Our Team

 

Paul Bachleitner

Paul Bachleitner is the consultant project director for the Joint Affinity Groups (JAG), a coalition that promotes a more just and equitable distribution of philanthropic resources. Paul also works as a communication, marketing, and development consultant currently based in New York City. He has over 10 years of experience in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, including a post at The Minneapolis Foundation and consulting work for such clients as Open Society Institute, Diversity in Philanthropy Project, and the Ford Foundation. Paul graduated Cum Laude from Harvard University.

 

Eddie Bailey

Eddie Bailey received his BA in T.V./Film Production from Howard University. His years of production experience led him to create his own video production company, The Savoy Media Group, in 2010. Through TSMG, Eddie has created a media series called Transcending Faith, a series that explores Christian spirituality through shared testimonies. For Frontline, he filmed and participated in Young Men Rising, a conference that mobilized young men of color for collective action.

 

Joe Branch

Joe Branch is the founding partner of UWANTGAME VENTURES, a sports marketing and athlete education organization. At UWG VENTURES, he has worked as the Director of the Kobe Bryant Academy and with the Institute for Athletes, South African Airways and the NBA Retired Players’ Association. Prior to UWG VENTURES, Joe worked as a Senior Manager within the NBA’s Global Marketing Partnerships Group and as an Associate Brand Manager for Nike Basketball. Joe is a graduate of Northwestern University and received an MBA from Rice University.

 

Sheena Brown

Sheena Brown is a social entrepreneur who provides capacity building consultation to non-profit organizations. Sheena is sought after for her success with raising money, building effective leadership teams, and providing organizational development coaching to community-based organizations. Her clients are primarily led by and benefit communities of color, young people, and women. Sheena was raised in New England and received her BA in Political Science & Elementary Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. For the past 10 years, Sheena has claimed Brooklyn as her home and headquarters.

 

Lucecita Castillo

Lucecita Castillo is a Senior Program Development Associate with the CUNY School of Professional Studies. She brings strong project management, retreat facilitation and strategic planning skills to her creation of custom learning solutions for partner organizations. Ms. Castillo formerly served as an Organizational Development and Training Manager with the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority, as well as a Special Assistant with the NYS Education Department’s Office of Elementary, Middle, Secondary and Continuing Education. She received a BA from Seton Hall University and a Master’s of Public Affairs from Baruch College.

 

Kaia E. Clarke

Kaia E. Clarke is an innovator and community connector who has organized a series of workshops for diverse audiences. She has great vision and determination to create engaging, gender-specific events that cater to specific community needs. An accomplished author, her publications have been featured in various international academic journals and blogs. Kaia’s writings also speak to her commitment to the role of organizational leadership, progressive community initiatives, and sustainable development.

 

Shawn Davis

Shawn Davis is Frontline Solutions’ go-to guru for all things technological. In addition to building the network between our three offices, he served as project leader for Frontline’s work with LISC New York, providing technical assistance to 10 New York community development corporations on how to utilize technology to make operations more effective and efficient.

 

Melissa DeShields

Melissa DeShields brings over 15 years of experience in the non-profit sector to her work. Prior to launching her own practice, DeShields, Hagan and Associates, DeShields worked with a national consulting firm providing organizational development and strategic community building support to community-based organizations and philanthropic institutions. DeShields has previously held positions at the Urban Affairs Coalition (formerly GPUAC) and at The Philadelphia Foundation. In 2008, Melissa was identified as one of Philadelphia's “Top 101 Emerging Connectors” by Leadership Philadelphia.

 

Darrell Edmonds

We are committed to working closely with the individuals and institutions on the “front lines” of social change. Darrell Edmonds specializes in working closely with youth that have struggled with addictions, mental health issues, and personal development. He received his Masters in Non Profit Management from Eastern University, and currently serves as Director of the Oakcrest Teen Center, which provides mental health counseling and social services on a high school campus.

