Speaker Biography

Ann Burroughs is the President and CEO of the Japanese American National Museum and its National Center for the Preservation of Democracy. She is an internationally recognized leader in the field of human rights and social justice. She is a member of the International Board of Directors of Amnesty International, the immediate past Chair of Amnesty International USA and a former Chair of Amnesty International’s Global Assembly, its highest decision-making body. Her life-long commitment to racial and social justice was shaped by her experience as a young activist in her native South Africa where she was jailed as a political prisoner for her opposition to apartheid.

For over 25 years, she has worked with leaders, organizations, and networks in the US and abroad to promote racial justice and a rights-based culture. She has previously served as Executive Director of the Taproot Foundation and as the Executive Director of LA Works, and has worked as a consultant to private philanthropic foundations such the Omidyar Network and the Rockefeller Foundation.