Press Release: StoryCorps Announces Dane E. Holmes as the New Chair of its Board of Directors

Award-Winning Organization Also Appoints Vic Parker as Treasurer and Welcomes Aaron Bates, Giovanna Gray Lockhart, Miriam Hess, Gary Knell, Sarah O’Brien, James Ransom, and Jason Reynolds to the Board

StoryCorps, the nonprofit organization dedicated to recording, preserving, and sharing humanity’s stories, today announces Dane E. Holmes as the new Chair of its Board of Directors, effective March 4. Holmes, the Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Eskalera, who previously held various leadership positions at Goldman Sachs, comes to the new role after serving as Vice Chair since 2017 and Treasurer since 2020. He succeeds Marta Elisa Moret, President of Urban Policy Strategies, who has been Interim Board Chair since 2021.

Dave Isay, Founder and President of StoryCorps, says, “Dane has been a steadfast supporter of StoryCorps for many years, and the organization has benefitted in countless ways from his extraordinary wisdom and deep humanity. We’re grateful to have him as an advisor and friend and thrilled to see him assume leadership of the Board. As we approach StoryCorps’ 20th anniversary next year, the organization’s future couldn’t be in better hands.”

StoryCorps has also appointed Vic Parker, a Managing Director of Spectrum Equity, as Treasurer and added seven new members to its Board: Aaron M. Bates, Head, Private Wealth Platform and Partnerships at AllianceBernstein; Giovanna Gray Lockhart, founder of the New York Women’s Collective and a Senior Advisor to Paid Leave for the United States; Miriam Hess, Partner at Siegel Strategies; Gary Knell, Senior Advisor to Boston Consulting Group and Past Chairman, National Geographic Partners; Sarah O’Brien, Vice President of Communications at Meta; James Ransom, who serves as a Board Member and the Chair of Economic Development at the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs, and who is featured in the beloved StoryCorps recording and animation “Miss Devine”; and bestselling author Jason Reynolds, who is also the Library of Congress’ National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and was once a StoryCorps interview facilitator.

StoryCorps CEO Sandra M. Clark says, “StoryCorps is an organization dedicated to seeking out, recording, preserving, and sharing the stories and insights of people of all backgrounds and beliefs and will be better able to serve its mission with the invaluable perspectives of these new Board members, a diverse group of leaders with a wide range of expertise. I’m excited to work closely with them to help StoryCorps make an even greater impact in the years ahead.”

These changes to the Board occur at a time of strength and growth for StoryCorps. The organization has recorded almost 600,000 Americans—making its archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress the largest collection of human voices ever gathered. In February 2022, StoryCorps welcomed Sandra M. Clark, previously Vice President for News and Civic Dialogue at WHYY, Inc., as CEO. StoryCorps has more than doubled its annual revenue, to $15 million, since 2014 and in January 2022 was profiled by CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

Dane Holmes, the new Chair of StoryCorps’ Board of Directors, says, “StoryCorps’ mission of creating human connection, empathy, and understanding is as critical as ever. In these challenging times, StoryCorps has both the people and the will to take on the extraordinary task of reminding us of our shared humanity. I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to play a small part in this essential effort, and to continue working closely with Vic in our new roles. I also want to thank Marta for her leadership, which is just one of the numerous ventures she has undertaken in her service to others. She has our eternal gratitude, and we will carry on in a way that honors her significant contributions.”

About Dane E. Holmes, Vic Parker, and the New Board Members

Dane. E. Holmes is the Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Eskalera, Inc., an enterprise software company that builds inclusive, productive work cultures through people empowerment and data-based insights, since 2020. Prior to Eskalera, Holmes was the global head of Human Capital Management at Goldman Sachs from 2017 to 2019 and served as a member of the firm’s Management Committee. He held many positions at Goldman Sachs from 2007 to 2017, including global head of Pine Street and global head of investor relations. During his career, he served on a variety of additional global committees, including Partnership Committee, Risk Committee, Client and Business Standards Committee, Finance Committee, and Global Diversity Committee. Holmes serves on the board of KKR & Co. Inc. Holmes also serves on several non-profit boards. He is currently the Chair of The Ron Brown Scholar Program. Holmes earned a BA in architecture from Columbia University.

Vic Parker joined Spectrum Equity in 1998 and is a Managing Director in San Francisco. His investment experience includes both consumer facing and vertical saas software businesses in industry segments such as edtech, healthcare IT, logistics, and internet information services. He has led Spectrum’s efforts with companies including Ancestry, TeachersPayTeachers, Lynda.com, SurveyMonkey, GoodRx, NetQuote, ExamSoft, DispatchTrack, and NetScreen. Parker previously served on the Board of the NVCA and is a member of the National Council of the World Wildlife Fund. He holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and an AB, magna cum laude, from Dartmouth College.

