Jessie Kornberg

President & CEO, Skirball Cultural Center

2025 HALO Award Selection Committee

Jessie Kornberg became the President and CEO of the Skirball Cultural Center in July 2020. To the Skirball’s leadership team, Kornberg brings two decades of civil rights work—a career dedicated to dismantling systemic inequality. This commitment began with frontline anti-poverty services at the largest provider of homeless family housing in New York City. Kornberg went on to work with the NAACP and NOW before founding Ms. JD, an online community dedicated to supporting and advancing the careers of women in the legal profession. Next, she co-chaired the pro bono program at the Beverly Hills litigation boutique Bird Marella, focusing the firm's resources on prison condition reform, including a groundbreaking class action on behalf of the death row inmates at Angola state penitentiary in Louisiana.