Deaconess Foundation is excited to speak with Renee Timberlake, the Director of the Built Environment Collaborative (BEC) at the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Workforce Development Board (WDB). Renee is deeply passionate about advancing equity in the building trades, especially for communities that have been historically underrepresented. With a focus on creating accessible career pathways and fostering inclusive opportunities, she brings a dynamic vision and a wealth of experience to this role.

 - About the time we open applications for the Deborah Vesy Systems Change Champion award each year, Deaconess Foundation staff get the question: what do YOU mean by systems change? And more recently (since last year), what do YOU mean by scalable innovation?  In this...

At our convening in February, we were asked this question: “How are we truly advancing racial equity in our grantmaking when we are also continuing to work with so many long-time grantees, many of which are white-led organizations, and Black and Latine-led organizations are systemically excluded from access to philanthropy?”