Meet The Team
Stacey Banks-Houston
President
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Stacey Banks-Houston is a Ph.D candidate, an entrepreneur, author, speaker, trainer, business consultant and coach. Stacey became an entrepreneur as a teen when she started a hair accessory business called Buttons & Bows. Inheriting her entrepreneurial spirit from her father, Stacey is a serial entrepreneur. Together with her dad they launched a women’s accessory store and a shared office space and business support service center. Stacey continued her entrepreneurial journey with an event planning business and a small business consulting and training firm. As Director of the Women’s Business Centre in Tampa, Florida, she has counseled and trained over 2,000 women in two years and assisted in creating over 40 new businesses. Stacey’s commitment to small businesses has been recognized by the Small Business Administration and the United States White House. In 2010, Stacey was the winner of the SBA Minority Small Business Champion Award and in 2015 her creation of the Mentor and Protégé Program for minority students at Kent State University’s Blackstone Launchpad, was recognized at the first ever White House Entrepreneurship Demo Day. Stacey’s book, The Passion Plan…Journaling Your Business from Passion to Position to Profit is a working journal that allows the reader to take their passion from dream to idea to a profitable business. Stacey is also the co-author of “Seasons of Wholiness”, a devotional journal for women to prepare them for their daily walk during every season of life. Stacey, most importantly, is a proud mom of her "son" shines, Rhonald and Justin.
Robyn Y. Washington
Vice President, Health
Robyn Washington serves as an RN III in the Anesthesia Pre-Evaluation Clinic. With over 25 years of experience within The Methodist Hospital System, Robyn’s contributions expand far beyond her day-to-day nursing responsibilities. Serving as the Anesthesia Pre-Evaluation Clinic (APEC) Epic Subject Matter Expert and Shared Governance Secretary, Robyn has led Shared Governance initiatives to educate nurses about Patient Satisfaction, Mislabeled Specimens, and Emmi education. Since 2012, Robyn has been a Magnet Champion and participated in service line and hospital wide initiatives such as planning and organizing the annual Magnet Fairs. A dedicated public servant, Robyn has been involved in community efforts such as the Houston Heart and Stroke Walk, Macy’s Shop for a Cause, Houston Food Bank, Stride 4 Stroke, and the Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure. Robyn has also participated in organizing events with Northwest Assisted Ministry (NAM), local Nursing Homes, leadership and enrichment programs for minority youth, and activities to benefit local cancer patients. Robyn is a compassionate, enthusiastic, diligent, and empathetic. Her passion for healthcare and delivering quality care is demonstrated through her active involvement in various initiatives within the Greater Houston community. She is driven to inspire and educate nurses around her to help The Methodist Hospital System provide exemplary service to patients and the community. Robyn graduated from Howard University with a B.S. in nursing, and has an MBA. Robyn is mom to two daughters, Charise and Courtney.
Bridgette P. Russell
Vice President, Real Estate
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Bridgette P. Russell has served as the Managing Director for the Home Ownership Center (HOC) at Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven (NHS) managing the Center’s program development for client services and staff training. She also directs operations of Pre and Post Purchase Curriculum Design, Credit Coaching, Financial Literacy, Foreclosure Prevention and Reverse Mortgage Counseling. In addition, she manages HOC Realty, the newly formed non-profit, full-service realty company which is the first of its kind in the state of Connecticut. Bridgette was awarded The Good Egg in 2009 by the Greater New Haven Community Loan Fund in recognition of the foreclosure prevention counseling that was provided by her staff at the HOC. In May of 2014, she received the President’s Award from the Greater New Haven NAACP for contributing to the development of a Community Homeownership Program. Prior to coming to Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven, Bridgette served as the Homeownership Director for Vision Financial Services where she managed a three-year contract for Freddie Mac for a statewide Lease Purchase Homeownership Initiative in Louisiana. In this position she facilitated statewide trainings and orientations for realtors, homebuyers, and housing counseling agencies and was successful in creating over 100 new homeowners. Upon returning to Connecticut, Bridgette continued to consult with Freddie Mac in a new collaboration with the State Treasurer’s office, The Connecticut Housing Coalition and Bank of America in the facilitation of the Credit Smart financial literacy curriculum to the Bridgeport, Hartford, Meriden, New Haven and Stamford Housing Authorities. She later consulted and served as Interim Director of Homeownership & Training for Faith CDC in Stratford, working with the Housing Authority to facilitate classes for staff and workshops for residents as part of the Connecticut Freddie Mac Credit Smart Initiative. With more than twenty-five years of experience in financial management training and residential real estate, Bridgette has partnered with banks, non-profits, and faith-based organizations to develop and present homebuyer and financial literacy programs in Atlanta, Orlando, Baltimore, Oakland, Little Rock, San Antonio, and much of Connecticut. A graduate of the College of William and Mary with a degree in Political Science, Bridgette has also completed coursework with the NeighborWorks ® Training Institute, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and HUD. Bridgette has two wonderful children, Summer and Trevor Martin and a lovable dog, Eko-Faraday.
Dawn M. Slade
Vice President, Health and Wellness
Dawn M. Slade graduated from Howard University Business School with an MBA and was inducted into the marketing honor society in recognition of her outstanding marketing skills. Dawn is a passionate health and fitness advocate. She has made it her mission to combat childhood obesity, which disproportionately plagues and destroys the health of black children. Over the past 18 years, Dawn has hosted a healthy eating talk show, a cooking show, a weekly health and wellness show, and has created and produced multiple events for children and families, ranging from salad workshops to family and group gatherings to play a health education board game (Me and Belinda Gillis) which she co-created. Her “The Salad lady and Garden Whisperer” series and her movie, Nutsville: The Movie have furthered her goal of helping to eradicate childhood obesity. Nutsville: The Movie is a full-feature 3D animated film designed to use fun characters (nuts), original music, and a lively storyline to teach children and their parents about the benefits of healthy eating and the health perils of trans fat, additives, high fructose corn syrup, excess salt, and a sedentary lifestyle. Nutsville: The Movie is the product of a team of dynamic young screenwriters and producers, hand-picked by Dawn.
Sallie A. Blackman
Vice President, Legal
Sallie A. Blackman is an attorney licensed to practice in the state and federal courts of New York, Connecticut, California, and Washington, D.C. She created the Next Level Non-Profit Pre-Accelerator Master Class to teach non-profit organizations about contracts, intellectual property protection, corporate compliance, and how to develop promotional materials which attract publicity, corporate sponsors, donors, and grants. During this 7-series Master Class, a consortium of like-minded 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organizations create bios, press releases, pitch
decks, photo libraries, video libraries, 1-minute and 2-minute commercials, slogans, and jingles. They learn how to draft contracts, nondisclosure agreements, business plans, and business exit plans, and learn how to protect their intellectual property with copyrights and trademarks. Sallie graduated from Yale University and Harvard Law School. She is the mom to three beautiful children, Amanda, Veronica, and Michael, and the bonus mom to the amazing Anthony, Tameah, and Christopher.