President & CEO
B.S., Howard University
MBA, University of Pennsylvania – Wharton School
M Div., Wesley Theological Seminary
D Min., Payne Theological Seminary
30–year corporate and community development experience. Participation in over $10 billion in public equity and debt offerings, while working for first-tier investment banks. Currently serving as Senior Pastor of Bethel Church of Morristown.
Richard P. Babcock
Senior Vice President & COO
B.A., Organizational & Institutional Communications, Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Certified Church Consultant, Society for Church Consulting. Certified Christian Life Coach.
Biblical Studies Certificate, Christian Leaders Institute
Student in Ministry (Pastoral Leadership), Liberty College
A 30-year professional portfolio incorporating a broad array of disciplines including senior management roles in operations, sales & marketing, project management, and corporate consulting. Having had the opportunity to work with organizations of various sizes and industries, Richard has developed an expertise in addressing diverse developmental needs and leading successful change management initiatives that achieve desired outcomes.
Kara Gilliard
Director of Financial Services
Masters of Science, New England College (M.S.)
BA in Accounting, Winston-Salem State University
A 25-year accounting and nonprofit management professional with a strategic focus in higher education and church/nonprofit administration and leadership.
Special areas of expertise include, accounting, business / nonprofit consulting, nonprofit administration, process development, ERP system setup and management, grants management and administration, as well as operational audits.
Rev. Regena Thornton
DC Regional Coordinator
BA English, MPT, M.Ed,
Ministerial staff, New Hope AME, Waldorf, MD
37 years federal government leadership experience
20+ years ministry experience
Bonny Moellenbrock
Strategic Planning Consultant
BA in Environmental Policy, UNC-Chapel Hill
BA Policy, MBA, M.Regional Planning, UNC-Chapel Hill
MBA, UNC-Chapel Hill
20+ years of leadership in impact investing and social entrepreneurship
Expertise in venture capital, angel investing, entrepreneurial management, and capital access for social entrepreneurs. Bonny Moellenbrock is a nationally recognized impact investing pioneer who provides strategic counsel to leaders, foundations and organizations deploying investment and philanthropic dollars to make a difference. Most recently, Bonny served as Executive Director of Investors’ Circle, the largest and most active early-stage impact investing network in the world. Previously, Bonny was a Managing Director at SJF Ventures, a leading impact venture fund investing in high-growth, positive impact companies in the cleantech, sustainability, and tech-enhanced services sectors, and Executive Director of SJF Institute, its affiliated nonprofit. Prior to SJF, Bonny was COO and CFO of Preservation NC, and served on the management team of an entrepreneurial commercial recycling company. Bonny serves on the B Lab Standards Advisory Council and the Advisory Board of AMCREF Community Capital. Bonny enjoys gardening, trail running, and making music with her husband and daughters at their historic bungalow in Durham, NC.
Reverend Shameka Jones-Taylor
Board Member
B.A., Baldwin-Wallace University
MBA, Baldwin-Wallace University
M Div., Payne Theological Seminary
20-year public and civic finance experience specializing in budgeting, fiscal analysis, and procurement. Extensive service in Church administration, Christian Education, and Ministry leadership.
Sara Minard
Board Member
Sara Minard, PhD., is a socio-economist, lecturer, writer, development practitioner and policy analyst with 15+ years of experience teaching and working in the areas of economic development policy, market-based approaches to development, design thinking for development practice, social entrepreneurship, social economy, and program design, monitoring and evaluation
Dr. DeForest B. Soaries, Jr.
Senior Advisor
Creator of dfree® – a strategy that promotes and enables financial self-sufficiency among individuals and groups. Independent Director, FHL Bank of New York. Independent Director, Independence Realty Trust. Former New Jersey Secretary of State.
Dr. Reginald Blount
Advisor
B.S., Tuskegee University
M.Div., Candler School of Theology
Ph.D., Northwestern University (with Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary)
I believe the purpose of Christian education is to be emancipatory, to set people free to be children of God and co-creators with God. Many personal, social, spiritual, and institutional hindrances prevent the people of God from becoming all that God has created them to be. Christian education ought to provide an emancipatory pedagogy that transmits to the Christian faith community its history and journey, and God’s presence and intersection in that history and journey; that transforms people of faith in a way that aids them to claim meaning, purpose, and worth as children of God and co-creators with God; and that transgresses in a way that pushes against the boundaries that hinder people of faith from using their gifts to love God and to love their neighbor. My research interests are in the areas of African American identity formation, adolescent and young adult identity formation, Christian education theory, Christian education and the black church, and African/African American spirituality. I am currently researching the role of the black church in the identity formation of African American youth.
Mark Grovic
Advisor
B.S., University of California, Berkeley, Political Economies
J.D., Georgetown University, International, Tax, and Corporate law
Accounting and Finance, George Washington University and Pace University Private Equity and Venture Capital Executive Program, Harvard Business School Certificate in teaching entrepreneurship, Babson Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators.
Mark Grovic co-founded New Markets Venture Partners in 2003 and is a General Partner. Mark serves or has served on the Board of Directors for APDS, Credly, Fishtree, Galvanize, Graduation Alliance, Orchestro (formerly Vision Chain, acquired by E2open), Think Through Learning (acquired by Imagine Learning), MediaSolv (acquired by Nasdaq: TASR), Lightningcast (acquired by NYSE: TWX), Moodlerooms (acquired by Blackboard) and Workspace.com. Mark also serves or has served as a board observer for Aldagen (acquired by NASDAQ: CMXI), American Honors College, Andera (acquired by NASDAQ: EPAY), Appfluent (acquired by NASDAQ: ATTU), BioSET (acquired by Ferring Pharmaceuticals), Mashable, Noodle Partners, Overture Technologies, Pairin, Paratek Microwave (acquired by NASDAQ: RIMM) and Questar Assessment (acquired by ETS). Mark also co-founded LifeJourney, an online educational company that allows students to test drive real life careers in specific corporations.