Dorian Burton is a respected cross-sector leader who is committed to building equitable, healthy, and prosperous communities.   

Burton serves as managing partner at the Southern Reconstruction Fund, a social impact organization investing in individuals and institutions to strengthen undercapitalized communities.  

He previously served as founding program director of the Education Pioneers, chief program officer at the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, and co-director of TandemED, an initiative incubated at Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice and the Harvard i-lab.   

Burton was selected as a “Modern Man of Distinction” by Black Enterprise and one of The Root’s “100 Most Influential African Americans in the Country.”   

A dedicated Harvard volunteer, he is a non-resident fellow at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, an annual guest speaker for Irvin Scott’s “Philanthropy in Education” course, and a former member of the Dean’s Advisory Committee on Equity and Diversity and the Alumni Council at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.    

Burton serves on the board of the Schott Foundation for Public Education and formerly on Penn State University’s Department of Sociology and Criminology board of visitors.  In 2024, Burton was selected as a Presidential Leadership Scholar and a Healthy Communities Fellow.   

“I believe in nurturing the health and wealth of communities so that everyone has an opportunity to live with dignity and thrive. Harvard has given me life-changing opportunities, and I am deeply committed to paying this gift forward and building bridges across lines of difference.”