Colin designs and manages projects related to career advancement for low-wage workers. He also conducts research on the changing Southern economy and workforce readiness, with a particular focus on immigrant labor.  Colin directs several initiatives for MDC including Latino Pathways, Community Colleges Support Centers for Working Families and a U.S. Department of Labor "Pathways out of Poverty" grant for green job training.  Colin has experience as an outreach worker to farmworker labor camps, a coordinator of an environmental justice project, and a research manager for a community development corporation.  At MDC, Colin has authored several reports and assessments of workforce systems at the local, state, and regional level.  Colin participated in the national Sector Skills Academy as a Marano Fellow.

Educational background: Spanish, law, city and regional planning (Brigham Young University, Duke University School of Law, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

Mark manages MDC's day to day operations, including its financial, human resources, and IT functions, and is responsible for promoting an effective organizational culture.  He has a key role in developing and implementing short and long-range strategic planning, and takes a keen interest in issues of strategic philanthropy across all MDC's programs.  Before coming to MDC, Mark was executive director of the Lucy Daniels Foundation, a Raleigh-based private foundation.  He has leadership experience in corporate, nonprofit, and academic settings, and has served as a director or trustee for many charitable organizations.  At UNC-Chapel Hill, he was director of the Global Education Initiative for the School of Education.  At NC State University, he was associate director of the William R. Kenan, Jr., Institute for Engineering, Technology & Science and was founding director of the Park Scholarships.  He also served as an executive-in-residence for NCSU's HiTECH program, where he led teams of entrepreneurs in technology commercialization activities. 

Educational background: Psychology (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

John Cooper, PhD
Program Director
jcooper@mdcinc.org

John focuses on community development, environmental justice, dispute resolution, public policy research, emergency management, and land use planning. Currently he directs the FEMA Emergency Preparedness Demonstration Program, a $2.5 million effort to understand barriers to increased disaster awareness and preparedness in marginalized communities.

John has provided consultation to community development advocates on issues of planning and civic engagement, and been a visiting lecturer in the Department of City and Regional Planning (DCRP) at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC).  He is a past member of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation?s Advisory Panel and currently serves on a number of boards including The Community Home Trust (Chapel Hill, NC) Board of Directors, the Board of Visitors for the UNC Institute for the Environment, and the Advisory Board for the DHS Center of Excellence - Natural Disasters, Coastal Infrastructure, and Emergency Management (DIEM) at UNC. 

Educational background: Economics, urban planning, city and regional planning (Texas A & M University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

back to top >>



David Dodson
President
ddodson@mdcinc.org

Since joining MDC in 1987, David has directed major projects to strengthen public schools and community colleges, address rural economic decline, create new philanthropic structures, and build multiracial leadership for civic change in the Carolinas, the Deep South, and Appalachia. He frequently speaks around the country on creating equity and opportunity for low-wealth communities and has advised major philanthropic foundations on strategies to address poverty.

David is coauthor of several MDC publications including Disconnected Youth in the Research Triangle Region: An Ominous Problem Hidden in Plain Sight (2008) for The North Carolina GlaxoSmithKline Foundation, State of the South 2007: Philanthropy as the South's "Passing Gear," and An Action Agenda to Spur Economic Success: A Report to the Distressed Areas Task Force of the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness (2009). 
He is a member of the boards of The Mary Reynolds Babcock and the The Hitachi Foundations, and the Center for Law and Social Policy.

Prior to joining MDC he served as executive director of the Cummins Engine Foundation and director of corporate responsibility for Cummins Engine Company in Columbus, Indiana.

Educational background: architecture and planning, ethics and theology, public and private management (Yale College; Yale Divinity School; Yale School of Organization and Management).

Kate joined MDC in March 2006 and works on the Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count initiative focusing on institutional change. In addition to other responsibilities, Kate guides agenda planning for the annual Strategy Institute, a gathering of representatives from all Achieving the Dream institutions and national partners, which in February 2008 had 900 participants. Kate also oversees the annual review of demonstration college and university progress reports.

