2020 SPARX Conference

@Eric_M_Bailey

Eric M. Bailey is the bestselling author of The Cure for Stupidity: Using Brain Science to Explain Irrational Behavior and President of Bailey Strategic Innovation Group, one of the fastest-growing human communication consulting firms in the United States. Eric has a diverse set of experiences that includes helping NFL All-Pro Larry Fitzgerald pet a rhinoceros, doing barrel rolls in an F-16, and chatting with LL Cool J on the campus of Harvard University.

Eric is the creator of the Principles of Human Understanding™, a leadership and communication methodology based in brain science and psychology. Eric’s unique style blends fact and emotion and finds ways to appeal to the analytical thinkers, the emotional feelers, and everyone in between. Eric has a unique ability to communicate seemingly complex concepts in practical, easy-to-comprehend ways, aiding in self-awareness and knowledge retention.

Eric has been featured on CNN, Huffington Post, Forbes, the Like a Real Boss Podcast and has helped leaders and teams across the world see common problems from new and different perspectives. Eric works with Google Inc, the US Air Force, Los Angeles County, the City of St. Louis, MO, Phoenix Police Department and many more. Eric also runs a YouTube series of 2-minute executive lessons called The Walking Meeting (www.thewalkingmeeting.com). 

Eric has a Master’s degree in Leadership and Organizational Development from Saint Louis University and is a lifetime learner of human and organizational behavior. When not working or researching, you can find Eric and his wife Jamie racing on their road bikes, being cheered on by their three children

Rini Banerjee has two decades of experience in philanthropy. An Integrated Capital Fellow at RSF Social Finance, she has served as Executive Director at Foundation for a Just Society, Program Officer at the Overbrook Foundation, and Program Director at the New York Women’s Foundation. She is a trustee of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and Board member of Funders for Reproductive Equity, and has co-created or served on groups including the NYC-based Asian Women’s Giving Circle, Philanthropy Advancing Women’s Human Rights, the Groundswell Fund, and the Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing. She was a past Board Chair of Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) and past Board member of South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!). She holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University and a BSc in finance from NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Rev. Dr. Lori (Dr. Lo) Banfield is a native and resident of Philadelphia, PA with multidisciplinary expertise in psychology, social justice and practical theology. She serves as a higher learning educator, mental health clinician, researcher, clergy person, and all-around social justice advocate. Dr. Lo has dedicated her life to fostering spiritual resilience and liberation paths to oppressed and marginalized groups. She serves as the executive director of the Philly-based non-profit Redemption Housing – reentry services and is founder of the Spiritual Resilience Council, a reentry advocate training initiative under Lori Banfield Ministries, LLC. She is also the author of the spiritual formation book Walking Worthy of My Calling: Journey Back to the Likeness of God, among other articles and publications. Dr. Lo is an ordained Elder in the Lord’s church and currently serves as an Associate Elder at Gates of Heaven Pentecostal Church in West Philadelphia and Beulah Tabernacle Church in Drexel Hill, PA. A wife and mother of two children, Dr. Lo endeavors to build atmosphere changers and restore sacred space within and beyond church, school, and prison walls.

Essma Bengabsia is a Senior Associate on the Sustainable and Impact Investing team. Ms. Bengabsia is responsible for researching and identifying sustainable and impact investment opportunities in global public markets. Prior to joining Glenmede, Ms. Bengabsia was a Product Strategist in BlackRock's Credit Group, where she primarily focused on collateralized loan obligations and bank loans. In this role, she assisted with structuring collateralized loan obligations, providing market research to traders, and expanding BlackRock's credit platform with institutional investors. Ms. Bengabsia earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University’s Stern School of Business. She completed Harvard Business School’s HBX Core Certification and Ethica Institute’s Certified Islamic Finance Executive program. Ms. Bengabsia is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, Alumni Advisor for New York University’s Islamic Finance Group, and member of the Women in Investing Network of Philadelphia (WIN).

Nicole Blackson joined Love Now Media as its Executive Director in the fall of 2020 after 4 years working with the team as a speaker, show host, and project facilitator. Nicole holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania and worked as a social worker for over a decade providing psychoeducational case management services for clients affected by mental health challenges and homelessness. In 2018, she joined The Ladipo Group as a Program Specialist, where she develops curricula and provides training facilitation for topics including Vicarious Trauma, Burnout Prevention, Trauma Informed Care and Cultural Competency, LGBTQIA education, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Race & Identity work. She utilizes her experience working with youth, families and diverse communities and personal values of facilitating radical conversations within the group process to evaluate, empower and effectively impact others and environments. In addition to her work with Love Now Media and The Ladipo Group, she is a Wedding Officiant and a supporter of art, love, and wellness.

Nathan supports science- and data-driven approaches to protect and restore the Delaware River watershed: drinking water source for New York City, Philadelphia, Trenton and Wilmington. Before joining the Foundation in 2012, Nathan worked with the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton providing strategic planning and portfolio management services. Nathan was previously imbedded in francophone Cameroon with the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Breaking Ground, engaged with a local municipality in water-quality analysis and health-impact assessment. Nathan’s nonprofit experience also includes time as a board member with the American Water Resources Association, National Capital Region Section, and membership with the American Public Health Association, Environment Section.

