Meet the Built2Last Board of Directors

Anita Daniels

Chair

Anita Daniels is President and CEO of Actualities Ltd, a clinical practice offering behavioral health/wellness, sports counseling/consulting, and addiction treatment.

Attorney DeWarren Langley

Secretary

DeWarren Langley is currently the Executive Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Foundation, Inc.,

Kurt Merriweather

Board Member

Kurt Merriweather is Vice President of Products and Partnerships at The Diversity Movement of which he is also a co-founder.

Tom Droege

Board Member

Tom is as Co-Founder and Managing Director of Resilient Ventures, LLC, which delivers access to capital, networks, and expertise to companies that are ready to scale.

John Bryson

Board Member

John Bryson, a graduate of NC Agricultural and Technical State University and career banker, recently retired after forty-one years in the banking industry.

Dr. Keith Daniel

Board Member

Rev. Dr. M. Keith Daniel, owner of Madison Consulting Group, LLC. (MCG) and Co-founder/Managing Director for Resilient Ventures, LLC. Resilient launched in 2019, invests in African American entrepreneurs.

Dr. Debra Parker

Board Member

Dr. Debra Parker taught for over 20 years at North Carolina Central University. She was a tenured Behavioral and Social Sciences professor.

Dr. Joyce Blackwell

Executive Director and Ex-Officio Member

Dr. Joyce Blackwell is owner of the Institute for Educational Research, Development and Training LLC,..

Anita Daniels

Chair

Anita Daniels is President and CEO of Actualities Ltd, a clinical practice offering behavioral health/wellness, sports counseling/consulting, and addiction treatment.

Attorney DeWarren Langley

Secretary

DeWarren Langley is currently the Executive Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Foundation, Inc.,

Kurt Merriweather

Board Member

Kurt Merriweather is Vice President of Products and Partnerships at The Diversity Movement of which he is also a co-founder.

Tom Droege

Board Member

Tom is as Co-Founder and Managing Director of Resilient Ventures, LLC, which delivers access to capital, networks, and expertise to companies that are ready to scale.

Dr. Keith Daniel

Board Member

Dr. Debra Parker

Board Member

Dr. Debra Parker taught for over 20 years at North Carolina Central University. She was a tenured Behavioral and Social Sciences professor.

John Bryson

Board Member

John Bryson, a graduate of NC Agricultural and Technical State University and career banker, recently retired after forty-one years in the banking industry.

Dr. Joyce Blackwell

Executive Director and Ex-Officio Member

Dr. Joyce Blackwell is owner of the Institute for Educational Research, Development and Training LLC,..

411 West Chapel Hill Street
Suite 10
P. O. Box 12886
Durham, NC 27701

Office: (919) 998-9747
Info@Built2LastInnovationsLab.org

Our Overall Mission

Built2Last works to create a more inclusive entrepreneurial and business ecosystem in Durham, with an emphasis on women and underrepresented minorities, and assist individuals in marginalized communities to gain the skills and experience needed to fully participate in economic prosperity.

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Durham Built2Last Innovations Lab, Inc. values equity, diversity, and inclusion in all its dimensions. As part of our mission, we welcome all voices to add their perspectives on how we can ensure that our community remains diverse. Our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion strengthens our voice as a community while elevating our ability to eliminate economic disparities.

Anita Daniels is President and CEO of Actualities Ltd, a clinical practice offering behavioral health/wellness, sports counseling/consulting, and addiction treatment. She is also a founding member and first African American female president of the Alliance of Social Workers in Sports. Daniels is also a Licensed Forensic Evaluator for Durham County courts and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She has performed a considerable amount of work in the area of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Prior to holding her current position, Daniels served as Director of Durham Center Access, Director of the City of Durham’s Community Family Life and Recreation Center at Lyon Park, Vice President of Community Planning and Fund Distribution at the United Way of the Greater Triangle, and Assistant Vice President of United Way of Wake County.

Daniels’ community and volunteer experiences are numerous. She was appointed by Governor Roy Cooper to serve a three-year term (2020-2023) on the North Carolina Addictions Specialist Professional Practice Board, Chair of Durham Stepping Up Committee, President of the Durham Chapter of the Links, Inc., Chairperson of the St. Joseph’s Historic Foundation Board of Directors, Vice Chair of the Durham Partnership for Children, Member of Durham Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc., and Member of the Orange County Human Services Advisory Commission.

