Alan McGregor, Executive Director
Asheville Office

In the early 1990s, I was a co-chair of the working group that created SRDI. At that time, I was the executive director of The Sapelo Foundation, a family foundation in Georgia committed to social justice. As a grantmaker in the South, it was evident that too few resources were available to the many rural activists who were attacking poverty and injustice. In response to this problem, SRDI was created to be a powerful regional organization to advocate for new sources of philanthropic, investment and government capital into the region for rural community-based development.

That mission fit well with my own work in the philanthropic sector. In 1980, I was a co-founder of the Fund for Southern Communities, a new kind of community foundation that put justice at its core and its constituents in control. Recently celebrating its 25th anniversary, FSC continues to be an unusual partnership between donors and community change agents.

Since 1996, I have led SRDI’s work to create new rural philanthropy. The first part of this work was with nine community-based philanthropic groups to help them connect better to rural communities and to build their grantmaking assets. In 1998, SRDI mapped the region’s philanthropic assets and began advocacy too create new philanthropic assets in the South’s poorer rural regions. I coordinated a partnership between SRDI, the Southeastern Council of Foundations, the Foundation for the Mid South and L & M Associates to create and implement the Philanthropy Index for Small Towns and Rural Areas. The Index, now administered by SRDI, is a tool for used to demonstrate philanthropic potential in rural communities and to organize local leaders to build homegrown philanthropic assets.

I believe in philanthropy as a community venture where all can give and everyone is a beneficiary. With this model, I believe philanthropy is possible anywhere and that its practice will become increasingly democratic. Just as important, I believe that donors bring a full set of needs and expectations to the giving process. Philanthropy at its best nurtures donors by providing profound learning and deep connection to community. It brings people across the barriers of race and class to build a common vision of community.

In August 2007, I was hired by SRDI’s board to lead the organization as executive director. My job is to lead a very talented staff as we implement a new organizational vision.

I live in Asheville, NC where I spend much of my time with a wonderful conservationist named Maggie Clancy. My stepson, Austin Kent, is a film student at the Savannah School of Art and Design and my son, Emmett McGregor, is in the final years of high school. He has deep interest in film, the environment and rock climbing.

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Calvin Allen, Deputy Director for Operations and Programs
Raleigh Office

I consider myself a storyteller and a connector, a perspective gained mostly from living my entire life in the South. My family’s experiences living on small farms in NC, the necessity of the times to leave for bigger cities, and the questions of identity that arose as a result have shaped my personal and professional directions deeply. I approach my work at SRDI with this mindset, connecting the stories of yesterday’s rural South to present opportunities and resources.

Too often the individual experiences and voices of those who have been marginalized haven’t held significant weight in our communities. The experiences reflected in those lost voices lack vital influence over the allocation of resources, the creation of public policy, and the power to build sustainable futures in the towns that hold their histories. Those in small rural communities with limited resources particularly feel forced to compete rather than work for the well-being of all members of the community. The choice is reduced to survival over prosperity.

That reality drove my desire to join SRDI in October 2005 as Deputy Director. In this new role I seek to blend my experiences with philanthropy, leadership development, organizational development, anti-oppression/diversity theory, and power analysis into meaningful community development. I spend part of my time with the administrative team, helping to strengthen the internal processes that root our programs. I also work with the program team as a trainer, helping to further our network’s resources to generate and sustain “the vision, will, and resources” to create a “just, inclusive, and sustainable” rural South.

I’ve spent many years as a nonprofit consultant with OpenSource Leadership Strategies, as well as Executive Director of Public Allies NC, Associate Director of the Dispute Settlement Center of Orange County (NC), and as a program manager for Durham Companions, a mentoring program for court-involved youth. In all of my work I have sought to promote social justice with a balance of advocacy and bridge-building, facilitating the open discussion of the strong opinions of individuals toward meaningful mutual acknowledgement and forward motion. My involvement on the boards of Equality NC, NetCorps, and NC Gives reflects that value.

I’m a 1992 graduate of Duke University and completed the Duke University Certificate in Nonprofit Management in 2005. I’m also an alumnus of the 2003-2005 William C. Friday Fellows for Human Relations Program through the Wildacres Leadership Initiative.

