Welcome to the new members of the MDC team!

Andrea Halsey

Andrea Halsey is the accounting coordinator at MDC. She is a seasoned professional with a degree in Business Administration and Finance from North Carolina Central University. Born and raised in Charlotte, NC, and now residing in Spring Lake, NC, Andrea brings expertise in real estate and financial management. She is passionate about helping individuals achieve their goals and has a proven track record in leadership and client-focused solutions. Outside of work, Andrea dedicates her time to mentoring and coaching young girls, reflecting her commitment to empowering future generations.

Cate Elander

Cate Elander is the Director of State of the South. In collaboration with MDC staff and partners across the South, she brings together artists, community members, and policymakers to build relationships and share what’s working and not working in their communities. She curates storytelling and arts-centered experiences that lead to collaboration around the policy, systems, and narrative changes that lead to a thriving South. As a quilter and print maker, she believes deeply in the power of art to bring people together and spark change.

Cate is returning to MDC after serving as Durham County Government’s first Early Childhood Coordinator, where she focused on aligning the County’s approach to early childhood policy and investment birth-to-eight and strengthening County collaboration with early childhood systems building efforts. In her previous role at MDC, she provided strategic guidance and implementation support to philanthropic initiatives focused on early childhood systems change, family economic security, and educational equity in North Carolina.

Earlier in her career, her experience with community outreach, organizing, and home visiting at community-based organizations in the South and mid-Atlantic strengthened her commitments to community co-design, power sharing, and racial and economic justice. Cate has a BA in American Studies with a minor in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MA in Urban Affairs and Public Policy with a specialization in Community Development from the University of Delaware. Born and raised in Virginia and North Carolina, Cate lives in Durham, NC with her family.

Jenna Bryant

Jenna is the Senior Program Director of Economic Security and Mobility at MDC, where she leads initiatives to develop equitable workforce and economic mobility strategies, improve access to economic supports, and work, and foster collaborative approaches that create pathways to prosperity for low- and moderate-income individuals and families. Her leadership emphasizes using data-driven solutions and community-centered engagement to tackle systemic barriers and support innovative regional strategies.

Previously, Jenna served as the Digital Inclusion and Equity Community Engagement Manager for the City of Durham, where she championed efforts to bridge the digital divide by leveraging data and empowering underserved communities with equitable access to technology and resources essential for modern economic participation.

From 2011 to 2022, Jenna held multiple roles at MDC, including Program Director, where she guided communities in aligning educational programs with employer needs to enhance outcomes for job seekers and businesses. Her work with community colleges resulted in the design and implementation of strategies and support services that promote financial security for lower-income students. She also co-authored a guidebook about how to scale these strategies and built a network of community-based organizations and educational institutions to address systemic barriers, including inequitable health outcomes in rural areas. Recognized for her impact, Jenna was appointed in 2017 as a Trustee for Durham Technical Community College, where she serves on committees focused on policies, leadership, and student success.

Jenna holds a bachelor’s degree in international business with a concentration in Finance from Howard University and a master’s degree in economics from North Carolina State University. She is also an active board member for the Camber Foundation and Durham Tech Properties, LLC, demonstrating her commitment to fostering equity and opportunity in education and workforce systems.

Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn

Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn, Ed.D. is the Senior Program Director for Educational Equity, supporting communities to improve educational systems and increase equitable outcomes. The educational equity team leads initiatives that support thriving from the earliest years of life, including Great Expectations, Learning for Equity: A Network for Solutions, and the NC Home-Based Childcare Initiative.

Sarah-SoonLing was born in Bangkok, Thailand into a mixed-race Malaysian Chinese and white American family. A classic “third culture kid,” she grew up moving between various East and Southeast Asian countries and the Washington DC area. Sarah-SoonLing moved to the Deep South in 2009, and she has now lived there longer than anywhere else. Her experiences first as a classroom teacher and later as a teacher educator inform her beliefs about the role that education can and must play in the realization of social justice.

Sarah-SoonLing taught third and fourth grade in Arkansas and Mississippi. In 2011 she was Teacher of the Year at Lakeside Upper Elementary School. Sarah-SoonLing has also worked as a trainer of teachers, a classroom culture specialist, and in various education nonprofit roles. Prior to joining MDC, she was the Deputy Director for Learning and Engagement at Learning for Justice, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Sarah has a B.A. from Haverford College, an M.A. in Social Justice and Education from University College London’s Institute of Education, and an Ed.D. from Johns Hopkins University. She lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

Zulayka Santiago

Zulayka Santiago is the Senior Program Director for Leadership and Philanthropy. In this role, Zulayka focuses on the work of developing collaborative, human-focused solutions to achieve systemic equity and build community. Zulayka forms part of a collaborative team that drives three significant initiatives to further this work within MDC: Equity Centered Philanthropy, Launch Carolinas, and Fellowship Programs including the Autry Fellowship. In this role Zulayka also oversees the delivery of MDC’s State of the South programming and the social entrepreneurship program, Race Matters Institute at MDC.

After over 25 years of working for institutions large and small, Zulayka has become well-versed at serving as liaison across culture, class, generation and political beliefs. She brings first-hand experience working in the public, private, philanthropic, nonprofit and cooperative sectors. Her commitment is to earth-rooted, heart-centered presence for the sake of her own freedom and our collective liberation.

Zulayka obtained a Master of Public Administration Degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Certificate in Nonprofit Management. Her undergraduate degree is in Pan-African Studies from Barnard College, Columbia University. She is a Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity. She was also part of the 06-08 William C. Friday Fellowship for Human Relations through the Wildacres Leadership Initiative. Zulayka serves as co-chair of the Board of Directors for NC Environmental Justice Network and co-chair of the Governance Team for Change Elemental.