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Dimitry Anselme
Advisory Board Member
Director of Program Staff Development at Facing History & Ourselves Dimitry Anselme has served on the Brookline high school task force for Black Male Student Achievement. Mr. Anselme worked as an advisor for Gay/Straight Student Alliance in schools. He worked as a consultant for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and Department of Education to support the needs of high school LGBT students. He was the Vice-Chair of the Advisory board of the Haitian-Multi Service Center of Catholic Charities in Boston. He was the President of the Clark University Alumni Association and served as a University Trustee for Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
He graduated from Clark University and received his Master of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. |
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Jonathan Badgley
Advisory Board Member
Economist at US Department of Transportation Jonathan Badgley is a transportation economist at the US Department of Transportation's Volpe Center focusing primarily on supporting FHWA, FAA, and NHTSA with regulatory analysis, program evaluation, and modeling and forecasting. Jonathan started post-secondary education at community college in Dayton, Ohio, and views that experience as formative in his understanding of the purpose and value of higher education. Jonathan has seen much of the US up close, and has traveled internationally to Canada, Ireland, and Haiti. Jonathan has BAs in philosophy and economics and an MA in Agricultural, Developmental, and Environmental economics from Ohio State University. |
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Todd Jenkins
Advisory Board Member
Todd is a New Jersey native born in Atlantic City. Todd’s professional career includes working on Wall Street and in higher education. Todd currently serves as an international adjunct professor at New Jersey City University where he lectures in China on global business and finance topics. Additionally, he mentors youth and adults on a broad range of topics, helping them grow spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and professionally. In the financial sector, Todd’s industry background consisted of domestic and international business advisory and consulting experience in the areas of banking & capital markets, regulatory compliance, risk management, information technology, audit, and operational controls. He has held senior roles with Citigroup, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In higher education, Todd is a faculty member and administrator with significant program and operational management experience running undergraduate, noncredit, and custom executive education programs. He has held senior roles with Year Up/Borough of Manhattan Community College, New York University, and Post University. Todd holds a BS in Finance from Seton Hall University, and an MPA in Public Finance from NYU Wagner. |
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Kimothy Jones
Advisory Board Member
Nonprofit and Human Services Professional, Poet Kimothy Jones is the owner of Star 86, a Springfield, Massachusetts-based company which provides capacity and infrastructure development, strategic planning, technical and creative writing, developmental editing, publishing and related services. Her experience in strategic leadership, capacity building, and planning spans over 30 years in the public health and human service arenas. She recently published a book of her poetry, If I Whisper to the Wind and A Crack in the Heights: A Novel by James X. Bembry, PhD.
From 2009 to 2016, as the Manager of Ambulatory Grants at Baystate Medical Center, in Springfield, MA., Ms. Jones collaborated with multi-disciplinary teams, community partners, and key stakeholders to secure over $12M for enhanced primary medical care at three of Baystate’s community health centers. She has also served as a Technical Assistance Coordinator for SAMHSA/CSAT grantees, Program Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention REACH 2010 Diabetes Initiative, and Deputy Commissioner of Public Health for the City of Springfield. Ms. Jones has a Master of Science degree in Public Health from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee and Bachelor of Science degree from Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts. |
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James Ham
Advisory Board Member
Country Director at Peace Corps South Africa James Ham has he Country Director at Peace Corps in South Africa since January 2021. Prior to this he was the Country Director for the Peace Corps Uganda program from August 2018. James is a Senior Executive with over 30 years of service in the United States government. Building upon his experience as a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Guinea), he has strategically directed international volunteer programs in a variety of sectors including public health, education, small enterprise development, and agriculture. He oversees all aspects of strategy development, administration, and policy and program implementation to advance the Peace Corps mission. His distinguished career spans across all regions of Africa and includes senior leadership positions that have shaped globally impactful programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Peace Corps. Mr. Ham previously served as the Deputy Country Director at CDC Côte d’Ivoire (2009-2011 and 2015–2018), and as the Deputy Director for Management and Operations at CDC Zambia from (2011–2015), during which he completed a 5-month detail to support the Ebola Virus Disease response in Guinea (November 2014 – March 2015). Mr. Ham is passionate about servant leadership, and his Peace Corps service also includes roles such as the Country Director for Peace Corps Cameroon (2007–2009) and the Country Desk Officer for Africa Region (2001–2006). Mr. Ham is fluent in French and holds a Master of Arts in International Education from American University and Bachelor of Arts in Middle Grades Education from North Carolina Central University. Mr. Ham is an alumni of the University of Denver - International Career Advancement Program (2004), the Harvard University Senior Executive Fellows Program (2018), the African American Federal Executives program (2019), and the American University Key Executive Leadership Program (2020). He is currently pursuing a PhD in Executive Leadership at the University of Charleston, West Virginia. |
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Sharoya Ham
Advisory Board Member