Kate graduated with honors from Guilford College, where she focused on international studies and political science. Her interests include economic development strategies and implementation for the least developed nations of the world as well as leadership roles, tools, and tactics to bring about social change.

Educational background: political science, international studies (Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C.).

Matthew Farmer
Grants and Contracts Administrator
mfarmer@mdcinc.org

Susan's work focuses on Achieving the Dream, especially the community engagement aspects of the initiative. Before joining the MDC staff, she worked for twenty-five years as a self-employed facilitator, organizational consultant, and educator in the nonprofit and public sectors. Her engagements have included: facilitating collaborations between public and non-profit organizations, designing and facilitating strategic and program planning for large and small systems, designing and facilitating experiential education workshops on a variety of topics including change, interpersonal communication, and experiential education, and designing and facilitating community development processes.

Susan began her career as a carpenter and co-founder of Space Builders, Inc., an employee-owned and democratically managed design and construction firm, where she served as principal group facilitator and general manager for thirteen years. She served many years on the boards of the Center for Community Self-Help, the Self-Help Credit Union Community Independent School, and the Satir Institute of the Southeast.

Educational background: psychology, adult education and organizational development (University of Rochester, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

back to top >>

Ralph Gildehaus, J.D.
Senior Fellow
rgildehaus@mdcinc.org

Ralph is developing a new effort to connect more low and moderate-income Americans with work supports, including free federal and state income tax assistance, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and food stamps, child care subsidies, children's health insurance, Medicaid, home energy assistance, Medicare Part D subsidies, senior community service employment, discount prescription drugs, student financial aid, school nutrition programs and soon SSI and SSDI. The effort will use innovative strategies to connect more eligible Americans with these supports, such as the Web-based Benefit Bank program, which provides counselor-assisted help in preparing income tax returns and other work support applications.

Formerly, Ralph served as the director of The Ohio Benefit Bank in Ohio Governor Ted Strickland's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. With his leadership, the public-private partnership grew to include more than 700 community-based sites and more than 2,500 trained counselors across Ohio, who helped more than 30,000 low- and moderate-income Ohioans claim more than $33 million in work supports. Prior to joining Governor Strickland's staff, Ralph was as a litigation partner with the law firm of Porter Wright Morris and Arthur LLP in Columbus, Ohio. He served for six years on the Board of Trustees of Neighborhood House, Inc., a settlement house in Columbus. Ralph also was a law clerk to Judge Lawrence S. Margolis of the U.S. Claims Court in Washington, D.C., and served on the legislative and political staffs of former Congressman Bob Edgar of Pennsylvania and as Issues Director for Sam Beard for U.S. Senate in Delaware.

Educational background: Political science and law (Amherst College, George Washington University Law School).

 back to top>>

Bonnie Gordon 
Senior Program Director
bgordon@mdcinc.org 

Bonnie leads MDC's policy and communications work on the Achieving the Dream initiative. She was previously the College Prep program officer at the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, New England's largest education philanthropy. In her work at Nellie Mae, she designed a new multi-year grant program for college-school partnerships to improve academic achievement for underserved students and helped lead the development of the College Ready New England P-16 Alliance, a regional policy and program collaboration in support of college access and success for underserved students. She also negotiated and directed the Foundation's funding partnership with Lumina Foundation for Education to bring three Connecticut community colleges into Achieving the Dream. She is a 20-year veteran of higher education administration, having served in a number of positions at Ithaca College, including vice president for college relations and resource development.

