DeVone Holt

DeVone Holt is a multi-talented executive who combines nearly 30 years of experience as an institutional brand manager, culture creator, strategic communicator and people convener.

In 2024, Holt was named president and CEO of the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky. The museum is a 96,000 square-foot cultural center that showcases the life and legacy of Muhammad Ali, and carries forward his legacy of service to others and fighting for justice for all.

Prior to joining the Muhammad Ali Center, Holt served as the Chief External Affairs Officer at Goodwill Industries of Kentucky. During his five years at Goodwill, he helped the nonprofit organization turn a 20-acre inner-city brownfield site into a $120 million Opportunity Campus in Louisville’s most underserved community. The campus includes a 125,000 square foot resource center operated by Goodwill and the first full-service hospital in the area in more than 100 years.

In addition to overseeing the marketing, communications, public relations, fundraising and government affairs for the nonprofit organization, he also served as Superintendent of Kentucky’s very first high school for adults, which Goodwill opened in 2022 after a successful multi-year legislative lobbying and fundraising campaign led by Holt.

Previously, DeVone Holt served as the National Director of Customer Engagement for ResCare Workforce Services and the Special Assistant to the Superintendent of Jefferson County Public Schools. In those roles, he functioned as the lead external affairs officer for both organizations and introduced a collection of innovative solutions to help maintain their respective status as the nation’s largest workforce services provider and America’s 28th largest school district.

His leadership efforts were recognized in a community study conducted by Leadership Louisville, which identified him as one of the city’s most “connected” citizens who has found success at “getting things done” as a “trusted leader.”

As an economic development professional, his work helped create approximately $400 million in new business investments and more than 1,000 new jobs for inner-city residents. He produced these unprecedented results by managing the inner-city business expansion and attraction projects for the city of Louisville for seven years before founding the Urban Insight Agency, which served as a consulting firm that helped companies maximize their investments in urban markets.

In 2003, his best-selling book Hip-Hop Slop: The Impact of a Dysfunctional Culture was published and led him to the lecture circuit. Since then, the book has become the subject of a national debate and has been deemed required-reading for college students around the country.

For 10 years, DeVone Holt served as lead host, writer and producer of the “Saturday Morning Solutions” radio show in Louisville where he helped create one of the area’s largest and most loyal listening audiences by sharing strategies on how to improve urban communities.

In 2024, Holt received an honorary doctorate degree from Simmons College of Kentucky for his decades of work in helping to revitalize inner city communities and the people who live in them.
DeVone is married to Lori Holt and they are the parents of two future leaders: Alexandra and Aaron. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.