Leadership

FOUNDER

Dr. Gerald L. Durley

Board Members:

Michael W. Tyler – Chairman/Executive Director, Senior Partner, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP
George Andrews – Treasurer, Retired President and CEO, Capitol City Bank
Laura Turner Seydel, Chairperson, Captain Planet Foundation
Napoleon Hornbuckle, Retired Corporate Vice-President, Motorola, Inc.
Dr. Darryl Tookes, Physician, Kaiser Permanente

Advisory Council:

Gov. Roy Barnes - Former Governor, State of Georgia
Rabbi Peter S. Berg - Senior Rabbi, The Temple Atlanta, GA
The Rev. Sally G. Bingham - President & Founder, Interfaith Power & Light
Dr. Robert D. Bullard - Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning & Environmental Policy, Texas Southern University
Mrs. Ann Cramer - Senior Consultant, Coxe Curry & Associates
Imam Plemon El-Amin - Imam Emeritus, Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam
Dr. Robert M. Franklin, Jr. - James T. and Berta R. Laney Professor of Moral Leadership, Emory University, Candler School of Theology
Gary A. Harris - President & Founder, Center for Sustainable Communities
The Honorable Glenda Hatchett - Founding Partner, The Hatchett Firm
Mr. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. - President of the Board, WaterKeeper Alliance
Mr. Martin L. King, III - Human Rights Activist
Ovie Mughelli - Founder/President, Ovie Mughelli Foundation
Mr. Michael B. Russell - Chief Executive Officer, HJ Russell & Company
Dr. James Marshall Shepherd - Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor, Director, Atmospheric Sciences Program, University of Georgia
Rev. Dr. C.T. Vivian - Founder, C.T. Vivian Leadership Institute
Dr. Priscilla Weaver - President, National Environmental Health Association, Senior Life Scientist, Office of Regional Administration of EPA
The Reverend Dr. George B. Wirth - Pastor Emeritus, First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta
The Reverend Dr. Thomas Wolfe - President & CEO, Bishop Henry White Warren Professor of Leadership and Ministry Praxis, Lliff School of Theology
The Honorable Andrew J. Young - Founder, Andrew Young Foundation

Rev. Dr. Gerald L. Durley, Founder

Rev. Dr. Gerald L. Durley is Pastor Emeritus of the historic Providence Missionary Baptist Church of Atlanta, Georgia. He is a graduate of Manual High School in Denver Colorado. He joined the Civil Rights Movement in 1960 while attending Tennessee State University in Nashville. Upon graduation he volunteered as one of the first U.S. Peace Corp members to serve in Nigeria. He subsequently completed a master’s degree in Community Mental Illness and Psychology, and served as an administrator and director of several programs at the University. Continuing his deep interest in civil and human rights, our speaker assumed the position of Program Manager at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, DC. He became Vice-president of the Institute for Services to Education—designing interdisciplinary study programs for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s). He later enrolled at the University of Massachusetts where he earned a doctorate degree in Urban Education and Psychology.

Understanding that the mind and the spirit must be in harmony, Dr. Durley earned a Master of Divinity degree at Howard University’s School of Divinity. Upon graduation he became assistant pastor of Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. After relocating to Atlanta, Georgia, Rev. Dr. Durley became a pulpit associate at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church; while serving as Dean of Clark College. He was called to Pastor historic Providence Missionary Baptist Church in 1987 where he served for 25 years. During those monumental years, he concurrently directed the Morehouse School of Medicine’s Health Promotion Resource Center, and simultaneously served as the Executive Director of 19 Head Start sites.

Rev. Dr. Durley is a legendary leader of civil and human rights causes, and in recent years he has become intensely active as an environmental warrior. He believes that God created the earth, and gave us dominion over a perfect, ecologically balanced world, but humans are destroying this gift. He believes that we have a moral obligation, and civic responsibility to speak up about climate change, global warming, and environmental justice. Rev. Durley combines the ethical teaching from the faith community with scientific research and his civil rights background to make a difference.

Rev. Dr. Durley is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, certificates of recognition and appreciation which include the following:

White House Champion of Change Award
Trail Blazer Green Church Award
Morehouse College of Preachers Award
Friends of Arava Institute Environmental Award
Tuskegee Religious Leaders Award
Atlanta Citizen’s and Georgia Citizen’s Awards
National Leadership Awards from:
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
National Urban League
The Atlanta Business League

Dr. Durley is a much sought after speaker, preacher and presenter—locally, nationally and internationally. He serves on many active boards around the world.

Michael W. Tyler, Chairman/Executive Director

Michael W. Tyler is a Partner with Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP in the firm’s Complex Business Litigation Section and leads both the Franchise Litigation Group and the Land Use Litigation Group. His practice focuses on commercial litigation, franchise litigation, business torts and land use litigation. Mr. Tyler was the first African-American to be made partner at Kilpatrick Townsend – Atlanta’s oldest major corporate law firm.

Mr. Tyler earned a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School, a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University and a B.A. degree summa cum laude from Morehouse College where he was class Salutatorian and inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.

Mr. Tyler served as a Judicial Law Clerk on the United States Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and has the distinction of being the first African-American to serve as a Judicial Law Clerk on that court.

Mr. Tyler has served the community in a myriad of leadership capacities. He is the current Chairman of the Franchise and Distribution Law Section of the State Bar of Georgia. He also currently serves as Chairman of the Boards of the UrbanGreenhouse Institute and Providence Manor Development Corp., and as a member of the Boards of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Covenant House Georgia, the Metro Atlanta Association of Phi Beta Kappa, and Providence Missionary Baptist Church. Mr. Tyler previously served as Chairman of the Board of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Piedmont Park Conservancy, Vice-Chairman of the Atlanta Zoning Review Board, Vice-Chairman of the Board of the National Black Arts Festival, Vice-Chairman of the Board of The Children’s School, Vice-President of the Gate City Bar Association, and a member of the Boards of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, the State Bar of Georgia Disciplinary Board, the Atlanta Urban League, and Economic Opportunity Atlanta.

Mr. Tyler has received numerous honors and awards, including The Best Lawyers in America in the field of Commercial Litigation, Georgia Super Lawyers in the Field of Business Litigation, Who’s Who Legal: Franchise, Georgia’s “Legal Elite” by Georgia Trend Magazine, and “Who’s Who in Atlanta” by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. He is the recipient of the Justice Robert Benham Award – the State Bar of Georgia’s highest award for community service. He was inducted into the Gate City Bar Association’s Hall of Fame and was twice awarded the A.T. Walden Outstanding Lawyer Award. He also received the Morehouse College Alumni Association Trailblazer Award, the Morehouse College Political Science Department Distinguished Alumnus Award, the Let Us Make Man Award for Excellence in the Law, the Concerned Black Clergy Father of the Year Award, and Atlanta Business League Man of Influence Award.

Among Mr. Tyler’s most notable civic contributions was the creation of the Booker T. Washington High School Freedom Writers Program, where Kilpatrick Townsend mentored 78 students for their entire four years of high school with 99% of the students gaining admission to college and being awarded 335 scholarships totaling $8.5 million.

Mr. Tyler also spearheaded the development of the $5.2‑million Providence Manor Senior Citizens complex for low income seniors in southwest Atlanta, for which Kilpatrick Townsend donated hundreds of hours of pro bono legal services.