International Parent Coach Sharoya Ham, M.Ed. is a passionate behavior change specialist, veteran teacher, and founder of Embrace Behavior Change, LLC. She has helped hundreds of overwhelmed parents learn how to parent with calm, consistency, and confidence. She specializes in working with families whose children face educational and behavioral challenges. She is also a licensed teacher with over 25 years of experience working with at-risk students and their families. Sharoya is a native of New Jersey, USA. Her husband works in the U.S. foreign service, so over the past fifteen years, she and her family have lived in six African countries. Sharoya has a Masters in Special Education with an Applied Behavior Analysis emphasis. She holds a New Jersey State Teacher Certification in Secondary Mathematics and a graduate certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis. |
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Pearson Owens
Advisory Board Member
Senior Program Officer with the United States Department of Education Pearson Owens has a love for international travel and cultural exchanges. He served two years in the Peace Corps in Botswana and has traveled to over thirty countries. In the Peace Corps, he served as a NGO Capacity Builder working at a home-based care organization that assisted individuals living with the HIV/AIDS virus build sustainability. In this role, he helped the organization receive grant funding, developed financial tools to keep track of the organization’s financials, and developed tools to monitor the organization’s income-generated projects. Currently, he is employed with the United States Department of Education as a senior program officer overseeing institutional grants to colleges and universities. These grants are made to assist underserved undergraduate students persist and graduate from college. He holds a MBA from Clark Atlanta University and a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of South Carolina. |
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Ben Stewart
Advisory Board Member
Senior Academic Advisor at Kingsborough Community College Benjamin Stewart graduated from Truman State University in 2005. While completing his BA in Music he had his first experience abroad as a McNair Scholar completing a semester at Hosei University in Tokyo, Japan. It was here that he discovered his passion for cultural exchange. It was this experience that helped him understand the significance of gaining international exposure and the meaning of cross cultural understanding. Upon finishing his degree, Benjamin moved to New York City where he went on to obtain a MBA in International Business Management from Keller Graduate School of Business and is currently finishing his second masters in Ethnomusicology at Hunter College of the City University of New York. He currently works for the Kingsborough Community College as the Sr. Academic Advisor for second year students in STEM majors.
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Rev. Venida Rodman-Jenkins
Advisory Board Member
Director of the Speicher-Rubin Women’s Center for Equity and Diversity at New Jersey City University. Rev. Rodman-Jenkins educates, advocates, supports and empowers students addressing the range of diversity initiatives at NJCU. For the better part of her professional career, she has coordinated programs, conducted educational workshops, facilitated support groups, provided crisis intervention, and offered resources to survivors of gender-based violence. Venida is an ordained minister through the North Jersey Missionary Baptist Association and an adjunct professor at New York Theological Seminary teaching Pastoral Care & Counseling. Venida has earned a B.A. in Psychology from Syracuse University and a M.Div. from New York Theological Seminary. |
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Christopher Toomer
Advisory Board Member
Senior Manager at CFGI, a highly specialized financial consulting firm. Chris is currently a dedicated board member of Community Board 16 and Neighborhood Advisory Board 16. For the last 6 years he has served as a member of the National Association for Black Accountants (NABA). Chris is also an active member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., and has been a Kappa for 9 years. There he mentors and helps with the fraternity Guide Right/Kappa League program with the objective of guiding young Black high school men, teaching them life skills and the importance of college. As a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, Fraternity, Inc. Chris also participates in community service throughout the city frequently. Chris graduated from Quinnipiac University and joined Ernst & Young. Chris later transitioned to work at CFGI, an international consulting firm based out of Boston, MA and is currently a Manager at his firm. He has traveled to over 15 different countries, including France, Japan, China, Italy, Ghana and Egypt. |
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Marcus G. Vilme
Advisory Board Member - LFW Fellow (2018)
Founder and Professional Coach at A.M.P. Mentalities, LLC Marcus G. Vilme graduated from Lafayette College in 2017 with a B.A. in Anthropology & Sociology and minor in Chinese. During undergrad, he engaged in numerous leadership opportunities while being a Track and Field student-athlete. This ranged from being a member and later president of the Lafayette African and Caribbean Student Association to various social justice advocacy programs.
The influence of the Asian culture, in high school (Academy of the Pacific Rim) inspired him to indulge in the culture through traveling to Asia twice and incorporating Asian principles into his business A.M.P. Mentalities, LLC, which looks to connect the body, mind, and soul through the mediums of fitness coaching, nutritional guidance, and wellness coaching and consulting. With expansive knowledge on Asian culture and travel throughout his life, Marcus always looks forward to opportunities to shift other's mentalities and engage in conversation. |
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Chiudo Ehirim
Research Intern
Chiudo is a freelance writer and entrepreneur, recently setting up Rumines Limited, an environmental engineering and management consultancy company. In 2015 he participated in the USAID Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI), a program held in Accra, Ghana that trained participants on effective leadership in business & entrepreneurship, civic society and public management. He received his Bachelor of Science in Pure & Industrial Chemistry at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and Master of Science in Environmental Technology & Management at the University of Port Harcourt. |
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