She is also an author. Her scholarly articles have appeared in refereed journals and her books are very inspirational and focus on topics ranging from building capacity through philanthropy to personal testimonies of hope and courage.

Daniels was recognized in Spectacular Magazine as Woman of the Year. She is also recipient of the St. Joseph’s Historic Foundation President’s Award.

Ms. Daniels earned a Bachelor of Social Work from East Carolina University. She later earned a Master of Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Graduate Certificate in Sports Counseling at California University of Pennsylvania.

DeWarren Langley, a Durham native, holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management and Economics with a minor in Leadership Studies from Hampton University, and Juris Doctor with a concentration in Civil Rights and Constitutional Law from North Carolina Central University School of Law. He also has a Certificate of Completion in Technology of Participation Group Facilitation Methods from the Institute of Cultural Affairs. In addition, Langley is also a graduate of the Durham Neighborhood College and Citizens Police Academy of the Durham Police Department. Langley serves as vice chairman of the Durham County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council, as Co-Facilitator for Partners Against Crime - District III and Chair of the Public Awareness/Publicity Committee.

Langley is currently the Executive Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Foundation, Inc., an organization that focuses on, among other things, the effective operation and delivery of programs, services and mentorship to boys and young men of color. He is also Principal Consultant and Chief Strategist for Solutions Consulting Services. Prior to his current roles, Langley spent several years in various roles at North Carolina Central University.

Moreover, Langley holds membership in several professional, civic and community organizations. He is a member of the Durham County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council; Board of Directors, Jubilee Home, Inc.; Vice Chair, Kids Voting Durham Advisory Board; Vice Chair, Board of Directors, West End Community Foundation, Inc.; and President, National INROADS Alumni Association.

Langley has also received several awards and honors, including: 2021 Key Volunteer of the Year Award from The Triangle Nonprofit and Volunteer Center; Duke Energy Citizenship and Service Award; and the Duke University Chapel Humanitarian Service Award. He is also a Social Justice Fellow.

Many people talk about the need for diversity, equity, and inclusion; however, very few actually are committed to ensuring that historically underrepresented groups have a meaningful “voice in the businesses and organizations” of which they are a participant. Kurt Merriweather engages in this type of work every day.

Merriweather is Vice President of Products and Partnerships at The Diversity Movement of which he is also a co-founder. Furthermore, he is a Certified Diversity Executive (CDE) and an “accomplished product strategist and marketing executive with a passion for helping leaders and organizations identify and implement growth strategies.” The Diversity Movement, started in 2019, is a full-service diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) consulting firm. With over 30 clients, Merriweather and his team of business strategists—nationally recognized TEDx speakers, and Certified Diversity Executives—"draw on their expertise in DEI and backgrounds in journalism, human rights and data analytics to help clients achieve transformative change.”

The Diversity Movement has experienced meteoric growth since 2019. In under two years, according to the firm’s Chief Executive Officer, the founders have been able to “move from concept to commercial business and impact over 110,000 people with the work they are doing.” This growth is a testament to the critical need in society for action-oriented DEI training and tools. Merriweather’s firm is meeting that need.

Kurt Merriweather is also founder and principal of Cedar Fork Partners, a Chapel Hill-based marketing and business-development consultancy. Moreover, prior to co-founding The Diversity Movement, he was Vice President of Strategy and Transformation at Walk West where he was responsible for leading the consulting and strategy practice and developing new business concepts and ventures. He has also worked in senior leadership positions for global brands such as Discovery Online, AOL Music Now, and Proctor and Gamble. Merriweather also worked as Senior Vice President and General Manager, Artist Platforms, at ReverbNation. In this latter role, he oversaw product management, sales, and marketing. He was also responsible for building ReverbNation’s 4MM+ music artist community, leading groups to build partnerships with and offerings for music companies, brands, festivals, and publications. These various roles expanded Merriweather’s network.

Merriweather earned a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University and a M.B.A. from Stanford University Graduate School of Business where he focused on strategy, marketing, and entrepreneurship.

Tom is as Co-Founder and Managing Director of Resilient Ventures, LLC, which delivers access to capital, networks, and expertise to companies that are ready to scale.

