across the South. Jennifer spent fifteen years as senior staff in organizational, community and leadership development at the Center for Community Change (CCC) in Washington, DC. During her tenure with CCC, Jennifer became the Director of Training.  In that role, she designed and managed the Community Change Agents Project, a leadership development institute.  Over the years, Jennifer has been a lead consultant to many place-based initiatives including, the Ford Foundation’s Neighborhood and Family Initiative and the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Rebuilding Communities. Jennifer has been an organizational development consultant to dozens of foundations and scores of organizations. For the past five years, the firm has been an organizational and community development consultant to recovery and redevelopment efforts in New Orleans with a focus on the Central City neighborhood. Most recently, Strategic Decisions has been the lead consultant of the NOLA Team to support the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s New Orleans investment. From 1996 to the present, Jennifer has been a board member of the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Company and served as the chair for seven years.  She serves on the board of numerous nonprofit boards focusing on increasing economic security for marginalized people, including the Association for Economic Opportunity and Sweet Beginnings, LLC. Jennifer is also an advisory board member to a socially-responsible solar company, Imani Energy.  Jennifer holds a degree in Politics and Journalism from N.C. State University.

Agencies as deputy director and director of community development respectively.  Tom directed a program at Johns Hopkins to develop the leadership skills of nonprofit leaders in the newly independent states and Africa. He has also been a lecturer in community development and organizational development. Tom has spent more than thirty-five years working in community development at the local, state, national, and international level --- including twelve years in Africa. The experience of living and working in Swaziland and having extended stays in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Mali, Ghana, Lesotho, Botswana, Guinea-Bissau, Somalia, Senegal and South Africa grounded his world view of  himself as an African American and a progressive. His experiences North Carolina and Africa guide the respectful approach he takes with community residents everywhere.   Tom lends a particular first-hand perspective and savvy to situations and challenges facing all stakeholders in any community development effort. This includes an expertise in creative approaches to strategy development, leadership development and enhancement; project design and assessment; organizational restructuring; action research; and systems evaluation. With excellent skills in several areas of research, Tom takes the lead in projects requiring in-depth research or the development of research instruments, processes, systems and analysis.  As an organizer and public policy strategist, Tom has primary responsibility for helping client organizations to perform strategic planning, structure organizing campaigns, develop collaborations and partnerships, and create public policy campaigns. Integral to the firm, he develops the firm’s marketing campaigns and long-term planning, program management, cultural diversity programming, research, and evaluation. Tom holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and Foreign Policy from Duke University.