Executive Director

Grocery Connect

Working at the intersection of food, health, and community development, Sam Newman has led innovative efforts to expand access to nutritious, affordable food in underserved communities. After more than a decade in leadership roles with H-E-B and the national nonprofit Brighter Bites, he founded Little Red Box Grocery, a social enterprise created to reimagine food access in underinvested neighborhoods. The store ultimately wasn’t financially viable, but it embodied a larger idea: building a space for connection and creativity.  Sam now leads Grocery Connect, a cross-sector partnership backed by Bonton Farms, Kroger, and Share Our Strength that addresses the economic and social drivers of health in Dallas. He also serves as Board Chair of The Common Market Texas, a regional nonprofit food distributor. Sam holds a BA from UT Austin, an MBA from Georgetown, and was a 2018 Presidential Leadership Scholar.

Executive Director

Better Block Foundation

Krista Nightengale is an urban design advocate and placemaking expert with nearly a decade at the Better Block Foundation, where she has worked with communities in over 100 cities to transform streets, plazas, and public spaces, fostering economic development, safer streets, and stronger neighbor connections. She has designed and built hundreds of digitally fabricated benches, kiosks, and survey stands, and leverages social media to educate on placemaking and transportation.

Krista has served on the Dallas City Plan and Zoning Commission, Dallas Comprehensive Land Use Committee, Dallas Architecture and Design Exchange (past president), and multiple civic, philanthropic, and educational boards and advisory councils, including Philanthropy Kids, City Lab High School Foundation, and the New Leaders Council. She is also a Leadership Texas graduate and continues to combine community engagement, design innovation, and education to create vibrant, inclusive urban spaces.

Director

CEO Alliance for Mental Health

Tyler Norris, MDiv, is a social entrepreneur and trusted advisor to philanthropies, partnerships and government agencies working to improve the well-being of people and place. He is director of the CEO Alliance for Mental Health, a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and a senior advisor to the St Luke’s Health System, Brain Futures, and MAPS. He is a founding board member of Mindful Philanthropy, board chair for the Zendo Project, and on the boards of the National Academies of Sciences’ Forum for Children’s Well Being and the Global Flourishing Study. Tyler also serves as a non-denominational chaplain and leader of crisis intervention teams. Previously he served as vice president Total Health at Kaiser Permanente, and later, as founding CEO of Well Being Trust advancing the mental, social and spiritual health of the United States. He is a grandparent now, and lives in Ketchum, Idaho.

Director

Neighborhood Connections

Tom O’Brien has been the Director of Neighborhood Connections since 2007, leading efforts that have distributed over $17 million in grants to grassroots groups in Cleveland and East Cleveland, OH. Under his leadership, the organization has expanded beyond grantmaking to engage residents, community groups, and institutions in strengthening social networks, building collective power, and connecting thousands of people to resources and neighborhood initiatives.

Before this role, Tom spent five years as a community organizer in Cleveland’s Broadway-Slavic Village, addressing systemic issues and fostering cross-racial collaboration. He also served three years with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps as Area Director in Portland, Oregon, and taught and coached at the high school and junior high levels in Connecticut and Texas.

Tom holds a Master of Science in Social Administration from Case Western Reserve University’s Mandel School and a Bachelor’s degree from the College of the Holy Cross.

Executive Director

Leadership Education at Duke Divinity

Dave Odom joined Duke Divinity School in August 2007 to launch Leadership Education at Duke Divinity and now oversees all of its programs and publications, including the web magazine Faith & Leadership. Leadership Education’s mission is to encourage the institutions that support congregations. They design and deliver education programs; write and share stories, essays and interviews; provide grants to enrich learning; and convene and encourage the development of networks. Dave is an ordained Baptist minister who has served as a seminary teacher, pastor and consultant. Before coming to Duke, Odom was the founder and president of the Center for Congregational Health in Winston-Salem, N.C. and a teacher at Wake Forest University School of Divinity.

Founder & CEO

Advocates for Community Transformation

J. Reid Porter is the Founder and CEO of Act (Advocates for Community Transformation), a Christian, place-based justice organization that strengthens neighborhoods by empowering residents to shut down drug houses and reduce crime. Act uses existing civil laws to take legal action on behalf of neighbors, offering a private solution to a public safety problem. Its model brings together residents, law enforcement, pro bono attorneys, and the church to pursue justice as an expression of Christ’s call to love one’s neighbor. 

Before founding Act, Reid practiced trial law in Dallas and volunteered in the underserved community of West Dallas. He holds a J.D. from St. Mary’s University School of Law and a B.A. in history with a minor in Spanish from the University of Texas at Austin. A Manhattan Institute Civil Societies Fellow, Stand Together Catalyst Partner, and Praxis Fellow, his work has appeared in major national and local publications.

Fellow

UVA Karsh Institute of Democracy // Harvard Human Flourishing Program

Sam Pressler is a writer and researcher focused on the intersection of civic life, social connection, and class. He’s currently a Practitioner Fellow at UVA’s Karsh Institute of Democracy, a Research Affiliate at the Harvard Human Flourishing Program, and the creator of the Connective Tissue newsletter. In his past life, he founded and served as the Executive Director of the Armed Services Arts Partnership (ASAP), the nation’s largest community arts organization for veterans and military families. His grandmas are very proud of him.