Bonnie has extensive experience with state and national education associations, including the National Council of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the American Council on Education (ACE). She has served as a member of the ACE Commission on Adult Learning and Education Credentials, the board of visitors of Air University (United States Air Force), and as a program evaluator for the Pennsylvania Department of Education.  In addition, she has served on the national Pathways to College Network Executive Committee, the Massachusetts Think College Early Committee, and the Massachusetts State GEAR UP Advisory Committee. She has provided independent consulting services to both corporate and non-profit clients for policy analysis and program support in education, management, human resources, marketing, public relations and fundraising. She is currently a member of the board of directors of Fenway High School in Boston, MA. 

Educational background: Speech communication and education (Ithaca College, Harvard University).

Lucy directs the EITC Carolinas initiative and focuses on the economics of work and poverty and low-income housing. Her previous positions have included senior research associate at the Center for Urban and Regional Studies (CURS) at UNC-Chapel Hill, staff member for the Joint Economic Committee and the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations and Human Resources of the U.S. Congress, and consultant to the North Carolina Governor's Rural Prosperity Task Force and the Office of Economic Development at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

She serves as board chair of the Center for Economic Justice in Austin, Texas, and is a steering committee member of the National Community Tax Coalition.

Educational background: Urban and regional planning; human biology (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University).

In addition to serving as senior fellow at MDC, Ferrel directs the Program on Southern Politics, Media and Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is a lecturer at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He is a coauthor of the State of the South series and The Carolinas Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow.

He was formerly southern correspondent, government affairs editor, Washington correspondent, editorial page editor, and columnist at The News and Observer in Raleigh, N.C. He also has written for The Economist, The New York Times, The Washington Post, America, The New Republic, and a variety of Southern magazines, journals, and newspapers. He is a contributor to books on public policy, tobacco in transition, and the politics of race.

Educational background: Journalism (Loyola University of New Orleans; Columbia University).

Gerry Hardersen
Senior Budget & Financial Analyst
ghardersen@mdcinc.org

Gerry supports the MDC senior management team in the areas of budgets, board presentations and the development of business models which complement as well as enhance the overall company mission. In addition, Gerry serves as project controller for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Post-Secondary Education business model as well as the Work Supports Initiative being developed throughout the U.S.
Prior to joining MDC, Gerry spent over 20 years with Nortel Networks in various controller and senior financial management positions, most recently in mergers and acquisitions and the divestiture of technical training and repair operations. He also served as treasurer of the board of directors for the Mission House for Women, a program to assist women suffering from substance abuse or mental illness.
Gerry is a U.S. Army veteran who specialized in nuclear weapons technology.

Educational background: Math, accounting, education (Drake University, the College of St. Thomas).

Richard works with all of MDC's projects to connect their insights and solutions with the media, policymakers and the community at large. He oversees MDC's Web sites, helps prepare presentation materials, and assists in writing and editing the State of the South report and other research papers.

He's a native of New Orleans and has been a reporter, editor and columnist for newspapers across the South for more than 25 years. Beginning at his hometown newspaper, The Times-Picayune, covering the city's historic preservation movement, he continued to focus on planning and environmental concerns in reporting, editing and management positions at The Boston Globe, The Capital Reporter in Jackson, Miss., The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., The Miami Herald, The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla., and The Chapel Hill News. Most recently, he was editor of the Independent Weekly, which covers politics, social issues and the arts in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill region of North Carolina. His work has won prizes for investigative reporting, editorial writing, design, and coverage of urban growth issues. 

Education background: Urban studies; editor, The Columbia Daily Spectator (Columbia University).

back to top >>

Leslie Howell
Accounting Manager
lhowell@mdcinc.org

Leslie manages MDC's accounting operations, including payroll, record keeping, benefits, and management of contracts.

Leslie has been an accounting manager in both corporate and nonprofit environments. She served as a Financial Specialist on special assignments for Robert Half International, a leading finance and accounting service provider worldwide, most recently working as an accounting manager in the biotechnology and hospitality industries. She hails from Savannah, Ga., where she and her husband went to the same high school at the same time -- but did not know each other. Their blended family of six has lived in Raleigh since 1994. 

