REAL TALK: A Speaker Series for Women of Color in the Nonprofit Sector
About the program
This four-session speaker series is designed to support women of color in the nonprofit sector. While every person has their own experiences, challenges, and successes, this speaker series is informed by common threads that have resonated with many women of color.
Meet the people leading the conversation
Giovianna Burrell
Giovianna Burrell
Giovianna Burrell (she/her) is committed to the work of education and healing with their ability to create authentic change. She has a Bachelor of Science in Family/Child Studies with a Minor in Dance. In 2019, she received her Masters of Art in Educational Leadership, Policy & Administration where she wrote her thesis on the mental health impacts of the education system on Black women and girls and it’s false promises of “liberation”. Both degrees are from the University of New Mexico. Giovianna has worked in the field of education for over 10 years in various settings from public/community schools to non-profit. Giovianna’s work in education includes developing and managing educational programming for youth, teens, young adults, and in her previous role with adults as she was appointed to the City of Albuquerque Office of Equity & Inclusion as the first Culture Change Leader. She has recently transitioned to the Public Health Institute (based in Oakland, CA) as a Program Manager (Co-Lead) developing & implementing racial equity, anti-racism, and social justice curriculum for the Capitol Collaborative for Race & Equity (CCORE) that is a learning and capacity building program for California state employees. In August 2023, she visioned & launched a healing learning cohort for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color state employees and community members in California called the
CCORE Transformative Leadership Cohort. Although, her work is based in California now, she is still lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico which she has been for the past 15 years. She also created and facilitated many meaningful workshop spaces to critically dialogue about race, gender, intersectionality, and other social justice topics. Supporting Black, Indigenous folx and communities of color to reach their greatest potential through education, embodiment, and healing is where her passion lies in this work. Through her consulting business Saff’s Sanctuary LLC she is actualizing this passion.
Madalena Salazar
Madalena Salazar
Madalena Salazar is a creative focused on issues of cultural equity with extensive experience as a nonprofit administrator and consultant, educator/facilitator, organizer, and cultural producer. Currently, she serves as the Executive Director for Working Classroom, the Principal of 3rd Space Vision LLC. She values engaging creatively as one’s whole self, collaboratively, and intersectionally across generations, in relationship. Madalena is a Chicana with deep roots in the land known as New Mexico and was born, raised, and resides in Tiwa territory aka Albuquerque, New Mexico (after returning from several impactful years in Denver, CO). She is a daughter, wife, sister, auntie, maestra, matriarch, and mother of 3 awesome young people. She loves music, cooking (and eating), nature, traveling, reading/learning, gardening, and the healing arts (including curanderismo, tarot, and Reiki). Madalena received a B.A. in Anthropology, and an M.A. in Art History from the University of New Mexico.
Marisa Page
Marisa Page
Marisa Page is an enrolled citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and descends from the Ponca and Comanche Nation. Marisa was born and raised in Albuquerque, NM and currently resides in Rio Rancho, NM with her family. Ms. Page’s education includes - Master of Legal Studies with a focus in Indigenous Peoples Law from the University of Oklahoma, Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with a minor in Psychology from the University of New Mexico, and two Associates of Arts from Central New Mexico Community College. She is a current candidate for 2024 cohort for the Native American Studies, PhD. program at the University of New Mexico. For more than 20 years, Marisa has worked and advocated for Indigenous peoples throughout the world. She has been a fundraiser working with major gifts, planned giving, and grant writing; managed a pre-college education department; guest lectured at various universities; and participated in community organizing. BIPOC-led organizations she has worked for include - First Nations Development Institute, New Mexico Environmental Law Center, Native Community Development Associates, Americans for Indian Opportunity, Campo Band of Kumeyaay, and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. Ms. Page is currently the Executive Director for the Pawnee Evening Star Fund, a tribal 501c3.
