Velynn Brown serves as the Chief Director of Programs and Operations. In this role, Velynn directs our First 1,000 Days programs, including Together We Can Home Visiting and Sacred Roots Doula and Lactation Program. Velynn also works in collaboratively with the BPI Data and Program Evaluator, Community Outreach and Resource Manager, and Parent Engagement and Advocacy Program Director to ensure program success, and continuous improvement.

 

With over 20 years of non-profit experience, Velynn brings passion and expertise in mobilizing nonprofit startups, innovative program management and enrichment to culturally specific community engagement. Understanding the unique challenges and constraints facing underserved and underrepresented Black families in Oregon, Velynn centers her work in elevating, equipping and empowering her peers, staff and community.

 

Velynn is a nationally recognized facilitator, mediator, speaker and consultant specializing in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) work, Anti-Blackness and BI-POC Affinity and Healing Transformation. She has worked extensively with corporations, educational institutions, non-profit and faith-based organizations. Velynn serves on the Board for Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon and World Stage Theatre.

 

Velynn loves the smell of fresh rain, the joy found in Gospel music and cooking big meals for Brown Sugar Inc (her cherished family) and quality time with her Sistah-girlfriends. In her spare time if she is not traveling, speaking or spending time with others-you find her sketching poems on napkins or curled up reading her newest Black Girl Magic author crush.

 

“Caring for myself (ourselves) is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” -Audre Lorde