 

Jesse Edmonds

The lifeblood of any city, town or neighborhood are the people that do the work of building community. For 14 years, Jesse Edmonds has been working to improve the lives of youth in Durham, NC. He brings to Frontline Solutions’ Durham office his commitment to that community, and his belief in working from within the system for positive change. Jesse serves as a Juvenile Court Counselor for District #14, in Durham County.

 

Brian Gaffney

Every individual and institution has a story to tell. Not everyone knows how to tell that story well. Brian Gaffney helps our clients do just that. He is founder and Chief Storyteller of Fourword Thinking Marketing and Communications, Inc., and previously spent more than 10 years in corporate consumer marketing.

 

Nedra Ginwright

Nedra Ginwright is the co-founder of Leadership Excellence, a non-profit youth development organization in Oakland, California. She currently serves as a partner with Akili Consulting Associates, providing support to groups like Bay Area Black United Fund, Americorps and Youth Uprising. She has worked with Frontline Solutions on projects for Ford Foundation and the Association of Black Foundation Executives.

 

Jamaica Gilmer

Images have the power not just to reproduce our world, but to transform the way we see. Jamaica is a freelance photographer with Izri Creative whose work is rooted in ongoing relationships with communities of color and grassroots organizations.. She has worked with Frontline Solutions on numerous projects, including WRF 2007 Annual Report, Stepping Up and Stepping Out and Momentum.

 

Loren Harris

Loren Harris is a leader of national stature and identifiable impact. He is founder and principal of Thinking Man Consulting (TMC), a social enterprise that provides consulting services and tools to improve the effectiveness and impact of philanthropic and social interventions. The firm’s clients include the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the California Endowment. Prior to founding TMC, Harris spent 12 years in philanthropy at the Ford Foundation and Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. He specializes in reproductive health, fatherhood, youth development, and issues facing marginalized males.

 

Pendarvis Harshaw

A resident of Oakland, California, Pendarvis Harshaw currently works as a freelance journalist and high school teacher. He studied Telecommunications Management at Howard University. His media productions have appeared in a number of major outlets and publications. He is presently at work on a project called “O.G. Told Me,” a photo-essay blog that he hopes will bridge the intergenerational gap in the African-American community.

 

Jim Hill

Jim Hill specializes in taking communications to the next level. The former head of the public relations firm of the leading Black advertising company in the country, Jim Hill’s work now focuses on social marketing: transforming personal behavior and motivating change. Hill has partnered with Frontline Solutions in our work with the Mississippi NAACP and the Association of Black Foundation Executives.

 

Melissa Howell

Melissa Howell designs strategic programs for leadership development, civic engagement and poverty reduction. Her work experience includes researching effective public-private partnerships for the Ford Foundation and developing strategies in non-traditional philanthropy in southern Africa. Melissa is a trained cultural sociologist with an MA in Migration and Diaspora Studies from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), an MBA/BA in Business Administration and a BS in Spanish from Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (FAMU). She also serves as the Chair of the New York Chapter of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP).

 

Emily Hylton

Emily Hylton embodies value of community and commitment to excellence. She began her work with Frontline as part of Project: Innovation, a launching of a campus-wide social innovation initiative at UNC Chapel Hill. She has maintained an active role with the initiative while providing support to some of Frontline's other projects. Emily graduated from UNC with a BA in Arab Cultures and Political Science.

 

Andrew Johnson

Frontline believes that research should always exist in close connection to community. Andrew Johnson exemplifies this ethic. He is currently completing a PhD in sociology, focusing on the role of religious experience in Brazil’s prisons. Before going back to school, he worked for USAID, and provided service to programs for youth in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Tegucigalpa, Honduras and his hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

 

Markus Johnson

Markus Johnson has a passion for positive social change and the benefit of hands-on direct service experience. After launching a financial consulting firm, he currently serves as a job developer with YouthBuild! Broward County, a program of the Urban League serving the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida area.

 

 

Danielle Lawrence

Danielle Lawrence embodies a rare pairing of expertise in program evaluation and holistic health. Her background includes work for Human Services Evaluation Research Associates and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. She received a PhD in Public Health from Boston University. Her research focuses on mental health services for minority male victims of communal violence.

