Beverly Buchanan, Board President, National Association for State Community Services Programs (NASCSP) — Ms. Buchanan was introduced to Community Action when she joined the Arkansas Department of Human Services in 2007 as a Community Services Block Grants Program Analyst, a position she held for seven years before being promoted to Community Services Block Grant Manager in 2014. She is certified as a National Results Oriented Management and Accountability (ROMA) trainer (NCRT) and a CCAP. Ms. Buchanan currently serves on the National Data Task Force and is a member of several national subcommittees for Community Action. She is the President of the Board of the National Association for State Community Services Programs (NASCSP). Ms. Buchanan is active in several grassroots efforts to organize and empower the local community in which
she lives. She is also the proud Nani to Andrew and Marley, working to ensure that they have a world in which
they are judged on the content of their character, and not the color of their skin.

Denise Harlow, Chief Executive Officer, National Community Action Partnership (NCAP) — National Community Action Partnership is a national hub that links the nation’s 1,000+ Community Action Agencies to each another and to federal, state, and local leaders looking to connect Americans to greater opportunity. Ms. Harlow, CCAP was appointed the Partnership’s CEO in 2014 after serving as Senior Director of Training and Technical Assistance and Interim Chief Operating Officer. Working with Community Action Network partners, Denise was instrumental in the design and deployment of network-wide Organizational Standards and was a leader in the recent update to the Community Action performance management framework.

Prior to her tenure at the Partnership, she was the Chief Executive Officer for the New York State Community Action Association where she launched the Association’s annual Symposium on Poverty and Economic Opportunity and its annual Report on Poverty in New York State. She has also served as the Sr. Vice President for Capacity Building for the New York Council of Nonprofits where she was the project director for the New York State Board Training Consortium. Denise has more than 28 years’ experience in the nonprofit sector, has served on several nonprofit boards of directors, and was an appointee to the Governor’s Early Childhood Advisory Council in New York State. She has extensive experience in board governance, strategic planning, public policy/advocacy, leadership development, and organizational development. She is a Certified Community Action Professional (CCAP), a certified Results-Oriented Management and Accountability (ROMA) Trainer, and a Pathways to Excellence Peer Reviewer.

She started her Community Action career as a social worker with the Schenectady Community Action Program. She has a Masters Degree in Social Work from the University at Albany where she was also a Fellow on Women and Public Policy at the Center for Women in Government and Civil Society, and holds a Bachelor Degree in Social Work from Valparaiso University.

Charisse Johnson, Division Director, Division of Community Assistance, Office of Community Services (OCS), Administration for Children & Families (ACF) — Ms. Johnson’s career in social services spans over 30 years in a wide range of roles and leadership positions. Her work in ACF began in 2010 in the Office on Child Abuse and Neglect. Since then, she has worked in the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) in the Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood program, as well as the Office of Grants Management (OGM). Prior to becoming a federal employee, Ms. Johnson worked in North Carolina’s child welfare system. Ms. Johnson served as the Deputy Director for Wayne Action Group of Economic Solvency (WAGES), Inc., a Community Action Agency in North Carolina. Ms. Johnson earned a Master’s Degree in Social Work from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. Ms. Johnson has two adult children and two grandchildren.

Nicole Oxendine, Vice President, Tribal Training & Technical Assistance Lux Consulting Group, Inc. — With a commitment to empowering women, children, and Native communities, Nicole has held senior positions in several key national organizations over the past thirty years, including the Children’s Defense Fund, the National Women’s Law Center, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Nicole is also the mother of three and a proudly enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.