Sara M. Lomax and Leslie Anne Miller Elected to the Barnes Foundation Board of Trustees
The Honorable Jacqueline F. Allen and Cathy Hughes Named Trustees Emeriti
Philadelphia, PA, March 13, 2025—The Board of Trustees of the Barnes Foundation today announced that Sara M. Lomax, president and CEO of WURD Radio, LLC, and Leslie Anne Miller, Esq., attorney and philanthropist, have been elected to the Board of Trustees. In addition, longtime trustees the Honorable Jacqueline F. Allen and Cathy Hughes have been named Trustees Emeriti, and Christine Henisee and Cathy M. Nassau have been named Honorary Trustees.
“Our trustees and staff are grateful and delighted to welcome two dedicated advocates for the Barnes—Sara Lomax and Leslie Anne Miller—to the Board,” says Aileen Roberts, Chair of the Barnes Foundation’s Board of Trustees. “Sara is a trailblazing leader widely known for transforming WURD Radio, Pennsylvania’s only African American–owned talk-radio station, into a multimedia communications company. Leslie is an accomplished attorney and philanthropist who has been active in many leadership roles in the city and Commonwealth, demonstrating a deep commitment to civic engagement.”
“As someone whose roots run deep in Philadelphia and a longtime supporter of the arts, I am honored to join the Board,” says Lomax. “I look forward to collaborating with my fellow trustees and the staff as the Barnes continues expanding the audiences it serves, deepening its impact in the education and cultural spheres, and innovating through its mission-driven programming.”
“This is an exciting time to join the Barnes, an inspiring institution that is committed to pushing boundaries and thinking outside the box while remaining dedicated to its educational roots,” says Miller. “The Barnes is a true point of pride for Philadelphia and the Commonwealth at large, and I look forward to helping it continue to thrive in the years to come.”
Roberts continues: “After more than 30 combined years of distinguished service on the Barnes Board of Trustees, our dear colleagues the Honorable Jacqueline F. Allen and Cathy Hughes have been named Trustees Emeriti. Having joined the Board in 2001, Judge Allen is the Barnes’s longest serving trustee in the modern era. It is impossible to overstate the critical role she has played in securing the successful future of the Barnes. Over the years, the institution has relied on her extensive legal knowledge, and as a proud Lincoln University graduate, she has always encouraged the Barnes to strengthen our connection and commitment to Lincoln in meaningful ways.
“Cathy Hughes joined the Board in December 2014, soon after the Barnes opened its doors on the Parkway. A media pioneer with a deep knowledge of news media, communications, and advertising, Cathy has provided critical new talent to the Board as the Barnes has grown and established itself nationally and internationally.
“As we celebrate their remarkable service to the Barnes, I, along with my fellow trustees and the staff, express our sincere thanks to Judge Allen and Cathy Hughes for their expertise and leadership. Without their wise counsel and insights, the Barnes would not be the successful institution it is today. We are deeply grateful that we can continue to rely on them in their new roles as trustees emeriti.”
Sara M. Lomax is the president and CEO of WURD Radio, LLC, Pennsylvania’s only African American–owned talk-radio station. She is credited with transforming WURD Radio from a legacy radio station to a multimedia communications company providing innovative original programming on air, online, and through community events. In 2017, Lomax led the expansion of 900AM-WURD to the FM dial, now simulcasting on 900AM and 96.1FM. In 2018, she spearheaded the launch of the environmental justice journalism platform ecoWURD.com. In 2019, she launched Lively-HOOD, an initiative focused on jobs, career readiness, and entrepreneurship to address the persistent wealth gap in the Black community. In 2021, she cofounded URL Media, a network of Black- and Brown-owned and led media organizations that share content, distribution, and revenues to increase their long-term sustainability. In 1992, prior to her work with WURD and URL, Lomax cofounded HealthQuest: Total Wellness for Body, Mind & Spirit, a trailblazing African American consumer health magazine that grew from a quarterly publication to a bimonthly with a national circulation of more than 500,000.
Lomax has served on a variety of boards, including the Kimmel Cultural Campus, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Arcadia University. Lomax received her BA from the University of Pennsylvania and her MA from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She also completed the Media Transformation Challenge at Harvard Kennedy School and the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University. Lomax lives in Philadelphia and is the mother of three sons.
Leslie Anne Miller, Esq., is an attorney who has been a leader in her profession and community for over forty years. During her twenty-five years as a civil litigator, she compiled a list of “firsts”: the first woman partner in her law firm, the first woman elected as President of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and the first woman to serve as General Counsel of the Commonwealth under Governor Edward Rendell. She was also an advisor to former Philadelphia Mayor, Michael Nutter.
