Advisory Board Member
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. An Emmy, DuPont, and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates has published numerous books and produced and hosted acclaimed documentary films, including The Black Church (PBS), Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches (HBO), Gospel (PBS), and Great Migrations (PBS). He is also the creator and host of Finding Your Roots, the groundbreaking genealogy and genetics series on PBS, now in its eleventh season. His most recent book, The Black Box: Writing the Race (2024), was named one of The New York Times Book Review's 100 Best Books of the Year.
Professor Gates earned his B.A. in History, summa cum laude, from Yale University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from Clare College, University of Cambridge, where he is an Honorary Fellow. A recipient of the National Humanities Medal and a MacArthur Fellowship, he has also received numerous honorary degrees and was awarded the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in 2024, the Barry Prize in 2024, and the Vilcek Prize for Excellence in Literary Scholarship in 2025. He serves on the boards of the New York Public Library, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Aspen Institute, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Library of America, and The Studio Museum in Harlem. Professor Gates is also an Honorary Trustee of American Ancestors.