Dynamic Voices for Change

Geoffrey Canada is a leading advocate for children and innovator in the field of education. Canada grew up in one of the most devastated communities in the United States, the South Bronx, raised by a single mother. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College, and eventually went on to earn a master’s degree at Harvard University. He vowed to help children who grew up in disadvantaged circumstances to succeed through education. Canada created the Harlem Children’s Zone, a birth-through-college network of programs that today serves more than 13,000 low-income students and families in a 97-block area of Central Harlem in New York City. The unprecedented success of the Harlem Children’s Zone has attracted the attention of the media and leaders around the world. In 2011, Canada was named one of the world’s most influential people by Time magazine and as one of the 50 greatest leaders by Fortune magazine in 2014. President Barack Obama created the Promise Neighborhoods Initiative to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone model across the country, Canada has been profiled extensively in the media, including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, 60 Minutes, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and Forbes, among others. He was featured in the documentary about the dire state of American education Waiting for Superman, and has received more than 25 honorary degrees including ones from Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania. He has also influenced a new generation of education reformers through his writings, having published essays in The New York Times, The New York Daily News, The Chronicle of Philanthropy as well as two critically acclaimed books on poverty and violence: Fist Stick Knife Gun and Reaching Up for Manhood. After 30 years with the organization, Canada stepped down in 2014 as Chief Executive Officer of the Harlem Children’s Zone but continues to serve as President. In June 2020,Canadafounded The William Julius Wilson Institute (WJW), which will serve as the national platform to help communities impacted by poverty across the country design and implement their own place-based programs —and its first initiative will be to combat the devastation of COVID-19 in the Black community.

Jonathan Capehart is a member of The Washington Post editorial board, writes about politics and social issues, and hosts the “Cape Up” podcast. He is also an MSNBC Contributor, who regularly serves as a substitute anchor, and has served as a guest host on “Midday on WNYC” on New York Public Radio. Capehart is a regular moderator of panels at the Aspen Ideas Festival and for the Aspen Institute, the Center for American Progress and at the Atlantic Dialogues conference and the Brussels Forum of the German Marshall Fund. He has also moderated sessions at the Atlantic’s Washington Ideas Forum and for the Connecticut Forum. Capehart was deputy editorial page editor of the New York Daily News from 2002 to 2004, and served on that paper’s editorial board from 1993 to 2000. In 1999, his 16-month editorial campaign to save the famed Apollo Theatre in Harlem earned him and the board the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing. Capehart left the Daily News in July 2000 to become the national affairs columnist at Bloomberg News, and took a leave from this position in February 2001 to serve as a policy adviser to Michael Bloomberg in his first successful campaign for New York City mayor.

Autumn Glover, MCRP, MPA has worked at Ohio State for more than ten years in progressive leadership roles including strategic planning, community and local government partnerships. She is a founding staff member of PACT, currently serving as Interim President of the nearly ten year old “community quarterback.” She is responsible for the design and implementation of PACT’s award-winning community engagement process for the development of the PACT Blueprint for Community Investment. This work resulted in more than $220 million dollars of program and capital investments including $30 million in HUD Choice Neighborhoods Planning and Implementation grants. Autumn serves the Columbus community as a board member and volunteer through a number of organizations. Originally from Toledo, OH, Autumn lives in Columbus with her husband and daughter.

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.

Kwame Owusu-Kesse is the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ). He has served as the Chief Operating Officer of the Harlem Children’s Zone since 2014.Hegrew up against a backdrop of poverty, single parenthood and family struggles, but was fortunate to have opportunities as a young boy to receive a high-quality education and reach his academic potential. He went on to get his bachelor’s degree in Economics from Harvard University and then begin his career at Morgan Stanley as an analyst. During his third year with the bank, he was chosen for an externship at HCZ. After completing this externship, Mr. Owusu-Kesse returned to Harvard to receive a Master’s in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School and a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. As COO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, Mr. Owusu-Kesse has been a key liaison between the programming, financial and administrative functions of the organization, ensuring that all are aligned. While he is laser-focused on the organization’s data, he is keenly aware of the importance of the people those numbers represent, acting as a mentor and counsel to students and staff.

For the past 7 years, Mr. Peters has worked coordinating the Bayou District Foundation’s construction and revitalization efforts at Columbia Parc, a holistic community revitalization model at the site of the former St. Bernard Housing Development, which currently totals: 685 units of mixed income housing, 3 schools serving over 2100 students, 25 single family homes and a total rebuild of New Orleans City Park golf course facilities. Part of a team that has raised $20M philanthropically and leveraged it into a 350M dollar project. Mr. Peters’ work has focused on implementing an innovative community re-development model which enables children and families to escape the cycle of poverty, build a thriving community, and live productive, healthy and fulfilling lives.