Nathan holds an M.A. and a B.A. in earth and environmental science from Wesleyan University and a graduate certificate in environmental science, health and policy from George Washington University School of Public Health. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Professional

Kelly Brown is principal consultant at Viewpoint Consulting, which provides program design, research, and analysis to nonprofits, philanthropic organizations, and individuals investing resources to strengthen underserved communities. Prior to this, she was the director of the D5 Coalition, a five-year effort to advance philanthropy through diversity, equity, and inclusion.

@philxbuchanan | @CEPData

Phil Buchanan, president of CEP, is a passionate advocate for the importance of philanthropy and the nonprofit sector and deeply committed to the cause of helping foundations and individual donors to maximize their impact. Hired in 2001 as the organization’s first chief executive, Phil has led the growth of CEP into the leading provider of data and insight on philanthropic effectiveness.

Phil is author of Giving Done Right: Effective Philanthropy and Making Every Dollar Count, published in 2019 by PublicAffairs and named the “Best Philanthropy Book of the Year” by Inside Philanthropy. He is co-host of a podcast, also called Giving Done Right, with CEP’s Grace Nicolette. Phil is a frequent blogger for the CEP Blog, author of op eds that have appeared in publications such as The Financial Times and The Boston Globe, and a frequent commentator on philanthropy in the media.

Phil is co-founder of YouthTruth, an initiative of CEP’s designed to harness student perceptions to help educators and funders accelerate improvements in K–12 schools and classrooms. In 2016, he was named the Nonprofit Times “influencer of the year” and he has been named nine times to that publication’s “Power and Influence Top 50” list. Phil serves on the boards of directors of Philanthropy Massachusetts and the National Council on Aging.

Phil lives in Concord, Massachusetts with his wife and their two daughters.

Derrick Cain is a Philadelphia native and is passionate about shifting the news paradigm and connecting with people to ensure accurate and authentic storytelling. Most recently, Derrick was a 2019 Reentry Think Media Justice Fellow, where he created and told stories about returning citizens that challenge stereotypes and illuminates hurdles to reentry. Derrick has several years of experience in criminal justice reform, and as a public and motivational speaker. In addition to serving as a volunteer and mentor for several organizations and continuing his personal public speaking, Derrick is the Chair of the Professional Men’s Group with Menzfit, where he helps formerly incarcerated individuals by connecting them to resources.

John William Chin is the Executive Director of PCDC, where he oversees all projects and programs. He is a native of Chinatown, Philadelphia and attended Holy Redeemer School and Friends Select School. He serves on the Board of several nonprofit organizations including the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations, Friends Select School, and PHL Diversity. He is a board member of the Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity and is a member of National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD). He is committed to the preservation and growth of Chinatown for new immigrants, as it was a gateway to success for his family. In his spare time, he enjoys crime procedurals, basketball and cooking for his family.

Julie Christie is passionate about data literacy and is working to open up more Philadelphia data and empower Resolve’s Reporting Collaborative to produce journalism using that data. Julie previously worked with Resolve’s initiatives like Broke in Philly and The Reentry Project as an intern and project coordinator. She’s also worked with Investigative Reporters and Editors as a Google News Initiative Fellow and won national awards as the managing editor for 1217, a Klein College project focusing on solutions to addiction in Philadelphia. Julie has earned national recognition for her reporting, editing and website design while at Temple’s student newspaper, The Temple News, and for her work with The Reentry Project.

Diane Cornman-Levy brings more than 30 years of nonprofit leadership, coalition building, community organizing and fundraising experience to WOMEN’S WAY, a Philadelphia-based organization dedicated to the advancement of women and girls. A tireless advocate for gender equity, Diane joined WOMEN’S WAY in January 2017 after running for State Representative of the 168th District, where she secured the highest percentage of votes on the Democratic ticket. Diane was also co-founder and executive director of two non-profits, both of which work to improve education and economic equity for families. In each of these positions, Diane challenged the status quo through forging cross-sector partnerships and designing new programs that increased economic and education opportunities for families, teens, self-taught artists with mental health challenges and returning citizens.  During her tenure at WOMEN’S WAY, she led the transformation of the organization including designing a new brand, creating new grantmaking programs and building a citywide, collaborative initiative to advance the economic security of women.

Diane served as the Co-Chair of the City of Philadelphia’s Food Policy Advisory Council (FPAC), and a member of Thomas Jefferson University’s School of Population Health’s Advisory Board. She currently is a member of the Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap National Coalition.

