Frontline Solutions
Helping Change Happen
We are personally invested in social justice.
We want to see every individual value community, and for communities to value every individual.
We commit to helping community groups, non-profit organizations, and philanthropic institutions do what they do, better.
Our Team
Paul Bachleitner
Paul Bachleitner builds community by sharing knowledge and developing strategic communication. He recently worked with the Minneapolis and St. Paul foundation and was a 2006-2007 ABFE leadership fellow. He serves as managing editor for Frontline’s newsletter for the Marginalized Males Funding Group (MMFG).
Shawn Bauldry
Getting your facts straight is the first step to a solution. Shawn Bauldry specializes in information. He is currently completing a PhD. in the Sociology and Statistics department at UNC Chapel Hill. Prior to returning to graduate school, Shawn worked as a policy researcher for Public/Private Ventures.
Lucecita Castillo
Effective planning and efficient organizational systems are at the heart of sustaining healthy institutions. Lucy Castillo has helped Frontline clients like the Simple Way develop strategic plans, refine their institutional mandates and better achieve their collective aspirations. She serves as a manager at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in the area of Organizational Development and Training.
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.
Tracey Greene-Dorsett
Tracy Green-Dorsett provides support to the next generation of leaders across the South. She served most recently as the Southern Program Officer and Director of Learning & Evaluation for the National Rural Funders Collaborative, focusing on systemic change initiatives in rural communities throughout the South. She has worked with Frontline Solutions the Gulf Coast Fund project.
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 specializes in philanthropy, reproductive health, fatherhood, youth development, and the issues facing marginalized males. He most recently served as a Program Officer at the Ford Foundation where he partnered with Frontline Solutions on Why We Can’t Wait and Momentum.
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.
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 is currently completing a doctorate in Public Health at Boston University. Her research focuses on mental health services for minority male victims of communal violence.
Dannese Littles
Successful social enterprises and non-profits combine devotion to a cause with expert planning and implementation. Dannese Littles brings to the Frontline team experience with a range of organizations, from the Orange Bowl to the YMCA. Littles received her MBA from Florida Atlantic University, and has worked with Frontline on projects for Tides Africa Fund, Ford Foundation and the Institute for Regional and Community Transformation (IRCT).
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 and Family Matters [forthcoming from ABFE, 2009].
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 local, national and international experience in public health to the Frontline team. Her current projects with us include a survey for the Tides African Fund of organizations seeking to integrate family planning with HIV/AIDS work. Prior to her work with Frontline, Ernesha served as Program Director for the District Public Health Offices (DPHO) of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
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.
Benjamin E. Wise
Benjamin E. Wise brings to Frontline thoughtful research on the social, racial and political history of the American South. His projects with Frontline include the Mississippi Protect the Vote campaign. He received his PhD in History from Rice University in 2008, joined the Harvard University faculty in 2006, and is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for the Study of the American South at UNC Chapel Hill. His first book, Cosmopolitan Southerner: The Life and World of William Alexander Percy, is under contract with the UNC Press.
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.