OUR PEOPLE: New Hires, Promotions, and Other Staff News
- -We celebrated multiple promotions this year at Frontline! A huge shout-out and a warm thank you for all you do. Join us in congratulating our Frontline team:
- -Shanize Byrd, Senior Consultant
- -Duy Pham, Senior Consultant
- -Joanna Carrasco, Senior Communications Manager
- -We welcomed our newest Staff Members,
- -Carolyn Yang, Senior Manager, Partnerships
- -Jen Heymoss, Director
- -Dominique Tourentine, Director
- -We celebrated our Fall 2024 Brides! Congratulations to you all on your recent nuptials. We wish you and your family the very best in this next chapter of your lives!
- -Tracey Ross
- -Emnet Almedrom
- -Carolyn Yang
- -Aisha Alexander-Young, Managing Director, was honored as one of the Congressional Black Caucus Power 100. The Congressional Black Caucus Power 100 is an annual special recognition that honors the accomplishments of dynamic stars in law, politics, business, social good, and medicine.
- -Jen Heymoss, Director, was recently announced as the new Philanthropic Practice Expert in Residence for the Council of Michigan Foundations!
- -As part of Duke University’s annual alumni awards, Brandon Williams, Director, received a 2024 Beyond Duke Award for leadership in his local community. The award was inaugurated in 2014 to recognize alumni who have distinguished themselves through service to their community, their country, or society at large. He was recognized for his ongoing work to organize residents in my neighborhood of Walltown and across the city of Durham around a community-centered vision for the redevelopment of a local mall. You can learn more about this work here.
- -Our Senior Communications Manager, Joanna Carrasco, earned her Master of Arts in Education and Human Development from George Washington University, focusing on Organizational Learning.
Learn more about our amazing team here
OUR SERVICES & CLIENTS
Some examples of our projects include partnerships with The Solutions Project, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, the Skillman Foundation, and the New Breath Foundation.
We were also thrilled to partner with the National Black Funds Advisory Group, of which Poise Foundation is a member. Together, we convened 23 Black funds for a 2-day community building and strategy development gathering. The purpose of the convening was to imagine a collective vision, path, and container that supports Black funds.
Our team also curated a community-centered convening for a group of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grantees to share reflections, strategic priorities, and implications for equity and social justice work following the 2024 elections. This served as a valuable idea exchange and learning opportunity with foundation staff about the challenges to doing justice work on the frontlines in the years to come.
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”
— Angela Davis
- -We recently released a video highlighting our strengths as a collaborative partner and convener, helping mission-driven organizations build the tools and capacity to interpret data, harness learning, drive meaningful engagement, and co-create and implement solutions that center people, community power, and justice.
- -Last year, we partnered with the Ballmer Group to explore the history and landscape of Black philanthropy. We built on this work by releasing an ecosystem graphic to help illustrate how these practices of generosity are continuous, with a broader cultural context centering around the expectation of helping and supporting others as a means to navigate the constraints of a racist society.
- -Our Elevate Initiative announced its newest cohort of grantees who are doing on-the-ground work to remove structural barriers and accelerate economic mobility for communities of color. Check out the organizations that make up cohort 3!
- -For more on Elevate, read our recent learning reflections report which details our learning over the course of 3 years of managing this community of practice. Make sure you also follow us on Instagram, where we highlight the organizations’ journeys in a series of instagram reels highlighting their work, takeaways from being part of this learning community and what they need from philanthropy to achieve their missions.
- -We released a Helping Change Podcast episode with our client and partner, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations’ CEO Marcus Walton. In this episode, we explored what accountability to movement and community looks like in the philanthropic landscape and the relationships required to carry us into a new era.
- -In honor of the many celebrations commemorated in the month of August, including Black Philanthropy Month, Black Business Month, and Black August, Frontline’s Founder, Marcus Littles, penned Power is the Center, in which he shares three reflections about how these holidays invite us to reckon with, imagine, and fight for collective power as the true center of Black giving, enterprise, and resistance.
LET’S GET FREE
“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”
— John Lewis
Thank you for working with us to redefine what it takes to build a great consulting company. We look forward to learning and growing with you in the future. For now, though, we’re signing off as our team takes time to rest and restore. Our office will be closed from December 23 – January 5. See you in 2025!
Below are some ways to keep in touch:
- Work with us! We’d love to help your organization realize its fullest potential.
- Subscribe to our e-newsletter.
ABOUT FRONTLINE SOLUTIONS
Black-founded and led, we’re a diverse team of activists, scholars, advocates, coaches, strategists, and artists. We draw on these multifaceted perspectives and lived experiences to engage with organizations in the journey toward their boldest, most expansive visions.
End of Year Message From Frontline Solutions’ CEO, Melissa DeShields.
Frontline Solutions is no ordinary consulting firm. In her year-end letter, our CEO Melissa DeShields reflects on our legacy over the last two decades, and the values that will guide the road ahead.