Back to The State of the South
Calvin Allen and Mark Motamen assume Vice President roles at MDC
MDC is excited to announce that Calvin Allen will be MDC’s first Vice President of Partnerships and Programs, and Mark Motamen will be the organization’s inaugural Vice President for Operations and Culture. In these roles, Calvin and Mark will ensure our programs produce high quality results for southern communities while providing a supportive work environment at MDC. They are proven team leaders and team builders, and their promotions into these important roles will further advance MDC’s mission to shape a South where all people thrive.
Calvin started his role as vice president in mid-December, honing MDC’s programmatic vision and direction while supervising MDC’s program leaders. He also cultivates and manages key state, regional, and national partnerships across the 13 southern states MDC supports.
With 30 years of nonprofit experience in organizational development, rural economic development, conflict management, and leadership development, Calvin holds a bachelor’s degree and a certificate in nonprofit management from Duke University, where he has also been a co-instructor at the Nicholas School of the Environment for the past 10 years for their Community Based Environmental Management practicum.
Calvin joined MDC in 2021 as Senior Program Director for the Rural Forward program. He co-founded Rural Forward in 2014 after serving three years with the Golden LEAF Foundation as a community grantmaking program officer.
Mark assumed his role as Vice President for Operations and Culture in January, after serving as Interim Chief Financial Officer since 2019. As vice president, Mark supervises staff, manages operational functions, and holds primary responsibility for culture building at MDC. He has over 25 years of accounting and operations experience, including ten as the senior finance executive with three different organizations. Previously, he served as Interim CFO for a Brooklyn-based nonprofit and spent seven years as the founding CFO for Achieving the Dream.
Mark has a master’s degree in Accounting from North Carolina State University and Bachelor’s Degrees in both Accounting and Business Management from North Carolina State University and holds both the Certified Management Accountant (CMA) and Certified in Financial Management (CFM) designations, as well as an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership from Duke University.
We’re delighted to have Calvin and Mark’s dynamic leadership in these critical new roles at MDC.