Phoenix Savage
Phoenix Savage
Phoenix Savage recently retired from Tougaloo College where she was an Associate Professor of Art and has relocated to Santa Fe, where she operates a small but highly successful grants management service for nonprofits. In addition to maintaining a studio practice as a sculptor, Savage directs the Santa Fe Community Yoga Center’s Yoga in Prison Project, now in its second year.
Savage received a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Georgia State University and holds two additional graduate-level degrees: Medical Anthropology from the University of Mississippi, and Art History from Northwestern State University. Savage received her undergraduate degree in Photography from Mississippi Valley State University, as well as having a degree in Advertising Design from the Art Institute of Philadelphia.
She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships. She has received the Scholar-in-Residence award from New York University on three separate occasions for her research on Euphemia Toussaint, a Haitian American who left behind the only child’s perspective of 19th-century New York City.
Savage received the 2019 Humanities Council of Mississippi Teacher of the Year Award. In 2012 Savage was awarded the Being Humans Fellowship from the Institute of Arts and Humanities at Penn State University where she inaugurated the Human Touch Project. The United States’ State Department awarded Savage a Fulbright Fellowship in 2011 where she spent a year in Nigeria conducting research on the Yoruba concept of Ori, (human head) while also investigating metal casting in the ancient city of Ile-Ife. Savage also taught at Obafemi Awolowo University during her time in Nigeria. Savage maintains her relationship with Africa as Chief Yeye Olomo Osara of Ile-Ife, Nigeria where she is a contributing member of the Osara community. Here in the United States, Savage maintains her devotion to Osara, serving as psychic medium channeling Osara, the maternal essence of water.
Savage is widely known for her cultural writings: Peju’s Indigo appearing in the art catalog for the exhibition Peju Layiwola, Indigo Reimagined; University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria, 2019 and I Declare for the works of Tina M. Dunkley, Sanctuary for the Internal Enemy: An Ancestral Odyssey published by Wilmer Jennings Gallery of Kenkeleba House, New York, NY. Other works by Savage have appeared in the Encyclopedia of Slavery and Resistance, the Encyclopedia of the Blues, and the Encyclopedia of Mississippi. Savage has published two books: African Americans of Jackson, 2009 and African Americans of New Orleans, 2010, featuring community histories of two iconic cities in America.
In addition to her scholarship Savage maintains a strong record of national exhibits and art residencies. In 2022 Savage was the recipient of the REVOLUTION Artist in Residency with the Santa Fe Art Institute.
Yolanda Cruz
Santa Fe Community Foundation
Yolanda Cruz
Yolanda Cruz grew up in Gallup, NM and spent most of her school holidays visiting grandparents in the Mora valley or traveling with her father, who was a long-haul trucker. Racial equity and social justice have been the lens she has used to look at the world since childhood.
As a young adult Yolanda’s goal was to become a CPA and her education was focused on accounting. Life led her on a different path, and she became involved in advocacy, program planning and design, and grant-writing to support initiatives in the rural area where she lives. Yolanda has worked in the nonprofit sector, building coalitions and leading organizations. Equity continues to be an integrated focus in her work. This is her 2nd time at the Santa Fe Community Foundation, having worked here with the NM Health Equity Partnership as the Health Councils Coordinator.
In her free time, Yolanda enjoys spending time with her grandchildren and watching the wildlife around her home.
