While the mission and work of Net Impact have long included a focus on race and equity, on our journey towards anti-racism, Net Impact understands that we can and must continuously improve. In September 2020, thirteen founding members, along with Net Impact Board Advisors, Cecily Joseph, and Randy Strickland introduced the Net Impact Black Professional Chapter (NIBPC).
The NIBPC founding members will work to develop its specific chapter mission and focus areas in its inaugural year, serving as a catalyst to increased value and alignment across the greater Net Impact community. The NIBPC will help support and encourage Net Impact Central, its partners, and members in fulfilling their commitments to amplify the voices of BIPOC, and making decisions that promote greater equity.
Net Impact is honored to announce the founding members of the NIBPC:
Chutney Harper, Agricultural Business Lead at Bayer
Chutney Harper was born and raised in St. Louis, MO. She graduated from the University of Missouri – Columbia with a degree in Biological Sciences. She started her professional career in the Genetic Quality Assurance laboratory at Monsanto, now Bayer, in Creve Coeur, MO. In this role, as a Biologist I, she performed protein extractions via ELISA method to test for antibody presence. She has continued her career progression at Bayer ever since acclaiming tenure of 11 years with the company.
Chutney’s current role at Bayer is the North America Parent Seed Contract Production Lead. She is leading the contracting efforts for multiple external and internal Parent Seed production sites in the North America region along with the contra season growing locations in Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina. She collaborates with partners in Trade & Compliance, Logistics, Procurement, Quality, and Planning to ensure robust processes are in place to deliver reliable parent seed material. She has a wealth of project management experience, pairing well with her ability to develop and nurture strategic partnerships.
Chutney also serves on the leadership team for the ARISE affinity group at Bayer. This group is focused on supporting an environment at Bayer that attracts, retains, and develops employees of African descent, as well as, enhancing the value provided to customers, business partners, and the community. Her role is planning the Annual Business Meeting in February, which sets the tone and direction of the ARISE group for the calendar year. In the annual meeting, she plans and structures the agenda to communicate ARISE business vision, mission, goals, and calendar of events in alignment with Bayer business directionality. Chutney is active in her community through this affinity group. For example, partnering with Junior Achievement to teach entrepreneurship to children 1st-5th grade at Mann Elementary in an under-privileged community. Another example, she volunteers at the Soulard School Community Garden to help with rehabbing and general maintenance of the community garden.
Chutney is highly energetic and enjoys a lot of physical activities. She likes working out, yoga, walking, running, and outdoor physical games with family and friends. She is an event planner by nature, and she plans all events for her family and events at Bayer as well. In her quiet times, she loves to read and reflect on life. She does not have any children, but she has a big family of 7 sisters and 5 brothers with a host of nieces and nephews whom she adores.
Danielle Kayembe, CEO and Founder at GreyFire Impact
Danielle is a female futurist and serial entrepreneur who works on projects at the intersection of women, tech and social impact. Through her company GreyFire, she advises female founders in the US and emerging markets in Africa on scaling their businesses and raising capital. Danielle is an advisor to social impact startups and a mentor to Columbia University’s business accelerator, she has lectured at Yale School of Management and Barnard College's Athena Program and Princeton University.
Danielle is an Ariane de Rothschild Fellow, awarded to 20 Global Social Impact Entrepreneurs each year. She has been featured on CNBC and in Forbes, and is a frequent speaker at the United Nations, TEDx, Google, General Assembly and other events. Danielle is the author of "The Silent Rise of the Female-Driven Economy" a position paper on women and the future of business and innovation.
David Stevens, Founding Partner and CEO at Broaden Impact
David spends his professional life learning about the world and sharing what he finds. He is the CEO and founding partner of Broaden Impact, an educational program design company that is the successor to the World Policy Institute (WPI) think tank. Prior to Broaden, he was the Director of Strategic Development at WPI where he built a strong track record of program design and fundraising and launched the Institute’s Program for African Thought.
DeJuan Woods, Director of Corporate Relations at Wayne State University
DeJuan Woods is currently the Director of Corporate Relations at Wayne State University in Detroit Michigan. He is also the Co-Founder of the Net Impact Detroit Professional Chapter and served on the planning committee for the NI 2019 National Conference in Detroit. Previous to his role at Wayne State, DeJuan was a Social Impact Program Officer at the Skillman Foundation and Director of Development for the Detroit Children’s Fund (Skillman Foundation start-up). In addition, he was the Associate Program Officer at the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation responsible for the Workforce Development & Microenterprise portfolios. DeJuan is a graduate of the Stephen Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor (MBA).
Ella Clausen, Red Tab Foundation at Levi Strauss & Co.
Ella is a corporate social impact professional, with a background in marketing and communications. She specializes in helping consumer-facing brands develop authentic and impactful initiatives to drive forward social good and sustainability. She currently works at Levi Strauss & Co.'s Red Tab Foundation, an employee hardship, and emergency relief foundation, in communications and program development. Previous to this, Ella helped start the Social Impact team at The North Face, worked in digital marketing for Numi Organic Tea, and consulted for brands on the Business + Social Purpose team at Edelman PR.
