From Rural Ohio to Global Impact and Back: A Builder’s Journey
My journey begins in rural Ohio–first-generation college graduate from a working-class family, raised by a single mother. This foundation shaped a core belief: lasting solutions emerge when people own their power and have the tools and support to solve their own challenges. After two decades building bridges to solve challenges across cultures, sectors, and communities in Washington, DC, and internationally, I’ve returned to Ohio to invest at home.
International Impact Foundation
I guided Mexican NGO PSYDEH’s transformation from a one-person operation in 2013 to a globally recognized organization today: 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 1000s of local partners and help organizations be paradigm-changing in tough funding climates–models ripe for US and global application.
Strategic Partnership Building
I built a mutually beneficial partnership strategy for local stakeholders, government, and global organizations like 3M, Adobe, GlobalGiving, Viasat, and Zoom, and developed rights-based, replicable programming in digital inclusion, women-led economic empowerment, and democracy strengthening. Our shared-value ecosystem framework undergirding our transformative corporate partnership model earned recognition like a 2024 Anthem Award and Fast Company’s 2022 Creators to Watch. Moreover, we are a Brandi Carlile/Looking Out Foundation 2025 nonprofit of distinction, and celebrated in the USA Honnold’s 2024 impact report, German Lemonaid & ChariTea’s 2024 impact report, Adobe’s 2023 social impact report, and Zoom’s 2021 social impact report.
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 2024 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. This diverse foundation positions me for mid-level and senior roles requiring both strategic thinking and operational excellence.
Example Recognition
I am a 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 Next
Now based full-time in Northeast Ohio, I maintain global advisory roles– executive producing a 2026 social impact documentary and consulting new PSYDEH leadership–while building a national USA effort with SoRA and a cross-sector, 25-year sustainable development initiative for Northeast Ohio and other de-industrialized areas. The frameworks that transform in Mexico can be used in the US and globally.