Stone Center Staff
LeRhonda Manigault-Bryant
Director
Dr. Manigault-Bryant comes to the Stone Center from Williams College, where she was a professor of Africana Studies since 2011, served as Associate Dean of the Faculty, and held affiliations with the department of Religion and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program.
After completing her undergraduate education at Duke University, Dr. Manigault-Bryant received a Master of Divinity from Candler School of Theology at Emory University and a PhD in Religion from Emory’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. A proud native of Moncks Corner, South Carolina, she navigates the academy as a scholar-artist, where she merges her life as a musician and filmmaker with her interdisciplinary specializations in Religious Studies, Africana Studies, and Gender Studies, all with a focus on ethnographic methods.
Dr. Manigault-Bryant is the author of Talking to the Dead: Religion, Music, and Lived Memory among Gullah/Geechee Women (Duke University Press, 2014). She is also the co-author of Fat Religion: Protestant Christianity and the Construction of the Fat Body with Susan Hill and Lynne Gerber (Routledge, 2021), and Womanist and Black Feminist Responses to Tyler Perry’s Productions (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) with Tamura A. Lomax and Carol B. Duncan. She has authored and co-authored numerous works for academic and general audiences.
A recipient of the New Directions Fellowship from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Dr. Manigault-Bryant is an accomplished filmmaker who studied filmmaking at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She founded ConjureGirlBlue Productions, which produced films including: “PRECIPICE: On the Black Maternal” (2021) and the acclaimed short film, “death. everything. nothing” (2020), an official selection to numerous film festivals.
Dr. Manigault-Bryant also has several works currently in progress, including “Welcome to Toxic Tallevast,” a documentary on environmental contamination in an African-American community on Florida’s Gulf coast; Pushing Weight: Religion, Popular Culture, and the Implications of Image, which considers how popular culture and contemporary media forms simultaneously influence mass interpretations of the black female “religious” body; and a muti-media venture entitled “Black Crossroads: Mourning Rituals and Geographies of Sacred Space.” Whether investigating practices of specific communities, exploring cultural production at the popular level, considering the impact of new technologies, or creating documentary shorts, critical to Dr. Manigault-Bryant’s work are explorations of how Black women engage religion and spirituality to navigate the contours of life.
For her creative endeavors, Dr. Manigault-Bryant has been awarded independent and national grants from the Ford Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Forum for Theological Exploration, the Louisville Institute, the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Religion and Theology, Emory University, Wake Forest University, Williams College, and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. She has also held visiting professorships at Brown University and Harvard University.
As the new director of the Stone Center, Dr. Manigault-Bryant brings an array of experience to bear rooted in her life as a Black southern-born womanist attentive to folkways; grounded by her deep, interdisciplinary scholarly profile in Africana religious studies; centered in scholarship, service, and teaching that foregrounds Black women’s experiences; undergirded by her work as an innovative documentary filmmaker; refined by her campus-wide level administrative expertise; seasoned by her role as a dynamic, creative, and inclusive leader; and inspired by the ethics of care and delight which underpin all of her endeavors.
Sheriff Drammeh
Associate Director
Sheriff Drammeh is the Associate Director of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center. Since joining the Center in 2014, Sheriff has had the principal role of designing arts, culture, and community programs. This has included planning and organizing efforts for the Annual Stone Memorial and Diaspora Lectures, the Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film, and numerous art exhibitions hosted in the Stone Center’s Brown Gallery, cultural performances — among them the one-woman play on the life of Big Mama Thornton entitled “Houn’ Dawg” featuring artist Azusa SHESHE Dance and the one-man show “POWER!” on the life of Stokely Carmichael by DC-based actor/playwright Meshaun Labrone. Sheriff also coordinated symposia — on Amiri Baraka and the Black arts movement, Black bookstores, and the 1619 Project to name a few — and community workshops (including one on Bomba Dance) led by Stone Center guest artists.
Sheriff holds undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Communication (with a minor in journalism) from NC State University and graduate degrees in International Development and Conflict Management from Brandeis University.
Javier Jaimes-Ayala
Facilities Manager
Javier Jaimes-Ayala is the Facilities Manager at the Stone Center. Originally from Mexico City, Mexico, Javier first joined UNC in the Department of Public Safety as a security guard for 10 years. He also spent five years at UNC hospitals as a General Manager for Environmental Services, Patient Transportation, and Guest Services. In addition to his work at the Stone Center, he also owns and operates a commercial/residential cleaning company.
Anna S. Agbe-Davies
SLATE Co-Director
Dr. Agbe Davies leads IAAR-SLATE’s Coursework Component. As Faculty Teaching Director, she shapes the vision for students’ experiences in classes affiliated with IAAR-SLATE. Dr. Agbe Davies is also a historical archaeologist with a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interest focuses on the African diaspora ranging from the plantation societies of the colonial southeastern US and Caribbean to 19th and 20th-century towns like New Philadelphia and Chicago in Illinois and Durham, North Carolina.
Gregg Moore
Stone Center Librarian
Gregg Moore is a Rocky Point, NC, native who studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has more than a decade of library experience as a former employee of the Wake County Public Libraries in Raleigh.
Renee Alexander Craft
SLATE Co-Director
Renée Alexander Craft is a performance studies trained Black feminist writer, scholar, and educator. A professor of Communication and Global Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill specializing in Black Diaspora literature, culture, and performance; Alexander Craft is the author of When the Devil Knocks: The Congo Tradition and the Politics of Blackness in 20th Century Panama and a digital humanities project titled Digital Portobelo: Art + Scholarship + Cultural Preservation (digitalportobelo.org). In 2019, she joined Kathy A. Perkins, Sandra L. Richards, and Thomas F. DeFrantz in co-editing The Routledge Companion to African American Theatre and Performance.
Brittany Yarborough
Executive Assistant to the Director
Brittany Yarborough is a Burlington, NC native and brings to the Stone Center over ten years of executive administrative experience.
Safiyyah Elahi
Community and Undergraduate Programs Coordinator
Safiyyah Elahi is the Community and Undergraduate Programs Coordinator at the Sonja Haynes Stone Center. Safiyyah joined the Center in February of 2024. She works primarily with work study students, supports efforts for Stone Center Programs, as well as CommUniversity Youth Program (CYP) — a K-12 out-of -school STEM enrichment program and outreach. She has experience working with at-risk youth, as well as in education through teaching and tutoring, and in youth development.
Safiyyah holds an undergraduate degree in Public Health from University of Saint Joseph (CT) and graduate degree in Gender and Cultural Studies from Simmons University.
Kara Endsley
Kara is a seasoned professional with over two decades of experience in fundraising, program management, and training & development. Her impressive career includes work with a variety of prominent organizations, such as DePauw University, the American Heart Association, United Way of Central Indiana, North Carolina Central University, The Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media, and the Winston-Salem State University Foundation.
She has a notable track record of delivering high-quality, engaging presentations and workshops on topics including cultural competency, media advocacy, coalition building, and strategic planning. Kara's expertise has been sought after by a wide range of audiences across the US, including several states and federal agencies like the Substance Abuse Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA).
Kara holds a BA in Political Science from DePauw University and a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Oakland City University. She recently earned a certificate in Fundraising Leadership from the Indiana University Lilly School of Philanthropy.
In her community, Kara is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., volunteers with Dress for Success and her church, Baptist Grove, and resides in Morrisville, NC with her husband, Houston Vines.
Her dedication to enhancing the capacity and growth of large and small non-profits and community organizations underscores her passion for service and commitment to underserved populations.