Ditra Edwards (Board Co-Chair)

Program Director, Praxis

Ditra has centered her life's work on working with communities of color to fight for justice. A skilled trainer, facilitator, community organizer, fundraiser and strategist, Ditra brings a high level integrity and effectiveness to all of her work.

Ditra is the program director of The Praxis Project, a nonprofit organization helping communities use media and policy advocacy to advance health justice. Ditra is also the deputy director of Communities Creating Healthy Environments (C-CHE), an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to support policy advocacy to advance healthy food outlets and safe places to play in communities of color nationwide.

Prior to coming to Praxis, Ditra served as a consultant in partnership with the Hill-Snowdon Foundation, The Center for Applied Research and Technical Assistance, Inc. (CARTA) and The Funders Collaborative on Youth Organizing (FCYO). From 1999 to 2005, Ditra Edwards was on the staff of LISTEN, Inc., serving as Executive Director from 2002 to 2005. Under Ditra's leadership, the organization grew tremendously. LISTEN secured and managed the National Roots Initiative - a two-year partnership with the Funders Collaborative on Youth Organizing. Ditra also won multi-year funding to secure the infrastructure of LISTEN and core support for grass roots organizations in their national network.

As director of Training and Youth Development at LISTEN, Ditra was responsible for the design and implementation of the Global Exchange Program, which supported youth activists from the United States and their counterparts in other countries to learn about leadership and democracy. Ditra was also the catalyst for the content and framework of the organization's leadership and youth development curriculum.

Ditra has served on the boards of the Funders Collaborative on Youth Organizing, and the Columbia Heights Shaw Family Support Collaborative. Ditra was the recipient of the Salzburg Seminar Fellowship, Session 366 on Urban Youth and the Smithsonian Institute Museum Leadership Award.