Meet Our Board

Malik Ahmed, Founder Better Family Life

Malik Ahmed has distinguished himself as working tirelessly over decades for the betterment of his community in his roles as Founder of Better Family Life, as well as its CEO/President. The mission statement for Better Family Life could not be more direct about its goal of making lives better. Mr. Ahmed is also an author and has given many presentations in furtherance of his goals. He will clearly be an asset to the Foundation board.

Meredith Benage, Attorney at Law

Meredith is a Senior Counsel in the Tax Credits Finance practice at Husch Blackwell LLP’s St. Louis office. Meredith represents investors, lenders, and community development entities in new markets and low-income housing tax credit transactions. She is passionate about the positive impact tax credit incentivized transactions can have in communities by increasing jobs, growing businesses, and constructing multi-family, commercial or industrial buildings. Meredith is excited to contribute to the educational mission of the FSM Foundation and continue to bring awareness to the Freedom Suits Memorial.

Dr. Andrea S. Boyles, Associate Professor

Dr. Andrea S. Boyles is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Tulane University and President-Elect for the Association of Black Sociologists. She is author of books, You Can’t Stop the Revolution and Race, Place, and Suburban Policing. Dr. Boyles is a native St. Louisan, holding a B.A. in English and M.A. in Sociology from Lincoln University of Missouri and a PhD in Sociology from Kansas State University.

Gregory Carr, Assistant Professor of Theater. Harris-Stowe State University

Gregory S. Carr is an instructor of Speech and Theatre at Harris-Stowe State University. He is an accomplished director and writer. Two of his plays, Johnnie Taylor Is Gone and A Colored Funeral have been given productions at the historic Karamu House in Cleveland.

Mark Scott Carroll, Creative Director

Mr. Carroll is a St. Louis-based Commercial Artist. He has produced creative solutions for clients from various industries featured in a portfolio of work spanning 4+ decades. Projects showcasing graphic design including but not limited to logo ideation and design, brand identity packages, marketing collateral (print & digital) and art installations represent his wheelhouse of interest and specialization.

Kendra Chappell, Teacher

Kendra Chappell is an advocate, a teaching artist, and a collaborator. As the writer and director of The Milly Project, she and the cast have had the opportunity to serve through live productions and film with the support of The Missouri Bar, the Gillioz Theatre, and the beloved community. Since 2019, this gift of story has been utilized at universities and schools, CLE trainings, faith and interfaith gatherings, DEI workshops, community organizations, and for the NAACP.

With 32 years as a public school theater teacher and also an MSU adjunct educator with the privilege and ability to direct and create workshops for regional, state, national, and international organizations and theatres, Kendra hopes to simply be a part of the truth-telling, commemorating and honoring the stories and ancestors who have boldly proclaimed human rights.

Commissioner Anne-Marie Clarke, Retired Family Court Commissioner

Commissioner Anne-Marie Clarke served as Family Court Commissioner (Judge) of the Family Court for the 22^ndJudicial Circuit Court, St. Louis City, from October 1, 1998 until her retirement on March 31, 2019. With her service as Hearing Officer of the Family Court from January 1986 until her appointment as Commissioner, she was a judicial officer for the 22^nd Circuit Court for more than 33 years. She was the 47^th Chair of the Judicial Council Division of the National Bar Association. She is a past president of the Mound City Bar Association, the oldest Black Bar Association west of the Mississippi and chaired its Centennial Celebration Committee. She is passionate about preserving the history of Mound City Bar, the Lincoln Law School and Black lawyers in St Louis. She first became aware of the Freedom Suits while working with Judge David Mason when he was presiding judge of the Juvenile Division and she has been deeply touched by these untold stories.

