Triangle United Way names 2021’s ’10 to Watch’ leaders of diverse nonprofits
After reviewing their funding portfolio in 2018, leaders of the United Way of the Greater Triangle noticed that of the nonprofits they were supporting, those led by men had three times the assets as those led by women and people of color.
That’s when they came up with the “10 to Watch” list, an initiative that grants $50,000 spread out over two years to 10 nonprofit leaders and their organizations.
The goal of the program is “to directly address racial, gender, and resource disparities in leadership,” said Nick Allen, United Way’s chief program officer, in an email to The News & Observer.
“Historically, philanthropy has predetermined what successful nonprofit leadership and organizations look like. This has led to the diversity and equity disparities that we experience today,” Allen said.
“10 to Watch seeks to disrupt that structure by intentionally investing in the under-represented and under-resourced nonprofit leaders so that they lead the charge in redefining, for the Triangle, success in community impact and the look of transformational leadership,” Allen said.
The United Way just announced its second “10 to Watch” cohort, highlighting 10 “high-impact organizations” in the Greater Triangle. The majority are led by women of color.
We asked each person about their organization, their roles and how they will use their grants.
United Way’s ‘10 to Watch’
Annie Schmidt, executive director of NAMI Wake County
Annie Schmidt became the organization’s first executive director in May 2018. Prior to that, she says, the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Wake County was operated by volunteers for all of its 30-plus year history.
As NAMI’s leader, Schmidt says her focus has been creating a sustainable and inclusive organization with quality programming. She says the organization has been doing so successfully thanks to different initiatives, wokshops and partnerships.
Schmidt and NAMI Wake will use the United Way grant to hire more staff in order to increase the number of people they serve.
“I’m still on cloud nine about being selected,“ Schmidt said. “We are fueled by passion, but we need adequate staffing to ensure that our existing programs continue to operate smoothly and to have the ability to launch new initiatives.”
Schmidt said the United Way’s support helps “put us on the map” and lets the community know “we are here when you need us.” She said she hopes the award will also help them partner with new organizations and expand their reach.
Geraud Staton, executive director of The Helius Foundation
Geraud Staton founded The Helius Foundation to provide training and coaching for “necessity-driven entrepreneurs,” as he calls them. He identifies them as small business owners facing racial, educational and financial disadvantages.
“There are so many entrepreneurs who would do so much better if only they had the resource of knowledge and connections that so many other, more privileged business people have,” Staton said.
With the funds from the “10 to Watch” initiative, Staton says he plans to expand the number of developmental opportunities his organization offers. This way, he said, the organization can improve its reach and help people in the community start their own small business.
“The ability to do this, and to be recognized by the United Way of the Greater Triangle, is a huge honor,” Staton said. “It is a commitment by this organization, saying to those they support, ‘This is an organization that will do great things!’ We look forward to proving them correct!”
Jenice Ramirez, executive director of ISLA NC
Jenice Ramirez leads a team that focuses on helping first- and second-generation Spanish-speaking immigrants find their their way in their communities through educational Spanish language and cultural immersion programs.
“(Hispanic/Latinx youth and their families) face various obstacles due to immigration status, structural racism, and the challenges of navigating complex social systems,” Ramirez said to The News & Observer.
The core of ISLA’s Programming is ISLA Los Sábados, a free weekly educational heritage language immersion program for children ages 3 to 17.
“ISLA Los Sábados not only provides weekly Spanish and cultural immersion to students, but equally importantly, provides access to information, resources, and capacity-building for students’ parents and families,” Ramirez explained.
Ramirez and her team plan to use their grant from the United Way to fund their current programs and expand them so ISLA can “impact more families and students across the state.”
Joy Spencer, executive director of Equity Before Birth
Equity Before Birth is a Black maternal health charity organization. It is celebrating its first year this fall.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related causes than white women, with socioeconomic disparities being among the leading causes. According to Joy Spencer, Equity Before Birth’s mission is to save the lives of Black birthing people by increasing access to quality perinatal services and support.
“We cover the cost of perinatal services and provide direct cash assistance to Black birthing people,” Spencer said. “We do not provide direct services but we do cover the cost of health care, education and support services.”
She said she is currently the only leader in the organization, but that will change with the funding from the United Way’s “10 to Watch” grant.
“We will use the ‘10 to Watch’ grant to continue to increase our staff capacity to meet the demand of families in the Triangle,” Spencer said. “We constantly have a waitlist and want to serve families in a more timely manner.”
Nora El-Khouri Spencer, CEO of Hope Renovations
Nora El-Khouri came up with the idea for Hope Renovations while she was a graduate student at the UNC School of Social Work.
