Third Sector Company

A Forum on Race, Equity, and Access in Nonprofit Interim Leadership

Interim leadership in the nonprofit sector is a growing and increasingly professionalized field, but not everyone experiences it the same way. The 2023 and 2026 State of the Interim Profession reports both acknowledge that structural inequities, particularly around race, shape who gets into the profession, who gets hired, and whose expertise is taken seriously. This forum is a direct response to that reality and builds space for a conversation that addresses the issues written about in the article by Dr. Orletta Caldwell: https://interimexecutivesacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Article-Qualified-Credentialed-and-Still-Overlooked-Caldwell.pdf

Grounded in practitioner experience and rooted in data from those reports, this two-hour forum takes a candid look at how racism shows up at every stage of interim engagement, from hiring and board relationships to how recommendations are received and whose networks open doors. It is not a conversation about whether the problem exists. It is a conversation about what we, collectively, can do about it.

Who This Forum Is For

This forum is for everyone in and around the interim leadership profession: BIPOC interim leaders, white allies, board members, search partners, placement organizations, and capacity builders. The title names the issue plainly, and that is intentional. Participants who are ready to sit with discomfort and take meaningful action are welcome. You don't need to solve racism, but you do need to be willing to do something to address it.

What to Expect

The forum opens with a shared educational foundation, drawing directly from the 2023 and 2026 State of the Profession reports to show how the challenges facing BIPOC interim leaders are not isolated. They are structural, and they are getting worse. From there, participants will explore how racism shows up specifically across the phases of interim engagement, from how leaders are recruited and referred to how authority is extended or withheld once they're in the role.

Participants will then move into facilitated breakout sessions for deeper conversation. The forum closes with each participant making a personal commitment: one concrete action they will take, and one person they will share it with to stay accountable. The framing is simple: you are not individually going to solve racism, but you have a part to play. Come ready to name it.

Speakers and Commentators

With support from Third Sector Company’s Erick Seelbach, the forum will be facilitated by Dr. Orletta Caldwell (Detroit, MI) and Kate Tibone (Seattle, WA), two experienced interim executives who bring both deep practitioner knowledge and a personal commitment to naming and addressing how racism shapes this work. Orletta is the founder of Beyond Existing Enterprises and holds a Ph.D. in Nonprofit Management, with more than 30 years of experience working alongside Black-led and grassroots organizations. Kate is known for organizational turnarounds and her people-centered approach to navigating complexity, with work spanning nonprofits, for-profits, and academic institutions across U.S. and global contexts. 

Joining them to offer practitioner commentary are Juan Pablo Berrizbeitia (Staunton, VA), an interim CEO with 20 years of experience in organizational transformation and strategic innovation; Aiko Pandorf (San Francisco Bay Area, CA), who has led organizations through critical transitions across philanthropy, human services, social justice, arts and culture, and environmentalism; and Dr. Gary Damon, Jr. (Montgomery, AL), President and CEO of Pressure Point Consulting, whose interim leadership spans workforce development, education, criminal justice, and health and human services. Together, these voices bring more than a century of combined experience — and a shared understanding of what it means to lead while navigating racism in the profession.

Third Sector Company is committed to advancing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion as foundational to its programs.

We acknowledge and honor the fundamental value and dignity of all people; and we pledge our individual and organizational efforts to build respect, dignity, caring, and equitable treatment for all. As an organization, we are committed to transforming the world into one that promotes social justice and freedom from oppression, including but not limited to, racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ageism, and ableism.

Thus, we aim to be adaptable, actively anti-racist, embracing cultural differences, and to be accessible for people who are differently resourced and differently abled. Since we do not want financial hardship to be a barrier to participation, there are several seats reserved in each of our fee-based programs for confidentially awarded scholarships. We encourage those from historically underserved communities to apply.