Lauren C. Collins, Litigation Attorney

Lauren C. Collins is a litigation attorney for the in-house counsel firm of The Automobile Club of Missouri, which is known as Bischoff, Buckley, Collins and Zimmer. Lauren obtained her law degree from the University of Missouri-School of Law in 2013. After passing the Missouri Bar, she began her legal career as a prosecutor in the City of St. Louis, where she tried numerous bench and jury trials. After two years at the Circuit Attorney’s Office, Lauren went into private practice working as an associate with HeplerBroom, LLC and Sandberg Phoenix. Currently, Lauren serves on the Board of Governors for the Missouri Bar and is an adjunct professor at St. Louis University School of Law where she teaches a Negotiations course. In her free time, Lauren enjoys cooking, traveling and hosting family and friends at her home.

John Dougan, State Archivist and Records Services Director, Missouri Office of the Secretary of State

John Dougan is the State Archivist and Records Services Director for the Office of the Missouri Secretary of State where he and his team work to preserve and provide access to state and local government records. This work includes development of the award-winning Missouri State Archives and Missouri Digital Heritage websites; numerous innovations in the State Imaging Lab and State Records Center; conservation of the state’s most important and most damaged records; and the growth of onsite and online volunteer programs. Throughout his career in Missouri, and previously at the Memphis/Shelby County Archives in Memphis, Tennessee, he has advocated for online access to historical and genealogical and records. His interests include developing underutilized records, emphasizing historical and legal context in family history research, and developing volunteer tools and programs. Dougan holds a Masters in History from the University of Memphis. John and his wife enjoy several heritage activities that include fruit production, gardening, and maintaining a small apiary. 

George William Draper III, Retired Missouri Supreme Court Judge

Judge Draper followed his father’s footsteps by becoming a lawyer. He served in the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office (1984-1994) before beginning his impressive judicial career arc, which took him from the Circuit bench in the Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit, to the Missouri Court of Appeals (Eastern District), and finally to the Missouri Supreme Court, where he served as Chief Justice in 2019 – 2021, which term included the challenges of the pandemic. He earned his Juris Doctor from Howard University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from Morehouse College. A dedicated public servant, almost immediately after retiring from the Missouri Supreme Court in August 2023, Judge Draper accepted the invitation of St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabriel Gore to join his office in a newly created position of “chief training officer” to provide mentorship to young lawyers and to possibly be involved in special projects. 

Jerry M. Hunter, Senior Counsel

Mr. Hunter is Senior Counsel with Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) and a highly respected employment lawyer, practicing in all areas of this specialty, including internal investigations, arbitration, mediation and representing clients in all phases of labor and employment law.  Prior to entering private practice at BCLP, Mr. Hunter held impressive public service positions. He was General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from November 1989 to November 1993. Before this, he served as Director of the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations for the State of Missouri. He was also employed as a field attorney for the NLRB and as a senior trial attorney by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Mr. Hunter was also appointed to serve a four-year term on the Board of Directors of the Office of Compliance, which had the mission to administer the eleven statutes in the areas of civil rights and labor laws made applicable to the legislative branch by the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995.

Lynne M. Jackson, Founder Dred Scott Heritage Foundation

Mrs. Jackson is a great-great granddaughter of Harriet and Dred Scott. She earned her B.S. in Business Administration from SUI-Edwardsville, formed the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation in 2006 and was a manager at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP law firm until 2009. The Foundation commissioned the only statue of Harriet and Dred Scott. In September 2023, the Foundation establishes a new memorial monument to Dred Scott in Calvary Cemetery.

David Thomas Konig, Emeritus Professor of Law and History

After receiving his PhD in History from Harvard in 1973, David Konig taught history and law at Washington University in St. Louis until his retirement in 2017. He has written on law and society with an emphasis on property (including the chattelization of human as property) and Constitutional law.

Judge David C. Mason, Founder Freedom Suits Memorial

Since shortly after the discovery of the freedom suits files in 1999, Judge Mason became impassioned by the courage of the plaintiffs and those who helped them. Before very long, he conceived the idea of a memorial to the freedom suits plaintiffs, and the lawyers and judges who helped them. No one has championed harder for the Memorial than Judge Mason. No one is more worthy than he is to be called “Founder”.

Judge Mason is a 1983 graduate of the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, and a 1980 graduate of Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. He was appointed a Circuit Judge in August of 1991 at the age of 35 and presides over major civil and criminal trials.

