Nonprofit Engagement Commission

The Nonprofit Engagement Commission serves as a catalyst for leveraging the best of Denver’s public and nonprofit sectors and their commitment to engaging in innovative and collaborative work. The Commission’s core work is focused on providing support for HRCP Nonprofit Engagement and the implementation of its strategies and goals.

Our commissioners serve a two-year terms and are representatives from the nonprofit, government, and for-profit sectors.

Applications for the Commission are accepted throughout the year. Specific recruitment focus occurs each January and February, with new appointments taking place in April.  


Commission Meetings

Join Us in Person: 

WHEN:    First Wednesday of Every Month

TIME:      12:00PM - 1:30PM

WHERE: Colorado Health Foundation - 1719 E 19th Ave. Denver, CO. 80218

Join Us Virtually:

Join Zoom Meeting https://denvergov-org.zoom.us/j/84363911402

Meeting ID: 843 6391 1402
 
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Meeting ID: 843 6391 1402

Find your local number: https://denvergov-org.zoom.us/u/kdQzrVi43X

It is your right to access oral or written language assistance, sign language interpretation, real-time captioning via CART, or disability-related accommodations. To request any of these services at no cost to you, please contact Julia Mahoney at julia.mahoney@denvergov.org with three business days’ notice.


Commission Members

LeRita Cavness, Chair

LeRita Cavness LeRita Cavness is Director of Adolescent Know Your Rights, a non-profit designed to elevate autonomy, individual accountability, and knowledge of the rights of adolescents through personal reflection. She is currently in pursuit of an Educational Leadership & Policy Studies degree and thrives on shifting mindsets around the concepts of education, bias, and success. As a Nonprofit Engagement Commissioner, she hopes to amplify the realistic needs of the growing grassroots nonprofit base in Colorado, while actively pursuing methods of strengthening nonprofit communities through education and collaborative work.

Tracey Stewart, Vice-Chair

Tracy Stewart Tracey, who joined The Colorado Health Foundation in November 2020 as a senior program officer, has amassed a breadth of experience in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors, including public policy development and community investment projects. Backed by almost twenty years of expertise in family economic mobility, she searches for sustainable investments that create lasting solutions, and ultimately change the way philanthropy thinks about community-driven initiatives to emphasize self-sufficiency and self-determination.

Previously, Tracey served as the director of family economic security at Gary Community Investments, where she led the expansion of community-based investments in workforce, affordable housing and financial inclusion. Other highpoints of her nonprofit career include working on policy at Colorado Center on Law and Policy and community data management at Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. Prior to her roles in the nonprofit sector, Tracey was a technologist specializing in data systems and organizational change management.

Tracey remains committed to strengthening her community and serves as a board member for both Hope Communities and Funders Together to End Homlessness.

Tracey loves immersing herself in written and filmed stories, and is a self-described bibliophile and science fiction fan. When she is unable to travel internationally, Tracey loves to visit Crestone, Colorado, or explore her neighborhood through lengthy walks that end with a treat from a local restaurant or market. A proud aunt, she is close with her siblings who also live in Denver.

Cori Streetman

Cori Streetman As Co-Founder & CEO of Barefoot PR, Cori Streetman has extensive experience working with local nonprofit organizations and businesses in the areas of communications, brand development, strategic partnership building, public relations, community investment initiatives and strategic message development. She is passionate about community service and has served on a number of nonprofit boards and committees. She also believes strongly in the power of the nonprofit sector to improve quality of life and drive economic development in our local communities.

Dede de Percin

Dede-de-Percin Dede de Percin is a nonprofit executive and strategist with over 20 years in senior management building successful Colorado organizations to effect social change. She is passionate about the independent sector, and is dedicated to innovation, systems change, cross-sector collaboration, and advocacy.

Dee Dee DeVuyst

Dee Dee DeVuyst Dee Dee DeVuyst serves as Radian’s Executive Director. With Master’s degrees in Architecture and Environmental Engineering, she brings over a decade of management experience in the nonprofit, private, and government sectors and has spent her career leveraging design and community advocacy in the pursuit of equitable outcomes.

