Time to Heal America™ Staff

Darryl Durham, is a principal founder and Director of Arts and Community Engagement for Anna’s Place NOLA. Mr. Durham is a musician and educator with many accomplishments. Among these are degrees from North Carolina School of the Arts, a High School Diploma in Music Performance, a Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, a Bachelor of Music Degree, and a Master of Music Degree from Boston University.  Mr. Durham served as Program Director of “Project SEARCH” at The Boston Conservatory for 3 years.   After the conservatory, he moved on to become Executive Director of the Harlem School of the Arts for 7 years.  Following this, he served as Program Director for the Booker T. Sparks School for the Performing Arts. Mr. Durham then returned to his roots as a performer and community activists. It was in this capacity that he founded Anna's Arts for Kids, later to be rebranded as Anna's Place NOLA, an after-school arts-based program in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Mr. Durham has traveled the world as a professional clarinetist performing with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, ALEA III Contemporary Music Ensemble of Boston University and the Boston College Chamber Music Ensemble.   Mr. Durham founded Anna’s Arts for Kids in 2010, renamed Anna’s Place NOLA in 2016, as a means of breaking the cycle of poverty which affects many of the youth he serves. He also founded the Treme Artists Collective in 2016 to support the traditional music of New Orleans and the street musicians who perform this unique style of American music. 

As an Arts Administrator, Mr. Durham has been responsible for fundraising, program implementation, special events and donor cultivation in the range of $500,000 to $3.5 million annually. He is currently working with St. Anna's Episcopal Church, New Orleans, on the transition of an 1846 Creole Mansion into a state-of-the-arts community center for arts and culture in the Treme. 

 Mr. Durham is thrilled to be working with Time To Heal America.  Education has become his life's work and legacy, so the opportunity to positively influence another community, through education, is a challenge he's ready for.  "Our community is at a crossroad, either going forward or falling back.  Now's the time for us to rely on ourselves to educate our youth, those left behind or on the margins.  In this critical time of need,  I can't think of another organization better positioned to lead than Time To Heal America."    

Mr. Durham’s numerous awards and honors include; the Miles M. Young Award, the Music Assistance Scholarship of the New York Philharmonic, a two-time recipient of the Director’s Award from Boston University and a recipient of Boston University's Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship.  Additionally, Mr. Durham was the recipient of the 2012 Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Louisiana Angel Award.

Since the sixth grade, Sheryl Williams found herself listening to others and keeping their secrets. It was through her willingness to help and serve others that she truly began to understand her calling. Gifted by God’s grace to persevere, Ms. Williams understood the disappointments in life would collide with the gift of servanthood and empathy. It is this gift from God that allowed her to become an effective facilitator.

Born to a teenage mother in the Stop Six community, located in the heart of Fort Worth, TX, Ms. Williams faced challenges and triumphs that built her into the woman she is today. It is her strength and tenacity that makes her life story a remarkable one. Using her gifts, she received her Christian Counseling Certification from Light University in 2009. This certification sparked her educational efforts to complete her Biblical studies with TPH School of Ministries. In 2011, she earned her ministerial license from Higher Ground Always Abounding Assemblies. She served as a volunteer facilitator for the Texas Offender Re-Entry Initiative (TORI) for 12 consecutive years – the longest standing volunteer to date. There she facilitated the Woman-to-Woman class to ex-offenders transitioning back into society. In 2013, she was recognized for her efforts and was awarded Volunteer of the Year with TORI.

Ms. Williams is the proud mother of two daughters Erin and Tempest. She’s also the proud god-mother to Meandria and Mondra.

Jimena Soto