Since 1996, The Denver Foundation has launched many initiatives to increase diversity, inclusiveness, and racial equity in the local nonprofit sector. For example, the Foundation has engaged in intentional practices of listening and working with community members to self-identify their assets and opportunities through the Strengthening Neighborhoods program. We have partnered with nonprofits, funders, and community members to develop research, programs, and best practices around inclusiveness and equity (The SHIFT; The Landscape Report). And since 2012, we’ve developed and expanded a program that focuses on leaders of color, developing their organizational and leadership skills through peer-to-peer learning and sharing through the Executive Directors of Color Institute (EDCI).
This two-year capacity-building program has been a space for growth and development for over 60 alumni members since its first cohort eight years ago. Alongside LaDawn Sullivan, the Foundation’s Director of Leadership & Equity, dynamic program facilitators Art Rimando and Vienna Presley, seasoned EDCI program alumni offer participants a three-pillar experience. Each member is offered a platform for leadership development, capacity-building for their organizations, and strategies to strengthen their collective work in the Metro Denver nonprofit sector.
During a global pandemic, EDCI programming started two months later than planned and has been moved into virtual reality. Yet the value of peer-to-peer learning and a space for human connection and a forum for sharing lived experience and knowledge with one another can’t be diminished amid a global pandemic and nationwide outcry for racial justice. “I’m very happy that EDCI has decided to continue, because ‘The Marathon’ continues [as famously stated by the late rapper Nipsey Hussle]. We still need to be supportive of one another and my mindset is that I need to make the most out of it,” says Dontae Latson, President, and CEO of Rocky Mountain Communities and Year 1 EDCI participant.
“I think it’s critical for leaders of color to have a safe space where we have the opportunity to vent frustrations, to celebrate victories, and to deeply engage in conversations, that quite frankly, others will not understand.”
In his 17 years working at the executive leadership level in both the public and private sectors, “this is the first executive program I’ve gone through that is exclusively for people of color. I think it’s critical for leaders of color to have a safe space where we have the opportunity to vent frustrations, to celebrate victories, and to deeply engage in conversations, that quite frankly, others will not understand.” Latson admits the situation for his first year of the EDCI is not ideal, but the value of the connections he’s made thus far, albeit virtually, is very real.
The current cohort of the EDCI, Class(es) of 2020 and 2021 includes nearly 40 executive directors and nonprofit leaders from Metro Denver. You can find a full list of the current cohort and a list of EDCI alumni here.
EDCI Year 1 Participants
Kenneth Barela, Avazan Latino
Candice Bataille, Glowmundo
Angela Cesna, Latinas Safehouse
Kisha Burton, A True Change
Sade Cooper, Collaborative Healing Initiative with Communities
David Dadone, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art
Violeta Garcia, Denver Urban Gardens
Dara Goldsby, Caring and Sharing
Maria Gonzales, Adelante Community Development
Dontae Latson, Rocky Mountain Communities
Diana Pineda, VUELA for Health
Yvette Plummer Burkhalter, Thrive Center
Vanessa Roberts, Project Voyce
Tanaka Shipp, Collaborative Healing Initiative with Communities
Tomeka Speller, Gateway Domestic Violence Services
Dane Washington, Kids Above Everything Else
Herman White, Park Hill Pirates
Rosa Marie Vergil Velasquez, Una Mano, Una Esparanza
EDCI Year 2 (Returning) Participants
Hasira Soul Ashemu, Our Voices Our Schools (OVOS)
Andrea Barela, NEWSED
Yoli Casas, VIVE Wellness
Shalelia Dillard, SCD Enrichment Program
Phillip Douglas, Make A Chess Move
Xochitl Gaytan, Our Voices Our Schools
Yoal Ghebremeskel, Street Fraternity
Olga Gonzalez, Cultivando
Pam Jiner, Montbello Walks
Cassandra Johnson, OVOS/Black Child Development Institute
Stephanie Knight, Senior Hub
Larry Martinez, Denver Inner City Parish
Claudia Moran-Pichardo, Museo de las Americas
Charlene Porter, Hattie McDaniel Museum
D. L. Pos Ryant, Apprentice of Peace Youth Organization
Juliet Sebold, African Leadership Group
Nosh Tarachand, America’s House of Commons
Johnnie Williams, GRASP (Gang Rescue and Support Project)
Noreen VL Wilson, Operation Hope