Tom’s private equity knowledge started in the 1960’s when he watched his dad go from startup to IPO with Applied Logic, a Princeton, NJ Computer Time Sharing company. Tom’s company, Droege Computing, Inc., took Angel funding as a result of the 1988 CED Venture Fair, but has self-funded since then. Since 2016, he has been part of the Angel Investor network, RTP Capital and, starting in 2018 with Resilient Ventures, he has developed expertise in venture investing, including deal flow, screening, due diligence, follow on investing, portfolio management, and deal negotiations. With his co-founder, Keith Daniel, Resilient Ventures has built a reputation of action and integrity.

Tom is the president of Droege Computing Services, Inc. a software development and IT services firm founded in 1985. Tom has built more than 30 enterprise systems including Auction Management, Inventory and Purchasing Systems, Patient Care Systems, and Toxicology.

Previously, Tom wrote from experience for some of the industry’s most coveted publications including PC Magazine, Popular Computing, Data Based Advisor, and Midnight Engineering. He was also the brains behind the Developers Competition, the largest software competition worldwide. Tom was a charter member of the CED Software Roundtable, co-founder of the CED Quality Roundtable, and founding board member of the North Carolina Technologies Association (NCTA). As his career developed, he created StampAuctionNetwork.com, the top stamp auction site in the world, and became a subject matter expert in auctions of all kinds, but specifically wine and stamp auctions.

Tom graduated from the University of Illinois and holds a BS in Engineering Physics, where he worked in particle Physics building detection equipment for FERMILab.

While he has enjoyed decades of achievement, Tom’s greatest success was marrying his wife Paula in 1981. Together they have 5 children and 7 grandchildren.

John Bryson, a graduate of NC Agricultural and Technical State University and career banker, recently retired after forty-one years in the banking industry. He was last employed with PNC Bank as Vice President, Development Advisor and Relationship Manager for the states of North and South Carolina. While serving in this role, Bryson identified lending and investment opportunities around Economic Development, Affordable Housing, Community Revitalization and Stabilization.

While employed with PNC Bank in community development, Bryson focused on: affordable housing; economic development; community services; and revitalization or stabilization.

Bryson’s other career positions have included roles in Retail and Commercial banking as well as Insurance and Investments at both RBC Bank and Wachovia Bank. While working at RBC, Mr. Bryson managed the community development lending efforts within the bank’s retail footprint and supported business development as a resource and referral source. He had a working knowledge of the various funding programs for CD projects, including the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit programs for North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama, and the Federal Home Loan Bank AHP Program for the Atlanta District as well as other federal, state, and local programs. He is also certified by the National Development Council as a Housing Development Finance Professional.

Bryson continues to serve on the boards of various organizations in the Triangle area. He previously served as chair of the DHIC (Regional Affordable Housing Developer) Board, chair of the Durham Community Land Trustees, Inc., and member of the boards of the Museum of Durham History, Inc., Duke Fuqua School of Business Minority Business Consulting Program, and the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People.

Likewise, Bryson currently serves as a member of North Carolina Central University’s School of Education Dean’s Advisory Board, Mt. Zion Christian Church, Inc, Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, and Partners for Educational Freedom in North Carolina.

Mr. Bryson and his wife, Deborah, are the owners of the first African American Montessori school in North Carolina. The Bysons own four multicultural internationally Christian Montessori schools.

Dr. Joyce Blackwell is CEO/President of the Institute for Educational Research, Development and Training LLC, an agency that works with non-profit, government and private sector partners to conduct research, develop and guide strategy, and build capacity to promote evidence-based policies, programs and practices for women and girls of color. For the past 18 months, she has served as consultant/manager of the Durham Compact, which was created by the City of Durham’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) to secure strategic partners for Built2Last-related initiatives.

Blackwell is regarded by her peers as a nationally recognized scholar of African American women peace activists, and a thought leader dedicated to positive change and inclusive excellence. Her workshops on issues such as gender equality and inclusion related to African American women, student development and retention issues, and assessment in higher education have been featured at national conferences and colleges across the United States and internationally. She is recognized in the higher education community as an accreditation specialist and a student retention specialist.