James Crowder, Senior Associate, is a committed advocate for policies and programs that improve the quality of life for low-income families in distressed communities of color. He brings over ten years of experience in the field of affordable housing and community development. Most recently he worked in the nonprofit sector as a program officer for the Philadelphia office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). In this role he helped draft a community-driven equitable development strategy to support residents in a gentrifying neighborhood of West Philadelphia. Prior to LISC he worked in the private sector as a consultant with BCT Partners providing technical assistance for cities in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Choice Neighborhoods Program. James has also worked in the public sector, spending seven years in a variety of policy analyst roles with the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master of public policy degree from Rutgers University, as well as a master of arts in African American studies from Columbia University. James is excited to bring his passion and commitment for social justice to PolicyLink, along with his unwavering loyalty to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Monique Curry-Mims has over 15 years of business and leadership experience in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. She is a consulting professional skilled in strategic planning, collective impact, community relations, fundraising, data analysis, and capacity building. A Penn State MBA graduate who holds a BS in Digital Design from Philadelphia University and a MSEd from Walden University, Monique has an innovative approach to developing organizations and programs.

As Principal of Civic Capital Consulting, an international social impact consulting firm, Monique oversees all business development and client implementation. Working with nonprofits, philanthropic organizations, government institutions and community organizations; she delivers innovative strategies that help organizations meet their mission and goals, education services that empower organizations and communities on solutions and access, and funding to help communities working on the ground and be part of the change they need.

As CEO and President of Empact Data Solutions, Monique works to empower impact with data. Under her leadership, Empact Data Solutions provides a wealth of analysis and strategy insight to the Philanthropic and social ecosystem through tools that allow for effective collaboration,  tracking,  and analysis of information to ensure all stakeholders are working together for a successful and sustainable societal impact.

To further this impact and change, Monique serves as a steering committee member of Philadelphia Black Giving Circle and a Board Member of Union Benevolent Association. She also serves as a Founding Board Member and Development Chair for Sunday Suppers, a Philadelphia based nonprofit whose mission is to strengthen the health and wellbeing of families through the transformative power of family meals. Additionally, Monique serves as Founder and Convener of PHLanthropy Week, a week-long collection of events bridging funders, nonprofits, and the communities they serve with a goal to facilitate and promote collective impact and give voice to community and black-led organizations around capacity, collaborative and inclusive philanthropy, and equity and inclusion.

Cydnee is a Director in Next Street’s New York office, where she has a hybrid role split between leading client engagements and managing Next Street’s internal people strategy. Next Street is a mission-driven firm that mobilizes capital, customers, and capabilities to small businesses and entrepreneurs that have been systemically held back. Next Street works with foundations, government, corporations, and CDFIs for a better future for small business.

Cydnee partners with clients on strategic planning and small business ecosystem assessments. She enjoys and specializes in engagements requiring significant stakeholder engagement and designing and facilitating working sessions. While at Next Street, Cydnee has worked with several foundations to conduct four ecosystem assessments in cities ranging from Chicago, IL to Buffalo, NY.

Prior to joining Next Street, Cydnee was an Engagement Manager at Strategy&, the strategy consulting arm of PwC. She has also worked for an international non-profit and for the U.S. Senate. Cydnee has her MBA from NYU Stern and her BA from George Washington University.

@JosDuncanStory | @LoveNowMedia

Jos Duncan is a multimedia producer, social entrepreneur, and public speaker. She is the founder of Love Now Media, a non-profit social enterprise and Love Now Tech, a technology consulting agency. Both operate with a mission to build empathy through impact strategy, participatory design, and storytelling. Jos pulls from both, the creative and the formulaic, to reach for innovation, build narratives, and make a social impact. She has consulted for start-ups, non-profit organizations, museums, and artists to develop brands and produce projects from conception through completion. Jos holds a BBA with a concentration in Information Technology from Temple University’s Fox School of Business and an MFA in Media Communication Arts from the City College of New York where she focused on Writing, Producing, and Cinematography.

Carole Haas Gravagno is a lifelong supporter and enthusiast of education, the arts and parenting education.  She believes deeply in providing the most vulnerable among us with the kind of nurturing that can transform lives, communities and society.  Over the years, Carole has generously given her time, expertise and resources to dozens of educational, arts and cultural organizations.  She currently serves on the board of Intercultural Journeys, Morris Arboretum, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Philadelphia Zoo, Play on, Philly! (an innovative education and social initiative that provides opportunities for personal development to children through the study of music) and the Stoneleigh Foundation (which supports fellows exploring innovative, collaborative, cross-system reform to the child welfare and juvenile justice systems to provide new solutions to improving child well-being).  The common thread that unites all of her interests is finding meaningful ways of bringing people together.   Carole holds a Bachelors of Arts from Lenoir-Rhyne College and a Masters in Education from Temple University.

Justin Hansford is a Howard University School of Law Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center. Professor Hansford was previously a Democracy Project Fellow at Harvard University, a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, and an Associate Professor of Law at Saint Louis University. He has a B.A. from Howard University and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a founder of the Georgetown Journal of Law and Modern Critical Race Perspectives. Professor Hansford also has earned a Fulbright Scholar award to study the legal career of Nelson Mandela, and served as a clerk for Judge Damon J. Keith on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. 

Professor Hansford is a leading scholar and activist in the areas of critical race theory, human rights, and law and social movements. He is a co-author of the forthcoming Seventh Edition of Race, Racism and American Law, the celebrated legal textbook that was the first casebook published specifically for teaching race-related law courses. His interdisciplinary scholarship has appeared in academic journals at various universities, including Harvard, Georgetown, Fordham, and the University of California at Hastings. He also is a member of the Stanford Medicine Commission on Justice and Equity.