Education background: Accounting (Georgia Southern University)

back to top >>

Program Associate
lkoehler@mdcinc.org

Lauren was MDC's 2008-2009 Autry Fellow, and since completing her fellowship has stayed on as a Program Associate focusing primarily on MDC's work with education and the State of the South.

While in college, Lauren worked with Latin American immigrants on education issues after returning from an internship at a clinic for the indigent in central Mexico in the summer of 2005.  She first served as the ESL Program Director at the Eastside Community Connection, an Austin nonprofit, and then as an Americorps literacy tutor for Spanish-speaking preschool students at the Lucy Read Pre-K Demonstration Center.  She is a 2007 Harry S. Truman Scholar. During her Autry fellowship she worked on a variety of projects, including research for the 2010 edition of State of the South, Achieving the Dream, and MDC's work with disconnected youth in the Triangle.

Educational Background: Plan II, Government, Spanish (UT Austin)

back to top >>

Carol Lincoln
Senior Program Director
clincoln@mdcinc.org  

Carol has more than 35 years' experience working on issues of educational access, workforce development, and rural community development. She currently directs Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count, a national multi-year initiative which seeks to increase the success of community college students, particularly low-income students and students of color.

From 1994 through 2003 she directed the Rural Community College Initiative's (RCCI) national demonstration program to increase educational access and economic opportunity in distressed rural communities. From 1998-2004, she co-led MDC's international work in Namibia and South Africa where lessons from RCCI were used to help four-year institutions become catalysts for development in impoverished rural regions. She coauthored Let's Do It our Way: Working Together for Educational Excellence and America's Shame, America's Hope: Twelve Million Youth at Risk, which led to a national PBS television project to raise public awareness of the large numbers of youth leaving school unprepared for postsecondary education or careers. Previous experience includes the New York State Manpower Resources Commission and New York State Manpower Planning Council and later the National Commission for Employment Policy.

Educational background: Mathematics and sociology (State University of New York at Albany).

Joan focuses on philanthropy and education and is an advisor to foundations and nonprofits on school improvement and youth development. Formerly, she served as program director for elementary and secondary education at Lilly Endowment from 1986 to 1995, where she specialized in youth development research and middle-school reform initiatives. Prior to that, she established and directed the Center for Early Adolescence at UNC-Chapel Hill, was a faculty member of the Bush Institute for Child and Family Policy, and was a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health.

Previously, she was a program associate at the Learning Institute of North Carolina, a member of the College Board's Commission on Precollegiate Guidance and Counseling, a research associate at the National Institute of Education, a member of the governing board of the Annenberg Rural Challenge, a founding director of the North Carolina Child Advocacy Institute (NCCAI), and a founding member of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform. Joan currently serves on the boards of the Hershey Trust Company, the Milton Hershey School, NCCAI, the Executive Service Corps of the Greater Triangle, and DonorsChoose NC. She began her career as a secondary school English teacher.

Educational background: English and education (Wellesley College, University of Connecticut, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

Her previous experience includes serving as the administrative secretary for West Durham Baptist Church and Day Care Center and as unit administrative assistant at Duke University Medical Center.

Educational background: Business administration (North Carolina Central University).

back to top >>

Abby Parcell
Program Manager
aparcell@mdcinc.org

Abby is responsible for the analysis and synthesis of lessons learned across the Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count initiative. Before joining MDC in 2008, she worked as a program evaluator and research analyst within local and state government and in the nonprofit sector, including the North Carolina General Assembly's Program Evaluation Division, the N.C. Department of State Treasurer, Retirement Systems Division, and the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government. Abby has also worked as a coordinator of GED and adult basic education programs in North Carolina and New York and has extensive experience as an editor of university-level distance learning courses for both UNC-Chapel Hill and Brigham Young University.

Educational background: English, public administration (Brigham Young University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Noah was MDC's 2006-2007 Autry Fellow, and since completing his fellowship has stayed on as a Program Associate focusing primarily on MDC's work with philanthropies.