Blackwell earned her B.A. and M.A. degrees in History from North Carolina Central University (Durham, NC) and her Ph.D. in U.S. Women’s History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC). She is also a graduate of the William R. Harvey Executive Leadership Institute, Leadership Person County, and the American Council on Education Leadership Program.

Prior to serving as CEO of her own company, Blackwell worked as a tenured professor of History at both North Carolina Central University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She spent the last fifteen (15) years before staring her own business as Provost and Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs at Bennett College for Women (Greensboro, NC) and Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at South Carolina State University (Orangeburg, SC). She has also served as an academic dean and department chair. Blackwell has also served as Director of a nonprofit in her hometown.

Blackwell is also an author and researcher. Her pioneer study, No Peace without Freedom: Race and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, 1915-1975 (Southern Illinois University Press, 2004), is the first and only comprehensive study written to date on the national and international peace activism of African American women. She has widely published articles on African American peace activism in various scholarly journals and books. Moreover, she recently published Volume 1 of a two-volume work on the history of White Rock Baptist Church, entitled, Upon This Rock: White Rock Baptist Church’s Dynamic People and Their Influence in the Durham, North Carolina, Community, 1866-2016 (Cary International Press, 2018). Volume 2 is scheduled for publication in Winter 2022. She is also a reviewer for the Journal of American History and the Journal of Peace Studies..

Blackwell has also been a frequent presenter at various professional conferences on her research interests. In addition to serving as an invited Keynote Speaker for the Globalization and Public Policy International Cross-Cultural Research Exchange Conference in Auckland, New Zealand, as well as the 28^th Triennial Congress of the U.S. Section of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Blackwell has served as a Content Consultant on the 2-hour documentary, North Carolina’s World War II Experience.

During her career in higher education, Dr. Blackwell garnered at least $22 million in grant funding to support academic initiatives. She is also the recipient of several awards and is a Mary McLeod Bethune Scholar and an Oxford Roundtable Scholar. Since leaving higher education, she has secured an additional $2.4 million in grant funding.

In addition to holding membership in several professional organizations, Blackwell is an American Council on Education Executive Leadership Fellow, North Carolina Council of Independent Colleges and Universities Executive Leadership Fellow, Ford Foundation Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, and a University of North Carolina Board of Governors Fellow. Design

Blackwell has decided to continue her work with the nonprofit, which began in 2018, for the next year serving as its first Executive Director in an effort to ensure some continuity in leadership. She will also work with the Durham Compact until a new Manager is identified.

Dr. Debra Parker taught for over 20 years at North Carolina Central University. She was a tenured Behavioral and Social Sciences professor. She earned a B.S. degree in Family and Consumer Science Education and a M.S. in Human Development and Family Relations from North Carolina Central University. She also earned a Master of Education in Special Education, with a concentration on Behaviorally Emotionally Disabled, from the same institution. She then earned her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Family and Consumer Sciences Education, with a minor in Clothing and Textiles, and Exceptional Children (Elementary Education). She is a certified Child and Adolescent Trauma Specialist and Family Trauma Professional. She also holds a teaching licenses/certifications in Family and Consumer Sciences, Disadvantaged/Handicapped, and Birth through Kindergarten (children). Hence, she brings a wealth of experience and expertise in early childhood education, which will be an asset to Built2Last’s childcare entrepreneurs initiative.

After teaching for many years at North Carolina Central University, Dr. Parker became tenured Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Sciences, and later Dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. She was also a Consultant with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction where she served as a planner for the Workforce Development Annual Conference for Special Populations.

An expert grant writer, Dr. Parker’s has received more than $5 million in grants from organizations including, but not limited to, the Kenan Charitable Trust, US Department of Agriculture, US Department of Labor, NC Department of Public Instruction, and NC Smart Start. Many of her grants have allowed Dr. Parker to provide programs for students with disabilities as well as teachers who provide instruction for disabled children.

Moreover, Dr. Parker’s work and leadership have been recognized with several accolades and awards, including the UNC Carolina Board of Governors Excellence in Teaching Award, Exemplary Grantsmanship Award, and an Oxford Roundtable Scholar.

Dr. Parker, a prolific author, has also served on several boards and professional committees. For instance, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the Durham County Agricultural Extension Service, Edgemont Community Center Board of Directors, Partnership for Children Board of Directors, and the National Black Child Development Institute. Finally, she holds membership in several professional organizations.