During the Summer of 2025, five dedicated individuals with a passion for preserving local history came forward to form our inaugural Epps-McGill Farmhouse Advisory Board.
This very talented group brings forth a wide variety of skills and will help our Board of Directors shape the future of this important property, contribute to meaningful initiatives, and ensure the rich historical heritage of the farmhouse is preserved and shared for generations to come.
The Advisory Board will play a vital role in the restoration, stabilization and preservation of Epps-McGill Farmhouse. Also help the Epps-McGill Farmhouse continue to educate and inspire!
Meet our Advisory Board Members
Yolanda McCutchen
Yolanda joined the District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency (DCHFA) in July 2015. She serves as the Vice President of Public Relations and is responsible for all internal and external communications including social media management, advertising, and marketing. For her work at DCHFA, McCutchen has been awarded the National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence Award for best PR/Marketing Campaign-Government in 2019 and 2020 and Magazine Specialty in 2022. Additionally, she received the 2018 Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals MarCom Awards – Platinum Award in Strategic in Communications and Media Relations/Publicity and Gold Award in Print Media.
Prior to joining DCHFA, McCutchen was an independent media consultant, professor at Claflin University and Howard University as well as a producer at NBC News. During her tenure at Howard, she was selected for the Back in the Newsroom Fellowship by the International Center for Journalists and was assigned to The Washington Post. Her work at NBC garnered the Edward R. Murrow, Clarion, Gracie and National Headliner awards. McCutchen was an RTNDF Fellow in the German Study Program for American Journalists.
In 2021 McCutchen was selected to serve on the Board of Directors of the Washington Association of Black Journalists. She is a member of Women of Color in Community Development where she joined the Board of Directors in 2022 and chairs the Communications Committee.
She earned a B.A. in Mass Media Arts from Hampton University and has an M.A. in Journalism and Public Affairs from American University.
Robyne Walker – Murphy
Robyne is a nationally recognized art and social justice thought leader and cultural strategist. From 2016-2022, Robyne served as the Executive Director at Groundswell, a social justice youth development program that uses the transformative power of public art-making to ignite personal and societal change. Before her position at Groundswell, Robyne held positions at the National Guild for Community Arts Education and Dreamyard, where she served as the director of the DreamYard Art Center in the Bronx. Under her leadership, DreamYard Art Center was recognized by the Obama White House as one of the top programs in the nation. Since stepping down from Groundswell, Robyne has worked as an arts and cultural strategist and consultant for organizations such as the Ford Foundation, The Cricket Island Foundation, and The Billie Holiday Theatre and Cool Culture. She served as the Leadership Strategist and Curriculum Developer for the Brooklyn Arts Leadership Collaborative, an initiative of the Brooklyn Museum and the Joe and Clara Tsai Social Justice Fund, which aims to support the work of eight Black and Brown-led arts organizations with budgets under 500K. Robyne has conducted workshops and delivered keynotes at conferences and institutions nationwide on art and social activism at institutions such as Harvard University, Lincoln Center, Seattle Art Museum, University of Chicago, American University, and many others. She is a member of New York City’s Cultural Advisory Committee, a Metropolitan Museum of Art Women’s History Month Honoree, and Chair of the Board of Directors of 651ARTS. Robyne graduated from Clark Atlanta University (B.A. in English) and the University of Washington, Seattle (MFA, Acting). She resides in Brooklyn with her husband, Tarik Murphy, and her son, Ras.
