ELRICO BLANCAFLOR
Principal
Rico is an experienced executive leader, facilitator, and creative strategist. Before his current role, he was the Vice President for Policy & Collaboration at Philanthropy New York (PNY) where he worked with national and New York based grant making institutions to develop events for foundation staff members. Prior to his time at PNY, Rico was the Vice President of Strategic Projects and member of the executive team responsible for the expansion, evolution and management of The Posse Foundation.
ELAINE DAVENPORT
Project Partner
In her two decades as a nonprofit leader and consultant Elaine Davenport has helped design and implement community-based programs and trainings that promote equity, community, and justice. Elaine honed her leadership and facilitations skills in roles at the Posse Foundation, national oral history project StoryCorps, and social service agency Center for Family Life of Sunset Park, and as a consultant for clients that include Shared_Studios, NYC Department of Youth and Community[..]
EMELY MARTINEZ
Project Partner
Emely Martinez is a leader in talent development, programming, facilitation, and education, with a passion for building organizations to be diverse, equitable, and inclusive. Emely graduated with a degree in Psychology from Yale University, and began her career with Teach for America as a Kindergarten teacher in Washington, DC. Focused on equity work through education, Emely then joined the national headquarters of After-School All-Stars (ASAS), a federated non-profit. As National Program Director, she was charged with co-creating four signature initiatives[..]
ASIA LIZA MORALES
Project Partner
Asia is an experienced curriculum designer, facilitator, and project manager. Most recently, she worked at The Posse Foundation to support Posse’s strategic partners with their diversity and inclusion priorities. In her role, Asia developed dynamic programming for students and professionals aimed at fostering dialogue about identity, leadership, and today's most pressing social issues. She is currently pursuing her MBA at USC’s Marshall School of Business with an emphasis on workforce strategy and organizational transformation.
Michelle Nasser
Project Partner
Michelle Nasser is a passionate educator, Community creator, and leader, whose work focuses on implementing and restructuring organizational approaches to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI). She serves on the Board of Trustees of a non-profit college preparatory school for under-resourced students where she focuses on the school's long-term impact on the community. She facilitates workshops, dialogue, group sessions […]
POOJA SACHDEV
Project Advisor Pooja Sachdev is an experienced business psychologist, organisational consultant and founder of Rewire Consulting. She has worked across a range of settings over the last two decades from small start-ups, public sector bodies and niche consultancies to multi-nationals in financial services, technology and media. Pooja is particularly interested in the study of unconscious bias, behaviour change and organisational culture. She is co-author of 'Rewire: A Radical Approach to Tackling Diversity and Difference' […]
JASON SPECTOR
Project Partner
Jason Spector operates as an organizational strategy and evaluation consultant, focused on issues of equity and social impact. For Third Settlements, Jason partners in advancing equity audits and assessments, as well as supporting organizational strategy around equity implementation. Previously, Jason served as the Senior Director of Strategy and Evaluation for After-School All-Stars, a national nonprofit reaching 90,000 youth annually, leading evaluation and the development of national and local equity-centered strategic plans. […]
EMILIA CHICO
Project Partner
Emilia Chico is an educator, facilitator, and youth advocate. She has been working in collaboration with non-profit organizations, schools, and corporations for over 15 years. She is especially skilled at small & large group facilitation and has developed curriculum and trainings on intergroup dialogue, racial justice, gender expansiveness and implicit bias. Emilia serves as a consultant for local and national organizations that are committed to creating equitable and inclusive environments.
MARTA ELENA ESQUILIN
Project Partner
Marta Elena Esquilin is a social justice educator, higher education administrator, and DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) consultant. She currently serves as the Associate Dean of the Honors Living Learning Community at Rutgers Newark, and Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in the American Studies Program within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She received her Master’s Degree in 2003 from Teachers College, Columbia University in Higher Education Administration. In 2005, under the [..]
Chirag Menon
Principal
Chirag is a recording/performing artist, writer, facilitator and educator. He has recorded and released eight albums under Chee Malabar and hip-hop groups Himalayan Project and Oblique Brown. He continues to perform his music and speak at universities and colleges around issues of American identity and race. He was featured in the landmark South Asian-American documentary ‘Brown Like Dat’, and his lyrics and work are the subject of the book Hip Hop Desi’s and a Global Race Consciousness by Northwestern University professor Nitasha Sharma.
