The Claw (non-profit)

Greg Cumberford, President and Co-Founder, Bent Creek Institute, Inc., is a botanical natural products industry executive. He co-founded Bent Creek Institute in 2006 to grow Western North Carolina’s role as a competitive sourcing region for medicinal plants and value-added botanical products. Prior to joining as BCI’s President in 2011, Mr. Cumberford worked as a senior manager for over 13 years with Gaia Herbs, a leading US grower and manufacturer of botanical extracts. He has BS degree from Stanford University. His avocational interests include natural horsemanship, running, and culinary travel.

Joe-Ann McCoy, PhD, serves as the director of the Bent Creek Germplasm Repository (BCGR) located at the NC Arboretum in Asheville, NC.  Joe-Ann completed her doctoral research in Plant Physiology from Clemson University which focused on the development of seed, rhizome, and in vitro propagation protocols for Actaea racemosa L. (black cohosh)and analysis of associated triterpene glycosides.  Her MS was focused on developing in vitro propagation and optimal HPLC extraction & analytical methods for Hypericum perforatum (St. John’s Wort).  Prior to BCGR she served as medicinal plant curator for the USDA NCRPIS (North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station) and the NIH ISU Center for Research on Dietary Supplements in Ames, IA.  She has worked with various aspects of native and medicinal plant collection, cell culture, propagation, and analytical research for the past 16 years.

BCI’s mission is to grow an economic cluster in WNC rooted in reverence for our region’s unique biodiversity and botanical traditions, and expressed through scientific testing, research, strategic advisory, and horticultural collaborations. BCI helps their partners clear hurdles as they develop new natural products and grow new specialty crops in our region. The Bent Creek Germplasm Repository (BCGR) of The North Carolina Arboretum is North America’s only gene bank dedicated to archiving, conserving, and storing medicinal plants and related endophyte germplasm for medical and horticultural research. Anchored by BCGR’s botanical research and conservation activities, BCI fosters sustainable jobs growth based on validated botanical medicines and integrative healthcare solutions that serve the wellness needs of our region, our state, and our nation.


Ross Perloe CFP®, CLU®, CLTC  moved to the Atlanta area in 1976 after graduating from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Currently residing in Sandy Springs, GA with his wife, Michele, and daughter, Sydney, he began his Financial Services career in 1994.

His passion in business is to help his clients make informed decisions as it relates to their financial planning so as to protect their families and businesses from unnecessary risks.

For over 10 years Ross served as an officer of a large Home Owners Association and currently is the President of the Riverwood High School Foundation.   He can be contacted at 404-252-7965, or the web at www.myltc.com or via email at rperloe@gmail.com

Direct download: 4-22-2013_The_Better_You_Project_Ross_Perloe_Podcast.mp3
Category:Non-Profit -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Byron is the Founder and Executive Director of VISION 9:38. He was born and raised in Cartersville, GA and is 1990 graduate of the University of West Georgia. He is currently pursuing a Masters of Divinity at Reformed Theological Seminary.

Byron has spent 21 years as a missionary to college students on various campuses - ​Alabama State University, Tuskegee University, Morehouse College, Morris Brown College, Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, Huntingdon College, and Auburn University Montgomery. He has raised nearly $2 million in his fund raising efforts over the past 21 years.

Byron is married to Kim for 19 years.  They have five children - Kelsey, James Byron II, Kaitlyn, Jordan, and Jonathan.

Do you know of any African-American missionaries? Statistics tell us that less than 1% of all missionaries are African-American. Why? Have you ever wondered why there are so few African-American missionaries?  There are many challenges that they are facing, but the biggest barrier is funding. How do we overcome this funding difficulty?

VISION 9:38 desires to stand in the gap. VISION 9:38’s committed to empowering and equipping minority missionaries to enable them to labor effectively in the harvest for a lifetime of kingdom impact by providing funding for deserving and qualified minority missionaries, training them in how to raise and maintain funding, and finding innovative fundraising solutions to create a sustainable model.

Direct download: 4-15-2013_The_Better_You_Project_Byron_Johnson_podcast.mp3
Category:Non-Profit -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Tom Scales is Chairman of the Board of Directors and a Co-Founder of The Innocence Revolution.  He previously was the Executive Director of VOICE Today Inc.

