meet The Founder

Stephanie McLemore Bray has over 35 years of experience working in the government and nonprofit sectors to secure justice, resources, and equitable access to opportunity. She has held leadership roles in higher education, healthcare, and human services organizations. As a fundraiser, she has raised over $300M for local, regional, and national nonprofit organizations. As a former United Way CEO, Stephanie led the development of a collective impact model to improve its education and health outcomes in partnership with community members, small business owners, healthcare providers, funders, and school districts. She has written about philanthropy and the Black maternal health crisis for USC Annenberg’s Center for Health Journalism. Her Blavity.org review of Dr. Andre Perry’s book, Know your Price, covers why the lack of investment in securing the social determinants of health for Black people is just one symptom of “the disease of social racism”. Her historical analysis and scoping review, co-written with Dr. Monica McLemore on demolishing the myth of the default human that is killing Black mothers, was published in Frontiers in Public Health.

Stephanie is an adjunct instructor at Pacific University of Oregon’s Masters in nonprofit leadership program. She serves on the board of Orchid Capital Collective, an impact investing firm centering community-owned solutions to transform birth and reproductive care, and Pacific University of Oregon’s advisory committee for it masters in nonprofit leadership program. Stephanie founded Black Women Write in 2018, a nonprofit organization that uplifts and supports Black women writers on the path to publication. Black Women Write has chapters in Sacramento, CA, and Seattle, WA.

A creative writer, Stephanie’s short stories have been published in the literary journal Speak The Sojourner and The 2024 African American Writer’s Alliance Anthology. Her essay, The Heart is Strongest in the Broken Places, was published by Next Avenue, an online publication for readers and writers aged 50+. Her short story, Sherwood Green’s Last Picture Show, was performed by Stories on Stage Sacramento in 2022.

Stephanie graduated from Douglass College, Rutgers University, and holds a certificate from Harvard Business School’s Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management.

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OUR TEAM

April Jean, MSW

Pure Jeanius Consulting

Addie Ellis, Ed.D.

Unleashed

Kula Koenig, MA

Social Justice Politicorp

Lauryn Bray, BA

Freelance Writer & Editor

vision

We envision a world where BIPOC people live, work, play, and thrive to their fullest potential.

mission

To be a thought partner and guide for organizations and institutions that are committed to securing a healthy and thriving future for BIPOC people.

VALUES

    • We believe that communities know best the solutions for addressing the barriers to their health and well-being.

 

    • We believe in uplifting community voices that speak of abundance and liberation in order to shift language and narratives.

 

    • We believe in the potential of resources and investments in the health and well-being of BIPOC people to ensure a more humane and just future.

 

    • We believe in working across sectors, communities, and capabilities to achieve systems change.

 

  • We believe in holding systems and structures accountable to addressing harm, past and present, in order to initiate a path toward repair.