By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
The National Council of Negro Women, Inc. (NCNW) said that Shavon Arline-Bradley would be the first president and CEO of the organization.
After 88 years, the organization said it has changed its governance structure to work more efficiently.
Dr. A. Lois Keith, the new board chair of NCNW, said, “We’re excited to have Shavon as our new president and CEO.”
“She is an extraordinary communicator, and her expertise in the areas of public health and social justice is impressive.”
Keith predicted that Arline-Bradley would do better than expected because “these are the areas in which NCNW would like to continue, as we bridge the generational gap.”
Arline-Bradley is an ordained minister with 21 years of experience in healthcare, equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), government affairs, and executive leadership.
She’s the founder and CEO of R.E.A.C.H. Beyond Solutions, a public health, advocacy, and executive leadership firm that promotes EDI, political and organizational strategy, risk management, government affairs, and technical assistance.
Under her direction, the firm’s gross profit grew exponentially in 5 years by broadening its client base to include federal government, foundation, corporate, non-profit, and political candidate entities in the United States and Netherlands.
Before she started her firm, she worked as a senior advisor and director of external engagement in the Obama Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services for the 19th U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy.
In a press release, the organization said that Arline-Bradley co-founded The Health Equity Cypher Group because she wanted to advance EDI and improve the health and social outcomes of the most vulnerable people.
That group is made up of health leaders who work to advance EDI and executive leadership in all sectors, officials stated.
As president and chairman of Delta for Women in Action, a 501(c)4 organization, Arline-Bradley works as a community advocate.
Arline-Bradley is also a member of the advisory board for the Oprah Winfrey Network initiative “OWN Your Health.”
She is also a member of the American Public Health Association, Links, Inc., and Jack & Jill of America, Inc., all of which she remains involved with.
A southern New Jersey native, Arline-Bradley attended Tulane University where she received a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in public health.
Later, she earned a Master of Divinity from Virginia Union University’s Samuel Dewitt Proctor School of Theology and became a minister.
Additionally, Arline-Bradley obtained an Executive Certificate in Business Management from Howard University and an Executive Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University. “This is an exciting time for NCNW. Shavon is a person of vision, with tremendous ideas, a broad outreach, and a flawless work record that will be recognized for years to come,” said Dr. Thelma T. Daley, NCNW immediate past president and chair, the last individuals to hold the combined position in the organization’s history.
At the 60th Biennial National Convention of the NCNW, which was held in December 2022, officials said that Daley “skillfully led the assembled delegates in passing the bylaws to allow the organization founded in 1935 to be restructured.”
In a news release, officials said, “This is the first time NCNW has designated separate leadership roles electing a board chair and hiring a president/CEO serving in a salaried position.”
Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole suggested a new structure for NCNW where the chair would oversee bringing the board together to do its work, which will be focused on governance and making big decisions “to set a tone for carrying out the vision and mission of NCNW.”
“With this structure, NCNW will be an even better civil rights and women’s rights group,” Cole said in the press release.
“We are in an intensely difficult time in our country. A time when there are constant challenges to the fundamental rights of women, people of color, and all marginalized communities.”
She went on to say, “At such a time as this, a deeply challenging time such as this, NCNW is so fortunate to have Shavon Arline-Bradley as our president and CEO; for she is a deeply admired and an effective leader in our on-going struggle for justice and equity.”
Arline-Bradley is scheduled to begin her new job in March.
“It is just very exciting, very exciting that a person under 50 is coming in to lead the organization, communicating to the public that NCNW is moving into the 21st century,” Daley added.
“NCNW is vital. NCNW is up to date. No one is cast aside. All will work together as a unit for justice the way Dr. Bethune and Dr. Height would have like to bring us together. The idea of leaving no one behind.”
