Our Story
One woman’s values, at work through a family.
The Bayardelle Foundation is inspired by Claudie Bayardelle, who serves as its Honorary Chair. Its work begins with her.
I. Claudie Bayardelle
From Haiti to the Bronx.
Claudie Bayardelle is a Haitian immigrant who built her life and her family in New York. She devoted forty years to education, including more than twenty-five as an executive serving the inner-city communities of the Bronx, a career defined by sustained, practical commitment to the neighborhoods around her.
She married Dr. John Bayardelle, and together they raised four children. The expectations she set at home matched the ones she brought to her work: take education seriously, develop what you are given, and put it to use for others.
She serves as the Foundation’s Founding Inspiration and Honorary Chair.
II. The Family
What a household can produce.
Together, Claudie and Dr. John Bayardelle raised four children whose lives and accomplishments reflect the values of education, creativity, service, and ambition that Claudie instilled in their family.
Their eldest, Anastasia Williams, MD, FAAP, is a pediatrician and President of the Association of Black Women Physicians. Marie Butler, RN, a registered nurse, leads Lifeline Telephone Triage Network, which provides nurse telephone triage services to health providers. Jeannette Bayardelle, the youngest daughter, is a Tony Award–nominated Broadway performer and writer. John Bayardelle II, the youngest, serves as the Foundation’s Treasurer.
Medicine, nursing, the stage, and stewardship: four different paths from the same Bronx household. Today all four lead the Foundation alongside their mother.
III. Why the Foundation
Values, put to work.
The family created The Bayardelle Foundation so that Claudie’s values would not stay within one household. Its purpose is to extend the kinds of opportunity — in education, in the arts, in culture and community — that shaped her children’s lives to young people who are just beginning their own.
Our work