Diahann Billings-Burford

Chief Executive Officer, RISE

Diahann Billings-Burford, who has spent her career working in and lifting up diverse communities, is CEO of RISE, a national nonprofit organization that educates and empowers the sports community to end racism. Billings-Burford most recently worked at Time Warner, as executive director, cultural investments, vice president of the Time Warner Foundation and for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg as the city’s chief service officer, where she headed NYC Service, a division of the mayor’s office, engaging more than 1.3 million New Yorkers in a range of volunteer activities. 

She serves on the National Board of Directors for buildOn, as well as on the boards of Philanthropy New York as Vice Chair, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, Strava and Success Academy. In 2021, she was recognized on Crain’s Notable Nonprofits and Philanthropy list and in 2019 was named one of Crain’s Notable Women in Sports. Billings-Burford earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Yale University and a law degree from Columbia University School of Law and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.