At Radian, Dee Dee leads a team of architects, urban planners, and other design professionals to advance social equity in the built environment by co-creating spaces, places, and policies of belonging. She finds joy in building teams and designing tools that inspire radical empathy, increase representation, and support design justice.

Prior to her current role, Dee Dee created and led Radian’s Equitable Development Studio, spearheading community-driven initiatives and managing projects that center the voices, lived experiences, and expertise of under-represented communities in Denver. She developed and implemented multilateral initiatives within the equitable development sector that include equitable development plans, equity toolkits, and equitable policy advocacy.

Dee Dee currently serves on the Denver Commission of Nonprofit Engagement, the Denver Board of Adjustment for Zoning Appeals, and the All In Denver board. She is also a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) of Peru, an avid globetrotter, a gardening enthusiast, and a bike commuter.

Djuana Harvell

Djuana Harvell Djuana Harvell, PhD serves as Director of Special and Innovative Projects within the be well Health and Wellness Initiative at The Foundation for Sustainable Urban Communities. Djuana delivers project management, strategic planning, and implementation of key projects and programs, which include a focus on health education and advocacy. She leads collaborative efforts with diverse stakeholders, project teams, partners, and volunteers to implement health promotion, and prevention plans to address health disparities experienced by community members in Northeast Denver and Northwest Aurora.

Liane Morrison

Liane Morrison Liane is an economist and nonprofit entrepreneur. She started her career at the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury Department in Washington D.C. When she had the opportunity to combine policy, politics, and on-the-ground implementation in her native Colorado, she veered to public education. That led to co-founding and leading Great Education Colorado, a thriving nonprofit dedicated to grassroots advocacy to improve education outcomes. After 10 years leading Great Ed, Liane joined Mile High United Way’s United for Schools (UFS) to concentrate on the social and societal factors that impact student outcomes. She developed the program to reduce chronic absenteeism of students from under-resourced neighborhoods by providing wrap-around services to families and strengthening the schools’ abilities to effectively connect with their diverse families. The program improved academic results, reinforced partnerships between parents and schools, and emphasized the importance of community leadership and engagement. Systems change is always in the background of Liane’s work, so she joined Elevated Denver in 2022 to reshape the way we tackle our growing homelessness challenge. Elevated Denver shifts power to those with lived expertise to create viable solutions based on user-experience stories and data. The results are sustainable, community-responsive solutions developed in a new model for social collaboration. Liane enjoys cycling, hiking and cross-country skiing under Colorado’s blue skies. She appreciates dynamic book club discussions, singing in a community choir and good friends.

Linda Foster

Linda Foster Since joining Jewish Family Service of Colorado (JFS) as its President & CEO in November 2018, Linda has applied her vision, passion, and experience leading JFS through program optimization, pursuing new service opportunities, and an over $6M 150th Anniversary campaign. During COVID-19, Linda guided JFS in quickly adapting and transforming its programs and services to best meet the changing needs of the community. She relocated to Denver from the Chicago area, where she served as CEO & Head of School at Solomon Schechter Day School for nine years and the school’s Executive Director for four and a half years prior to that. She has deep Colorado connections and owns a home in Steamboat. Linda has been a leader of both nonprofit and for-profit organizations and business units in a variety of industries, ensuring mission fulfillment and sound financial viability. She currently serves on the Denver Nonprofit Engagement Commission and Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. She has extensive organizational, operational, and management experience, and has successfully led capital campaigns, endowment growth, and donor cultivation and stewardship efforts. Linda earned a BA degree from Wellesley College and has participated in the Kellogg School of Management Center for Non-Profit Management at Northwestern University.

Madisen Frederick

Madisen Frederick Madisen currently serves as a program manager for the Collaborative Impact Fund of Denver, an independent nonprofit organization committed to addressing social issues in Denver. The fund's mission is to identify and tackle unmet needs within the nonprofit and public sectors by fostering collaborative initiatives via partnership with entities across the City and County of Denver. Through public-private partnerships and support for nonprofit-led community projects, the fund aims to create sustainable solutions as it relates to nonprofit capacity building, supporting the recovery of nonprofits, and improving organizational resilience.