OUR TEAM
 | |||
Read a Letter from Our Founder
| Susan L. Taylor is the founder and CEO of the National CARES Mentoring Movement. After 27 years at the helm of Essence magazine, Taylor left publishing to devote her life to building the National CARES Mentoring, founded as Essence CARES. The National CARES mission is to help end inter-generational poverty by securing and transforming the lives of under-resourced Black children. National CARES affiliates recruit caring adults to serve as mentors and role models at local youth-serving organization. The national group-mentoring programs focus on the emotional, social and academic development of children and the wellness of the adults who parent and mentor them.
| |||
Kerri Osborne
Kerri Osborne manages fund development, marketing and communications and operations. She brings strong administrative, organizational and fundraising skills to CARES; she is an eager educator and a patient and clear communicator. She possesses a willingness to dive into new territory, learn it and execute. Before CARES, she spent fourteen years at Jumpstart for Young Children in a variety of leadership roles with both regional and national responsibilities. During this time, she led both programmatic and fundraising growth, which allowed the organization to expand its reach and serve more children.
CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
Stephen Powell
Stephen Powell manages affiliates, programs, and partnerships—entities with teams that have boots on the ground across the country. Stephen has an exceptionally wide national network of leaders and a deep understanding of the Black community and best practices in mentoring. His powerful presentations to Community Impact Partners, parents and young people are inspiring and memorable. With experience as a national Executive Director for Mentoring USA, Stephen brings a breadth of expertise to his work at CARES.
CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND CHIEF PROGRAMS AND PARTNERSHIPS OFFICER
OUR TEAM
Ariam Abraham
Chicago City Manager
Elizabeth Bologna
Institutional Partnerships Manager
Aaron Nicholson
VP, of Development
Debra Parker
Executive Assistant to CEO
D. Aparicio Thompson, MSW
Director of The RISING Program
Rachel Worthington
Director of Operations
Board of Directors
REGINALD VAN LEE
National CARES Board Chairman - Partner and Chief Transformation Officer, Carlyle
STUART K. ARCHIBALD
Head of Strategy, JP Morgan Chase Wealth Management
BYNA ELLIOTT
Managing Director, JP Morgan Chase
VIVIAN R. PICKARD
President & Partner, C3 Venture Flint
President & CEO, The Pickard Group
President, General Motors Foundation (Ret.)
LT. COL. MICHAEL D. WALKER (RET.)
Founder and Managing Partner, TW Capital Group
RYAN D. ANDERSON
Vice President, National Contributions Manager, Comerica Bank
Donna Ceparano
Editor/Marketing Director, KPMG
Dionne Pacquette-Jones
Sr. Global Engagement Manager, Amazon-AWS