“After spending 15 years in corporate HR and recruiting for big ... companies, I needed a change,” Spencer said. “I was a self-taught tradeswoman, and had a good understanding of the great career opportunities available in the industry — and the extreme gender gap.”
With her new social work training, she came up with a model to help underemployed women and older adults in the Triangle. Hope Renovation’s free Women’s Trades Training Program teaches the basic skills needed for trades careers, and their Aging in Place Construction Program provides older adults with repairs and renovations in their homes, giving trainees an opportunity for on-the-job practice alongside their own crew. They launched last summer.
“We’ve been able to achieve an enormous amount of impact over the past year,” Spencer said. “We’ve completed more than 80 construction jobs in the community to date.”
The “10 to Watch” grant will help Hope Renovations reach its goal of expanding to other states by 2025, Spencer said.
Ronda Taylor Bullock, co-founder of we are
Using her knowledge as a critical race scholar, Ronda Taylor Bullock helped found we are: working to extend anti-racist education. The nonprofit organization provides anti-racism training for children, families and educators.
“We use a three-pronged approach to dismantle systemic racism in education and beyond by offering summer camps for children in rising 1st-5th grade, professional development for educators, and workshops for parents & families,” Taylor Bullock said in an email to the N&O.
Bullock and her team plan to use the “10 to Watch” grant to support the development of a “play-based anti-racism curriculum” for pre-kindergarteners and to develop an internship program for college and high school students.
Tameka S. Brown, founder of H.E.A.R.T.S.
Tameka Brown founded Helping Each Adolescent Reach Their Spark, or H.E.A.R.T.S., with the goal of supporting teen parents from her hometown in Durham with resources to become independent and self-sufficient.
Growing up, Brown says she saw the challenges facing teen parents firsthand, with close friends and classmates becoming parents while in high school.
A graduate of North Carolina A&T State University, Brown says her love for children began as a teenager when she was a group leader for Little River Elementary School in Durham.
According to the H.E.A.R.T.S. website, Durham’s repeat teen pregnancy is at a rate of 18%.
Brown has been the organization’s sole leader throughout its eight-year run. With the “10 to Watch” grant, Brown will be able to hire a social work intern this year.
“With this grant, we plan to hire staff, but more importantly impact the young parents in our community by way of enhancing our programming, developing our Love Bugs children’s closet, enhancing group sessions, and expanding to surrounding counties,” Brown said.
Tojan B. Rahhal, CEO of Engineering World Health
Tojan Rahhal was appointed CEO of Engineering World Health in August 2020. The Durham-based nonprofit aims to engage engineering students and health care professionals and combine their skills to improve global health.
Before joining the organization, Rahhal was a biomedical engineering student and researcher at NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill.
“I have a unique journey into the nonprofit sector,” Rahhal said, citing her background in engineering and academia. “This has provided me with some advantages in that my network has members from a variety of academic fields, including many who are interested in diversity and inclusivity in STEM.”
Still, Rahhal says that she feels at a disadvantage as the organization’s leader because she knows many leaders who faced the same struggles as she did as “a minority leader.” That’s where the developmental opportunities from the United Way’s “10 to Watch” award will come in handy.
“I believe UWGT’s equity in leadership program will provide me with these tools and help me gain the skill sets to be a strong nonprofit leader,” Rahhal said of the training the “10 to Watch” cohort will receive.
Engineering World Health plans to use funding from the “10 to Watch” grant to increase diversity in their experiential engineering programs, and to provide access to STEM education and training for K-12 students.
Tolulope Omokaiye, founder and CEO of EVOLVE Mentoring
EVOLVE Mentoring is the Raleigh-based organization that runs the Obama-era initiative My Brother’s Keeper in Wake County. Locally, the program focuses on providing mentorship opportunities to at-risk youth in Wake County’s communities of color.
According to the My Brother’s Keeper website, the program provides resources and training, and hosts workshops and community-building “lunch and learns” throughout Wake County.
Tova Hairston, executive director of Boomerang Youth
Boomerang Youth Inc. is an Orange County-based nonprofit that provides an alternative to in-school suspension programs and replaces them with after school activities. Their goal is so help keep at-risk youth in school through interventions like peer mentoring, academic support and other activities that support school-aged children at risk of dropping out of school after suspensions.
Tova Hairston, the program’s executive director, says the grant from “10 to Watch” award will help fund the purchase of program supplies and materials, staff salaries, professional development and capacity-building.
To learn more about the United Way of the Greater Triangle’s “10 to Watch” initiative, click here.
This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