M. Roger Holland, II  is Teaching Assistant Professor in Music and Religion and Director of The Spirituals Project at the Lamont School of Music, University of Denver. A graduate of Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he received the Master of Divinity degree, Roger also served as Artist-in-Residence and director of the Union Gospel Choir for over 13 years. In 2015 Union awarded him the Trailblazers Distinguished Alumni Award, the first given to a graduate whose ministry is music, for his contributions to the legacy of African American music. He received a Master's Degree in Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, also in New York, and completed his undergraduate work at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey where he majored in Music Education with a concentration in piano and voice.

Roger is Liturgical Music Consultant for the Archdiocese of New York Office of Black Ministry and Music Director for their special masses at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Commissioned works include The Dream and The Dreamer, The Tribulation Suite, and The Call. Original music collections published by GIA include “Building Up the Kingdom,” featuring the single “Worthy God,” and his recent collection, “Honey from the Rock, Vol. 1-4” He has played for the Broadway productions of Oprah Winfrey’s The Color Purple and the Tony award winning show, Memphis.  In November 2016 Timothy Cardinal Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York presented Roger with the Pierre Toussaint Medal for service. 

Eric Horvath is the Director of Capital Strategies at Common Future, a national nonprofit focused on eliminating the racial wealth gap and building an economy for all, where he leads the organization's work on innovative capital products designed by and for BIPOC communities.  Before Common Future, Eric worked at Transform Finance, leading its national work to empower activists and organizers around non-extractive finance, as well as in philanthropy, where he administered several millions of dollars in program-related investments. Eric currently serves on the finance committee of the North Star Fund, a social justice community foundation based in New York City, where he supports their efforts to align their investments with their values. He is also a Partner of The Sankofa Group, a BIPOC-led impact advisory firm.  Eric holds a BA from Fordham University, MPA from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School and is currently completing an MBA at NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Marcus is the founder and principal of Message Agency, a digital agency based in Philadelphia, PA, which he founded in 2007.  Message Agency is a certified B Corporation and social enterprise that focuses on using web-based technologies to meet the needs of organizations and progressive businesses that serve the public good.  

Marcus is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and has over 20 years of experience in developing and implementing strategies and social marketing campaigns for the public and nonprofit sectors.  He has gained extensive expertise in digital strategy and communications, website design and development, messaging/branding, content strategy, and project management.  

After leaving a full-time position at the University of Pennsylvania in 1995, Marcus founded a consulting practice, primarily working with investigators in the fields of education, economics/labor, and social sciences at university-­based research centers.  In the decade that followed, his practice grew to support a broader range of nonprofit organizations and sustainable businesses, and he founded Message Agency in 2007 to focus on the third sector.  Today, his firm serves over 100 organizations each year.  He has grown the firm to a staff size of 17 full-time employees, tripling in size and doubling in revenue over the last 3 years.

Underlying Marcus' professional experience in the public sector is over two decades of volunteer work around civil rights and economic and community development.  He has served on the boards of numerous nonprofit organizations in Philadelphia and is often challenged with finding ways to balance the interests of a range of stakeholders for development and public projects and bringing disparate groups together to collaborate. His most recent project is TransWork, as part of his role on the Independence Business Alliance, the LGBT Chamber of Commerce in Philadelphia.  Marcus founded this program to promote economic opportunity in the transgender community through employment with supportive employers or entrepreneurship.

Marcus is proud to be a transgender business owner who is committed to improving outcomes for his community.  He has run support groups, testified before City Council in 2002 to help enact the Gender Identity Ordinance, which amended the City’s Fair Practices Act to include gender identity or expression, was a founding member of the Trans-Health Conference, and served on the board of Equality Advocates.

Marcus is also involved in civic activity with the City of Philadelphia.  He served on the economic development committee of Mayor James Kenney’s transition team, as a member of the Commerce Department’s Small Business Advisory Council, and a member of the Mayor’s Committee on Diversity and Inclusion.  

He is also a member of the inaugural cohort of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program in Philadelphia.  He is a member of the Sustainable Business Network and an organizer for B Local, an affinity group of B Corporations in Philadelphia. In 2016, he won the inaugural ImpactPHL Award for his work in promoting the impact economy in our region.

Dr. Kimberlee Johnson has served the Eastern University community in numerous capacities since 1997 including Coordinator of Service Learning and Campus Ministries (and Missions), Program Director of the BA  and MA in Urban Studies, Coordinator of the Urban Immersion Program, Director of Student Leadership and Formation, and Urban Studies Department Chair. She has taught Eastern's high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, in traditional, accelerated, online, and on-ground delivery formats. She continues to coordinate many on campus and city-wide events and training opportunities in her role as Director of the Center for Community Engagement. She has served the University as Faculty Senator and Chair of the GPS Educational Policy and Curriculum Committee.

Dr. Johnson serves on the Board of Directors for Christians for Social Action which is committed to building movements and incubating projects for social change and justice. Advancing causes for justice runs through her veins, and she provides voice and empowerment for many vulnerable populations in our society. She is a sought after facilitator and commentator on matters of criminal justice reform. She is a member of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice and is also affiliated with the Philadelphia Bail Fund and Decarcerate PA.