Aaron M. Bates is Head, Private Wealth Platform and Partnerships at AllianceBernstein, overseeing the firm’s content creation and distribution, marketing strategy, and third-party product and service partnerships. Prior to his current position, Bates was head of Bernstein’s Wealth Strategies team and served as senior managing director. Previously, from Boston, he led Bernstein’s Northeast Private Wealth practice. From 2005 to 2010, he worked in London on the launch of the firm’s global private client practice in Europe; he was appointed Principal in 2008. Prior to that, Bates was based in New York, where he oversaw the Northeast U.S. Private Wealth Management Services Group and served as an analyst in the Private Wealth Management Executive Group. He previously served in the Executive Office of the President of the United States, Office of the US Trade Representative. He has twice been selected to represent the U.S. at the German Marshall Fund’s Conference on Transatlantic Relations. Bates holds a BA in international affairs from George Washington University. He holds Board positions at WGBH Boston, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, and the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University.

Giovanna Gray Lockhart’s career has spanned politics, media, entrepreneurship, and gender equity. She served as a senior aide to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand from 2010 to 2014 and was the Washington Editor of Glamour Magazine from 2014 to 2017. She currently serves as Senior Advisor to Paid Leave for the US (PL+US), advocating for the passage of federal paid family leave. Prior to the pandemic, Lockhart held senior roles at venture-backed coworking companies, first as the Senior Director of Impact at The Wing and then as Chief Strategy Officer at The Riveter. She is on the Board of Republic Restoratives, a woman-owned spirits company in Washington, D.C. Lockhart co-chairs the New York Women’s Collective, a political giving group she founded in 2017 that has contributed over $1,000,000 for Democratic women candidates.

Miriam Hess is a principal at Siegel Strategies, a political communications firm representing clients nationwide. She is a graduate of George Washington University and Saint Louis University schools of Law and Public Health. She began her career focusing on access to healthcare including critical services with the New York Department of Homeless Services under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, where she worked to reform the NYC Shelter system. Hess is also a volunteer with Ubuntu Africa, which delivers critical services to children and teens living with HIV/AIDS in Khayelitsha, South Africa, and she serves on the Board of Basic Health International.

Gary Knell has led some of the world’s most iconic organizations at the intersection of media, education, and social impact. He has served as President and CEO of National Geographic, NPR, and Sesame Workshop. He achieved a breakthrough restructuring of National Geographic, fully endowing the not-for-profit, now providing grants and resources for individuals working on climate, wildlife, oceans, and other critical global challenges, and creating a historic partnership with The Walt Disney Company. Knell led NPR through its digital transformation and expansion into the podcasting space and built bipartisan support for its critical work. Today, he serves as a Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group in its Media and Social Impact practices, as Executive Chairman of Common Sense Classroom, as Special Advisor to Esri on consumer applications for its StoryMaps products, and Advisor to HonorEd Technologies. As the former Chairman of National Geographic Partners, Knell is a sought-after board member and counselor to organizations including the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the US Global Leadership Coalition, the Economic Club of Washington, WAMU, and the University of California Berkeley School of Journalism.

Sarah O’Brien has been the Vice President, Communications for Meta (previously Facebook) since 2019. From 2016-2018, O’Brien was the Vice President of Global Communications for Tesla, reporting directly to CEO Elon Musk, launching Model 3, Solar Roof, and Tesla’s Semi Truck. For eight years prior to that, she worked at Apple, leading comms for Apple Watch, in addition to global launches for iPhone, iPad, App Store, and the iTunes music festival. Originally from Ireland (via the UK), O’Brien launched her career in the music industry, first as PR Manager for the UK music industry association PPL, and then at EMI Music Publishing. She has a BA in Entertainment Management from LIPA (the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts) and a Mini-MBA in Business Management from the University of London and studied music and performance at the BRIT School for performing arts and technology. She currently lives in Oakland, California.

James Ransom is a civic leader in Tampa, Florida. He is a Board member of the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs and serves on the Board of Visit Tampa Bay. He recruited a number of other men in the community to formalize a mentoring and leadership program with Black youth and young professionals. Its goal is to help develop and nurture future leaders who will represent all people. Ransom and his cousin Cherie Johnson are featured in the beloved StoryCorps recording “Miss Devine,” in which they recall their formidable Sunday school teacher, Miss Lizzie Devine. “Miss Devine” is part of StoryCorps’ first-ever half-hour animated special, Listening Is an Act of Love.

Jason Reynolds is the author of more than a dozen books for young people, including Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks, a National Book Award finalist that was named a Best Book of 2019 by NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and TIME. A native of Washington, D.C., Reynolds began writing poetry at age nine and is the recipient of a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, an NAACP Image Award and multiple Coretta Scott King Award honors. His most recent book (with Ibram X. Kendi), Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Reynolds is the Library of Congress’s National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and has appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and CBS This Morning. He is on faculty at Lesley University, for the Writing for Young People MFA Program.

About StoryCorps

Founded in 2003, StoryCorps has given nearly 600,000 people, in all 50 states, the chance to record interviews about their lives. The award-winning organization preserves the recordings in its archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, the largest single collection of human voices ever gathered, and shares select stories with the public through StoryCorps’ podcast, NPR broadcasts, animated shorts, digital platforms, and best-selling books. These powerful human stories reflect the vast range of American experiences, engender empathy and connection, and remind us how much more we have in common than what divides us. StoryCorps is especially committed to capturing and amplifying voices least heard in the media. The StoryCorps MobileBooth, an Airstream trailer that has been transformed into a traveling recording booth, crisscrosses the country year-round gathering the stories of people nationwide. Learn more at storycorps.org.