Our Founder & Board

WHITNEY CROWNINSHIELD JORDAN was born in New Orleans where at an early age she discovered her love of movies. This comes as no surprise because she only had to go as far as her own backyard to walk onto a set. Many movies were filmed at her childhood home, but it was Oliver Stone’s JFK, where she played with the likes of Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones, that cemented the idea in her head that she would one day work in the industry. But before doing so, she found a love of music. She joined the New Orleans Children Chorus which lead to singing at Carnegie Hall in New York City and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome all before the age of 10.

Whitney attended The Asheville School in North Carolina for high school and when she was 17 she signed with her first talent agent in New York City. This gave her experience in front of the camera but she wanted to know more about the business behind the camera so she enrolled in the University of California at Los Angeles where she studied film production for a summer term.

After receiving a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Mary Washington, Whitney moved to L.A. where for three years she held a variety of jobs, from casting to production, learning everything she could about film before returning home to New Orleans to start a venture of her own.

Whitney wanted to create content that delivered a different message than the one coming out of L.A. From this desire grew the Crown and Shield foundation a 501(c)(3) organization with the mission to use storytelling and media production to educate and inspire kids.

Children look to the screen to determine what’s cool, what matters and what they should prioritize. Nothing can touch the level of influence that media has — children consume over 7 hours of it a day giving it the moniker of Super Peer. If media is a Super Peer then Whitney decided it was time to start using the power of media for a much greater good.

Today we have positively inspired the lives of nearly 800 children and we’ve only just begun.

Eric Strachan

New Orleans native and lifelong resident, Eric witnessed firsthand the importance of protecting community and the significance of investing locally. After being in local politics, Eric moved over to the World War II Museum where he works as the Manager for Corporate Giving and is now working for the National Air Force Museum Foundation.

Rachel Welch

Rachel has been with Gilsbar for 15 years where she is currently the Director of Sales and Marketing. Her experience includes social media, senior management for business development and marketing supervisor.