Angela Siefer is the Executive Director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance. Angela has been working in the field we now call digital inclusion since 1997. From physically setting up computer labs in underserved areas and managing local digital inclusion programs to consulting for the US. Department of Commerce and testifying before Congress, Angela develops national strategies and solutions from the ground up. In 2015, Angela helped found the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, a unified voice for home broadband access, public broadband access, personal devices and local technology training and support programs. Government Technology Magazine named Angela one of their Top 25 Doers, Dreams, and Drivers of 2019.

Aba Taylor is the Racial Equity & Training Practice Lead at Interaction Institute for Social Change. She has spent the last two decades engaged in social justice as an educator, facilitator, organizer, consultant, and nonprofit executive. From working internationally at the United Nations in South Asia, to conducting civil rights trainings all over the United States, to leading high impact social justice organizations and efforts, Aba has committed herself to building the capacity and leadership of organizations dedicated to social transformation. Before coming to IISC, Aba was the executive director of a local grassroots nonprofit focused on community diversity, equity, and inclusion. Prior to that, Aba spent nearly 15 years living and loving in the People’s Republic of Brooklyn, working as the deputy director of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice and as a board member of the Audre Lorde Project and, before that, in Oakland for the Movement Strategy Center. Aba holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Pan-African Studies from Columbia University and a Master of Arts degree in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from the School of International Training. She is a Rockwood Leadership Institute alumnus and a certified trainer with Quabbin Mediation.

Leon, has over 25 years in Information Technology, currently as the Chief of Digital Innovation & Chief Information Officer at the Cleveland Foundation. In this dual role, Leon is part of the executive committee leading the foundation’s Information & Technology Services department, focusing on strategic and transformational use of technology and data within the foundation and the philanthropic sector. Additionally, as Chief of Digital Innovation, Leon oversees the foundation’s Digital Excellence grant-making strategy geared toward “building a stronger, more equitable and inclusive digital community ”tackling Cleveland’s digital divide; along with elevating Greater Cleveland’s position as an intelligent /smart city and regional technology innovation hub.

Chris Womack was named president of Georgia Power in 2020. He leads Georgia Power in serving its 2.6 million customers across the state. The company is the largest subsidiary of Southern Company, one of the nation’s leading energy providers. Prior to his current role, he served as executive vice president and president of external affairs for Southern Company where he led overall external positioning and branding efforts including the company’s public policy strategies and oversaw the company’s governmental and regulatory affairs, corporate communication initiatives and other external and strategic business engagements. A native of Greenville, Alabama, Womack joined Southern Company in 1988 and has held several leadership positions within Southern Company and its subsidiaries. He has served as executive vice president of external affairs at Georgia Power and senior vice president and senior production officer of Southern Company Generation, where he was responsible for coal, gas, and hydro generation for Georgia Power and Savannah Electric. Womack also served as senior vice president of human resources and chief people officer at Southern Company, as well as senior vice president of public relations and corporate services at Alabama Power. Prior to joining Southern Company, Womack worked on Capitol Hill for the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC. He served as a legislative aide for former Congressman Leon E. Panetta and as staff director for the Subcommittee on Personnel and Police for the Committee on House Administration. Womack is a member of the board of directors of Essential Utilities, Inc. He currently chairs the board of the East Lake Foundation, is on the national board of The First Tee and is the incoming chair of the board for the Alliance to Save Energy. Womack has chaired the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau board and the Atlanta Sports Council. He has also chaired the board for Communities in Schools of Georgia and served as a member of the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta board. He has received numerous honors, including the Johnny Morrow Endowment Foundation “Man of the Year” (1996); SCLC Leadership Award (1998); Distinguished Alumni, Western Michigan University (2003); Black Enterprise 100 Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America (2012) and Black Enterprise Magazine’s 75 Most Powerful Blacks in Corporate America (2005). He also received the Boy Scouts of America Whitney M. Young Award for Public Service (2007); the Boy Scouts of America Silver Beaver Award (2010); the Black Enterprise/Porsche Intelligent Performers Award (2010); the National Award of Merit from Alpha Phi Alpha (2011); and Let Us Make Man Community Service Award (2019). He is a member of the Leadership Atlanta class of 2000 and the Leadership Birmingham class of 1990. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University and a master’s degree from The American University. He
completed the Stanford Executive Program in 2001 and is currently pursuing his doctorate degree in political science at Clark Atlanta University.