Democracy Center Bios
Staff Bios
James E. Herr
Director
Daniel K. Inouye National Center for the Preservation of Democracy
James E. Herr joined the Daniel K. Inouye National Center for the Preservation of Democracy (Democracy Center) at JANM in 2022. He brings over twenty years in philanthropic and nonprofit management to his work. Most recently, he was a program officer at Annenberg Foundation. Previously he was a program officer at the California Community Foundation, the senior manager of Global Corporate Citizenship for the Boeing Company, and the manager of Corporate Social Responsibility at Sony Pictures Entertainment. A graduate of Leadership Southern California, Herr participated in the GCS Los Angeles Korean Leadership Exchange program and was selected as an American Leaders of Change Fellow through National Urban Fellows. He holds an MBA from Loyola Marymount University and an MLA and BA in Economics and minor in Political Science from Temple University.
Ann Burroughs
President and CEO
Japanese American National Museum
Ann Burroughs was chosen by the JANM Board of Trustees to serve as its President and CEO in March 2017 after first serving in an interim capacity beginning in June 2016. An internationally recognized leader in the fight for human rights, she was elected as Chair of Amnesty International’s Global Assembly and as Chair of the Japanese American Confinement Sites Consortium. Ms. Burroughs’ life-long commitment to racial and social justice was shaped by her experience as a young activist in her native South Africa when she was jailed as a political prisoner for her opposition to apartheid. She has previously served as Executive Director of the Taproot Foundation and as the Executive Director of LA Works. Ms. Burroughs also worked as a consultant for the Omidyar Network, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the government of South Africa.