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 executive director of the Fund for Democratic Communities, as well as 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 is currently 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.