Tom is a survivor of child sexual abuse and the author of “Terrible Things Happened to Me: A True Story of Violence and Victory.”

He was the recipient of the 2012 Georgia Author of the Year Award In the category for Inspirational Books presented by the Georgia Writers Association.  He also was the recipient of the 2012 Unsung Hero Award, presented by Save Our Children and Families.

Direct download: 4-15-2013_The_Better_You_Project_Tom_Scales_podcast.mp3
Category:Non-Profit -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Kimberly Sellars-Bates is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. She was born at Grady Memorial Hospital and is a product of the Atlanta Public and Fulton County School systems. Upon graduating from Alabama State University with a B.A. in Psychology in 1990, she returned to her hometown and began working at Spelman College.  It was there where she was introduced to the world of development.

A research and grant writing professional, Kimberly is president of her own development consulting firm, KSTB Enterprises, LLC.  Founded in 2007, KSTB analyzes and implements action plans for all ongoing fundraising initiatives including: individual, corporate, and foundation prospect research, annual fund appeals, grant proposal writing and Board solicitation and training. KSTB also works with the organization’s Program Managers and Board of Directors to ensure successful fundraising efforts including signature fundraisers.  Her company is currently responsible for over $13mill in grants and contracts.

Kimberly is certified by NeighborWorks America, a national nonprofit organization created by Congress to provide financial support, technical assistance, and training for community-based revitalization efforts. She is also a grant reviewer for The Educational Foundation of America and Georgia Department of Education Federal Charter Schools.

Her organizational affiliations include active membership in the Pi Alpha Omega Graduate Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Order of the Eastern Star (Peace Chapter #146), the Metro Atlanta Alabama State University Alumni Association (Secretary), Board Member of the Atlanta Nonprofit Professionals, Association for Professional Researchers in Advancement (APRA), and the Fulton County Task Force for the Aging.  She is President of the PTSA and Communications Chair for Sandtown Middle School.

Realizing the importance of philanthropy, Mrs. Sellars-Bates is the Advisor for her children’s foundation- The T&T Project. Their foundation helps all children who have been affected by tragedy and/or misfortune.

Mrs. Sellars-Bates is married to her college sweetheart, TaDarol Bates, and they have two children – Taylor Cimone, age 19, and TaDarol Christopher II, age 14. The Bates family are active members of Zion Hill Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA.

Direct download: 4-8-2013_The_Better_You_Project_Kimberly_Sellars-Bates_podcast.mp3
Category:Non-Profit -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Rachael Bregman is the Rabbi for Open Jewish Project which strives to enrich and invigorate young Jewish Atlanta one relationship at a time.  She is also one of the rabbis at The Temple, Atlanta’s oldest and largest Synagogue.  When not developing community engagement models for Jewish Atlanta and beyond, she is ardently working to add the Jewish voice to the outcry against human trafficking and other issues concerning basic human rights.  Originally a Boston native, she currently lives in Virginia Highlands in a converted factory loft condo on the beltline, an urban revitalization project with her partner, Dan, his daughter Alyssa and their puppy, Safi.

Open Jewish Project is the next generation of Jewish Americans.

Vision
We envision a world where younger/youngish Jews in Atlanta identify with Judaism as meaningful and relevant.

Mission
Housed within The Temple, Atlanta’s oldest and largest congregation, yet serving the whole Atlanta younger/youngish Jewish adult community, we are driven to enrich and invigorate the lives of post college-pre-preschool Jews in Atlanta by cultivating a deeper self-knowledge and a stronger relationship to Judaism, Jews, the Divine and the larger world resulting in meaningful Jewish living one relationship at a time.

We aspire to function as a concierge service to young Jewish Atlantans in partnership with other organizations which serve them through personal, one on one attention, peer to peer connection, community creation and skills/tools building in order to DO and BE Jewish.

We are not membership drivers, we are Jewish life validators.  If you are looking to find a synagogue, we will help you find the right match even if it is not at the Temple, Open Jewish Project's base of operations.  They know that not everyone does Jewish the same way-they merely care that your Jewish life is rich and meaningful wherever you choose to express it.

