Ensure FMS is present and active in spheres of influence relevant to its mission and its geography, always attentive to ways in which the Foundation can contribute to collective progress regarding issues and communities of primary strategic interests. And, expand FMS's network of relationships to ensure the sustainable funding its mission deserves.

Sets policy parameters for the organization. In addition, assists in meeting and working with funders and other visitors when they come to Mississippi to observe, meet and discuss their concerns with community people and the organization's work.

Direct, manage, and maintain a portfolio of grants and grantee relationships within a multi-million dollar congregation-based social justice funding program.- Grant Making Docket Management- Board Support, Congregational Engagement and Communication- Professional Leadership in Philanthropy

• Managed a portfolio of approximately 140 grants totaling approximately $90 million.• Co-drafted the foundation’s community engagement and racial equity strategy.• Organized the foundation’s first racial equity and community engagement joint team learning excursion to Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and New Orleans, LA.• Reviewed proposals, managed due diligence, and made grant or corporate gift recommendations accordingly.• Conducted site visits to explore grant cultivation opportunities or monitor and evaluate grant implementation.• Monitored, received, and responded to programming proposals, requests, and contracts.• Developed the scope of work and managed contracts to implement place-based programming.• Provided timely and competent peer review of proposals and requests from colleagues.• Acted as a community liaison for the design and implementation of “Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation.”• Managed relationships with funders collaboratives, grantmakers associations, and economic councils, and grantee partners.• Supported senior programming staff by providing data collection, literature reviews, and environmental scans, identification of key trends and patterns, and creation of graphic displays to illustrate key findings.• Collaborated with team members to manage internal processes, portfolio progress, documentation, and grant budget information, coding and reporting, and ensure grants are brought to a timely and quality close.

Sets policy parameters for the organization. In addition, assists in meeting and working with funders and other visitors when they come to Mississippi to observe, meet and discuss their concerns with community people and the organization's work.

- Wrote and submitted successful proposals, concept papers, and letters of intent to foundations and donors.- Identified funding needs, conducted research to pinpoint preferred funding targets, and executed approaches to secure those funds.- Cultivated and maintained relationships with donors, program officers, and foundation staff.-Coordinated the organization’s first successful national fundraiser in Washington, DC.- Increased board and staff giving from 52% to 100%.- Wrote monthly appeals that resulted in a more than 500% increase in online giving.- Spearheaded multi-media public education campaigns to extend the impact of the organization’s legislative, legal and policy advocacy.- Worked with local, regional, statewide and national media to pitch stories, maximize media coverage, and enhance the visibility of the of the organization in communities statewide.- Drafted and edited press materials, including press releases, advisories, and background memos.- Developed and managed dynamic content for the organization’s website, e-communications, and social media.- Oversaw the development of online activism campaigns and other web organizing campaigns.- Identified affirmative media opportunities around organizational issues.- Produced and/or edited major reports, know your rights materials, annual reports, legislative reports and other publications, including newsletter.- Worked with staff and partners to analyze implications of local, state, and federal legislation on families and communities, integrating legal, legislative, public education, communications and organizing strategies. - Built, managed, and nurtured effective multi-organizational coalitions and alliances on priority issues and campaigns.- Lead the development and management of the effective working relationships with key public officials at the local, state, and federal levels.

Leadership and Management:- Ensure ongoing local programmatic excellence, rigorous evaluation, and consistent quality of finance and administration, fundraising, communications, and systems; timelines and resources needed to achieve the strategic goals- Actively engage and motivate staff, board members, consultants, members, volunteers, event committees, alumni, partnering organizations, and funders- Develop, maintain, and support a strong Board of Directors: serve as ex-officio of each committee, seek and build board involvement with strategic direction for both ongoing local operations as well as for the state, multi-state, and national programs- Lead, coach, develop and retain high-performance staff to help ensure effective systems to track and scale progress, and regularly evaluate program components, so as to measure successes that can be effectively communicated to the board, funders, and other constituentsFundraising and Communications:- Expand local revenue generating and fundraising activities to support existing program operations and expansion while simultaneously working to increase foundation support.- Deepen and refine all aspects of communications from web presence to external relations with the goal of creating a stronger brand for the organization- Use existing and establish new relationships to garner new financial opportunities for the organizationPlanning and Program Development:- Design the local, state, multi-state, regional and national expansion and complete the strategic program development planning process to help the program expansion into new areas when required- Begin to build partnerships in new areas, establishing relationships with funders and political and community leaders.- Be an external local, state, multi-state, regional and national presence that publishes and communicates program results with an emphasis on the successes of the local program as a model for others.

- Reports and writes accurately with a keen understanding of journalistic ethics and procedures.- Functions quickly and accurately under weekly deadline pressure.- Aggressively and objectively covers state and local government affairs and community issues, including education, health, poverty, and race, and well as social culture in Mississippi and the American south.- Responds quickly and accurately to breaking news, files reports on multiple platforms as the action unfolds, and follows up with fresh angles on news of the day.- Mines public records, documents relevant sources to produce deep-impact stories that hold institutions and leaders accountable.- Analyzes data, including budgets and other documents, and uses social media to research content.- Tailors compelling content to satisfy readers on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.- Consistently generates creative ideas for stories and multimedia presentations.

Strategy development and coordination of grassroots groups on federal policy initiatives aimed at ending the practice of trying, sentencing, and incarcerating youth under 18 in the adult criminal justice system.Co-chair of the National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act 4 Juvenile Justice Coalition composed of juvenile justice, child welfare and youth development organizations.

Organizing, drafting, and editing the Model Code; Coordinating and organizing submission of text from contributors, keeping tract of outstanding assignments, and following up to ensure that all contributors have the support they need to complete assignments; sharing drafts and collecting input from the Model Code Working Group, DSC members and contributors through conference calls, webinars and/or face to face meetings; identifying, collecting and organizing resources and preparing a Community Toolkit to accompany the Model Code; and, researching sources and checking citations for accuracy, proofreading the document, and improving its flow, clarity, and readability.

Drafted memoranda to assist with litigation in “The Chicago Firefighters Case”, a Title VII class action on behalf of approximately 6,000 African Americans in Chicago; drafted briefs and memoranda to assist with litigation in Section 5 and Section 2 Voting Rights Act cases; and acted as a demographer and cartographer using GIS software to prepare redistricting plans to be used in Voting Rights Actlitigation and community meetings.• Tracked legislation by monitoring congressional hearings and votes, specifically matters handled by the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, including immigration issues and judicial nominations.

Engaged in research and writing about educational justice, including merit pay to teachers, schools in innovation zones, and the schoolhouse to jailhouse track; conducted research and writing on voter purging and renters’ rights in cities throughout the U.S.; and analyzed phone calls to voter hotlines, researched and analyzed state voting and registration requirements, and engaged inmedia searches on state voting requirements.

Edited and published national publication of the United Negro College Fund’s National Pre-Alumni Council’s newsletter “The Torch”, which was published quarterly; worked with a committee of ten to coordinate a National UNCF, HBCU alumni and pre-alumni conference; and identified speakers and panelist and contacted them and verified their participation for the national conference.