State Representative Patty Kim, a former news anchor and reporter and Harrisburg City Councilwoman, was first elected to the state House of Representatives in 2012 and has been a leader in government reform and transparency. Kim's priorities in the General Assembly include taking a solution-based approach to statewide issues, working in cooperation and collaboration with colleagues, and utilizing her record of service to support initiatives that stand to better the lives of the citizens she represents. Kim serves on the Appropriations, Education, Insurance and Local Government committees. She is Vice Co-Chair of the Southeast Delegation. During her second term, she served as Treasurer for the Legislative Black Caucus.

Sunghwan Kim is a member of Woori Center who lives in Philadelphia. He came to the US 20 years ago to find love, and the search is ongoing. He enjoys dancing alone to jazz and classical music, loves people and wants a world without any discrimination against humanity. Believing in the Korean proverb, “constant dropping wears away the stone,” Sunghwan joins Woori Center’s efforts toward a just society as a volunteer.

@NonprofitAF

Vu Le (“voo lay”) is a writer, speaker, vegan, Pisces, and the former Executive Director of RVC, a nonprofit in Seattle that promotes social justice by developing leaders of color, strengthening organizations led by communities of color, and fostering collaboration between diverse communities.

Vu’s passion to make the world better, combined with a low score on the Law School Admission Test, drove him into the field of nonprofit work, where he learned that we should take the work seriously, but not ourselves. There’s tons of humor in the nonprofit world, and someone needs to document it. He is going to do that, with the hope that one day, a TV producer will see how cool and interesting our field is and make a show about nonprofit work, featuring attractive actors attending strategic planning meetings and filing 990 tax forms.

Known for his no-BS approach, irreverent sense of humor, and love of unicorns, Vu has been featured in dozens, if not hundreds, of his own blog posts at NonprofitAF.com, formerly nonprofitwithballs.com.

Hyeonock “Mel” Lee is a first-generation bilingual Korean American community organizer with a passion for social justice and activism. Mel is the founding Executive Director of Woori Center, a progressive Asian American grassroot organization with a mission to organize Korean and Asian Americans toward social, racial and economic justice. Mel is developing and managing Woori Center programs including civic engagement, organizing & advocacy, arts & culture, youth leadership and immigrant services, and Woori Center has increased its staffing and expanded programming while under Mel’s leadership. She strives to respond to various needs of community members, pursuing the Center’s founding values, Live Right, Know Your Roots, Live Strong and Live Together.

Marcus Littles is a visionary leader, sought-after thought partner, and organizational strategist. He founded Frontline Solutions in 2005 to help Ford Foundation and other key partners to steward philanthropic investments in an equitable Gulf Coast recovery after Hurricane Katrina. Marcus' leadership has been integral to the growth of Frontline Solutions into one of the country’s most highly regarded Black-owned management consulting firms. Frontline delivers a full range of strategy, research and evaluation, and organizational change services. Marcus has also served as an instrumental leader in directing philanthropic investment at the intersection of race and gender. Littles is regarded by many in the larger fields of racial equity and social justice as one of the most influential relationship nodes for this work. He is purposeful in his relationships, to connect and push the members of his network to leverage their individual and collective assets to help create a more just and equitable world​. ​Littles is an advocate for racial justice, an organizer of people and ideas, and a sought after facilitator, speaker and strategist. Marcus is a native of Mobile, Alabama, a proud graduate of Auburn University and the University of Delaware, and currently resides in Washington DC with his amazing wife and brilliant young son.

Linda J. Mann holds a Ph.D in Education Policy from George Mason University. Her scholarship focuses broadly on the history of American education policy, with specializations in education practices during the historical periods of enslavement, Jim Crow, massive resistance and the re-segregation of US public schools. Currently, Mann is the VP of Research for the Georgetown Memory Project (GMP), an independent research institution dedicated to uncovering empirical data on slavery and its modern-day impacts. Since 2015, the GMP has been deeply engaged in the work of systematically identifying and locating nearly 300 enslaved people sold by Georgetown University and the Maryland Jesuits to three sugar plantations in southern Louisiana in 1838 (known as “the GU272”), and tracing their direct descendants. The success of this research has resulted in the unification of families torn apart 150 years ago.

As an AHDA Fellow, Mann will be developing an oral history project to document the voices of the GU272 descendants. This project will explore what restoring justice means to the descendants of enslaved peoples as well as advance our understanding on how institutions can restore justice for their slave pasts and further the narrative on how meaningful repair might be achieved.

