We have direct experience working in partnership with communities to execute complex initiatives and solutions focused on social and economic transformation.

Meet the Team

Lisa is a social entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience as a community development practitioner, researcher, impact evaluator, and strategist. Her experiences have significantly shaped her belief in multidimensional approaches to community building and economic well-being. She has worked throughout her career on national efforts that strengthen organizations focused on social change – initiatives designed to improve planning, organizational learning, research, and data utilization to deepen community impact. These interests and experiences fuel her focus on driving capital and resources to overlooked communities and leaders in ways that successfully bring effective solutions to scale and transform communities.

Jay is the founder of Workshop Studios providing nonprofits with essential resources, tools, strategic guidance, and operational support to rapidly develop, validate, and scale new social impact ideas into sustainable and impactful initiatives. He brings extensive planning, design and organizational capacity building experience from education, healthcare, and child welfare spaces to bear while integrating technology to improve practices and outcomes for children, families, and communities.

Melissa is a tri-sector leader and Managing Partner at 1863 Ventures with more than 20 years of entrepreneurship, investment and leadership experience. She is an Adjunct Professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University where she teaches impact investing, social entrepreneurship, P2P economies and innovation. Melissa has served as a Presidential Appointee under Presidents Clinton and Obama. Under Clinton, Melissa served as Financial Regulatory Affairs Fellow at the Department of Treasury, Office of Thrift Supervision, where she researched the impact of welfare reform and micro-enterprise lending on the financial industry and authored “IDA Strategy for Asset Accumulation” ipsum

Cassie is an accomplished leader and entrepreneur, building strategies and businesses at the intersection of social impact and storytelling. As co-founder of Resolve Philly, she has transformed local news through collaborative, people-powered initiatives that bridge the gap between journalists and marginalized communities. She works with philanthropists, impact investors, and investment seekers and recipients to design and implement strategies that reallocate wealth in service of narrative change, information access, and our collective liberation. As a 2024 Knight-Wallace Fellow, Cassie is focused on Measuring the Impact of Local News on Social Narratives.

Denise W. Barreto is a leading 21st Century voice on justice and storytelling who lives to challenge the status quo and builds new, more inclusive narratives and environments across government, philanthropic, nonprofit, corporate and entertainment entities.

Advisory Board Members

Nicholas Almeida, Chief Operating Officer for Mission Investors Exchange *
Steve Benjamin, former Mayor, Columbia, South Carolina
Elisse Douglass, Founder & Principal, BBF CO *
Michéle Carmody-Dugger, VP Internal Audit, Berwind Corporation
Della Clark, President, The Enterprise Center*
Tim Freundlich, Founder & Executive Director, Strategic Development, ImpactAssets
Lisa Hall,Impact Chair, Apollo Global Management *
Richard Hayden, Managing Partner, State Street Advisors

Malo Hutson, Dean, School of Architecture, University of Virginia
Bob Moul, CEO, Circonus
Gina Nisbeth, Founder and President, 9th & Clinton, LLC *

Jane Oates,President, WorkingNation
Lisa Servon, Department Chair, City & Regional Planning, University of Pennsylvania
Jim Shelton, Chief Investment and Impact Officer, Blue Meridian Partners *
Sherece West-Scantlebury, President & CEO of Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation

Dalila Wilson-Scott, Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer of Comcast Corporation and President of the Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation
*Investment Committee