Jamerus Payton, Author, Entrepreneur, and Co-Founder of HBCU Wall Street
Mr. Jamerus Payton, a native of Greenville, NC, has a diverse portfolio of unique experiences across various cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds. He is a nationally and internationally recognized Business Owner, Consultant, Speaker, and Author. As a two-time graduate of North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University and a graduate of Southern Methodist University, he is a major advocate for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Black college students, and the creation and sustainability of Black business owners and investors. His love for HBCUs, technology, and community building led him to co-found HBCU Wall Street and Code Noir Institute.
Mr. Payton has served on various nonprofit boards, committees, and advisory boards including United Way, My Brother’s Keeper Wake County, and the Department of Applied Engineering Technology in the College of Science and Technology at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University. Mr. Payton is the Owner of The Payton Insurance Group, The Payton Publishing Group, and Co-Owner of Carolina Chicken & Waffles.
Mr. Payton is the author of the book, “HBCUNomics: A Story Of The Power Of Black College Students, Economic Self-Sufficiency and Financial Freedom” and co-author of the two books, “Dream Big. Dream Often. Dream Unrealistic.: Guidelines To Get Off The Sidelines” and “The HBCU Experience: The North Carolina A&T State University Edition.”
Jarami Bond, Chief Storyteller at Bond Studio
Featured as a 2017 GreenBiz 30 Under 30, Jarami is Chief Storyteller at Bond Studio, a visual storytelling company focused on helping entrepreneurs, businesses, and non-profits build their brands, engage their audiences, and unlock the power of their stories. Jarami also serves as a speaker, writer, and strategic advisor, using his voice to catalyze greater minority representation and a deeper focus on social and environmental justice within the sustainability community.
Throughout his career, Jarami has leveraged the power of storytelling, his love for relationship-building, and refined communication skills to help mission-driven organizations increase revenue, build brand awareness, and maximize positive impact. From 2015-2019, Jarami served as Sustainability Strategy Manager and Sustainability Coordinator at Interface, partnering with sales and marketing to leverage sustainability to increase marketplace advantage. From 2019-2020, Jarami worked as a Business Development Manager at Teknion, focused on building strong customer relationships and unlocking new business opportunities within Northern California's architecture and design community.
Jarami is a graduate of North Carolina State University with a B.S. in Environmental Science with a minor in Sustainable Materials and Technology. While at NC State, he scored three engineering internships with the NC Department of Transportation and a sustainability internship with the City of Raleigh Office of Sustainability.
Jochebed Bogunjoko, Founder and CEO at J. Aduke Consulting
Jochebed's experiences growing up in the Niger Republic, Canada, and South Carolina as the daughter of Nigerian missionaries, inspired a lifelong passion for pursuing social equity through finance. Upon receiving the Tyng Scholarship to attend Williams College, she used degrees in Economics and African American History to home in on the origins and drivers of socioeconomic disparity. After graduation, Jochebed moved to San Francisco to join Hall Capital Partners' Portfolio Management Group, before becoming an Investment Analyst at Tiedemann Advisors. There she helped lead Impact Investing and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion strategy while conducting due diligence on investment vehicles in all asset classes.
After partnering with the newly launched Registered Investment Advisor GRID 202 Partners to help the firm develop a proprietary theory of change for racial equity investing, Jochebed saw an opportunity to leverage this expertise more broadly and founded J Aduke Consulting spring of 2019. She is a member of the Intentional Endowments Network and the Net Impact San Francisco Chapter.
Keith E. Whitfield, Ph.D., 11th President of the University of Nevada Las Vegas
Dr. Keith E. Whitfield is the 11th President of the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He is the immediate former Provost and Sr. Vice President of Academic Affairs, and a Professor of Psychology, at Wayne State University. He received a B.A. in Psychology from the College of Santa Fe and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Life span Developmental Psychology from Texas Tech University, and did post-doctoral work in quantitative genetics at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
Dr. Whitfield is a champion of student and faculty success, innovation and entrepreneurship, and interdisciplinary research. His broad higher education experience includes developing programs and institutional policies that promote social and economic equity and financial sustainability. He has also devoted considerable time to faculty development, particularly junior scholars.
Dr. Whitfield remains an active scholar. His research examines the etiology of individual variation in health and individual differences in cognition due to health conditions. Dr. Whitfield works with researchers from Sweden, Russia, Finland, and the United States. He has been a continuously funded researcher for more than 20 years through NIA, NIH, and NSF with projects totaling more than $18 million, and has authored or co-authored over 200 journal articles, books, and book chapters. His current research project focuses on the relationship between stress and longevity in African American families living in North Carolina.
Melynnie Rizvi, Deputy General Counsel and Senior Director of Employment, Inclusion and Impact at SurveyMonkey
Melynnie Rizvi is the Deputy General Counsel and Senior Director of Employment, Inclusion and Impact at SurveyMonkey. Ms. Rizvi provides strategic guidance to the People team, oversees global employment law, and leads SurveyMonkey for Good, the company’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Social Impact initiative.
