Summer is the owner of ‘Summer Says,’ a digital media company, and the website summersays.com. She was born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama, and graduated from the University of Mississippi. After college, worked for CBS Sports and served on the Board of the Goddard Riverside organization. Summer is married to Clyde Anderson, and mother to two daughters, Bea and Claire. Summer serves on the Board of the Preservation Society of Charleston and the Board of Trustees of Charleston Day School.

SECRETARY

Anne grew up in Charleston and was a Jefferson Scholar at the University of Virginia. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in English at Tulane University, where she wrote her dissertation on “Reparational Literature: The Enslaved Female Body as Text in Contemporary Novels by White Women”. Her first job was in publishing, and she has taught many ages, including kindergarten French, middle school Latin, high school English, English as a Second Language, and writing and literature at Tulane University and College of Charleston. She has served on several local boards, including The Charleston Library Society and the Huguenot Church, and she is currently Chair of the Historic Charleston Foundation Board. Anne and her husband, Bo, have three children.

Leilani M. Brown is CEO of a boutique consulting firm focused on strategy and culture, offering comprehensive advisory services to a diverse set of clients across multiple sectors, including corporate businesses, non-profits, arts and cultural institutions, healthcare, and educational organizations. Prior to founding her firm, Leilani was an award-winning executive at leading companies including Stride, Starr Companies, The Economist Group, MetLife, and American International Group.

Leilani also serves as Vice Chair of Middlebury, her alma mater, and on the advisory board for the Honors College at the College of Charleston. Prior to joining the board of the Festival, Leilani was a regular attendee and served as an external (non-Board) member of the Festival's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.

Jasmine has served as a federal court law clerk to Judge Richard Gergel since 2019 in Charleston, South Carolina. A Southern California native, she is a 2012 graduate of Pomona College where she earned her B.A. in History and studied abroad in Rome, Italy. She earned her JD in 2016 at American University Washington College of Law where she served as a Marshall-Brennan Fellow and taught a yearlong course in Constitutional law and oral advocacy to a high school class. Today a member of the Bar in California and in South Carolina, she has served as a law clerk to South Carolina Circuit Judge DeAndrea Gist Benjamin in Columbia, South Carolina and worked as an Associate Attorney at the Nelson, Mullins, Riley, and Scarborough Law Firm in Columbia.

Sam is the founder and CEO of Crown Merchandise, a full-service merchandising company that represents a wide range of music brands on tour, at retail and through strategic licensing partnerships. Sam has been a long time study of Southern culture and literature, specifically focused on the notable authors from his home state of Mississippi. His personal passion for cultural preservation has in part involved historic restorations, including multiple properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Sam resides in Charleston with his husband and three children.

CHAIR

Walter is an attorney and a venture capital investor in financial services and technology companies. He served as a White House Fellow and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States before embarking upon a career in the private sector. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of a number of private and publicly-traded companies and is active in various civic and philanthropic organizations. He is an honors graduate of Yale College and The University of Virginia School of Law where he was a member of the Law Review and The Order of the Coif.

FOUNDER & CHAIR EMERITA

Deborah is an art historian and international art dealer based in London. In 1980 Deborah (known as Debo) spearheaded the initiative to save Charleston Farmhouse, in Sussex, home of the 20th century British artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant which resulted in the founding of the Charleston Festival in 1990, one of the foremost literary events in the United Kingdom. Subsequently, Deborah, with the collaboration of the Charleston Trust and The Charleston Library Society, brought the Sussex Festival to Charleston, South Carolina in 2017. It has now evolved to become the Charleston Literary Festival. Given her transatlantic life, Deborah sits on a number of US boards. She is a council member of the Getty Paintings Council and a member of the US board of the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, reflecting her Kenyan childhood roots. She is also the curator at the Gage family ancestral home, Firle Place in Sussex: Charleston Farmhouse lies within the Firle estate.

Paul is from Boston, MA. He graduated magna cum laude from Williams College in 1960. He then studied at Sciences Politiques in Paris, before graduating cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1964. He clerked two years for the Hon. Edmund L. Palmieri in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, where he then served as an Assistant United States Attorney under Robert M. Morgenthau for four years, including one as Chief Appellate Attorney.In 1967, he married Sheila Dacey and they moved to Boston when Paul joined the law firm Ropes & Gray in 1970. He remained there for 38 years, retiring in 2008. He was a managing partner for 12 years. He was elected a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and of the American Law Institute. He also taught trial practice for five years at Harvard Law School. Paul and Sheila have had a home in Charleston since 1994. They have two children and three grandchildren.Paul serves of the Boards of the United States Seniors’ Golf Association, the Gaillard Performance Hall Foundation in Charleston, and Yeomans Hall Club and its Foundation, also in Charleston. He has served for many years on the Advisory Board of the Heart and Vascular Center of the Medical University of South Carolina.