Thomas K. Neill, Attorney at Law

Mr. Neill is a practicing attorney and has been involved with the Freedom Suits Memorial since the very first meeting of the Steering Committee in 2014. He and his family reside in the City of St. Louis.

Adolphus M. Pruitt, II, President of the St. Louis NAACP

Adolphus M. Pruitt, II, President of the St. Louis NAACP, has been a staunch supporter of the Freedom Suits Memorial. He accepted Judge David Mason’s invitation to serve on the Steering Committee in 2014 and is now a member of the Freedom Suits Memorial Foundation. His experience has been invaluable during his Steering Committee service and he will, no doubt, be an asset to the Foundation’s educational mission.

Ryan Turnage, Corporate Counsel

Ryan Turnage is Corporate Counsel – Claims Manager for Schnuck Markets, Inc., a private St. Louis, family-owned grocery store. Ryan handles general liability matters for the organization and defends the organization in civil litigation. Prior to working in-house, Ryan was an attorney at the law firm of Rynearson, Suess, Schnurbusch & Champion. Ryan received his Juris Doctorate degree from Saint Louis University School of Law in 2009 and received his undergraduate degrees from Saint Louis University in 2005. .

Anne Twitty, Associate Professor

Professor Twitty’s research focuses on legal history and the history of slavery and freedom. Her first book, Before Dred Scott: Slavery and Legal Culture in the American Confluence, 1787-1857 (Cambridge, 2016) uses the freedom suits filed in the St. Louis Circuit court to show how ordinary people – enslaved and free, Black and white – developed a sophisticated knowledge of formal law and how it might be manipulated.

Professor Twitty served as a consultant to the Freedom Suits Memorial Steering Committee – notably its subcommittee charged with verifying the names of St. Louis freedom suits plaintiffs, which are etched on the granite base for Memorial’s sculpture – Freedom’s Home. 

Paul N. Venker, Attorney at Law

Mr. Venker has recently become the president of the Foundation. In late 2014, Paul Venker began working on the St. Louis Freedom Suits Memorial, in response to Judge David Mason convening a Steering Committee to raise money for the the original Memorial concept, which was a sculpture in honor of the freedom suits plaintiffs, lawyers, and judges. At that time, Paul was asked to serve as Chair of the Steering Committee, which he has done, taking a leading role not only in fundraising but also in expansions in the overall design of the Memorial, including plaintiffs’ names on a base for the sculpture and the Dedication Monument.

Mr. Venker continues with gratitude to energetically embrace his role as assisting Judge Mason in making his dream of a freedom suits memorial become a reality. Mr. Venker has been a licensed attorney since 1980, graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia, School of Law. He has been a trial and appellate lawyer for his entire career, mostly in civil defense matters.

Lynn Ann Whaley Vogel, Attorney at Law

Lynn Ann Vogel, originally from Jefferson City, Missouri, has practiced real estate law in St. Louis since 1989. She has been president of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis (BAMSL) and The Missouri Bar and continues to be active in both and their Foundations. She was also on the executive board of the National Association of Bar Presidents. She has been on the steering committee of the Freedom Suits project since the inception as a liaison from the St. Louis Bar Foundation.

Harry W. Wellford, Jr., Attorney at Law

Mr. Wellford is a shareholder at Littler in St. Louis who has practiced law for over 40 years. He served as law clerk for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. He has also served as chair of ABA committees, multiple Boards of Directors (Missouri Humane Society), and as a special attorney general for Missouri. He is married to Dr. Amanda Wellford. Their three children were raised in St. Louis. He wants to leave our community a better place. Telling the story behind the FSM and following up on our mission statement is part of that commitment.

Kenneth H. Winn, PHD, Archivist

Kenneth H. Winn is the former State Archivist of Missouri. He also worked at the Missouri Supreme Court, and has taught history at both Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Missouri—Columbia. He is the author or editor of numerous works on American history. As the State Archivist he initiated the discovery, conservation, and organization of St. Louis’s slave freedom suits.