Black Nonprofit Leaders | Rosetta Thurman

28 Days of Black Nonprofit Leaders: The Full Roundup

March 1, 2010 by rosettathurman ·

I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed learning about, and being inspired by, the 28 Black nonprofit leaders I chose to profile during Black History Month. I hope you will continue to read and share them with your colleagues. It was truly a labor of love for me to spotlight dozens of nonprofit leaders who look like me and are doing great work in communities all over the country. Of course, I could have gone on and on with the series, and in fact I will continue to highlight nonprofit leaders of color on this blog. Here are the full 28 profiles. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them!

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28 Days of Black Nonprofit Leaders: Michael Watson

February 28, 2010 by rosettathurman · Leave a Comment

Michael Watson is Senior Vice President, Human Resources for Girl Scouts of the USA.

From the Girl Scouts website:

“We cannot remain competitive as a nation or solve the country’s most challenging problems without tapping the full potential of girls and young women from every segment of our society. I joined Girl Scouts because we embrace diversity and help girls from every background become this country’s future workforce and tomorrow’s leaders.”

Michael Watson, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, directs the development and implementation of strategies, policies, and programs in the areas of staffing, employee retention, workforce planning, diversity, compensation and benefits, organizational development, employee relations, and succession planning for Girl Scouts of the USA.

Prior to joining Girl Scouts in 1999, Watson was a human resources partner for IBM Global Services, where he served as the senior human resources strategist for two businesses with combined revenues of more than $2 billion. Other positions he has held include manager-corporate human resources for Time Warner Inc. and manager-staffing and cultural diversity for GE Capital’s 7,500-employee Retailer Financial Services business. He was awarded GE Capital’s Pinnacle Club for top performance. Before joining GE’s Human Resources Management Program, Watson worked as an IBM marketing representative and received an IBM Golden Circle Award for ranking among the top performers in sales for the year.

In 1997, Watson took a one-year self-financed sabbatical. He spent part of that year as a volunteer at two public elementary schools in New Brunswick, N.J. He has been a business coordinator and volunteer for INROADS and an Association of Yale Alumni delegate, and is a graduate of Leadership Jacksonville and Leadership Canton. Watson is a lifetime member of Girl Scouts of the USA and the National Black MBA Association.

Watson is chair of the National Assembly’s Human Resources Council, an association of senior human resources professionals from the nation’s leading national nonprofits in the fields of health, human and community development, and human services. He is also treasurer of the Nonprofit Sector Workforce Coalition’s board of directors. Composed of nonprofit organizations, associations, foundations and academic centers, the coalition focuses on identifying and addressing issues facing the nonprofit sector workforce.

Watson has a bachelor of arts in economics from Yale University and a master of science in organizational management and human resource development from Manhattanville College. A native of New Brunswick, N.J., he now resides in Stamford, Conn.

Photo credit: Girl Scouts

Filed Under: 28 Days of Black Nonprofit Leaders, African Americans, Leaders of Color · Tagged With: 28 Days of Black Nonprofit Leaders, African American nonprofit leaders, black history month, Black nonprofit leaders, Diversity, Girl Scouts, Girl Scouts of the USA, Human Resources, Michael Watson, nonprofit human resources

28 Days of Black Nonprofit Leaders: Thelma Golden

February 27, 2010 by rosettathurman · Leave a Comment

Thelma Golden

Thelma Golden is the Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem.

From The Black List Project:

As a young child growing up in Queens, New York, Thelma Golden knew early in life she wanted to be a museum curator. She first learned of the role at age 12 when she read about the pioneering African-American woman curator, Lowery Sims, of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Golden had her first hands-on training as a senior in high school, training as a curatorial apprentice at the Metropolitan Museum.

In 1991, Thelma took a position at the Whitney Museum of American Art, one of the nation’s premier art institutions. Golden used her position to open up the museum to previously under-represented artists including women and people of color. Her willingness to think outside the box and show artists that might not have been shown anywhere else helped put her on the national map.

