25 Aug PROVIDING A VOICE FOR THE COMMUNITY’S MOST VULNERABLE

Nelson Hincapie is president and CEO of Voices For Children Foundation, a Community Grants recipient. The nonprofit helps meet a critical need as advocates for the more than 3,000 children in Miami-Dade’s foster care system and fulfilling the children’s medical, educational and social needs. He completed an executive leadership program with a grant through our Miami Leaders program. Nelson shared a bit about his experience with us.

I recently had the chance to complete the Executive Scholar Program at the Kellogg School of Management, thanks to a generous scholarship from The Miami Foundation’s Miami Leaders program. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional career. The quality of the professors and the colleagues I met were incredible. While there are many great options for executive education programs, what Northwestern University has to offer is truly extraordinary.

I had the opportunity to learn from esteemed professors who have been at the forefront of business, technology, social change and research on a variety of topics. The classes, while not necessarily small (30 to 50 students), were always full of bright and talented executives from different organizations ranging from the American Cancer Society to PepsiCo.

The insight I gained by taking the Strategy of Leadership class reconfirms that, in order to implement change, I must not be afraid to challenge the status quo. Because I completed my Certificate of Professional Achievement in Nonprofit Management, Voices For Children will now be a stronger organization.

We believe every child deserves a chance to thrive, regardless of circumstance. What I learned at Kellogg has allowed me to develop a clear strategy to be able to accomplish the goals we have set, together with the board of directors, so that ultimately the future of every child who enters foster care is exponentially better than in the past.

Learn more about how to get involved with Voices for Children at beavoice.org.