Roland Barksdale-Hall currently serves as president of JAH Kente International and vice president of Black Men for Progress. He is the president of Barksdale-Hall Educational Services and Training, national youth director for Frontiers International, Inc. and author of The African-American Family's Guide to Tracing Our Roots: Healing, Understanding & Restoring Our Families. He is a recipient of the prestigious 2014 Afro-American Historical Society and Genealogical Society (AAHGS) James Dent Walker Award, the highest award bestowed upon a member and serves as the AAHGS Director of Publications. He is the recipient of the 2013 AAHGS Distinguished Service Award and President's Award, 2003 National History Award and served as the Peabody Librarian at Hampton University. He is a member of the 1995 Leadership Shenango, graduate class of leadership at Duquesne University and wrote a contemporary leadership column for The Herald. He is the founder and executive director of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society of Pittsburgh, National AIDS Book Project Coordinator, founding publisher of The Alleghenian and The Health Reporter and was named a New Pittsburgh Hero by KDKA Television. He has served as managing editor of QBR the Black Book Review, vice president of The Buckeye Review, interim executive director of Southwest Gardens Economic Development Corporation and on the executive committee of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and on the editorial board of Information, Society and Justice. His family is the recipient of the 2001 Women in Ministry Shenango Valley Christian Family Award.