 

Darryl Lester

Darryl Lester is the President of HindSight Consulting, Inc, which he co-founded with his wife and partner, Dionne Lester, in 2001. HindSight Consulting designs tools and services that enable people to relate more strategically to their time, talent, and treasure to inspire greater personal, community, and institutional transformation. In 2004, HindSight launched the Community Investment Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to making grants to affirm and grow collective giving, to facilitating learning for community philanthropists, and to providing technical assistance to impel greater social change in communities. Darryl currently also serves as an adjunct professor at North Carolina Central University.

 

Dannese Mapanda

Successful social enterprises and non-profits combine devotion to a cause with expert planning and implementation. Dannese Mapanda brings to the Frontline team experience with a range of organizations, from the Orange Bowl to the YMCA. Mapanda received her MBA from Florida Atlantic University and is currently implementing the Legacy project and official campaign of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, 20 Centres for 2010, throughout Africa. Mapanda has worked with Frontline on projects for Tides Africa Fund, Ford Foundation, and the Institute for Regional and Community Transformation (IRCT).

 

Nikia Pinkney

Following over a decade of experience as a researcher, fundraiser, and strategic planner for nonprofits, Nikia Pinkney founded Mission Longevity LLC, based in West Hartford, Connecticut. As CEO and Managing Consultant, Pinkney oversees six other Mission Longevity consultants with expertise in diverse fields of nonprofit capacity-building, including financial management, fund development, and advocacy.

 

Emmanuel Thompson

Clean, crisp design is an integral critical part of communication in a digital world. Emmanuel Thompson is a web designer and graphic artist, and serves as creative director of Izri Creative, LLP. He produced the Frontline Solutions website, and has provided design and layout to several Frontline projects, including the Marginalized Male Funders Group, the Scholars Network on Black Masculinity website, and Family Matters.

 

Marcus Thompson

Marcus Thompson is a head counselor, site coordinator, and assistant director at the YMCA of the Triangle Area in Durham, North Carolina. He also is founder of Project Phocus, a youth development and college readiness program. For Frontline, he has served as a facilitator and recruiter for projects with the Fund for Southern Communities and the NCCU-BRITE program at North Carolina Central University.

 

Nannette Cole Turner, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Building healthy communities is Nannette Turner’s life work. Her work projects with Frontline Solutions include The Time is Now, a paper focusing on improving holistic health among Black males in California. She currently serves as Assistant Professor and Associate Director of Research for the Center for Rural Health and Health Excellence, at Mercer University’s School of Medicine.

 

Ernesha K. Webb

Ernesha Webb brings experience in public health to the Frontline team, and most recently conducted a survey for Tides Africa Fund of organizations seeking to integrate family planning with HIV/AIDS work. She has served as Program Manager for SmartCare, an electronic patient management system deployed by the South Africa Department of Health, and is currently the Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Manager for THAT'S IT, a PEPFAR-funded program of Centers for Disease Control and Medical Research Council of South Africa.

 

Mia White

Mia White has been helping philanthropic dollars achieve social change for the last decade. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, where she is a presidential scholar. She formerly served as a program officer for Ms. Foundation for Women and a Program Associate in Ford Foundation’s Community and Resource Development unit.

 

Paula Witt

Paula Witt is co-founder of Truth Be Told Speakers and a media expert with experience in music, news and social justice. Her work began at Greenpeace and has since included publicity work for the UniverSoul circus, hip-hop group The Roots, and a 6-year stint with Shore Fire Media, one of the top music PR agencies in the country. Paula has worked with Frontline on projects for the Marginalized Males Funders Group (MMFG) and the Skillman Foundation.

 

J.Wes Yoder

A masterful storyteller, J.Wes Yoder has worked with Frontline to capture the work and partners of the Institute for Regional and Community Transformation (IRCT), NAACP, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, and Community Policy Research and Training Institute (CPRTI). He is author of the novel Carry My Bones, and contributes regularly to the magazine Garden & Gun.