A native of Madison County, North Carolina, Noah completed a senior honors thesis at Duke University about the social issues incident to the birth, growth, and development of the cotton textile industry in North Carolina. While at Duke, Noah worked with Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) in a variety of support roles; in the summer of 2005, he took part in SAF's "Into the Fields" Internship and Leadership Development Program, building links between farmworkers and faith-based communities and supporting the efforts of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC). Noah also volunteered as a tutor for elementary school ESL students and during the summer of 2003 worked in Madison County under the auspices of the Program for the Rural Carolinas conducting a survey of farms and helping farmers market their produce.

Educational background: History (Duke University)

Christina manages the FEMA Emergency Preparedness Demonstration Program and leads its work in areas affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She also manages MDC's initiative on disconnected youth and works on various other projects in areas of work and asset development. Her work focuses on community economic development, policy, evaluation, community organizing, and structural racism.

Her prior experience includes independent nonprofit consulting, project management, and community building and grants management.

Educational background: Social work (New York University), nonprofit management and community development/planning (MSW) (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

Maggie Schmid Shelton, Ed.D.
Senior Program Director
mshelton@mdcinc.org

Maggie is responsible for managing MDC's Achieving the Dream team while also working with the new Developmental Education Initiative, funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which includes 15 Achieving the Dream colleges and six Achieving the Dream states.

She began her academic career at The American University before moving on to Montgomery College, a three-campus community college in Montgomery County, Md., in 1990. She began as a counselor and then provided leadership in the roles of chair of the Counseling Department, acting dean of student development, and acting dean of humanities. She also assisted with curriculum development for the college and community relations for the Takoma Park Campus.

In 2001, Shelton was assigned to assist with the leadership of the private art college Maryland College of Art and Design as the dean and help coordinate its acquisition and transition into the School of Art and Design at Montgomery College. She served as the new program's Dean of Academic and Student Affairs, in charge of a $1.2 million budget, 21 full- and part-time faculty and staff. After leaving Montgomery College in 2006, she received her Ed.D. from the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas-Austin and served as an intern at Guilford Technical Community College in Greensboro, N.C.

Educational Background: Psychology, Student Development in Higher Education, Educational Administration (Frostburg State College, American University, University of Texas at Austin)

back to top >>

Terri Smith
Chief Financial Officer
tsmith@mdcinc.org

Terri directs the overall financial function of the organization, establishing and implementing effective controls, practices and standards in finance and human resources. She is a key member of senior management working to ensure the financial integrity of the organization across all grants, projects, and activities. She provides strategic counsel on matters of fiscal agency and responsibility, and on operational feasibility of new work and mission related opportunities.

For nearly 22 years, Terri worked at Nortel Networks, starting as a senior financial analyst in the sales and customer service organizations and later becoming Assistant to the Controller and Manager of General Accounting Services. Before leaving Nortel in 2003 to work for a nonprofit, she became Senior Manager of Finance for Carrier Networks Manufacturing Operations, responsible for financial management of a $206 million cost center, and later Senior Manager of Vendor Relations-North America Training and Documentation Services, responsible for leading the consolidation of more than 60 training programs into a few, core organizations.

Educational background: Business administration, accounting (Elon University, Georgia State University). 

back to top >>



Tiki Windley
Program Manager
twindley@mdcinc.org

Tiki works as a program manager for MDC's EITC Carolinas. While still a college student, Tiki served as an administrator at River City Community Development Corporation and quickly realized her calling in the nonprofit world. She subsequently moved to Greensboro, NC, to work as operations manager for Gate City Community Development Corporation and then returned to her family home in Belhaven, NC, where she was a program manager for Community Developers of Beaufort-Hyde. In that position, she taught financial literacy at the local high school and provided free tax preparation for families in need. 

Educational background: business administration with a minor in economics and finance (Elizabeth City State University).