Carol Torres is the director of the Human Service and Education Worker Training Fund, a nonprofit whose mission is to create high value professional development to benefit all bargaining unit members. “It’s a dream job that I didn’t have a dream for,” Carol explains. “The dream is the feeling that I get when I do…
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Chantal Stevens is the Executive Director for the ACLU of North Carolina. This nonprofit affiliate focuses on racial justice, transforming the criminal-legal system, reproductive justice, LGBTQIA rights, immigrant rights and voting rights. Chantal has been in this role since February 2020 but it wasn’t a position she initially saw on her career path. Chantal left…
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Megan Stewart is the founder of the PCOS Awareness Association, a nonprofit that advocates for people with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). For the past 9 years, this organization has helped millions of people with PCOS find the resources they need to understand and manage their diagnosis. Megan didn’t initially set out to create the nonprofit,…
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After being together for almost a decade, Chattanoogan, Azuráe Johnson Redmond lost her husband, Matthew Holt Redmond, to lung cancer in 2017. Azurae was 27 years old at the time and five months pregnant with the couple’s second son, little Matthew. Their first son, Holt, was just 10 months old. It was a heartbreaking, yet…
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Joy Nelson Thomas is the founder and executive director of LEAD Girls of NC, a nonprofit dedicated to helping at-risk preteen girls build self-confidence and gain the skills they need to be strong leaders in their community.Since its founding in 2015, LEAD Girls has helped more than 500 girls through evidence-based school and community programs. …
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Inspired by the racial justice uprisings of 2020, the inequity laid bare by the pandemic, and our commitment to anti-racism, we started the #BlackWomenSparkChange campaign in August of 2020. Our goal has always been to celebrate the stories, voices, and leadership of Black women in the nonprofit sector. Not only did the social climate of…
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When Andrea Copeland studied social work in college, she knew her future would be in macro-level work, navigating through complex systems that affect large communities. “I’m a policy nerd,” she says. “I want to make sure the policies we create and implement positively impact populations that we’re trying to target. My biggest goal as a…
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On Aisha Arrington’s first day at the LTC Ombudsman Program, an organization that advocates for people who live in long term care, she wrote on a piece of paper that her dream was to become the Executive Director and “lead from the front.” She folded the note up and placed it in her desk. Within…
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After a successful 20-year career in commercial banking, Renee Ligon moved from Florida back to her native Ohio and pivoted to community-centered work. In a perfect melding of her banking experience and her desire to make a difference, she served as the Regional Director of the Urban League of Greater Cleveland’s Minority Business Assistance Center.…
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In many ways, Muriel Smith always knew she’d find her way to a career in nonprofit — in her ideal world, even leading one. Now, as Executive Director at the St. Louis Area Diaper Bank, she’s not only realizing her dream, but working with an incredible team and community to ensure local families’ basic needs…
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