NGPAF Leadership TEAM

Board of Directors

W. Frank Wilson

Board Chair

W. Frank Wilson, Board Chair

Frank Wilson is a native of Moultrie, GA. Now retired, Frank enjoyed a 48-year-long illustrious career as a classroom teacher, an Urban League executive, a university employee, and Executive Director of the Albany Civil Rights Institute. He is a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., where he serves on the district council and the See It Through Foundation board of directors. He is a member of the historic Shiloh Baptist Church, where he is a deacon, a Sunday school teacher, and a church organist. He holds membership in the Criterion Club, where he serves as Vice President, and the 26 Club. He also serves as Board Chairman for the Albany Housing Authority. He writes a weekly column entitled “Frankly Speaking” for the Albany Southwest Georgian newspaper and is a community activist.

Frank holds a Bachelor of Science degree in History from Fort Valley State College (now University) and a Masters of Public Administration from Suffield University. He is married to Olivia, and they have seven children, 16 grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. He enjoys reading, writing, golfing, bowling, traveling, and spoiling his great-grands.

Francys Johnson

Treasurer

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Francys Johnson, Treasurer

Francys Johnson is Treasurer of the Board of New Georgia Project Action Fund and Chairman of the Board of its affiliated organization, New Georgia Project. Francys is a noted trial attorney, pastor, and educator, and a progressive thought-leader on race, equity, and understandings of power in public policy. He is currently a partner of Davis Bozeman Johnson Law in Statesboro, GA.

As a zealous trial lawyer, Francys practices criminal and civil law in the state and federal courts. He has secured justice on behalf of the wrongfully accused and seriously injured. He is a Member-at-Large of the Board of Governors of the State Bar of Georgia and the Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism. Francys has also served in ordained ministry for more than 20 years. He is currently Senior Minister at the Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Pembroke and the Magnolia Baptist Church in Statesboro.

Francys holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Political Science and Africana Studies from Georgia Southern University and a J.D. from the University of Georgia School of Law. He has taught courses on Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, Race and the Law, and the Civil Rights Movement. He is partnered with Dr. Meca Williams-Johnson, an educational psychologist and professor. They have three sons, Thurgood Marshall Joshua, Langston Hughes Elijah, and the late Frederick Douglass Caleb. Francys lives by the command of Micah 6:8 to love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly.

Tanya Clay House

Board Member

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Tanya Clay House, Board Member

Tanya Clay House is the Executive Vice President for Campaigns and Advocacy at the Hip Hop Caucus and the Hip Hop Caucus Action Fund where she works to uplift BIPOC communities and for racial, social and economic justice through advocacy, grassroots coalition building, and the use of culture and narrative storytelling. She also serves as CEO and Co-Founder of ClayHouse Consulting Inc. Her clients have included the NAACP, the National Coalition for School Diversity, the Network for Public Education, African American Policy Forum, and more.

Previously, Tanya served as Senior Program Officer for Voting Rights at the State Infrastructure Fund where she managed the voting rights portfolio, including all national voting rights litigation funding and oversaw the Voting Rights Working Group, which developed the Election Protection Mapping Project.

As an Obama Administration appointee, Tanya formerly served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for P-12 Education in the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Education. Prior to this appointment, Tanya served as Director of the Public Policy Department at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and as the Public Policy Director at People For the American Way. She was also instrumental in the development, implementation, and management of the non-partisan Election Protection Coalition. In 2000, Tanya began her political career as Legislative Counsel for U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) and then moved to the office of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) focusing on civil rights and social policy issues.

Tanya has also testified numerous times before the U.S. Congress, state legislatures, and federal and state agencies. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Bar Association (NBA), the Civil Rights and Social Justice Section of the American Bar Association, the National Council on School Diversity, Sojourners, and Chair of the Civil Rights Law Section of the NBA.

Formerly of Louisville, KY, Tanya earned her Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in political science from the University of Michigan. She earned her J.D. from the University of Texas, School of Law, where she was executive editor of the Texas Journal of Women and the Law and attorney general for the Rocky Mountain Black Law Students Association. Tanya resides outside of Washington, D.C., with her husband and their two sons.

Danisha McClary

Board Member

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Danisha McClary, Board Member

Danisha L. McClary is a retired U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps officer and attorney. She is currently licensed to practice law in Georgia where she serves as Assistant Federal Defender for the Middle District of Georgia. She also owns and operates McClary Law and Mediation, P.C., which provides civil mediation services throughout the state of Georgia. Additionally, she is a member of the Board of 4 Horsemen Rehabilitation Services, Inc., in Atlanta, GA.

Prior to her current position in Georgia, Danisha served as the Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity Equity and Inclusion Program Manager for the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Administration Health Care System in Charleston, SC. She also served as the First Lady of Andrews, SC, where she founded a local non-profit to provide community and economic development. Additionally, during her time in South Carolina, Danisha also served as the Director of Housing and Long-term Recovery at the Black River United Way in Georgetown, SC and a contract attorney at Motley Rice law firm in Mount Pleasant, SC. She also served on the board of the Waccamaw Economic Opportunity Council, as chair Georgetown County Capital Sales Tax Commission, and as a member of the Georgetown County Accommodations Tax Committee.

Danisha has a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Florida A&M University, a Masters of Science degree in management from Troy State University, and a J.D. from the University of Georgia Law School. She also earned a Masters of the Laws in contract and fiscal law from the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Legal Center and School.

Fonta High

Board Member

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Fonta High, Board Member

Fonta High is a Licensed Professional Counselor of thirteen years, a Master Addiction Counselor, a National Certified Counselor, and a Certified Professional Counselor Supervisor specializing in treating trauma through her private practice in Decatur, GA. She also serves in a charter school system providing mental health care to students in secondary education. Her work is centered on healing individuals across generations who have experienced trauma and/or are struggling with substance use. She focuses on building power with women who have lost self-confidence and suffer with low self-esteem, while equipping scholars with the tools needed to improve their mental health to perform at their highest capacity.

Fonta is also a community organizer and activist in Decatur who moved to the city in 2016. Shortly thereafter, she joined the board of Create Community for Decatur: Black Lives Matter, where she served until its dissolution. She currently serves on the board for Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights, where she helped to lead the charge to take down the Lost Cause Confederate monument in Decatur, which previously stood since 1908, in her role as co-chair for the Confederate monument removal committee, now the Decolonize Decatur Committee. Her work continues with this organization today in a broader approach to providing community education on symbols of white supremacy and the impact of colonization on people of African descent using a public art initiative, Art for the People.