Tiffany Echevarria

Tiffany Echevarria supports the work of Collective Action for Youth by providing leadership and strategic direction. Tiffany’s background includes implementation, evaluation and continuous quality improvement for youth programming. She is an experienced facilitator who regularly brings people together to dialogue around race and diversity. In this role, she is eager to work shoulder to shoulder with youth to create better solutions for the community. Tiffany has a Bachelor’s Degree from Texas Southern University and a Master's of Public Policy and Administration from University of St. Thomas. She is a proud Black and Puerto Rican woman. Tiffany believes All Black Lives Matter, Love is Love, and Women’s Rights are Human’s Rights. Tiffany leads with empathy, respect, humility, and considers herself a lifelong learner.

Brandi Brown

Brandi Brown is the founder and Executive Director of HYPE Freedom School, Inc. (HYPE), a city-wide leader in offering culturally affirming literacy-based and mental health programming that builds protective factors, closes opportunity gaps and promotes positive youth development.

Recently, Brandi developed Black Impact Houston after seeing a much-needed space for leaders of Black-led organizations (BLO) to convene after the shift and conversations following the inequities seen through the pandemic as well as racial injustices.

Brandi has her B.A. from SMU and a Masters in Counseling from Prairie View A & M University.  She previously worked with Houston Independent School District and served as the Texas Youth Leadership Development Director with Children’s Defense Fund. Brandi is a proud Houstonian, a loving wife, a nurturing mother and a mentor to many.

Cheronda Bryan

Cheronda Bryan is a strategy, management and education professional with 19 years of experience in the government and nonprofit sectors, leading people, projects and learning experiences. In February 2020, Cheronda formally combined her passion with her purpose and founded Intertwined, a nonprofit organization supporting marginalized people and committed to creating better communities by building life empowerment skills in youth and allyship in adults. Cheronda is also a community college adjunct professor of government, where she empowers individuals to pursue their life goals. She works tirelessly to instill a lifelong commitment to self-improvement and civic engagement so that young people will forever have the tools to advocate for themselves and their communities.

During the years prior to founding Intertwined, Cheronda served our country as a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State. She supported the important work of diplomacy as an operations and finance professional during her years of public service, completing tours of duty in Washington DC, Vietnam, and Kenya. Before joining the State Department, Cheronda worked as a community cultivator and learning facilitator for the Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council in her native city of Houston. There, she helped adult volunteers in rapidly-diversifying communities begin to understand one another in order to see each other as valuable partners in building girls of courage, confidence, and character.

Cheronda holds a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Houston and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Emory University. She is bilingual in Spanish and has intermediate proficiency in Italian, Vietnamese, and Somali languages.

Keith E. Cornelius

Keith has a proven track record of over 27 years of achieving organizational, campaign, and stewardship success. He is an accomplished development professional responsible for creating strategies that help raise over $48 million in capital and endowment gifts, and operating funds for various educational and other non-profit institutions. He is experienced in donor cultivation and stewardship, board development, board strategic planning, and scholarship fundraising.

Keith’s lifelong passion is to mentor and to serve minorities and other youth who were raised in economically and socially challenging environments such as his. He wants to help provide them with access to educational, career, and military opportunities that will lead them to becoming productive members of their families and communities.

Keith has served on various boards in the Houston area, most notably, the boards of Episcopal High School, The Association of Fundraising Professionals Greater Houston Chapter, The Neuhaus Education Center, and The Education and Charities Foundation of Houston.  He is the past chairman of Breakthrough Houston and the past president of the Eta Lambda Alumni Association at the University of Houston. 

Keith currently serves on the boards of the University of Houston’s Alumni Association Foundation and The Center for Urban Transformation.