MICIA MOSELY
Project Partner
Micia Mosely is the founder and director of The Black Teacher Project, a program of The National Equity Project committed to developing a Black teaching force to transform schools into communities of liberated learning. Prior to leading this work, she was a National Training Specialist with The Posse Foundation. Mosely began her career as a high school social studies teacher before earning her Ph.D. in Education from U.C. Berkeley. She is a published researcher whose work focuses on race and professional development.
SHIZA PASHA
Project Advisor
Shiza Pasha is an independent consultant with a singular goal: to grow the capacity and impact of the foundation and nonprofit community. With extensive experience in local and international grantmaking, she understands how to move resources through nonprofit, philanthropic, and government spaces to create social impact. In previous projects, she has provided surge grantmaking capacity to foundation clients during busy board cycles, […]
george EMILIO SANCHEZ
Project Partner
George Emilio Sanchez is a writer, performance artist and social justice activist. Since 2019 he has been making original performance pieces for his series, “Performing the Constitution.” In March 2022 he will premiere the next installment titled, In the Court of the Conqueror, which will be presented in New York, New Hampshire, Colorado and Oklahoma. He teaches at the City University of New York’s College of Staten Island in the Performing and Creative Arts Department. He recently received a Masters in Legal Studies […]
CARISSA JOHNSON WHITE
Project Partner
Carissa Johnson White is educator, artist, and facilitator. She has served schools and non-profits as an artist-in-residence, created arts integration workshops for teacher professional development, and served as a consultant for schools, community centers, and corporations to create curricula and facilitate trainings on arts activism, racial justice, and global education issues across the United States and beyond. After completing her Ed.M in Arts in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, she began curating and co-directing an annual […]
Josh Christianson
Project Partner
Josh Christianson is Project Director for the Partnership on Inclusive Apprenticeship (PIA) where he leads efforts to create a more diverse and inclusive workforce through apprenticeship. Josh has extensive experience in supporting the diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) efforts of non-profit organizations, for-profit businesses and government agencies. He is the former co-director of PEAT, where he built cross-sector partnerships to shape the policies […]
Patrick Garrity
Project Partner
Patrick is the Founder & CEO of Tailwind Solutions, a nonprofit consulting firm that empowers mission-driven leaders and organizations through innovative and equity-focused coaching, consulting and training. Patrick specializes in leadership development, organizational design and talent management, and approaches each partnership with an integrated equity lens and an adaptive leadership frame that empowers partners to lean into both the technical and adaptive aspects of the challenges [..]
JEFFREY SCOTT MILLER
Project Partner
Jeffrey Scott Miller began his career as an educator. He has his MFA in Creative Writing and his BA in Mass Communications. He taught for 15 years in the public, private, and charter school systems. His passion for learning, empowering voices through communication skills, and youth advocacy have all been themes throughout his work. After leaving his classroom, Jeffrey has served as the National Director of Education and National Director of Curriculum and Training for both for profit and nonprofit organizations.
BRETT MURPHY
Project Partner
Brett Gardiner Murphy has over fifteen years of experience in culturally relevant and sustaining curriculum design, professional development, facilitation, writing, and research. She is a 9th grade global history teacher at a public high school in New York City and a PhD student in Urban Education at the City University of New York Graduate Center. Before returning to the classroom, she was the Director of Strategic Projects at the Posse Foundation, where she helped establish a new consulting arm for the organization […]
DAX-DEVLON ROSS
Principal
Dax-Devlon Ross is the author of six books, including the acclaimed Letters to My White Male Friends, and his journalism has been featured in Time, The Guardian, The New York Times, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Washington Post Magazine and other national publications. He won the National Association of Black Journalists’ Investigative Reporting Award for his coverage of jury exclusion in North Carolina courts and is currently a Puffin Writing Fellow at Type Media Center.
JUSTIN WEIR
Project Partner
Justin is the Deputy Executive Director and one of the co-founders at ProScholars Athletics Inc. He is an experienced leader, facilitator, and financial and marketing strategist. He has played multiple roles that have supported the growth of ProScholars, notably as the director of Programs, which helped lead to the program being featured in segments in such media outlets as ABC Nightly News, and the New York Times. During his 15 years at ProScholars, Justin has seen his programs student athletes earn over $400 million in scholarship awards at the Collegiate and secondary school level.