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Omisade Burney-Scott, Director of Community Partnerships and Learning
Raleigh Office

I am a southern girl with an urban scent. The sum total of who I am---forged in New Bern, North Carolina and Prince George’s County, Maryland, has had a tremendous impact on how I view the world through both rural and urban eyes. My sense of justice, community, and integrity has developed a common thread throughout my life that translates to my ability to be a broker of information and a coach. More recently, I have come to see myself as an “Organizational Belayer” -- one who secures the rope, enabling the climber to ascend safely to new heights. This means I help communities and organizations unveil the assets that already exist but might not be fully utilized. I believe that rural communities are rich with a genuineness of self that is often not acknowledged, understood, or respected by those outside of that community who are called upon to direct resources intended to makes these communities more economically viable and sustainable. It is important that the narrative that is born out of rural communities not only be grounded in the authentic and unique complexities of each community, but that it also has the ability to influence and direct a collective vision for more viable and healthy futures.

My professional career spans higher education, non-profit leadership, philanthropy and organizational coaching. Prior to coming on board at SRDI, I was a Project Officer with Active Living by Design a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. I was also founder and principal of Ananse Consulting which provides organizational capacity building, coaching, program design, philanthropic leadership development, and board development. In addition, I was a Program Director with both the Warner Foundation and Public Allies North Carolina.

In my new role at SRDI as the Director of Community Partnerships and Learning, I will have the opportunity to bring my skills to our program team and our rural partners. I will work with our program team to build and develop stronger relationships with current and new community partners as well as a more intentional comprehensive delivery of SRDI services.

I am a founding member of an African American giving circle called NGAAP, The Next Generation of African American Philanthropist, which directly addresses the “supply /demand” paradigm inherent in philanthropy that is connected to issues of power and privilege. I am also the co-founder of the Change Agents in the American South learning circle, a Leadership Learning Community initiative that focuses on the cross-generational leadership needs and transitions of change agents of color working and living in the American South.

My current volunteer board involvement is with both stone circles (NC) and the Fund for Southern Communities (ATL). I am a 1989 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BA in Communication Studies and an alumnus of both the 1999-2001 class of the Wildacres Leadership Initiative William C. Friday Fellows for Human Relations and the 2003 Southeastern Council on Foundation’s Hull Leadership Fellow. My greatest joy comes from living in Durham with my wonderful husband Michael and my amazing son Che.

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Ally Donlan, Grassroots Support Program Associate
Asheville Office

While I grew up in northeastern Ohio, I made my first life-changing trip to Appalachia when I was fifteen. The beautiful, mountain backdrop could not hide the severe levels of poverty that exist in the valleys and hollers. During my summers in college at Johns Hopkins, I worked for an emergency home repair ministry based in Tennessee but which worked all over Virginia, Kentucky, and West Virginia. It was there, through meandering conversations on the front porch, tasty meals of soup beans and cornbread, and toe-tapping bluegrass music; that my admiration, respect, and compassion for the hard-working, generous, mountain people developed. After working full-time for the organization, I also began to realize that home repair, while at times essential, can provide only a temporary fix to a problem. There is a need for a more sustainable, multi-system solution to the challenges faced by the people of Central Appalachia and the Southeast. That realization compelled me to go back to school, after a few years working at Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity. I now attend the University of North Carolina, where I anticipate completing my Master’s of Social Work in May 2008.

During my first year of the program, I read about SRDI’s work in an article for class. Intrigued, I immediately sought more information about their work. Fortunately, I was able to work with them during my final year of the MSW program. I am currently a Program Associate for SRDI’s Grassroots Support Project, based out of the Asheville office. Through my work, I am learning what makes an effective grassroots organization and the potential for a larger impact through a regional system of support. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with such knowledgeable colleagues who are committed to carrying out SRDI’s mission.

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Jason Gray, Research and Policy Director
Raleigh Office

I am the research and policy director at the Southern Rural Development Initiative, where I have a diverse research portfolio around rural philanthropy, and federal community and economic development funding, as well as a broader policy advocacy agenda for sustainable rural development policy.

I grew up in Yorktown, Virginia when it was still rural. Living between the national battlefield and the lower Chesapeake Bay made for an idyllic childhood that alternated between reenacting the Revolutionary War and tramping about in nearby tidal marshes and creeks. I understand well that crabs are "beautiful swimmers" and the fine art of crab picking.

I acquired my bachelor's degree in Geography in a far different rural setting - Emory & Henry College, a small Methodist school in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. In addition to receiving a better education than I appreciated at the time, I also learned that growing burley tobacco is as knowledge-intensive as being in college, and considerably harder work. After wandering about for 4 years, I attended the University of Virginia where I earned an M.A. in regional and environmental planning in the School of Architecture. While there I worked with the Institute for Environmental Negotiation.

My entire professional career has centered on rural communities. I spent nearly ten years with the Virginia Water Project where I worked on rural water management and protection policy at the state and federal level. I participated in numerous multi-party environmental regulatory negotiations on pesticides, ground water management, coal mining impact mitigation, and regional water finance. I was the key author of a statistical portrait of rural Virginia, was active in Virginia's first effort to articulate a state rural development strategy, and was on the advisory board of the Rural Economic Analysis program at Virginia Tech.

