It’s an honor to be able to help guide them in this dynamic medium, and to join this extraordinary board. I know it will be a lot of fun, and that together we’ll continue to build on their imaginative foundation.”
Sinéad Burke
Advisory Council Member
Activist Sinéad Burke has used writing, public-speaking, and social media to highlight the lack of inclusivity within the fashion industry and encourages the industry to design for and with disabled people on a global level. Sinéad has visited schools, workplaces, government agencies and the White House to facilitate honest conversations around education, disability, fashion, and accessibility. She advocates for the inclusion of all and challenges officials to legislate with the most marginalized in our communities. She is currently working on a Ph.D. at Dublin’s Trinity College in human-rights education that specifically confronts the ways in which schools allow children to have a voice. She is an ambassador for the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Irish Girl Guides. Burke is also the host of Lemonada Media’s podcast As Me with Sinéad.
Jamillia Ferris
Advisory Council Member
Jamillia Ferris is an antitrust partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini, where she focuses on competition issues facing technology companies. Jamillia has held leadership positions and oversaw mergers at both the Antitrust Division of the DOJ and the FCC. In 2014, she led the FCC’s review of AT&T’s proposed $49 billion acquisition of DIRECTV, overseeing all aspects of the FCC process. Jamillia has served in numerous leadership positions in the Section of Antitrust Law, American Bar Association, and currently is an editor of the ABA publication, The Source. She says of Lemonada: “I have been a beneficiary of Jessica Cordova Kramer’s wisdom and creativity for more than a decade—and of Stephanie Wittels Wachs’ vision for the last year. I am thrilled to get even closer to their stories and Lemonada Media’s growth as part of the Advisory Council.
Patrick Kennedy
Advisory Council Member
Former U.S. Representative Patrick J. Kennedy was the lead author of the landmark Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (Federal Parity Law), which requires insurers to cover treatment for mental health and substance-use disorders no more restrictively than treatment for illnesses of the body, such as diabetes and cancer. In 2013, he founded The Kennedy Forum, a nonprofit that unites advocates, business leaders, and government agencies to advance evidence-based practices, policies, and programming in mental health and addiction. In 2015, Kennedy co-authored the New York Times Bestseller, A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction, which details a bold plan for the future of mental health care in America.
In 2017, he was appointed to the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis. Kennedy is also the founder of DontDenyMe.org, an educational campaign that empowers consumers and providers to understand parity rights and connects them to essential appeals guidance and resources; co-founder of One Mind, an organization that pushes for greater global investment in brain research; co-founder of Psych Hub, the most comprehensive online learning platform on mental health, substance use, and suicide prevention topics in the world; co-chair of Mental Health for US, a nonpartisan initiative designed to elevate mental health and addiction in policy conversations during the 2020 election cycle; and co-chair of the Action Alliance’s Mental Health & Suicide Prevention National Response to COVID-19.
Wendy Kopp
Advisory Council Member
Wendy Kopp is CEO and Co-Founder of Teach For All, a global network of independent organizations that are developing collective leadership to ensure all children have the opportunity to fulfill their potential. Wendy founded Teach For America in 1989 to marshal the energy of her generation against educational inequity in the United States. Wendy has been recognized as one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” and is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and awards for public service. She is the author of A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesn’t in Providing an Excellent Education for All (2011) and One Day, All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach For America and What I Learned Along the Way (2000). She holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, where she participated in the undergraduate program of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
DeRay Mckesson
Advisory Council Member
DeRay Mckesson is a civil-rights activist focused primarily on issues of innovation, equity, and justice. DeRay has advocated for issues related to children, youth, and families since he was a teen. As a leading voice in the Black Lives Matter Movement and a co-founder of Campaign Zero, DeRay has worked to connect individuals with knowledge and tools, while providing citizens and policy makers with common-sense policies that ensure equity. He has been praised by President Obama for his work as a community organizer, has advised officials at all levels of government and internationally, and continues to provide capacity to activists, organizers, and influencers to make an impact. As a podcaster, DeRay currently hosts Crooked Media’s Pod Save the People and co-produces Lemonada Media’s The Untold Story: Policing. Born and raised in Baltimore, he graduated from Bowdoin College and holds honorary doctorates from The New School and the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Andy Slavitt
Advisory Council Member
Andy Slavitt has led some of the largest decades of private and public-sector initiatives in health care. From 2015–17, Slavitt was appointed by former President Obama to serve as the Acting Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). He first came to public view as the lead in overseeing the turnaround and relaunch of Healthcare.gov.
He’s been anointed to “The Politico 50,” recognized as one of the 10 most influential people in health care, and has one of the largest and most influential accounts on Twitter. Today, Slavitt is dedicated to building a sustainable, high-quality health-care system that is available to all Americans. Slavitt is the founder and Board Chair of non-profit United States of Care and is a General Partner at Town Hall Ventures, which sparks innovation in vulnerable communities. He writes a regular column for USA Today and frequently appears on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and NPR. Slavitt is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School and The College of Arts Sciences and received an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Kulap Vilaysack
Advisory Council Member
Kulap Vilaysack is a writer-director who created the TV series Bajillion Dollar Properties on Seeso. She was the showrunner/EP on the show and also directed numerous episodes. Her work on the show was highlighted in a New York Times article celebrating “Young Comic TV Showrunners.” She created and co-hosted the popular Earwolf podcast Who Charted alongside Howard Kremer for seven years before stepping back to pursue other projects. Her original documentary, Origin Story, which chronicles her travels to her native land of Laos to search for her father, debuted at the Bentonville Film Festival and CAAMFest to great acclaim and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. She was also the showrunner/co-EP on the NBC special A Legendary Christmas With John and Chrissy and directed Emily Heller’s stand-up special Ice Thickeners for Comedy Central Digital. Kulap currently co-hosts Lemonada Media’s Add to Cart.
“It has been a pleasure to witness Lemonada’s formation, launch, and rise,” she says of Lemonada. “Stephanie Wittels Wachs and Jessica Cordova Kramer—through hard work, perseverance, and good taste—have created a media company that holds up a corner of the sky.”
Melinda Wright
Advisory Council Member
Melinda Wright is a Senior Program Officer for the K-12 Education Program at the Walton Family Foundation. In this role, Melinda focuses on funder networks, African-American donor engagement, and special projects. Prior to joining the foundation, Melinda served in a variety of roles at Teach For America including Senior Vice President of Alumni Diversity. In this role, Melinda developed Teach For America’s first ever national alumni of color association, The Collective. Melinda received her Bachelor of Arts in Africana Studies from Cornell University and upon graduating, she joined Teach For America and taught in New York City. After completing her corps commitment, Melinda attended George Washington University law school where she attained her Juris Doctorate as well as her master’s in history (African-American Studies) and Public Policy (Education). She spent her second summer of law school studying International Human Rights Law at Oxford University. Immediately following law school, Melinda seized the opportunity to serve as the Head Coach of Howard University’s women’s lacrosse team, which at the time was the only Division I team at a historically Black University. Soon after, Melinda and her family relocated to Westminster School, a 9th to 12th grade boarding school, where she served as the Director of Diversity, Associate Director of Admissions and Director of Student Life.