If It Doesn’t Exist, Build It: Creating Access and Opportunity

Black philanthropy is ancestral—and it runs in my family. Though I may be the first in my lineage to work in corporate philanthropy, my roots in community engagement and empowerment run deep. As a child, I remember my grandmother being so proud of her father, my great-grandfather Primus Lemon, for his dedication to community as a preacher and landowner in Bessemer, Alabama, during a time when sharecropping and Black Codes ruled the U.S. South. Little did I know how influential this 19th century experience would prove in my own passions and career.

As a child, my mother wanted to give me the best opportunities despite our circumstances. She had me when she was 20 years old and still figuring out life for herself as a young single parent navigating economic hardship and poverty. Some of my earliest memories of higher education were attending classes with her at Temple University.

The foundation my mother created pushed me to always exceed expectations. Some kids have trophies from sports; my trophies came from honor roll and other achievements in the classroom. My 4th grade teacher recognized my potential and nominated me for Heights Philadelphia 's Steppingstone Scholars Academy, a program that accelerates high-performing students into Philadelphia’s most competitive private schools through educational enrichment and transitional wraparound support.

The support I received enabled me to thrive in private school and sow the seeds of the passion that I have for diversity, equity, and inclusion today by serving as Vice President of the Black Student Union and on the Multicultural Board after I was elected by my peers. This experience taught me that success depends on access to opportunity, and I vowed to always work to create access for those who looked like me.?

When exploring career options, I realized there were few professionals in my network who looked like me and achieved the community change that I wanted to influence. My motto became: “If it doesn’t exist, build it.” I infused my educational journey with real work experiences, essentially creating my own apprenticeships:

• I followed my mom’s footsteps to Temple University to get my bachelor’s in political science, simultaneously pursuing a career in local politics working for Pennsylvania State Representatives Donna Johnson Bullock and Jordan Harris .
• I earned a graduate certificate in Nonprofit Administration from the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania , while working as a development associate for mental health nonprofit Council for Relationships .
• While earning my master’s degree in Nonprofit Leadership from the Nonprofit Center at La Salle University , I worked at The Pew Charitable Trusts supporting grantmaking to major nonprofits.
• As I earned a certificate in Corporate Citizenship Management from the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship , I served as VP-Corporate Citizenship Manager at TD , where I led grantmaking for the Financial Security driver of the TD Ready Commitment across the bank’s footprint from Maine to Florida.?

My desire to scale community-led solutions nationally led me to my role as the Head of Workforce Development Philanthropy at Salesforce . I believe that economic opportunity is the greatest lever for solving intergenerational poverty, and today I get to live that hypothesis by accelerating career pathways for young adults through partnerships with organizations like Per Scholas , COOP , and Jobs for the Future (JFF) who are working to build a more equitable and inclusive future of work.

I'm grateful to make my dreams of creating access and opportunity real in both my professional and community work. Serving as an appointee of the Philadelphia Commission for Women has provided a forum for me to advocate for equity in services for women and families across the city. And a full circle moment was joining Heights Philadelphia as the first Steppingstone Scholars alumna to be elected to its board of directors.

I know that my grandmother would be just as proud of my work to help Black and Latinx people achieve economic mobility as she was of her father’s support of Black families in Bessemer. I look forward to sharing our family’s legacy of access and opportunity with my son Yaseen, who is truly the inspiration for all that I do. Seeing him learn and grow as a naturally curious child has ignited my urgency to address poverty and inequality. I want Yaseen to experience a world full of opportunities and for him to always know that if it doesn't exist, he can build it.