LeVar Michael has worked to improve communities nationwide for a number of years. Mr. Michael worked as a youth counselor for a number of years and later began a career in human services with a local government contractor where he served as Program Coordinator for seven years. LeVar eventually began a career in government starting with the York City Housing Authority where he served as an Initiatives Coordinator responsible for organizing public housing residents and conducting public outreach and community relations activities. Mr. Michael was an active member of both the State and Federal Weed and Seed public safety initiatives throughout central Pennsylvania. He would later go on to help develop the successful Gang Prevention Initiative in York, Pa. where he received the York City Merit Service Award for his gang prevention work. Mr. Michael also received numerous commendations from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency for his public safety and community organizing work. In 2011, Mr. Michael moved to Baltimore, Md. where he served as a Political Organizing for SEIU before going to work for the Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice where he managed several public safety initiatives such as the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program (HIDTA), the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation (BCJI) and Operation Ceasefire. Mr. Michael worked in federal service with the Corporation for National and Community Service and eventually began work with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation serving as a Sr. Program Office in the Safety and Justice division where he assists in providing technical assistance and training to cities throughout the country. Mr. Michael holds a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in Organizational Management.  

@MPGives

Yvonne L. Moore is the Founder and Managing Director at Moore Philanthropy and it’s newly launched exempt arm, Moore Impact.  She brings over 25 years of experience in the government, civil society, and philanthropic sectors to her work in providing strategic and tailored philanthropic advisement and solutions to families, individuals and institutions. Prior to launching Moore Philanthropy, Yvonne was the Chief of Staff to filmmaker and philanthropist Abigail E. Disney where she oversaw the family’s network of media, philanthropic and advocacy organizations. She ran the family’s private foundation, provided advisement on their personal philanthropic giving, both charitable and political, and led their expansion into international giving in 2008.

Over the span of her philanthropic career, Yvonne has grown an impressive network of colleagues and grantee partners in both the U.S. and abroad, and brings those connections to bear in her client relationships. She has successfully forged connections with foreign government officials, built strong relationships with grassroots organizations and community advocates, and successfully co-developed projects in the most challenging of environments, including post-conflict and slum communities, and most recently the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Liberia. Having spent the bulk of her last 18 years focused primarily on the U.S. and Sub-Saharan Africa, she has gained a significant level of knowledge and experience in specific issue areas including economic security, anti-violence and safety, alternative energies, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), education, health, and organizational sustainability and management.

Before joining the philanthropic sector in 1999, Yvonne spent 10 years working in child protection and advocacy. Yvonne holds a BA from Texas Tech University and a MS in Nonprofit Management from the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at the New School. She has completed post-graduate studies in democracy and civil society at the University of Cape Town, and nationalism, post-conflict violence and gender at the University of Lower Silesia in Poland. Yvonne serves as a trustee of The Daphne Foundation, the New York Women’s Foundation, Africa Grantmakers’ Affinity Group and Comic Relief USA. She also serves as an advisor to The Accountability Council, Jola House Liberia and the Periwinkle Initiative.

Stephanie Nunez is a coordinator in the city of Harrisburg with the Movement of Immigrant Leaders in Pennsylvania (MILPA). As a human rights promoter, she fights for dignity and human rights of every person, regardless of immigration status. As a coordinator, she educates and organizes communities for the defense and promotion of our constitutional rights as well as fighting for our communities' necessities. 

C. Davis Parchment currently serves as Director of Partnerships-West where she is responsible for elevating and expanding the reach of Candid across the western region by building partnerships and strategies that help to strengthen the social sector. She has long worked to support a social sector driven by better data, research, and analysis. In her previous roles as Manager of Global Projects and Partnerships, she established and led the Get on the Map Campaign, a national philanthropy data improvement effort. Prior to that, she was the Manager for Foundation Center’s Electronic Reporting Program, a role in which she oversaw outreach efforts aimed at motivating foundations, affinity groups, regional associations, and software partners to share more timely grants information. She received her BA in Political Philosophy & Economics from Mount Holyoke College, and her Ed.M. in Education from Harvard University.

Michaela Pommells (she/her) has over a decade of experience working on issues related to social justice from an intersectional and multi-issue perspective. Her work includes political education development, racial identity development and facilitating capacity building workshops for achieving gender and racial justice. She has worked at the grassroots, national, and international levels to engage and support directly impacted communities in using anti-racist mechanisms to advance justice. She is Director of Organizing & Social Justice Initiatives at The Village of Arts & Humanities and is a co-founder of the Coalition for Racial Justice, a consulting collaborative organized to eliminate race-based disparities in Philadelphia and beyond via program evaluation, group facilitation, community engagement, strategic planning, and training and curriculum development and implementation.

Joe has more than 30 years experience in philanthropy and behavioral health care leadership. In his role as President, he has led the foundation to focus on evaluation, design thinking, and community participation in programming. These focus areas have positioned the Foundation to become a disruptive thought leader in the philanthropic space. He serves on several non-profit boards focusing on health care, behavioral health, intellectual disabilities, and philanthropy.

Joe holds a Master of Arts in School Psychology from Glassboro State University (now Rowan University) and a Bachelor of Arts in Special Education from LaSalle University. He lives in Chester County with his wife and has two adult sons.

Monica Ruiz-Caraballo is the Executive Director at Casa San José. Mónica has been working with Casa since 2014 when she started as an intern, then moved to service coordinator and then community organizer. Prior to that, she worked for Catholic Charities as a case manager. She was born in Cleveland Ohio and has Latino roots from Guatemala and Puerto Rico, where her mom and her dad are originally from. Mónica holds a master’s degree in Social Work with a focus on Community Organizing and Social Action. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh with a concentration in Psychology.

