Welcoming Our New Co-Executive Director!
We are excited to announce that DNDA’s Board of Directors has unanimously approved hiring Mesha Florentino as our new Co-Executive Director of Housing and Finance.
Mesha has multiple years of housing and leadership experience and most recently was the Property Development Director at Chief Seattle Club. Mesha, who is a West Seattleite, joined the DNDA staff team on Monday, April 3 and will be working with our current Executive Director David Bestock to ensure a strong leadership transition.
David has agreed to take on a Co-Executive Director role alongside Mesha and plans to stay with the organization through 2023 with a focus on fundraising and supporting DNDA’s volunteer leadership.
We have previously discussed searching for an Interim Executive Director to assist the organization as our current Executive Director transitions into a new capacity. During this process, the opportunity became clear to move towards a shared leadership model and have a new executive director who is focused on the housing and finance components of DNDA’s mission.
We anticipate posting another Co-Executive Director position, to eventually succeed David, in the next few months.
We are thrilled to welcome Mesha and for the renewed focus and investment in our own housing. Founded in 1996, DNDA develops and preserves affordable housing (currently 144 units at 7 properties), owns/operates the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, and leads a suite of environmental, youth, and arts programming, with a focus on racial and social justice.