Laura is an esteemed community leader and philanthropist. Her experience includes being Chair of the SELC/Southern Environmental Law Center, past Chair of the Coastal Conservation League, the Gibbes Museum of Art, and the Board of Trustees of Wellesley College. She currently serves on the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation board and the Preservation Society of Charleston.

Belinda is a native South Carolinian. She earned her undergraduate degree from Columbia College and her masters and doctoral degrees from Duke University. A professional educator, she has been a teacher in Richland School District One in Columbia, SC, and a faculty member and the Chair of History and Political Department at Columbia College. The author of several works on South Carolina history, she was co-editor of Matthew J. Perry: The Man, His Times, and His Legacy, published by the University of South Carolina Press.Active in community and cultural organizations, she has served on the Claflin University Board of Trustees and as President of the Historic Columbia Foundation, the SC Jewish Historical Society, and The Fort Sumter Trust. She has served on the boards of Brookgreen Gardens and the Southern Garden Historical Society. A former member of the Columbia (SC) City Council, she relocated to Charleston to join her husband, United States District Judge Richard Mark Gergel. The Gergels are the parents of two grown children.

After graduating from Boston College and NYU Graduate School of Business, Roch began his business career as a corporate banker at Citibank NY. In 1980 he joined Commodities Corporation as Treasurer and continued in various senior executive positions becoming President in 1994. In 1997 he orchestrated the acquisition of Commodities Corporation by Goldman Sachs & Co., New York. As a Partner of Goldman Sachs, he continued as President of Commodities Corporation (renamed GS Hedge Fund Strategies Group) and also as Head of Global Active Equity within GS Asset Management (GSAM) overseeing portfolio managers based in New York, London, Tokyo and Singapore who collectively managed over $60 billion. In addition to other senior management positions within GSAM, Roch was a member of the Firmwide Risk Committee. Roch retired from GS in 2004 and founded Stony Brook Investments, LLC to invest in hedge funds and private equity. Roch has been actively involved in various philanthropic organizations and currently serves as Chair of PowerMyLearning, a New York based national nonprofit which partners with schools, particularly those from historically marginalized communities, in strengthening learning relationships among teachers, students and families so that all students can succeed.

Deborah is an attorney whose legal career specialized in international trade and international transactions. She is a former Managing Counsel of Mobil Oil Corporation (now ExxonMobil). In that position, she supervised lawyers in the US, London and Singapore who handled legal matters related to the global supply, trading and transportation operations of the company and its affiliates. Prior to that position, she was Senior Counsel for Major Transactions for the company, negotiating contractual agreements with Russia and Kazakhstan for oil exploration and activities. Deborah has served on the board of a number of non-profit organizations in Washington, DC and currently serves on several non-profit boards in Charleston, including Spoleto Festival USA, The Gibbes Museum of Art, WINGS for Kids, and previously, the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League. She is a graduate of Yale School of Law and received a B.A. in Political Science from Duke University, magna cum laude.

Kim is a lifelong learner with advanced degrees in education, organizational leadership, and early childhood public policy. She has a long record of board service and vast experience as a community fundraiser, directly raising over $25 million for the arts, children's causes and educational initiatives. Kim carries the executive director of the Lowcountry Rice Culture Project and the project director for the planned Jonathan Green Cultural Heritage Center at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. Her undergraduate alma mater is Oakwood University, an HBCU in Huntsville, Alabama.

TREASURER

James was a partner at the global law firm of Dechert LLP for 28 years, where he serves as Managing Partner of the Princeton office and Chair of the Firm’s Corporate and Securities Life Sciences Practice. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Onconova Therapeutics and is also a member of the Board of Directors at Celidex Therapeutics. He has worked in advisory capacities and on the boards of many non-profit organizations. He is currently a Life Trustee at Wake Forest University. James received his B.A., MBA and JD from Rutgers University.

Martha Rhodes McLendon graduated from Sewanee and USC Law School. She is an attorney for the Social Security Administration and was previously a litigator with Motley Rice and Buist, Moore, Smythe, & McGee (now Womble Bond Dickinson). She has served on the board of the Spoleto Festival USA, Gibbes Museum of Art, St. Andrew's-Sewanee School, and The Alliance Coalition. Martha lives with her husband, Charley, in Charleston full-time and has supported and attended CLF since its inception.