In my non-work life I am the father of two young sons, and moonlight writing a book on the future of rural America. I was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Community Development Society and look forward to helping build stronger partnerships between community development practitioners and academia.

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Jamilla Hawkins, Rural Innovations Program Associate
Raleigh Office

At an early age, the concept of leading by serving others was etched in my heart. Raised in the rural town of Riegelwood in southeastern North Carolina, the dynamics of creating a sustaining non profit organization was introduced to me when my mother decided she would work with other community leaders to better their community. They decided to focus their energies on creating an organization dedicated to the needs of both the senior citizens and youth of the community. This effort has proved to be successful and over the past 10 years the organization has renovated their at once drug infested and dilapidated community park and has established programs for both the youth and senior citizens to attend.

As a member of Public Allies and a first year student in the Masters of Public Administration program (MPA) at NC Central University, it is my goal to enhance my knowledge in rural community economic development, philanthropy, grassroots organizing and policy. At SRDI, my hope is to assist the staff in its mission to build sustainable, just communities through programming and dedication to the Rural Innovations network.

I have a passion to serve others and to use the tools of listening, healing, and a commitment to the growth of people; components of the servant leadership principle as my driving force to help others reach their highest potential. Upon the completion of my Public Allies service and graduation from the MPA Program, it is my hope to serve as a city manager specializing in economic development.

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Tina Merrill, Finance Director
Raleigh Office

When I was 18, I spent a life-changing semester working in a medical clinic in a slum of Guatemala City. When I returned to Harvard, I changed my major to economics to study theories of economic development and underdevelopment. After graduation, I began working in the renewable energy sector, doing project management and financial modeling for large-scale commercial wind power projects across the globe. Six years later I completed a Masters of Business Administration at Stanford.

While my business school classmates were making (and subsequently losing) their fortunes in the high tech sector, I chose a non-traditional career path, and opened a small business which is still running in Oakland, California, and recently won a “Best of the Bay” award for the best dog care facility in the Bay Area. As a small business entrepreneur, I was responsible for every aspect of start-up and management, including the construction, operations, client service, human resources, and finance. Employing a staff of 22, my company is committed to diversity and to providing a living wage and benefits for our primarily entry-level staff.

During this time, I also served as a volunteer director and treasurer for two non-profit organizations working in my community in Oakland, which familiarized me with the challenges of growing a non-profit organization.

We recently moved to Raleigh from California so my husband could join the faculty at NC State, and our son was born here. Our new community has welcomed us with open arms, and our roots in North Carolina are already growing deep. Joining SRDI in October 2006 as Finance Director was a wonderful opportunity for me to work with a team of talented colleagues committed to an important mission.

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Tim Smith, Philanthropy Program Associate
Raleigh Office

I was born and raised in Chapel Hill, NC. Having never lived outside of the South and never intending to, I would like nothing more than to be involved with work that helps bring about real change to the communities of the rural parts of the region that are struggling to create economic viability. My work over the summer will be focused on managing our philanthropy efforts in partnership with Alan McGregor as his work expands as Interim Executive Director.

I will be entering my second (and final) year in the Masters of Public Affairs program at UNC Greensboro in the fall where I am concentrating on economic development in the rural South. I consider myself very fortunate to be associated with SRDI for the summer because the programs and initiatives I will be learning about and helping organize are true catalysts for change. I believe that the exposure I get from assisting in these efforts will greatly enhance my knowledge of the issues and challenges that our rural partners are facing. I want to ensure that our rural communities are given the same type of opportunities that our friends and family in more populous areas of the region enjoy.

As a leader in such ideas and initiatives, SRDI is a great place to begin one’s training and I am grateful to be given the chance to make positive change.

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Thomas Watson
Director of Grassroots Support

I am the first Director of Grassroots Support (formerly Southern Organizational Development Initiative), joining the staff in 2006. I manage our collaborative effort to develop long-term organizational development, training, and support activities for rural nonprofits and consultants.

I worked most recently as a Senior Program Consultant with the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, managing initiatives to build grassroots leaders and social enterprise. I’m also a co-founder of the Center for Participatory Change in Asheville NC, supporting grassroots groups in Western NC through organizing, capacity-building, network building, and small grants support. I served there for five years.

I grew up in rural Appalachia and prior to becoming an organizer worked in factories, as a welder, in hotel management, and banking. I received my Master of Social Work from the UNC-Chapel Hill where I completed internships with Grassroots Leadership and the Highlander Center. I received a BS in Business Management from Guilford College in Greensboro, NC.

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