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Marcia Lynn Sells, Co-President
Marcia is Co-President at Russell Philanthropies. Her extraordinary and uniquely wide-ranging experience is built around education, public service, belonging, and inclusion. She joined Russell Philanthropies from the Metropolitan Opera, where she was Chief Diversity Officer and Assistant General Manager.
In her role at the Met, Marcia was charged with crafting and implementing the institution's diversity, equity, and inclusion programming across multiple departments. Before the Met, Marcia spent more than five years working at Harvard Law School (HLS) as Associate Dean & Dean of Students. Prior to HLS, Marcia was Associate Dean & Dean of Students at Columbia Law School.
She also worked at Columbia as Associate Vice President for Community Engagement with the office of Government & Community Affairs, and Associate Dean for Arts Outreach with the School of the Arts. She has held roles at the National Basketball Association and later at Reuters as Vice President of Employee and Organizational Development.
Marcia began her career in New York City over 40 years ago, working for Arthur Mitchell, co-founder of Dance Theatre of Harlem. She performed in many ballets with the company, which can be viewed in an early Dance in America presentation, as well as in the book Swans of Harlem by Karen Valby, published by Penguin Random House. Marcia earned a BA from Barnard College and a JD from Columbia University School of Law.