Prior to SurveyMonkey, she was Senior Director, Global Employment, Litigation, Chief Sustainability & Diversity Officer, and Chief Compliance Officer at Veritas, a global technology company. In this role, Ms. Rizvi led the global employment law and litigation teams, managed the global compliance program, and led the Corporate Responsibility, Diversity and Inclusion initiatives.
Prior to Veritas, she was a Director of Global Employment Law at Symantec. Prior to Symantec, she was a partner at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith and an associate at Baker & McKenzie.
Ms. Rizvi is a graduate of Northern California Grantmaker’s Racial Equity Action Institute and The Leadership Consortium, Harvard Business School’s Executive Leadership Acceleration Program, was named Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 2016 Employment Counsel of the Year and is an accomplished speaker on employment law, corporate responsibility, diversity and inclusion issues. Ms. Rizvi is a Board Member of Watermark and Fresh Lifelines for Youth and past Board Member of the Success Through Education Program. She received her JD and Bachelors of Commerce degrees from the University of Alberta, In Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Philip L. McKenzie, Cultural Anthropologist/Strategist and Executive Director at AdvancingDiversity.org
Philip L. McKenzie is an anthropologist who uses his expertise in culture to advise organizations on how best to thrive in an increasingly challenging and uncertain environment. Philip uses his quantitative background and Wall Street experience in combination with a qualitative understanding of social, economic, and cultural movements to unmask complex opportunities and identify significant trends that drive our future.
Philip’s work has placed him at the center of understanding the significance of culture as a reflection of shared values. As a result, he is a sought-after strategist working with a myriad of global organizations. He is a content creator and writer. He is the current Executive Director of Advancing Diversity and a columnist for MediaVillage. He is the creator and host of The Deep Dive, a leading culture and insights podcast in partnership with Pod Co Media. In the past, he has manifested his creative vision as co-host/co-creator of 2 Dope Boys & a Podcast.
Philip is a global speaker, having provided keynotes and workshops in London, Moscow, Sao Paulo, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Mexico City, and more.
Prior, he was the Managing Partner of FREE DMC, an influencer marketing agency that specialized in integrated marketing strategy, digital content creation, and experiential events. In his roles with FREE DMC, Philip created strategic experiential campaigns for Jaguar, Sprite, Remy Martin, Belvedere Vodka, and others. He was also the Global Curator of Influencer Conference, a global content platform that exists at the intersection of values, creativity, culture, and commerce. From its beginnings in 2010 in NYC, InfluencerCon has been held in some of the most dynamic cities in the world including London, Berlin, Detroit, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, and Amsterdam.
After completing his MBA at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Philip joined Goldman, Sachs & Co where he worked in Domestic Equity Trading. He has had extensive trading experience in both the Healthcare and Consumer Product sectors.
Philip is a passionate supporter of the arts. He has been a Supporting Partner of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre since 1999. He is formerly a Junior Associate of the Museum of Modern Art and a member of the Apollo Circle of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He is a rabid music fan and accomplished DJ under the name 9 Is Water.
Prior to his Duke MBA, Philip earned a bachelor of business administration from Howard University majoring in finance with a minor concentration in philosophy. Philip is born and bred in what he terms “Real Brooklyn” but travels extensively wherever the wind takes him. He is completing his first book titled No Shortcuts! The Revolutionaries Guide To The Future.
Stefanie A. Thomas, Impact Venture Investor at Impact America Fund
Stefanie brings years of transactional experience and devotion to driving more equitable capital in venture as an early-stage impact investor. She is particularly interested in the network effects that propel bootstrapped entrepreneurs—a focus inspired by her father who overcame tremendous challenges as a low-income business owner.
Today, Stefanie serves as one of six operators at a boutique venture firm––Impact America Fund (IAF)––with a primary focus on new investments and sourcing strategy. Prior to joining IAF, she co-founded Quarterback Impact while also managing fund development for an impact investment evergreen project. In 2014, she led a 6,000-mile road trip across the US to meet and work with entrepreneurs who focused on catalyzing economic opportunity for their local communities. Before the switch to venture, Stefanie served as a Vice President in Citigroup's global banking division. She received her M.B.A. from the Ross School at the University of Michigan and her B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Yusuf George, Managing Director of Corporate Engagement at JUST Capital
Yusuf George is the Managing Director of Corporate Engagement at JUST Capital, an independent, nonprofit organization that makes it easier for people, companies, and markets to do the right thing by tracking and researching the business behaviors Americans care about most. He is responsible for developing and managing corporate strategy and assists in managing investor-related engagement and strategic partnerships. Prior to joining JUST Capital, he worked at Barclays Capital within the Global Capital Markets division, where he curated investment and risk management strategies and established and managed client relationships with international hedge funds and global asset management firms. He also worked as the Director of the Galtere Institute, a program established to embrace both art and science in finance by focusing on the behavioral and psychological aspects of decision-making.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Princess Chambers, a nonprofit that awards college scholarships to young women in Brooklyn; the Middle Project Inc., a nonprofit which prepares and unites progressive and ethical leaders for a more just society by using resources to act locally and think globally; and the Red Hen Collective, a feminist, worker-owned, wine importer that is dedicated to a “new wine economy,” one that pays farmers first and shares equity.