Mónica is a powerful advocate for Latinos on legal, housing, development, and educational issues. She fights for those facing deportation proceedings and launches projects to assist women, children and youth. In addition, she partners with political, labor, religious, and law enforcement leadership to make Pittsburgh stronger and more welcoming to all.

Mónica recently received the 2019 Women of Influence Award, Pittsburgh Business Times and the 2019 César Chávez Community Heroes Award. She was also awarded with the 2018 New Person of the Year, from Thomas Merton Center and the 2018 Rising Star, from the University of Pittsburgh by the School of Social Work. She is currently a fellow of Lead Now Pittsburgh, a transformational leadership program for the civic sector.

Dr. Miriam Sarwana is a Research and Evaluation Analyst at BCT Partners. She has extensive experience working with nonprofits, philanthropies, and governmental organizations on promoting equity and justice through research, data analytics, and evaluation.

Miriam holds a B.S. from the University of Colorado Denver, and a Ph.D. in Social and Health Psychology from Stony Brook University with a Quantitative Concentration.

(Pronouns: she/her)

Erika Seth Davies is a leader in impact investing, nonprofit and philanthropic with extensive experience in development and fundraising, program design, collaboration and partnership management, and racial equity advocacy. She has worked in nonprofits and the field of philanthropy for 20+ years including positions as Associate Director of Philanthropy at McDonogh School, the Chief of Staff of the Baltimore Community Foundation and Vice President of External Affairs at ABFE: A Philanthropic Partnership for Black Communities. Erika has engaged in extensive efforts to advance the field on issues of racial equity including designing the SMART Investing initiative, the first field-wide effort to incorporate a racial equity lens in foundation endowment practice.

Erika is the founder of The Racial Equity Asset Lab (The REAL), a venture supported by Common Future where she is a Social Entrepreneur in Residence, that centers racial equity in impact investing. She has also served as a Fellow, Equitable Access to Capital Markets in the Fair Finance portfolio with the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University. Erika has authored papers and blogs on the intersection of racial equity and capital markets and her work has been featured in a number of publications and industry events including Fortune, Karma Impact, Impact Alpha, SOCAP, and Mission Investors Exchange among others.

Nadya K. Shmavonian is a partner at SeaChange Capital Partners and Director of the Greater Philadelphia Nonprofit Repositioning Fund. The Repositioning Fund is a pooled fund contributed by philanthropic partners that encourages and supports mergers and other types of formal, sustained collaborations among nonprofit organizations in the Greater Philadelphia region. Nadya served as president of Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) from 2010–2012, where she presided over the responsible dissolution of the organization. Nadya also has extensive foundation management experience, having served as vice president for strategy at the Rockefeller Foundation, and executive vice president at The Pew Charitable Trusts. Ms. Shmavonian has served on many foundation and nonprofit boards, including the Center for Effective Philanthropy, The Lenfest Foundation, and the Surdna Foundation. She serves as Board President for Social Impact Commons, the nation’s first incubator and shared services platform for the fiscal sponsorship field.

Nadya is a Senior Fellow at the Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management and teaches graduate seminars on nonprofit governance at the School of Social Policy and Practice (SP2) at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was awarded the 2018 Excellence in Teaching award. Nadya holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago, and an M.B.A. with a concentration in health care management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She was awarded the Kathleen McDonald Distinguished Alumna Award from Wharton Women in Business in 2011.

Melissa Sines is Programs and Knowledge Director at PEAK Grantmaking. This position leads PEAK Grantmaking’s work to identify effective, efficient, and equitable philanthropic practices and advocate for their adoption by grantmakers. Melissa started at PEAK Grantmaking as the Effective Practices Program Manager in 2018. Prior to joining PEAK Grantmaking, Melissa was the Education and Accreditation Director at Maryland Nonprofits and the Standards for Excellence Institute, where she oversaw nonprofit accreditation and the association’s learning community. Melissa is a self-professed nonprofit dork and accidental techie. She is passionate about organizing people and projects to promote social justice.

Tiffany Tavarez serves as SVP, Technology Diverse Segments, Representation and Inclusion (TDSRI) for Wells Fargo. In this role, she leads the DE&I Council for Technology for global workforce outcomes, specific to representation, mobility and inclusion as well as develops and executes high impact, multi-channel communications strategy plans for internal and external TDSRI outcomes and brand awareness.

Most recently, she was SVP of Community Sponsorships and Strategy within Wells Fargo Wealth & Investment Management which followed her role as Vice President of Community Relations at Wells Fargo where she implemented the company’s corporate responsibility priorities within the Social Impact and Sustainability team in the Northeast region. Her career in inclusive philanthropy, program development & strategy and stakeholder engagement has included reputable organizations such as Exelon; Comcast; Temple University & the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage.