Her broad and deep record of civic engagement is notable for the number of leadership positions she has held. She served a seven-year term as Chair of the Board of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She was Chair of the Board of Mount Holyoke College, her alma mater, and of the PHS Philadelphia Flower Show. She also served as interim President of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. In 2024, Miller and her husband Richard Worley, made a major gift to re-name the Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall as Marion Anderson Hall in honor of the legendary contralto and civil rights icon. In addition, she has been an active member of the Boards of numerous academic and not for profit institutions, including the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania Health System, Temple University Beasley School of Law, and the Mayor’s Cultural Advisory Board. In addition to the Barnes, she was also recently elected to the Board of Temple University.
Equally important has been her work as a mentor and role model for countless women in both the legal profession and broader community. She was the first Chair of The Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Commission on Women and the Profession, a long-time member of the Pennsylvania Commission on Women, along with The Pennsylvania’s Women Forum and the Forum of Executive Women. In that same spirit, she has also worked tirelessly to help elect women, (and a few good men), to local, state and federal offices.
She has received numerous awards throughout her career, including selection as a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania; The Philadelphia Bar Association’s Sandra Day O’Connor Award; The Woman One Award from Drexel University’s School of Medicine; Induction into Temple University Fox School of Business League for Entrepreneurial Women’s Hall of Fame; the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Medal of Honor; The Committee of Seventy’s Women in Public Leadership Award; and Honorary Degrees from Drexel University’s School of Law, Thomas Jefferson University’s College of Health Professionals, and Wilson College. A cum laude graduate of Mont Holyoke College (1973), Miller received an MA from the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University (1974), a JD from the Dickinson School of Law (1977), and an LLM with honors from the Temple University School of Law (1994). She resides in Bryn Mawr with her husband Richard B. Worley.
The Board of Trustees of the Barnes Foundation
Aileen Roberts, Chair
John R. Alchin, Vice Chair
David A. Fleischner, Treasurer
John J. Aglialoro*
Armando I. Bengochea, PhD*
Sheldon M. Bonovitz, Esq.*
Pamela D. Bundy*
Emily A. Cavanagh
Gregory E. Deavens
Jeffrey A. Honickman
Sara M. Lomax
John H. McFadden, Esq.
Leslie Anne Miller, Esq.
Joseph Neubauer
Christine Poggi, PhD*
*Elected upon the nomination of the Trustees of Lincoln University.
Chair Emeritus
Bernard C. Watson, PhD
Emeritus Trustees
The Honorable Jacqueline F. Allen
Stephanie Bell-Rose
Bruce S. Gordon
Agnes Gund
Stephen J. Harmelin, Esq.
Cathy Hughes
Neil L. Rudenstine, PhD
Brenda A. Thompson, PhD
Honorary Trustees
Wallis Annenberg
Laura T. Buck*
Tory Burch
Betsy Z. Cohen
David Haas
Anne F. Hamilton
Christine Henisee
Herbert Kean
Marguerite Lenfest
James J. Maguire
Cathy M. Nassau
William A. Slaughter, Esq.
Joan Thalheimer
Bruce E. Toll
A. Morris Williams, Jr.
*posthumous recognition
ABOUT THE BARNES FOUNDATION
The Barnes Foundation is a nonprofit cultural and educational institution that shares its unparalleled art collection with the public, organizes special exhibitions, and presents programming that fosters new ways of thinking about human creativity. The Barnes collection is displayed in ensembles that integrate art and objects from across cultures and time periods, overturning traditional hierarchies and revealing universal elements of human expression. Home to one of the world’s finest collections of impressionist, post-impressionist, and modern paintings—including the largest groups of paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Cézanne in existence—the Barnes brings together renowned canvases by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, and Vincent van Gogh, alongside African, Asian, ancient, medieval, and Native American art as well as metalwork, furniture, and decorative art.
The Barnes was established by Dr. Albert C. Barnes in 1922 to “promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture.” A visionary collector and pioneering educator, Dr. Barnes was also a fierce advocate for the civil rights of African Americans, women, and the economically marginalized. Committed to racial equality and social justice, he established a scholarship program to support young Black artists, writers, and musicians who wanted to further their education. Dr. Barnes was deeply interested in African American culture and became actively involved in the Harlem Renaissance, during which he collaborated with philosopher Alain Locke and Charles S. Johnson, the scholar and activist, to promote awareness of the artistic value of African art. Today, the 15-member Barnes Board of Trustees includes five trustees elected upon the nomination of Lincoln University, the nation’s first degree-granting HBCU, continuing a relationship that began during Dr. Barnes’s lifetime.
Since moving to Philadelphia in 2012, the Barnes has expanded its commitment to diversity, inclusion, and social justice, teaching visual literacy in groundbreaking ways; investing in original scholarship relating to its collection; and enhancing accessibility throughout every facet of its programs.
The Barnes is situated in Lenapehoking, the ancestral homeland of the Lenape people. Read our Land Acknowledgment.
Hours and ticket prices are listed on our website.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION
Deirdre Maher, Director of Communications / 215.278.7160, press@barnesfoundation.org / Online press office: barnesfoundation.org/press