Tawanna Black, MCF diversity fellow
MCF announces today the appointment of Tawanna Black as diversity fellow to support inclusivity initiatives of the grantmaker association and its members.
Tawanna has a unique blend of for-profit and nonprofit leadership, public policy and communications experience that will serve MCF and its members well during her nine-month fellowship. She is the former and first director of diversity for Cox Communications in Omaha, Nebraska. While at Cox she advised senior management in setting high standards for business growth, innovation and stakeholder return by ensuring that the corporation understood and acted upon the needs of diverse communities.
Prior to joining Cox, Tawanna served as the first executive director for Destination Midtown, leading a public-private community redevelopment strategy in Omaha. Tawanna has also served on numerous nonprofit boards of directors, including several philanthropic organizations.
Outside of her part-time appointment with MCF, Tawanna leads consulting firm Innovations By Design. In this capacity, she provides organizational development, capacity building, and diversity and inclusion services to nonprofit and for-profit organizations.
During her fellowship, Tawanna will work with MCF and its members to:
- Increase MCF’s capacity to serve staff and members’ diversity and inclusivity educational needs.
- Enrich existing MCF programs and services by integrating diversity content and applying an inclusion and equity lens across the full spectrum of grantmakers’ work, as exemplified in the MCF Diversity Framework.
- Build MCF member and staff awareness and use of diversity and inclusion knowledge, resources, tools and best practices.
- Foster stronger member commitments to the MCF Diversity Principle and create momentum for additional inclusivity initiatives.
- Create a body of work that can be modeled by others who strive to advance philanthropy by enhancing diversity and inclusivity in the field.
To learn more about the Diversity Fellowship, contact Wendy Wehr or Tawanna Black at MCF.
- Wendy Wehr, MCF VP of communications and information services
I’m so happy that Ms.Tawanna Black has agreed to take this position. We need more resources and focus on this effort.
Congratulations, Tawanna, in your new role as Diversity Fellow at MCF! We look forward to your leadership and commend MCF on creating the fellowship.