blackwomeninnonprofits

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Azurae Redmond Supports the Young, Black & Widowed

By Spark Point / December 15, 2021

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 Helping At-Risk Girls Become Confident Community Leaders

By Spark Point / November 11, 2021

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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#BlackWomenSparkChange: Celebrating the First Year

By Spark Point / November 4, 2021

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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Andrea Copeland Sets a Standard of Excellence

By Spark Point / October 28, 2021

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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Aisha Arrington Leads From the Front, Advocating for People in Need

By Whitney Brimfield / July 7, 2021

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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For Renee Ligon, Adversity Can Be a Catalyst for Positive Change

By Spark Point / June 23, 2021

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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Muriel Smith’s Love Letters to St. Louis Families

By Spark Point / June 9, 2021

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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Janece Kleban is an Innovator and Solution-Maker

By Spark Point / May 27, 2021

For Janece Kleban, fundraising and working in development for non-profits was in her blood. Her mother is a consultant and does strategic planning for both local and national organizations, so Janece was able to see firsthand how this type of work impacts everyone in the community. During college, she led her collegiate chapter for Habitat…

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Kimberly Bryant is Inspiring Young Women to Dream Silicon Valley Big

By Spark Point / May 12, 2021

By 2010, Kimberly Bryant had built a successful career working as an electrical engineer in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Around that time she began exploring other options and started to look at opportunities through the lens of an entrepreneur. The more networking and circulating among new spaces she did, the more she noticed the…

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Anna Barber Pivots from Athletics to Helping Black Organizations Excel

By Spark Point / April 21, 2021

As a lifelong competitive swimmer, Anna Barber started her undergraduate degree at Howard University knowing that she wanted to pursue a career as an athletic director. After graduating, she headed to Arizona State University where she continued to lay the groundwork for a future in athletics — and earned her law degree.  “I worked as…

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