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Our Board of Directors
As a 501(c)(3), we have a remarkable and well-accomplished board of directors that help guide our mission and vision.
Ella F. Washington
Founder & CEO
Dr. Ella F. Washington is an organizational psychologist and DEI expert with a wealth of experience through her involvement as the Founder and CEO of Ellavate Solutions, a Professor of Practice at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, and the Co-host of Gallup's Center of Black Voices Cultural Competence Podcast, and the Author of "The Necessary Journey: Making Real Progress on Equity and Inclusion". Dr. Washington continues to deepen her research pipeline and thought leadership as a Gallup Senior Scientist studying race, strengths and other DEI workplace topics....Learn more on the "Our Founder" page.
Michael Baylis
Board Member
Michael Baylis II is the Director of Strategy and Business Development for his families Government Contracting firm’ CI² Aviation. CI² Aviation Has been in business for 30 years and today Michael leads all new business, capture and deal dynamics, strategic planning, change management, partnerships and alliances, organizational alignment, and merger and acquisition activities. Michael has over 10 years of consulting, business operations, corporate strategy development, and business development expertise in driving growth in competitive customer markets. Michael received his Bachelors of Business Administration from Tennessee State University and his Masters of Business Administration from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He is a loving Husband to his wife Nadia Baylis and son Michael Baylis III.
Sharnikya Howard
Board Member
Sharnikya Howard has dedicated her career to the advancement of STEM. She has served as a Tech Director and is a certified Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Agilist, leading software development enterprises, managing the full System
Development Lifecycle (SDLC) from a lean-agile perspective.
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A graduate of Bennett College for Women with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, she also holds an MS in Project Management, an MBA, and completed the Cornell University Women’s Entrepreneurship certificate program. She is the founder of Life Abundantly Coaching where she provides purpose and career coaching to help women make informed decisions about their professional development and career trajectory. Committed to STEM, she is the Director of the Girls in Technology GIT.Connect program and co-leads a program that teaches elementary and middle school aged children the full System Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
Camille Lloyd
Board Member
As Executive Director of the Gallup Center on Black Voices, Camille leads Gallup's research initiative devoted to studying and highlighting the experiences of more than 40 million Black Americans. The center tracks and reports the progress on life outcomes regarding topics such as justice, health and wellbeing, economic opportunity, jobs and work, education and community, and environment.
As a senior managing consultant, Camille provides thought leadership on international research projects, leadership and management, and custom-design quantitative and qualitative research studies. Camille's areas of expertise include social justice, criminal justice, community preparedness and resilience, workplace and worker rights issues, and racial equity.
Nchopia Nwokoma
Board Member
Nchopia is a Principal Consultant at Korn Ferry where she specializes in the assessment and development of senior leaders in the oil & gas, financial services, and information technology space. She works with organizations to articulate success and the talent needed to achieve it. She is passionate about using data to help leaders increase their insight, improve their leadership capabilities, and operate at their best. As a coach, she helps leaders understand the impact of their leadership style and partners with them to craft realistic development plans.
Nchopia holds a Master's Degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and a Bachelor's Degree in Social Work. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with her family.
Abubakr Dumbuya
Board Member
Abubakr Dumbuya is an Executive Director in Morgan Stanley’s Global Capital Markets team, focused on advising corporate clients on derivative strategies to manage their interest rate and foreign exchange exposures. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in in 2021, Abubakr worked for 13 years in a similar capacity with Bank of America and J.P. Morgan, in Boston, Chicago, and New York. In addition to his responsibilities at Morgan Stanley, Abubakr serves on the board of several non-profit organizations, focusing on DEI and African development. Abubakr has a Bachelor of Science from Bentley College, where he majored in Economics-Finance, and graduated in 2007. He resides in New York City, and considers both Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Lowell, Massachusetts to be his hometowns. He enjoys spending time with his family, traveling, and exploring the global culinary, arts, and music scenes.
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Kristen Price
Board Member
Kristen Price is the Director of Leadership Program at the ExCo Group and the Founder and CEO of Priceless Coaching and Experiences, LLC. Her mission is focused on leading, inspiring and developing people and organizations to reach their full God-given potential through transformational coaching and leadership development experiences. Kristen is a graduate of Howard University where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. She also holds a Master of Education in Leadership and Organizational Performance from Vanderbilt University. She is a certified leadership and executive coach through John Maxwell, Crowned for Success, and Symbiosis Coaching. She is a member of the Certified Coaches Alliance. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Kristen now resides in Baltimore, MD. She is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc and Alpha Kappa Psi Professional Business Fraternity, Inc. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with my family and friends, cooking, traveling, going on adventures, volunteering, and trying new things.
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