Meet the people leading the conversation
Meet the people leading the conversation
Giovianna Burrell
Giovianna Burrell
Giovianna Burrell (she/her) is committed to the work of education and healing with their ability to create authentic change. She has a Bachelor of Science in Family/Child Studies with a Minor in Dance. In 2019, she received her Masters of Art in Educational Leadership, Policy & Administration where she wrote her thesis on the mental health impacts of the education system on Black women and girls and it’s false promises of “liberation”. Both degrees are from the University of New Mexico. Giovianna has worked in the field of education for over 10 years in various settings from public/community schools to non-profit. Giovianna’s work in education includes developing and managing educational programming for youth, teens, young adults, and in her previous role with adults as she was appointed to the City of Albuquerque Office of Equity & Inclusion as the first Culture Change Leader. She has recently transitioned to the Public Health Institute (based in Oakland, CA) as a Program Manager (Co-Lead) developing & implementing racial equity, anti-racism, and social justice curriculum for the Capitol Collaborative for Race & Equity (CCORE) that is a learning and capacity building program for California state employees. In August 2023, she visioned & launched a healing learning cohort for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color state employees and community members in California called the
CCORE Transformative Leadership Cohort. Although, her work is based in California now, she is still lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico which she has been for the past 15 years. She also created and facilitated many meaningful workshop spaces to critically dialogue about race, gender, intersectionality, and other social justice topics. Supporting Black, Indigenous folx and communities of color to reach their greatest potential through education, embodiment, and healing is where her passion lies in this work. Through her consulting business Saff’s Sanctuary LLC she is actualizing this passion.
Madalena Salazar
Madalena Salazar
Madalena Salazar is a creative focused on issues of cultural equity with extensive experience as a nonprofit administrator and consultant, educator/facilitator, organizer, and cultural producer. Currently, she serves as the Executive Director for Working Classroom, the Principal of 3rd Space Vision LLC. She values engaging creatively as one’s whole self, collaboratively, and intersectionally across generations, in relationship. Madalena is a Chicana with deep roots in the land known as New Mexico and was born, raised, and resides in Tiwa territory aka Albuquerque, New Mexico (after returning from several impactful years in Denver, CO). She is a daughter, wife, sister, auntie, maestra, matriarch, and mother of 3 awesome young people. She loves music, cooking (and eating), nature, traveling, reading/learning, gardening, and the healing arts (including curanderismo, tarot, and Reiki). Madalena received a B.A. in Anthropology, and an M.A. in Art History from the University of New Mexico.
Marisa Page
Marisa Page
Marisa Page is an enrolled citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and descends from the Ponca and Comanche Nation. Marisa was born and raised in Albuquerque, NM and currently resides in Rio Rancho, NM with her family. Ms. Page’s education includes - Master of Legal Studies with a focus in Indigenous Peoples Law from the University of Oklahoma, Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with a minor in Psychology from the University of New Mexico, and two Associates of Arts from Central New Mexico Community College. She is a current candidate for 2024 cohort for the Native American Studies, PhD. program at the University of New Mexico. For more than 20 years, Marisa has worked and advocated for Indigenous peoples throughout the world. She has been a fundraiser working with major gifts, planned giving, and grant writing; managed a pre-college education department; guest lectured at various universities; and participated in community organizing. BIPOC-led organizations she has worked for include - First Nations Development Institute, New Mexico Environmental Law Center, Native Community Development Associates, Americans for Indian Opportunity, Campo Band of Kumeyaay, and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. Ms. Page is currently the Executive Director for the Pawnee Evening Star Fund, a tribal 501c3.
Phoenix Savage
Phoenix Savage
Phoenix Savage recently retired from Tougaloo College where she was an Associate Professor of Art and has relocated to Santa Fe, where she operates a small but highly successful grants management service for nonprofits. In addition to maintaining a studio practice as a sculptor, Savage directs the Santa Fe Community Yoga Center’s Yoga in Prison Project, now in its second year.
Savage received a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Georgia State University and holds two additional graduate-level degrees: Medical Anthropology from the University of Mississippi, and Art History from Northwestern State University. Savage received her undergraduate degree in Photography from Mississippi Valley State University, as well as having a degree in Advertising Design from the Art Institute of Philadelphia.
She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships. She has received the Scholar-in-Residence award from New York University on three separate occasions for her research on Euphemia Toussaint, a Haitian American who left behind the only child’s perspective of 19th-century New York City.
