Learn how to support, amplify, and elevate the careers of the BIPOC professionals in your organization and beyond.
Join us on Zoom for A New Way Forward Virtual Series: Myth of the BIPOC Pipeline.
When looking to diversify staff, leaders will often point to the pool of candidates and claim qualified BIPOC (Black, Indigenous People of Color) professionals in the sector do not exist or can't be found. Participants will learn that the lack of BIPOC professionals in the nonprofit pipeline is a dangerous myth rooted in gatekeeping, white supremacy, and is used in performative social justice, “We tried, but the pipeline…” More importantly, participants will learn how to support, amplify, and elevate the careers of the BIPOC professionals in their organization and beyond to develop a more equitable future in the sector. This webinar will be led by Victoria Marie "Vicki" Fernandez and Tyneisha Gibbs.
Victoria Marie “Vicki” Fernandez (she/hers) is the Director of Thriving Communities for the Grunin Foundation. She comes to Grunin from the Institute for Ethical Leadership (IEL), a research center in Rutgers Business School where she most recently served as Acting Executive Director. In her evolving role at IEL, Vicki helped hundreds of nonprofit leaders at all stages of growth find support and develop their abilities. Her proudest achievements with the Institute are increasing programming and practice around access, diversity, equity, and anti-racism.
In June 2019, Vicki Co-Founded the Nonprofit Professionals of Color Collective with Tyneisha Gibbs (144th and Vine). The Collective seeks to support the whole BIPOC leader with personal and professional development, community support, and access to intentionally curated resources. Through the pandemic, the Collective quickly grew to reach over 800 nonprofit professionals nationally online and continues to reach new audiences.
Vicki is a nonprofit generalist working in the sector for 20 years in a variety of roles including leadership training and support, program development and leadership, community engagement, and communications. Although her work has focused on a wide range of service areas, including youth development, education and out of school time, health, and capacity building, she has a particular love for the arts.
Vicki earned her BA at Ramapo College of NJ in Communications and Fine Arts: Visual Arts. She completed her MPA with a concentration in non-profit administration at Rutgers – Newark School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA).
Vicki’s community involvement includes:
- Board Member, Institute of Music for Children
- Curran Every Voice Fellow, Impact 100 Essex
- Lifetime Member, Girl Scouts
- Steering Committee Member, Doing Good Better: Deepening Philanthropic and Nonprofit Partnerships in NJ
- Former Board Member, GlassRoots
- Former Service Unit Co-Manager, Newark Girl Scouts
[Image description written by Vicki Fernandez: A headshot of Vicki, looking straight into the camera with hand on hip against a plain colored background. Vicki says, “I am a fat, white skinned woman of Dominican and Italian heritage with rosy cheeks, a round face, and dark curls. I am wearing a deep blue dress, contrasting mustard scarf, big blue eyeglass frames, beaded blue bangles on one arm, and a bright red lipstick.”]
Tyneisha K. Gibbs is the founder and Principal Consultant of 144th & Vine, LLC, a nonprofit consulting agency, the co-founder of the Nonprofit Professionals of Color Collective and a philanthropist with Impact 100 Essex. As a state level educator, Mrs. Gibbs recently served as the Interim Chief Operations Officer and is currently the Director of Expanded Learning Opportunities for NJSACC: New Jersey’s Statewide Network for Afterschool Communities. In 2019, she was selected and recognized nationally as a White Riley Peterson Policy fellow, a prestigious fellowship named for the former US Secretary of Education, Dick Riley.
Mrs. Gibbs is also a national speaker, trainer and facilitator, having presented at the US Department of Education’s Nita M. Lowey’s 21st Century Community Learning Center’s Summer Symposium and the National Afterschool Association annual convention for two years consecutively. Besides training and working in various roles for non- profit organizations throughout NJ, she is a PROUD member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, serving on both the local and regional levels. She was born in Newark, NJ and raised in the Jersey shore town of Neptune. In addition to being passionate about her career, she is a loving wife to Blair and mother to ReNee.
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