In 2019, she was named in the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Top Forty Under 40 and is currently named a Women of Excellence honoree by WDAS 105.3 FM. Her current civic engagements include serving as Commissioner for Pennsylvania Commission for Women under Governor Wolf; Chair, Board of Directors for Monument Lab; Member, Board of Directors for Esperanza and a Philadelphia Mayor appointee on the Board of the Poverty Action Fund. She is a first-generation college graduate who has earned degrees from both Temple University and University of the Arts.

Brandon Taylor serves an Assistant Program Officer at LISC Philadelphia, providing programmatic and administrative support for the office’s Equitable Neighborhoods portfolio, which includes capacity building, estate planning, West Philadelphia Promise Zone initiatives, community engagement, and community safety. In his current role, he supports the execution of a holistic and strategic approach to community development that intends to result in transformative and equitable outcomes by the communities that LISC serves. Prior to LISC, Brandon worked as a Program Manager at The Trust for Public Land overseeing the design and construction of parks and playgrounds in Philadelphia. He graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in urban and regional studies, and a minor in architecture. In his spare time, he enjoys gardening, preparing good food, and enjoying the outdoors with his wife and their two-year-old son.

Stanford Thompson is a musician and educator who serves as the Founder and Executive Director of Play On Philly and Founding Board Chairman of El Sistema USA, bringing music education to students in underserved areas throughout Philadelphia and beyond. Recognized as a TED Fellow, Stanford believes that music education is a powerful tool for positive personal and community change. Mr. Thompson serves on the faculty of the Global Leaders Program and regularly presents at major universities and music conservatories about leadership, entrepreneurship and social justice. As a consultant, he has guided the development of dozens of music programs across the United States and collaborated with major orchestras, higher education institutions, and arts organizations to develop new strategies and initiatives that help provide equitable access to the arts. As a professional trumpeter, Stanford has performed as a soloist and member with major orchestras around the world and continues to perform chamber music and jazz. Stanford is a native of Atlanta, GA, a graduate of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Talent Development Program and holds degrees from The Curtis Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory’s Sistema Fellows Program.

David Thornburgh is a nationally recognized “civic entrepreneur” who, in the course of career, has launched a series of innovative high impact initiatives to tackle tough community problems.

He was named President and CEO of the Committee of Seventy, the Philadelphia-based good government group, in November, 2014. Founded in 1904, Seventy has long been a champion for a better political process, better government, and engaged and informed citizens, in Philadelphia and in Pennsylvania.  Among its many accomplishments, Seventy was instrumental in enacting campaign contribution limits and a powerful Board of Ethics—among the toughest in the nation--in Philadelphia after the “pay to play” scandals came to light in 2007.

Thornburgh came to Seventy from the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government, where he had served as Executive Director since 2008. While at Fels he doubled applications to the program, launched an innovative hybrid Executive MPA program and, during Fels’ 75th Anniversary campaign in 2012 quadrupled alumni giving and carried out 12 public programs that attracted over 1,200 alumni and political and community leaders. He also created a national Public Policy Challenge student competition in partnership with Governing magazine that drew teams from 12 top universities.

Wendy Underhill is the director for elections and redistricting at the National Conference of State Legislatures, headquartered in Denver. She has been with NCSL for 10 years. At first, Wendy specialized in research and analysis on elections issues, such as voter registration, voter ID, voting technology, and more.

A few years later, Wendy added redistricting to her portfolio, continuing NCSL’s decades-long tradition of providing objective, bipartisan information and analysis on redistricting law and processes.

In election years, she follows state politics, because her constituents—legislators—change based on election results. Her mantra for 2020 has been “Be Calm.”

Jocelyn joined Next Street in 2020. She is a Director in the New York office within the Advisory Practice. In this role, she serves as a trusted advisor and advocate to clients who seek to broaden the small business and entrepreneurial landscape.

Prior to Next Street, Jocelyn was a global relationship manager and client success director at firms within the research, workforce development, higher education, and technology industries. It is from this diverse backdrop that she provides business leaders with the tools to activate strategic solutions that deliver value to their business and society.

An entrepreneur herself, Jocelyn launched a boutique advisory firm to advance startup growth, provide individual professional development and craft corporate thought leadership. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Boston College with a concentration in Marketing and Hispanic Studies.

Jingyao Yu is the Senior Editorial Associate, Community Engagement at Resolve Philly and is passionate about elevating community voices and narratives. Jingyao has worked in the immigrant-serving nonprofit sector for a number of years prior to joining Resolve. As a long-time advocate and storyteller at heart, Jingyao helps raise visibility of communities often neglected or barred (intentionally and unintentionally) from a seat at the table, with focus on Philadelphia’s immigrant communities. A transplant from Nebraska, she came to Philadelphia to pursue a graduate degree in public health at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health.

Lamei oversees PCDC's Main Street Program and Affordable Housing Development. Most recently, she was the project manager for PCDC's affordable housing project, N. 12th Street Homes. Lamei is responsible for the annual YeShi Chinatown Night Market, which draws in 20,000+ people each year, and coordinates the annual Chinese New Year event at the Reading Terminal Market. She has also coordinated PCDC's voter registration, Get Out the Vote, and voter education events. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College with a B.A. in Urban Studies, with a minor in Chinese language. In her spare time, she enjoys playing badminton.