Staff

W. DeWayne Wells
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

A CPA by training, DeWayne brings a wealth of knowledge to the organization in the areas of auditing, financial management, and leadership. Prior to this appointment, he was a consultant for nonprofits and served as project director for Detroit Food & Fitness Collaborative, a group of 65 individuals representing 40 organizations developing ways to ensure that everyone in Detroit (especially the most vulnerable children) has access to affordable, healthy, locally grown food, and opportunities to be physically active.

Earlier roles include president of Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan where he expanded nutrition education programs, streamlined human resource practices, and heightened the organization’s profile through community collaborations and partnerships.

Immediately before joining Gleaners, DeWayne was chief operating officer for Starfish Family Services in Inkster, Michigan, and the first lay person to serve as executive director of the Capuchin Soup Kitchen in Detroit. He holds an MBA from Wayne State University and is a graduate of Leadership Detroit.

Lacy Dawson
Director of Leadership and Organizational Development

Lacy is currently the Director of Leadership and Organizational Development at EJAM. She is a native Detroiter who has a passion for supporting systemic change and transformation in and for marginalized communities. Her mission is to engage and empower citizens throughout Michigan to make collective and individual strides towards eliminating all social and economic disparities, which plague communities across the country. Before joining EJAM, she spent 8 years at Michigan Voice, a nonprofit civic engagement table, which fights for multiracial political power using data, civic participation, and grassroots organizing. There she was able to recruit, train and support numerous grassroots organizations from communities of color across the state. She also served as a Regional Field Director for Barack Obamas, Organizing for American (2010-2012). There she worked to develop a strong network of dedicated neighborhood and community teams who worked together to increase voter participation in Southeast Michigan and, assist in getting Barack Obama re-elected to office.

She believes that by growing people’s passions and utilizing people power, leveraging techniques of authentic grassroots organizing, validating everyday people and their leadership abilities, and keeping an eye on the prize of transformation, systemic change, equity, inclusion, and diversity, we cannot only move mountains, but we can be the change the world.