Savage received the 2019 Humanities Council of Mississippi Teacher of the Year Award. In 2012 Savage was awarded the Being Humans Fellowship from the Institute of Arts and Humanities at Penn State University where she inaugurated the Human Touch Project. The United States’ State Department awarded Savage a Fulbright Fellowship in 2011 where she spent a year in Nigeria conducting research on the Yoruba concept of Ori, (human head) while also investigating metal casting in the ancient city of Ile-Ife. Savage also taught at Obafemi Awolowo University during her time in Nigeria. Savage maintains her relationship with Africa as Chief Yeye Olomo Osara of Ile-Ife, Nigeria where she is a contributing member of the Osara community. Here in the United States, Savage maintains her devotion to Osara, serving as psychic medium channeling Osara, the maternal essence of water.
Savage is widely known for her cultural writings: Peju’s Indigo appearing in the art catalog for the exhibition Peju Layiwola, Indigo Reimagined; University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria, 2019 and I Declare for the works of Tina M. Dunkley, Sanctuary for the Internal Enemy: An Ancestral Odyssey published by Wilmer Jennings Gallery of Kenkeleba House, New York, NY. Other works by Savage have appeared in the Encyclopedia of Slavery and Resistance, the Encyclopedia of the Blues, and the Encyclopedia of Mississippi. Savage has published two books: African Americans of Jackson, 2009 and African Americans of New Orleans, 2010, featuring community histories of two iconic cities in America.
In addition to her scholarship Savage maintains a strong record of national exhibits and art residencies. In 2022 Savage was the recipient of the REVOLUTION Artist in Residency with the Santa Fe Art Institute.
Yolanda Cruz
Santa Fe Community Foundation
Yolanda Cruz
Yolanda Cruz grew up in Gallup, NM and spent most of her school holidays visiting grandparents in the Mora valley or traveling with her father, who was a long-haul trucker. Racial equity and social justice have been the lens she has used to look at the world since childhood.
As a young adult Yolanda’s goal was to become a CPA and her education was focused on accounting. Life led her on a different path, and she became involved in advocacy, program planning and design, and grant-writing to support initiatives in the rural area where she lives. Yolanda has worked in the nonprofit sector, building coalitions and leading organizations. Equity continues to be an integrated focus in her work. This is her 2nd time at the Santa Fe Community Foundation, having worked here with the NM Health Equity Partnership as the Health Councils Coordinator.
In her free time, Yolanda enjoys spending time with her grandchildren and watching the wildlife around her home.
Retraining Your Inner Voice
with Phoenix Savage and Yolanda Cruz
Internalized racism, imposter syndrome, and the voices we hear can hold us back in a world that tells us we need to fit into a system that was not built for us. Join us as we examine how the external world shapes our internal thoughts and decision making.
Micro-Aggressions in the Workplace – Disrupting for Impact
with Madalena Salazar
Whether it’s comments or gate-keeping, people of color deal with micro (and not so micro) aggressions in the workplace on a regular basis. This workshop will offer various tools and strategies to help disrupt and get through these occurrences.
Finding Your Cheer Section
with Giovianna Burrell
Building a network by offering and receiving support is a professional lifeline and can help ward off burn out for people of color. Let’s face it, nonprofit work is exhausting itself without adding the issues of inequity. We all have gifts to offer one another. Ask yourself, are you comfortable with receiving? YOU MATTER and you are worthy of support. Receiving support does not make us weaker. For many persons of color, we are told that we need to be stronger, be better, work harder. In reality, we need to be as gentle with ourselves as we are with those, we mentor.
Self-Advocacy and Self-Actualization
with Marisa Page
What is your role in your organization and what is required to keep that position? Do you need to code-switch? Dim your light? Do you feel like you put your own needs last or downplay them? We will examine your goals and dreams to develop an individualized plan and align that with what you are doing now. What might shift for you if you really prioritized yourself? The possibilities are exciting and scary, and you don’t need to leap, just step.
