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Monica Basu has been with the George Kaiser Family Foundation since 2007 serving as program manager for community health, higher education and various other initiatives. She joined GKFF after twenty years in the private sector where she held management positions in the financial services and telecommunications industries. Basu holds a Master of Business Administration from Duke University and a Master of Science in Healthcare Delivery from Dartmouth College. Throughout her career, she has served on nonprofit boards including United Way, Morton Comprehensive Health Center, and the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission. She is a native of India, grew up in four countries, and speaks seven languages.

Karen Days, MBA recently formed the consulting firm, K.S.D. Consulting, LLC. Her firm provides leadership coaching, new leader development, and conflict resolution training, all with an emphasis on advancing diversity and inclusion. Karen previously served in several different roles at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) for over 22 years. In her most recent position as Vice President for Corporate and Community Health Relations at NCH, Karen was responsible for developing and supporting the delivery of corporate and community wellness, prevention, and education efforts. Karen has spoken nationally and internationally on family violence prevention and treatment, and she continues to provide consulting and support to other cities/institutions seeking to initiate and develop similar infrastructure. Days graduated from Ohio State University in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and earned a Master of Business Administration from Ohio Dominican University in April 2009. She is a National Professional Certified Mediator and Mediator Training.

Stephen Powell is the Co-Executive Director of the National CARES Mentoring Movement. He previously served as the Executive Director of Mentoring USA. Powell’s commentaries on leadership, organizational strategy and mentoring can be found in the New York Times, Huffington Post, Black Enterprise, the Costco Connection and other national publications. Some of his most notable honors include GQ Magazine’s Movado Leader Award, Black Enterprise Magazine’s 100 Modern Men of Distinction, and a White House “Champion of Change Following in the Footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”. Powell is an alumnus of the Institute for Non-profit Management program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business and Howard University.

David W. Willis, MD, FAAP serves as a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Social Policy and a national expert in pediatrics, early childhood systems, early relational health, and early childhood mental health. Prior to coming to CSSP, Dr. Willis served as the Inaugural Executive Director of the Perigee Fund in Seattle, the Division Director of Home Visiting and Early Childhood Systems in HRSA under the Obama administration, an early brain and child development pediatric leader in Oregon and AAP, and a 30+ year developmental-behavioral pediatric clinician in Portland, Oregon. He received his Doctor of Medicine from Thomas Jefferson University.