From Rural Ohio to Global Impact and Back: A Builder’s Journey
I come from a rural, working-class Ohio family led by a single mother. Higher education wasn’t a given and we had no roadmap. My reality shaped a core belief: lasting solutions emerge when people own their power and have the tools to solve their own challenges. This conviction fueled two decades of complex problem-solving across Washington, D.C. and the globe. Now, I’ve returned to invest at home while remaining active abroad.
International Impact Foundation
I guided Mexican NGO PSYDEH’s transformation from a one-person operation in 2013 to a globally recognized organization: 8 remote digital resource centers, 15+ Mexican and international staff, and partnerships spanning continents, achieving 19x funding and 62x total contribution growth and multiple global awards and recognition. Equally important, we pioneer frameworks positively impacting thousands of local people and help organizations be paradigm-changing in tough funding climates–models ripe for US and global application.
Strategic Partnership Building
I built PSYDEH’s mutually beneficial partnership strategy for local stakeholders, government, and global organizations (including 3M, Adobe, GlobalGiving, Viasat, and Zoom) while developing rights-based, replicable programming in digital inclusion, leadership and economic empowerment, and democracy strengthening aligned with local demands and global goals. This shared-value ecosystem earned a 2024 Anthem Award and PSYDEH was featured by Fast Company as a ‘Creator to Watch.’ The organization is also recognized as a Brandi Carlile/Looking Out Foundation 2025 nonprofit of distinction and cited in impact reports like the Honnold Foundation (2024), Lemonaid & ChariTea (2024), Adobe (2023), and Zoom (2021).
Resource Innovation
Diversification Strategies
Built global crowdfunding campaigns with social media influencers, social enterprise ventures, fee-for-service partnership projects (PopSockets), and digital marketing collaborations with partners (Dentsu, Lightful, Pixability). This diversified approach ensures sustainability while maintaining values integrity.
Creative Impact
Impact reporting and storytelling connecting personal to universal builds trust and drives engagement and investment. As creative and executive producer, I designed and helped to guide PSYDEH’s multimedia content and public outreach strategy.
Portfolio includes program visual media (e.g., digital inclusion video ad for tech companies), global campaign content, including this anti-othering video series, and e-book “Narratives” (31 stories, 68 narrative portraits by rural and Indigenous women partners).
Additional outputs include best-in-class annual reports, white papers, ESG partnership case studies, and thought leadership on topics like accessible tech, equitable funding, community-led development, corporate appropriation, and storytelling-as-feedback tool.
Network Building
As part of PSYDEH’s outreach and creative impact strategy, I co-founded the award-winning Colectivo Cine Social–a Mexico City venture using cinema to strengthen democratic pluralism, connecting 1000+ citizens and civil society at large-scale events. Executive sponsors included Cineteca Nacional, Impact Hub CDMX, Museo Memoria y Tolerancia, and the Mexican federal Secretaria de Cultura. I also built El Zorro Supper Club CDMX, connecting over 400 professionals from 44 countries–now being adapted for the Midwest USA.
US Return
My late-2023 Ohio return builds on international experience, career pivot, and earlier DC/Cleveland roles: faith community and higher education leadership development program consultant, virtual reality startup executive, international dispute resolution lawyer-analyst, and anti-poverty community organizer.
Example Recognition
I am a 2025 Strother School of Radical Attention (SoRA) Fellow and Coleman Cultural Engagement Foundation Fellow. I was selected for GlobalGiving’s 2020 Gates Foundation-funded Ethos (one of four global NGO leaders, the only one from Latin America), and as a 2019 TIAW World of Difference Maker (one of 6 men globally).
Education & Background
J.D. (magna cum laude), Cleveland State University College of Law; B.A. Psychology (African American Studies and Fine Arts minors), University of Mount Union. Award-winning artist and retired world-class ultimate frisbee athlete.
What’s Now
Now based in Northeast Ohio, I am applying the frameworks that transformed organizations and communities in Mexico to the USA and globally. My current portfolio includes executive producing a Mexican 2026 social impact documentary, co-building with national SoRA, and co-developing a partnership model to scale economic mobility through local, Fortune 500, AI sector, and national philanthropic capital. I believe these models—built in tough climates—are exactly what the US needs now.