CALVIN STOVALL, DR. MARGARET LARKINS-PETTIGREW, EVAN FRAZIER (PHOTOS BY BRIAN COOK SR.)
21 new cohort members in the 2024 graduating class
The Advanced Leadership Institute is a machine.
Year after year, TALI, as it’s known, is pumping out the future Black CEOs and other C-Suite Level executives, especially in a region where top Black executives of companies are hard to find.
On July 19, TALI and its academic partner, the famed Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business, celebrated its latest graduates of its “Executive Leadership Academy,” 21 distinguished individuals, at an event on the CMU campus. The Executive Leadership Academy is an executive education program uniquely designed to address the challenges faced by Black professionals and help senior-level managers and executives advance in their careers, according to a TALI news release.
This year’s ELA graduates are: John (Mamadou) Bah, Procurement Global Finance Director, PPG; Godfrey Bethea, Vice President of Equity, People, and Culture, Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank; Lyasha Bishop-Gaines, Executive Director, The Early Excellence Project; Donminika Brown, Chief Financial Officer, Pittsburgh Regional Transit; Brandon Grinage, SVP Regional Manager, PNC; Donny Hamilton, Gateway Project Manager, Federal Railroad Administration; Alyssa Ford Heywood, Director, Performance Management, Pittsburgh Public Schools; Joyce Howard, Business Development Manager, Innovation Works; Jason Jones, Vice President of Community Development, Dollar Bank; Rick Mason, Executive Director, The Pittsburgh Project; Danielle Mundekis, Director of Inclusion, Eckert Seamans; Michael Nelson, Senior Manager of Corporate Security, Duquesne Light Company; Onome Oghifobibi, Assistant Professor and Director of Community Engagement, Division of Newborn Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; J. Nicole Rhodes, Associate Legal Counsel, University of Pittsburgh; Kelly Russell, Assistant Director/Labor Compliance Officer, City of Pittsburgh; Tammy Sadler, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Program Manager, Highmark Health/AHN; Tiffinnie Severin, Director, Enterprise Strategy, Highmark; LaShana Stokes, Chief of Staff, UPMC; Rachel Williams, Director, Content Program Management, Duolingo; Shani Yeldell, Community Relations Manager—Mentorship Academy, CNX; and Michael Young, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Associate Professor of Mathematical Science, Carnegie Mellon University.
THE TALI ELA COHORT FOR 2024—LEFT-RIGHT BACK ROW: MICHAEL YOUNG, RACHEL WILLIAMS, GODFREY BETHEA, KELLY RUSSELL, RODERICK MASON, JOHN BAH, TAMMY SADLER, J. NICOLE RHODES, TIFFINNIE SEVERIN, JASON JONES, ALYSSA FORD HEYWOOD, SHANI YELDELL AND JOYCE HOWARD. LEFT-RIGHT FRONT ROW: DONNY HAMILTON, DONMINIKA BROWN, BRANDON GRINAGE, LYASHA BISHOP-GAINES, LASHANA STOKES, ONOME OGHIFOBIBI, DANIELLE MUNDEKIS AND MICHAEL NELSON. (PHOTO BY BRIAN COOK SR.)
This brings the number of Black professionals who have graduated from the Executive Leadership Academy to more than 130, since the first cohort graduated in 2019. And this doesn’t count a National Executive Leadership Academy that had its own set of graduates in 2023. And it doesn’t count the dozens of people who have graduated from TALI’s new Emerging Leaders Program, which focuses on Black professionals who are at earlier stages in their careers. Evan Frazier, the founder of TALI and its current president and CEO, said the ELA graduates almost always receive promotions or significant additional responsibilities, making the ELA program well worth it.
DONMINIKA BROWN
“I continue to be amazed by the exceptional leaders who have come through the Executive Leadership Academy, and this year is no exception,” Frazier said in a TALI news release. “I am extremely impressed by this year’s graduates, and I look forward to watching them continue doing great things to enhance Pittsburgh’s corporate and civic communities.”
LASHANA STOKES
Individuals who want to become part of an ELA cohort are usually mid-to-senior level executives at a local company, who are then “sponsored” by that company to participate in the six-to-seven-month training/mentorship program. The cohort meets for two days each month.
RACHEL WILLIAMS
Among those who spoke at the July 19 graduation was 2024 cohort member Rachel Williams, who learned about the program through a co-worker, Kendra Ross, Duolingo’s Head of Social Impact. Williams, Duolingo’s Director, Content Program Management, went for it.
But then again, why wouldn’t Williams go for it? The California native starred on Stanford University’s women’s volleyball team, then played volleyball professionally before getting into the tech world professionally. She came to Pittsburgh from New York. She was up for the Executive Leadership Academy challenge, with a group of people she had never met before.
“None. I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t even know this thing existed,” Williams told the New Pittsburgh Courier in an exclusive interview, Aug. 23.
She called the experience “incredible.” Williams said it felt like the cohort had become “teammates” over the course of the program. In her speech at the graduation, she was brought to tears as she discussed her experience. One day, she would be leading her team at Duolingo; the next morning, she would be at Carnegie Mellon University, surrounded by people like her executive coach, Robert Powell, and other professionals and cohort members. “Seeing everybody in that room, bringing their experience and ambition and hope and optimism…was just incredible,” Williams told the Courier.
She added: “It was so wonderful and fulfilling for me to know that I’ve got this group of people that I didn’t know at all before, and now I’m pretty close with.”
Williams called the overall bonding of the group, with the speakers, professors and the executive coaches, together in concert, “really powerful and something I’m going to treasure for a very long time.”
About Post Author
