WID February Breakfast: Diversifying Staff and Board Leadership: What does it take to succeed?

Kelli Doss (moderator)

Chief Talent & Equity Officer, iMentor

Kelli Doss, a talent specialist and a professional coach, has spent her career focused on serving youth, communities, and urban education systems in Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., and New York City.  She received her undergraduate degree from Howard University and her J.D. from Tulane Law School. Following law school, Kelli worked as a law clerk for two years in Minneapolis, where she focused on tackling critical community issues. She launched her non-profit career with the Children's Defense Fund and developed and managed youth programs for the National Black Child Development Institute and the Harlem Community Justice Center.  Kelli then honed her skills in recruitment and selection, human resources, and partnership development in education organizations including New Leaders for New Schools and the NYC Department of Education.  Kelli served as Managing Director of the New York/New Jersey office and then Vice President of Human Assets for Education Pioneers. In her current role as Chief Talent & Equity Officer for iMentor, Kelli develops key organizational strategy focusing on performance management, internal talent recruitment, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and organizational culture building.  In her executive coaching practice, Kelli leverages her professional experiences to help individuals refine and develop their executive leadership competencies and management practices, and senior leadership teams optimize their communication practices, improve interpersonal dynamics & build inter-relational trust.

Erica Hamilton

Principal, Arbor Brothers

Erica Hamilton is a passionate tri-sector executive with over two decades of experience serving as a Founder, CEO and Strategist in the non-profit, private and academic sectors. Erica currently serves as: a Founder and CEO of the Women’s Leadership Council, a Principal at Arbor Brothers and a faculty member at the NYU Steinhardt School and the Institute for Nonprofit Practice. Erica currently serves on the Board of Directors for Arbor Brothers and is also a member of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation Advisory Council. In addition, Erica also devotes time to consulting with CEO and senior leaders in the nonprofit sector to support projects that focus on her passion for advancing the areas of human development, leadership and DEI initiatives.

Erica has spent over two decades working in the private, non-profit and academic sectors creating strategies, leading teams and implementing programs in the US and abroad. During her time in the private sector, Erica spent nearly a decade as a senior leader at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. In addition, Erica has spent over a decade leading large teams and designing and managing educational, professional and leadership development programs at several social enterprises including: City Year New York, Prep for Prep, Sponsors for

Educational Opportunity and iMentor.

Erica received her M.B.A from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, her M.P.A from the NYU Wagner Graduate School and her B.A. from Harvard. Erica resides in Brooklyn where she and her husband are raising their two beautiful children.

Maybel Marte

Managing Director, BlackRock 

Board of Directors, SEO

Maybel Marte, Managing Director, is Head of US Leveraged Finance Product Strategy within BlackRock’s Global Credit Group.  As a product strategist, Ms. Marte focuses on developing credit solutions for institutional and retail clients, across BlackRock’s Bank Loans, High Yield and CLO offerings.  In this role, she is responsible for product development, marketing and client service.

Prior to joining BlackRock in September 2017, Ms. Marte was a Senior Vice President at PIMCO in the US Institutional Client Management group. While at PIMCO from 2010 to 2016, Ms, Marte was responsible for servicing and marketing to large corporations, multi-national agencies and non-profit organizations. As a client strategist, Ms. Marte focused on delivering customized investment solutions to institutional clients, including duration overlays/underlays, asset allocation optimization, interest rates and equity-based tail-risk hedging programs, and multi-asset credit solutions.

Prior to joining PIMCO in early 2010, Ms. Marte held positions in fixed income institutional sales for nearly 10-years, over 8-years of which were spent at Goldman Sachs on the High Yield-Distressed Bond desk.

Ms. Marte received her Masters of Business Administration from The Wharton School and Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Wellesley College.  Lastly, Ms. Marte proudly serves on the Board of Directors of SEO.  She was awarded a number of academic scholarships for her graduate and undergraduate studies, most notably the Robert A. Toigo Graduate Fellowship and Andrew Mellon Undergraduate Fellowship.

She has served on the Board of Directors of SEO (Seizing Every Opportunity) for over 20 years; currently as the Chairperson of the Scholars Program Committee. Her civic contributions are focused on closing the academic achievement gap for NYC public high school students. In her free time, Maybel enjoys attending Yankees games, trying a new recipe and spending time with her two children.

Marissa Martin

Executive Director, Advocacy Institute

Marissa Martin is the Executive Director of the Advocacy Institute, an organization dedicated to transforming the legislative landscape for justice and dignity. Prior to joining the Advocacy Institute, she served as the Northeast Director of Young Invincibles, leading policy and advocacy efforts around higher education, workforce development and healthcare for young adults.

Marissa has always had a passion for social justice and making larger systemic change to increase access and equity, holding several leadership positions overseeing Policy, Operations and Data teams. These positions include serving as the Senior Advisor for Strategic Initiatives at the NYC Public Engagement Unit; the Director of Policy and Government Relations at ExpandED Schools (formerly TASC); as well as the Director of Government Affairs for the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families where she led CACF’s New York State and City budget advocacy campaigns.

For over 10 years, Marissa has worked as an adoptee advocate working to strengthen the community and voice of the adoptee community. Marissa served as Assistant Director of Holt Heritage Camp and Co-Director of the Korean Identity Development Camp and served on the board of All Together Now, a support organization for adoptive families providing supportive programming for young adoptees while facilitating conversations with adopted parents. Marissa is also the former president and current advisory board member of Also-Known-As, Inc., a volunteer non-profit organization dedicated to creating innovative educational programs and community building activities for those on their adoption life journey. 

Marissa is a Licensed Social Worker (LMSW) and holds a Masters in Social Work from Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, with concentrations in Community Organizing, Planning and Development.