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Shawn Dove’s leadership mission mantra is “there is no cavalry coming to save the day in our communities. We are the iconic leaders that we have been waiting for; curators of the change we are seeking to see.” He has almost four decades of cross-sector leadership in the fields of youth development, community-building, philanthropy, arts education, leadership development and media literacy. He currently serves as the founder of the Corporation for Black Male Achievement, a consulting and publishing firm that produces community-building engagements and multi-media stories of loving, learning and leading by and for Black men and boys. Shawn is the co-author of I Too Am America: On Loving and Leading Black Men & Boys (January 2022), equal parts memoir, historical account of CBMA and a curated manifesto of various voices in the Black Male Achievement movement.
Most recently, Shawn served as the CEO of the Campaign for Black Male Achievement (CBMA), a national intermediary membership organization committed to ensuring the growth, impact and sustainability of leaders and organizations committed to improving the life outcomes for Black men and boys. Launched in 2008 at the Open Society Foundations (OSF) and spinning off into an independent entity in 2015, under Dove’s leadership CBMA leveraged more than $212 million in national and local funds, while connecting thousands of leaders and organizations on behalf of an emerging field of Black Male Achievement.
Among Shawn’s key accomplishments during his tenure with CBMA were supporting the launch of President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Initiative; brokering a pioneering partnership between OSF, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the City of New York to launch the NYC Young Men’s Initiative; serving as a lead organizer of the launch of the Executives’ Alliance to Expand Opportunities for Boys & Young Men of Color, leveraging seed investments for BMA organizations and initiatives including Cities United, Echoing Green’s BMA Fellowship, Oakland Unified School District’s Office for African American Male Achievement, to name a few.
During his career journey, Shawn served for a decade as Program Director of the Harlem Children Zone’s Countee Cullen Community Center, one of NYC’s first 10 Beacon Schools, where he helped spearhead the launch of HCZ’s Fitness & Nutrition Center. Dove also served as Executive Director of The DOME Project; Director of Youth Ministries for First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, NJ; Creative Communities Director for the National Guild for Community Schools of the Arts; and Vice President of MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership.
Shawn has a long-time commitment to multi-media and narrative change efforts that amplify the voices and stories of Black people and their communities, including launching Harlem Overheard, an award-winning youth-produced newspaper at HCZ, serving as the founding publisher of Proud Poppa, a newsmagazine devoted to elevating asset-based stories about Black fathers; investing in people of color-led media companies and productions, as well as funding and publishing numerous research reports to advance the BMA field.
As a result of his catalytic leadership, Shawn has been recognized with numerous awards, including the key to the City of Louisville, Black Enterprise’s inaugural 2017 “BE Modern Man of the Year,” and Ebony Magazine’s Power 100 in 2016. Dove is also a recipient of the Charles H. Revson Fellowship at Columbia University and was awarded a 2014 Prime Movers Fellowship for social impact leaders.
Dove earned a BA in English from Wesleyan University and is a graduate of Columbia University Business School's Institute for Not-for-Profit Management. He currently lives in New Jersey with his wonderful wife and four amazing children.
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