Leigh, an advocate for the underserved rural counties in Eastern North Carolina, recently retired from a long career of public service. Because of her ability to raise awareness and problem solve for sustainable outcomes in the areas of economic development, transportation, education and community health, she received the state’s highest honor: The Order of the Long Leaf Pine. Presently she serves as president of her family’s foundation whose focus is for systemic change to underserved women and children in North Carolina. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BA in History and from Duke University with a MAT in Education. Leigh and her husband John enjoy their four children and ten grandchildren both in Kinston, North Carolina, their primary residence, and also in Charleston, South Carolina.

VICE CHAIR

Wenda is a media and marketing executive whose decades of experience include 20 years in magazine publishing at Family Circle, Ladies’ Home Journal and New York Magazine. She is a digital advertising pioneer, having served on the founding executive team of DoubleClick and has held roles as Chief Sales Officer of Yahoo and CEO of Martha Stewart Omnimedia. She is the recipient of numerous awards including “Advertising Person of the Year” and was named one if the “100 Most Influential Women in Advertising in the Last 100 Years”. In April 2022, Wenda will be inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame, the industry’s highest honor. She currently serves as Vice Chairman of MediaLink, sits on numerous company boards and advises technology start-ups. She holds a B.A. from Trinity College in Hartford and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Vic is the director for Accelerating Learning and Leadership in South Carolina (ALL4SC) at the University of South Carolina. A graduate of St. Paul’s School in Concord, NH, he earned his BS in mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, holds an Ed.M. in administration, social policy, and planning from Harvard University, and completed his doctoral studies in management at Harvard. He’s spent decades leading nonprofits around the U.S. and in the U.K. He is married with two adult children.

PRODUCTION & OPERATIONS MANAGER

Amanda is a graduate of University of North Carolina at Charlotte and served as a high school English and Speech & Debate teacher and Department Head. She brought her love of literacy and exploration out of the classroom through summer study abroad programs for elementary, middle, and high school students. She later worked in internal media and communications in Sales & Operations at Lowe’s Home Improvement, Inc., and executed large events as a Property Management Coordinator at Greystar Real Estate Partners. She loves learning in every capacity: reading, studying, listening, and discussing.

Maren Monitello brings 15 years of experience in the book publishing industry to the Charleston Literary Festival, most recently as Vice President, Sales Director at Penguin Random House with a special focus on the production and distribution of audiobooks. Maren graduated with a BA in English Literature and BS in Business Management from Miami University, and she went on to receive an MBA from Baruch College in NYC. She surrounded herself with books from an early age and is passionate about storytelling, connecting with audiences, and sharing the love of reading with readers and listeners of all ages. After moving from New York City in 2020, Maren now enjoys living in the beautiful city of Charleston, SC.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Sarah, who previously held the position of Director of Marketing for the Festival, is a branding specialist and marketing creative. She graduated from Trinity College Dublin, where she earned a BA in Literature, and Freie Universität Berlin, where she received an MA in the same field. Sarah's interests include modern Irish Drama, literature in exile, and the writings of Samuel Beckett. Before her move from Berlin to Charleston in October 2021, she was the Global Director of Brand at Blinkist, a company in the audiobook publishing industry that blended her love of literature with her career.

DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

Suzanne is the founder of the Academy of Domestic Pursuits, a class and lecture platform designed to foster more meaningful connections to how and where we live. Co-author of four books - Entertaining for Dummies (Wiley, 1997), The Pat Conroy Cookbook (Doubleday, 2009),The Charleston Academy of Domestic Pursuits: A Handbook of Etiquette with Recipes (Abram, 2014) and Uhtred’s Feast with Bernard Cornwell (Harper Collins, 2023). She was born in Beirut, Lebanon and raised all over Africa. Suzanne, mother of four and grandmother of nine, is a graduate of St. Paul’s School and the University of Virginia.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Diana is the founding Artistic Director of the Charleston Literary Festival. Prior to this, with the encouragement of Debo Gage, she was the founding Artistic Director of the prestigious Charleston Festival in East Sussex, UK, based at the former home of the innovative Bloomsbury Group of writers, artists and intellectuals, stepping down after 30 years to focus on helping to establish a parallel Festival in South Carolina. Her track record also includes programming a series of events about Bloomsbury at the South Bank Centre in London (the UK’s nearest equivalent to the Lincoln Center), Artistic Director of the Brighton Literature Festival in the UK and Director of English PEN, the worldwide association of writers which promotes literature and freedom of expression. Diana’s early professional career was devoted to advising all parties involved in adoptions, including the British government and courts.