WHO WE ARE
Meet Our Team
SHANNON DICKERSON
Neighborhood Solidarity Partner
Shannon serves as the primary liaison and “guide on the side” to our Sustaining Neighborhood Investment Partners in the Dutchtown Neighborhood.
DARA ESKRIDGE
Chief Executive Officer
Dara spends her days advancing our work into new areas, connecting our regional dots to neighborhood transformation, growing our coalition of partners and investors, and dreaming very big.
KENAN ENDER
Operations Director
Kenan helps shape and uphold efficient and effective internal practices and processes that maximize our human, financial, and intellectual assets to the benefit of our mission and achievement of our vision.
LORIN JACKSON
Collaboration Support Partner
Lorin facilitates harmony between neighborhood anchors, residents, and consultants, investigating challenges to find opportunities, and elevating efforts for optimal impact.
DEREK LANEY
Neighborhood Solidarity Partner
Derek Laney serves as the primary liaison and “guide on the side” to our Sustaining Neighborhood Investment Partners in the West End and Visitation Park Neighborhoods.
LY SYIN LOBSTER
Executive Support Partner
Ly Syin backs up the team, supporting smooth operations. Assisting others and helping people through sharing information is her life-long passion. Ly Syin is an Invest STL cheerleader and always in our corner.
MICHAEL PAGANO
Narrative + Communications Partner
Michael crafts and shapes our storytelling, working closely with the team to listen for, weave together and raise up the experiences of our neighborhood partners and the people they serve.
ALEXIS WILLIAMS-CAVANAUGH
Narrative + Communications Support Partner
Alexis supports our narrative catching, (re)framing, and amplifying efforts, helping shape and share the stories that grow through our work with neighborhood partners and residents.
MICHELLE WITTHAUS
Policy Design + Activation Partner
Michelle designs projects that will influence future policymaking with an emphasis on investing in people, not just place.
As our role in the region evolves, our team continues to grow. While there are no open positions at this time, we invite you to check back here for job opportunities and follow us on social media for the lastest updates.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
How we move is core to who we are and what we do.
- We are motivated by the belief that every person deserves to live in a neighborhood in which they can create the life they want, and we are grounded in the conviction that anything less is unacceptable.
- We are guided by an activist spirit while mobilizing institutional resources.
- We are committed to rigorous self-examination and transparency about our successes, failures and learning.
- We are dedicated to untethering the past from what’s possible in the future by refusing to accept the restraints of generations of systemic anti-Black racism.
- We act with urgency, because the unconfronted injustices of generations of anti-Black systemic racism continue to compound with time.
- We elevate lived experience and use evidence-based learning without being bound by it.
- We acknowledge and address generations of harm created by systemic anti-Black racism, particularly harm created in the name of community development.
- We measure success in multiple ways that reflect the complexity of this work.
Board of Directors
Blake Strode
Executive Director
Arch City Defenders
Brian Phillips
Executive Director & Assistant Vice Chancellor
Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corporation
Henry Webber, Board Chairperson
Principal, Urban Impact Advisors
Karishma Furtado, Secretary
Equity Scholar, Urban Institute; Director of Data and Research, Forward Through Ferguson
Karl Guenther
Loura Gilbert, Treasurer
Retired Vice President of Community Development
Commerce Bank
Nicole Hudson
Assistant Vice-Chancellor
Academy for Diversity & Inclusion, Washington University
Ryan Rippel
Senior Project Officer, CEO Initiatives
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Zachary Boyers
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation
people | power | place | systems
Initiating a 20 Year Journey
call
314-399-8812
VISIT
5600 Delmar Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63112
PO Box 300010
St. Louis, MO 63130