Photo credit: Gothamist

Filed Under: 28 Days of Black Nonprofit Leaders, African Americans, Arts, Leaders of Color · Tagged With: 28 Days of Black Nonprofit Leaders, African American nonprofit leaders, Arts, black history month, Black nonprofit leaders, Studio Museum, Thelma Golden

28 Days of Black Nonprofit Leaders: Terri Lee Freeman

February 26, 2010 by rosettathurman · Leave a Comment

Terri Freeman

Terri Lee Freeman is the President of The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region in Washington, DC.

From the Venture Philanthropy Partners website:

Terri Lee Freeman was appointed president of The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region (The Community Foundation) in July 1996. As president, Freeman is responsible for providing thought leadership and furthering the mission of The Community Foundation to facilitate individual, family, and organizational giving at all levels to improve the quality of life in the metropolitan Washington region. Since joining The Community Foundation, Freeman has led its growth from $52 million to more than $200 million in assets. The Community Foundation is the largest funder of local nonprofit organizations in the metropolitan Washington region. She has been at the forefront of regional philanthropy in Washington, housing two affiliate community foundations – Montgomery County Community Foundation and Prince George’s Community Foundation. Under her leadership the foundation has been instrumental in focusing attention and grant dollars on bridging differences between race, class, ethnicity, gender, and age, managing the only funding collaborative in the region focused on immigrant and inter-group issues. Additionally, The Community Foundation has spearheaded a youth philanthropy initiative in Washington, DC and Montgomery County, Maryland. Immediately following September 11th, The Community Foundation established the Survivors’ Fund as an LLC, the largest devoted to the needs of the victims and families of the attack on the Pentagon, with more than $16 million in contributions recorded.

Prior to joining The Community Foundation, she was the founding executive director of the Freddie Mac Foundation, one of the five largest corporate foundations in the metropolitan Washington region. Washingtonian magazine recently identified Freeman as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Washington. A graduate of the 1996 class of Leadership Washington, Freeman serves on the board of directors of The Charity Lobbying in the Public Interest and Venture Philanthropy Partners; and is a member of the planning committee of the Potomac Conference; co-chair of the Potomac Conference’s Task Force on Regional Emergency Preparedness; and a member of the Strategy Group for New Ventures in Philanthropy. Additionally, she has served on the advisory board of the Washington, DC office of the Children’s Defense Fund and the board of directors of the National Association of Child Advocates. She is a past chair of the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers as well as past chair of the board of directors of the Association of Black Foundation Executives. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in journalism/communication arts from the University of Dayton and received a master’s degree in organizational communication management from Howard University. She is married to the Reverend Bowyer Freeman and has three daughters.

28 Days of Black Nonprofit Leaders: Emery Wright

February 24, 2010 by rosettathurman · Leave a Comment

Emery Wright currently sits on the Executive Leadership Team at Project South in Atlanta.

From the Project South website:

An Atlanta native, Emery is a community organizer with over 15 years of experience including: youth development, community and tenant organizing, leadership development, and nonprofit organizational development. Emery is an educator with experience facilitating Black studies courses, U.S. history, African studies, and leadership development in a wide range of settings including prisons, housing struggles, college campuses and youth organizing spaces.

In 1999, He founded and directed The Nia Project for five years, a Black youth development and community building organization based in Boston, Massachusetts with projects in South Carolina and Atlanta. In 2002, he received the Arthur Ashe Youth Leadership Award from the Skinner Leadership Institute and the Drylongslo Award for Combating Racism from the Boston Center for Community Change. An accomplished writer and speaker on social movement development and grassroots leadership, Emery has worked closely with community organizers in East Africa and across the Southeast. He served on the Project Team at Building Movement Project, Inc. based in New York from 2006-2009 and currently serves on The Ordinary Peoples Society National Board, based in Dothan, Alabama.

At Project South, Emery is responsible for Organizational Program & Leadership Development and directs the youth development work for community organizing including the Youth Community Action Project Youth Speak Truth radio program and the Septima Clark Community Power Institute.

Photo credit: Project South