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Lydia Sermons
Executive Director
African American Experience Fund
of the National Park Foundation
Bio
 Lydia joined the National Park Foundation as executive director of the African American Experience Fund (AAEF) on December 1, 2010, after a distinguished career of service at the White House, in federal and local government and in the nonprofit and private sectors.
She brings to the AAEF more than 25 years of collective experience in media relations; strategic, crisis, branding, marketing and new media communications; organizational and executive management; fundraising support; government affairs; community and corporate partnership engagement; event planning and TV production.
Lydia previously served in private sector as a senior vice president in the DC Office of Fenton, a leading public interest communications firm, where she was a member of the senior management team and the Public Health, Women’s, African American and local government practice areas.
Her public sector work includes establishing the first press office and serving as the first public information officer for the Chatham County District Attorney’s Office in Savannah, Georgia. She has also worked for two high-level political executives in the DC area; as press secretary at the White House for President William Jefferson Clinton’s One America: President’s Initiative on Race project,and as communications director for District of Columbia former Mayor Anthony A. Williams. She also served as communications director for the US Treasury Department and in the legislative branch as the first congressional press secretary for Pennsylvania Congressman Chaka Fattah.
In the nonprofit sector, she has served as director of Communications and Public Affairs for the American Psychiatric Association, where she significantly expanded communications capacity and led the creation and launch of their legacy “Healthy Minds. Healthy Lives” public information campaign. She was also senior vice-president of Communications and Marketing for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), where she led a rebranding campaign to increase public understanding of consumer credit and financial management services and consumer-friendly advisers. She began her public relations career in 1990 at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (PA), as a public relations manager.
Lydia’s other private sector work includes positions as a vice president of the DC-based PR firm Walker Marchant Group, and as a television producer for several TV network affiliates (WCAU-TV 10, Philadelphia., PA and WTNH-TV 8, New Haven, CT).
Lydia earned a B.A. in Communications from Temple University and a M.A. in Journalism and Public Affairs from American University. She is a graduate of the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts and she completed the Philadelphia Urban League Leadership Institute Certificate Program for executive development and the Corporate Community Relations Certificate Program at Boston College, Newton Campus.
She resides in the Washington, DC metro area.
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