Director

The Hopeful Neighborhood Project/National Good Neighbor Day

Jennifer Prophete is the Director of The Hopeful Neighborhood Project. She also manages nationalgoodneighborday.org and leads a task force of community development professionals to promote the holiday. Through these two initiatives Jennifer is dedicated to helping everyday neighbors pursue the common good, right where they live. Jennifer has spent 20 years working in the fields of urban education, community development, and non-profit leadership. As a native of rural Nebraska, she grew up seeing the power of community. Her desire to live in community, no matter the neighborhood context, has been a driving force in her life and work.

Jennifer has a bachelor’s degree from Concordia University-Nebraska in elementary education with certificates in English-as-an-Other-Language, special education, and early childhood education. She received an MBA from the University of Saint Mary. Jennifer and her husband live in Saint Charles, MO with their three young children and among their amazing neighbors.

CEO

Marin Promise Partnership

Richard is the CEO of Marin Promise Partnership and sits on the StriveTogether Board of Directors. He was a Senior Fellow at Harvard’s EdRedesign Lab and an Ascend Fellow at the Aspen Institute. He is committed to a national power building strategy for low-income communities led by backbone agencies collaborating with schools and government.

Richard focuses on the cradle-to-career field because he grew up in poverty and dropped out of high school, so this work is a healing journey for him. Richard’s Yaqui ancestors moved to California after fighting in the Mexican Revolution. His parents worked as farm laborers as children and came of age during the Chicano Movement, laying the foundation for him to earn a B.A. in English and Master’s in Public Policy from UC Berkeley. He’s accompanied on this journey by his urban planner wife, five sons, and their rescue pit bull.

Board Chair

CCDA

Chief Strategy Officer

City of Atlanta

Zaffer Sange is a seasoned business executive with more than 25 years of experience steering multi-billion-dollar global enterprises, including Novelis, INEOS, and BP. His career spans enterprise-level Strategy, Operations, and Commercial leadership, where he has directed large-scale transformations and growth initiatives across the globe.

Known for integrating people, processes, and performance, Sange has consistently strengthened execution, optimized operations, and developed high performing teams at every stage.

Sange has joined Mayor Andre Dickens’ executive leadership team and will lead a Strategy office that helps catalyze transformative change aligned with the City’s vision.

President and CEO

Living Cities

Joe Scantlebury is President & CEO of Living Cities, a collaborative of foundations and financial institutions advancing economic opportunity, mobility, and generational wealth for all. Previously, he served as Vice President for Program Strategy at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, leading initiatives in racial, education, health, and economic equity, and as Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, focusing on P-20 education policy and civil rights portfolios.

Joe began his career as a staff attorney at the Youth Law Center, advocating for juvenile justice reform, and later led workforce development at STRIVE NY. He has practiced labor and employment law in both the public and private sectors. Joe serves on multiple nonprofit boards and advisory councils and is a member of several impact and DEI networks. He holds a B.S. from Cornell University, a J.D. and M.P.A. from NYU, and an honorary Doctor of Arts from Livingstone College.

Director of Operations, Place-Based Initiatives

Stand Together Foundation

Anna has spent the last 15 years building partnerships with nonprofits, businesses, thought leaders, influencers, and other social entrepreneurs who share in her vision of a more humane society in which all people are empowered to realize their potential. This work has largely taken place through the Stand Together community where she has held roles in partnerships, talent development, education programs, and operations. She is currently focused on building Radius, a place-based strategic initiative within the Stand Together Foundation to empower social entrepreneurs who are passionate about transforming their cities and neighborhoods through bottom-up innovations that strengthen the social fabric and establish a strong foundation upon which people can flourish. Though her work keeps her on the road, she calls Wichita, KS home.

Co-founder & CEO

Trust Neighborhoods

Kavya has dedicated her career to creating more equitable communities. She is co-founder and CEO of Trust Neighborhoods, a national nonprofit that helps neighborhoods worried about gentrification own their own mixed-income rental housing. Trust Neighborhoods has helped set-up mixed-income neighborhood trusts, or MINTs, in 5 neighborhoods across the country, which together own 250+ housing units. Prior to Trust Neighborhoods, she helped young people get more civically active through helping start The Obama Foundation and supported access to economic opportunity through her policy work at the Obama White House. She started her career at McKinsey and Company, focused on local and state economic development. She has lived in a total of eight cities across the country, allowing her to learn about a diversity of neighborhoods. She has a BA in economics from Harvard College and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Interim Senior Vice President National Initiatives

NeighborWorks America

As Senior Vice President of National Initiatives, Paul Singh leads NeighborWorks America's efforts to accelerate the adoption of promising practices, primarily through investment in and support of the approximately 250 NeighborWorks organizations. Singh advances impact in three main areas including (1) affordable housing development and asset management, (2) homeownership, lending and wealth building and (3) community initiatives.

Prior to joining NeighborWorks in 2012, Singh was a Program Officer at LISC where he managed multiple programs delivering technical assistance and training to nonprofits. Singh got his start in community development working for nonprofits in his hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota. He has a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota and an undergraduate degree from Macalester College.