Our founders

Marnie Thompson

Marnie is president of the Fund for Democratic Communities, as well as a consultant in educational research and educational change.

She previously was a senior research scientist in the Learning and Teaching Research Center at Educational Testing Service, where she directed a research program on what works in supporting teachers to become more effective in helping students learn.

As a consultant, she writes articles and leads teacher workshops on practical ways to put kids' learning in the forefront of what's happening in classrooms.

The mother of a third grade teacher in Wake County, N.C., she likes to hang out with her daughter's class, as well as in other classrooms. She is also an anti-racist activist and educator, specializing in working with white folks in figuring out what it means to be anti-racist in everyday life.

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, and a graduate of Duke University, she has lived in North Carolina for most of her life. She lives in Greensboro with her partner Stephen Johnson.

Ed Whitfield

Ed Whitfield is a social critic, writer and community activist who works closely with the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro.

Along with other activities and his "day" job as a second-shift electronics technician in a Greensboro factory, he recently played a prominent role in the establishment of the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

After graduating as a Presidential Scholar from Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas in the late 60s, he went on to Cornell University. In 1968, he was among black students who held a successful, nonviolent demonstration to demand a black studies curriculum for the university. A Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph shows Ed and other armed students peacefully ending the protest.

Ed lectures on issues of education and racism, has hosted a weekly radio talk show and has written an iconoclastic regular newspaper column on community, education and peace/justice issues. He has written a collection of essays on the 9/11 attacks and the issues of war and justice, as well as a book on school diversity that was used by graduate students in the School of Education at N.C. A&T State University. He currently is working on a book re-examining school integration in the light of the current discourse on "re-segregation." He can also be found on weekends playing jazz flute or blues guitar along with local bands.