Values
We value growth and evolution through open conversation, feedback, shared ownership, respect for the opinions of others, non-coercive learning and inclusion, equality, and struggle (We are after all, the children of Israel which means one who wrestles with the Jewish stuff).

Direct download: 4-8-2013_The_Beter_You_Project_Rachael_Bregman_podcast.mp3
Category:Non-Profit -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

CEO Chonchol Gupta, earned his M.B.A. and Master of Global Management at Tulane University, where he researched international banking for the World Trade Center of New Orleans. Chonchol is excited about the enthusiasm the Rebirth Financial platform has received. "When I started out I thought that it would be people in California lending to people in Texas, but it’s not that at all," says Gupta. "It’s people looking for positive community impact and a good investments in their own backyard."

Rebirth Financial was founded in February 2010. With origins in New Orleans, the Rebirth Financial team understands the importance of small business in a community. The team has also witnessed the economic support individual lenders can provide a small business. Rebirth Financial streamlines the loan review process allowing individual and institutional lenders to easily and securely take investments off of Wall Street and invest them in profitable community businesses. Rebirth Financial’s platform and JAS rating system allow lenders to diversify their portfolio and contribute to their community.

Direct download: 4-1-2013_The_Better_You_Project_Chonchol_Gupta_podcast.mp3
Category:Non-Profit -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Tara Roberts co-founded Girltank, a social enterprise designed to connect, inspire and fund female social entrepreneurs and innovators from around the world. Tara served as the Senior Editor for CosmoGirl magazine and the Lifestyle Editor for Ebony, Essence and Heart & Soul magazines. She published her own internationally distributed magazine, Fierce, which was nominated as best new independent magazine in 2003 by Utne magazine. And she has edited critically-acclaimed books for girls: Am I the last Virgin? Ten African American Reflections on Sex & Love and What Your Mama Never Told You: True Stories About Sex & Love. Tara is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and the Founder Institute Santiago.

Girltank is a community hub and crowdfunding platform designed to help women and girl changemakers grow and scale their bold and daring social enterprises.

Girltank's vision is a world in which powerful women with disruptive ideas - hailing from every region of the planet - are challenging the status quo, pushing forward transformative ideas and inspiring a new understanding of women and girls as leaders, as entrepreneurs, as innovators. We see this empowered generation of female changemakers working together to usher in a dynamic world leadership that is nurtured on principles of collaboration, compassion, empathy and bold action.

We aim to inspire, connect and fund female social entrepreneurs and changemakers.

Girltank won a $15K grant from Free Range Studios in 2011 to start Girltank, a $40K fellowship from Start-Up Chile in 2011 to grow our community and the Mothers of Invention award from Newsweek, the Daily Beast and Toyota in 2013 to launch our courses and workshops. Currently, Girltank has a network of approximately 1,500 women and girl changemakers from over 100 countries.

Girltank showcases the stories of female changemakers in our dynamic multimedia library; we offer a capacity-building course and local funding workshops in our think tank; and we provide a crowdfunding platform for women social entrepreneurs and changemakers to share their inspiring work with the world and for donors and investors to easily find and support their projects.

Direct download: 4-1-2013_The_Better_You_Project_Tara_Roberts_podcast.mp3
Category:Non-Profit -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Adoption Discovery is a program that educates and equips people to adopt any child available for adoption. We show people how to adopt children for $0 in 9 months or less.

Bridgette Bradley was a volunteer for CASA, a court appointed special advocate when she realized there were so many children available for adoption and millions of people trying to adopt. She founded Adoption Discovery to solve the problems people encountered when attempting adoption. Families all over the U.S. now experience adoption made easier and children find forever families.

Direct download: 3-25-2013_The_Better_You_Project_Bridgette_Bradley.mp3
Category:Non-Profit -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Marc E. Parham has been successfully consulting for all types of businesses for over 20 years. He has consulted for small to mid-sized business, large corporations, and non-profit organizations in all areas of business development. He has certifications in Project management, Network Engineering, Non-profit Management and other areas of business development. Marc has made it his mission to help people start and grow their small businesses. He has created a successful business coaching program that has assisted many people in changing their lives. He is also available for speaking and training events.

LINKS
 
Direct download: 3-25-2013_The_Better_You_Project_Marc_Parham_podcast.mp3
Category:Non-Profit -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT