Honoring Gamechangers
Kicking off with a celebration of Black Philanthropy Month and running through GivingTuesday, CFMT is recognizing 21 Nashville Gamechangers—visionary leaders who have made significant contributions to the community. These individuals, ranging from nonprofit leaders to business executives, have demonstrated unparalleled creativity, courage, and commitment to enhancing the well-being of Nashville’s Black community.
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Dr. Diarese George is the founder and CEO of the Tennessee Educators of Color Alliance (TECA), an organization that envisions a future where the diversity of Tennessee educators reflects the diversity of students across the state.
TECA provides high quality programming and networking opportunities to support and retain educators of color across the state; leadership development and advocacy focused civic engagement are two core components of the work. Previously, he served as the director of recruitment for the Nashville Teacher Residency where his primary focus was recruiting more people of color to the education profession.
Prior to that, he taught for five years as a high school teacher, with a focus on business. Additionally, he has completed several education leader fellowships that focused on the intersection of policy and advocacy, and serves on several councils, boards, and committees statewide. He’s married to Brittenee, an elementary school teacher, and together they share five beautiful children.
Three concrete actions that I commit to as a change agent are for my:
Family: Continue to show my children the value of “Give Back, Give Black”. When we think of Black social entrepreneurs and Black-led nonprofits, they make up less then 10 percent of the industry and receive less than 4 percent of philanthropic dollars. It creates an expectation that Black leaders have to do the most with the least. It’s important that my children see the value and importance of investing in ourselves. The genius, excellence, and innovation needed to address issues in the Black community, resides among the leaders in the Black community.
Community: It’s important to keep showing up and drawing light to the racial wealth gap and systemic inequities that Black Americans face in the social sector and nonprofit industries. It’s synonymous with the same issues that Black Americans face in the broader community. Among all racial groups, Black families donate a higher proportion of their income (despite facing barriers to wealth accumulation and earning less). It’s also important that community know the value of investing in Black youth as leaders to create some of the solutions that are faced in the Black community.
Workplace: I’ll continue to circulate our dollars organizationally in the Black community i.e. consultants, vendors, and peer organizations. This is actually staple of ours organizationally; 85 percent of our contractual partners and providers that we leverage for programmatic and organizational supports are Black. I see a value in take organizational resources and investing them in Black vendors, professionals, and organizations. I allows the impact and investment to remain in the community.
