Alternative Investments Committee

Executive Director, Ovarian Cancer National Alliance

Sherry Salway Black was most recently the Executive Director of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance and an ovarian and endometrial cancer survivor. Her experience includes nonprofit management, health care administration, business and economic development and philanthropy. Prior to working for the Alliance, Ms. Black served for 19 years as Senior Vice President and on the board of directors for First Nations Development Institute, an international non-governmental organization working with Indigenous peoples. Previous work experience includes various positions with the Indian Health Service (DHHS, PHS) and as a researcher for a Congressional commission studying issues affecting American Indian and Alaska Native peoples.

Ms. Black currently serves on the board of directors of the Council on Foundations where she is the Treasurer and chair of the Finance and Investment Committee. Other current board positions include the Hitachi Foundation, Trillium Asset Management Corporation, American Indian Business Leaders, the Hopi Education Endowment Fund, and the Kathryn M. Buder Center on American Indian Studies at Washington University. She remains on the board of First Nations and its subsidiary, First Nations Oweesta Corporation.

She currently serves as an advisor to the National Museum of the American Indian and is a past advisory committee member for the Harvard “Honoring Excellence in the Governance of Tribal Nations” program and the American Indian Headstart program. She is a past member of the boards of Women in Philanthropy, Native Americans in Philanthropy, Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies, National Rural Development and Finance Corporation, and National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

Ms. Black has a Masters of Business Administration degree, with a health care administration major, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She is a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation and is originally from South Dakota. She and her husband, Ronald Simpson Black, live in Falmouth, Virginia.

^back to top^