BIO
Bio • Selected Work • Selected Publications • Selected Presentations
Professional & Community Service • Awards • Testimonials
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Maggie Potapchuk is the founder of MP Associates, a consulting firm dedicated to building the capacity of individuals, organizations, and communities to effectively address structural racism and better understand privilege issues for creating a just and inclusive society. Her recent work includes: managing the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity’s project on Measuring Progress on Structural Racism; leading a team to conduct research for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, as part of their scanning and assessment process for their racial equity grantmaking; managing a pilot project using Philanthropic Initiative on Racial Equity’s and Applied Research Center’s Racial Equity Grantmaking Tool with two foundations, co-developing the web site, Racial Equity Tools and Evaluation Tools for Racial Equity with the Center for Assessment and Policy Development; conducting research on the state of race relations in Columbus, Georgia; working with the Race Relations Center of East Tennessee to create a program matrix for a nine-county region to build an inclusive region; and working with the National League of Cities on the Selma Alabama Community Improvement Initiative to address issues of race, education, governance and economic development.
Potapchuk partnered with Aspen Institute Roundtable for Community Change to conduct her research, “Community Change Processes and Progress in Addressing Racial Inequities." She systematically documented the growing trend CCIRs in, “Lessons Learned: How Communities are Addressing Racial Inequities,” along with the National League of Cities and Aspen Institute’s Roundtable for Community Change. Potapchuk was the lead author of the publication, Flipping the Script: White Privilege and Community Building. Potapchuk piloted a workshop for race relations and racial justice organizations using different approaches on how to work collaboratively. Partnered with Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE) and worked with local foundations in four communities: Boston, St. Paul, Santa Barbara, and Knoxville (representing the Appalachian region). This work culminated in the report, Cultivating Interdependence: Guide for Race Relations and Racial Justice Organizations.
From 2000–2003, Maggie served as Senior Program Associate with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies’ Network of Alliances Bridging Race and Ethnicity (NABRE) program, a national effort to facilitate communication and provide support for 185 community-based race relations and racial justice organizations. She developed and implemented a forum which brought together national and community organizations for the first time to articulate differing approaches to reducing racial injustice and discuss how to work interdependently and strategically on community issues culminated in the publication, Holding up the Mirror: Working Interdependently for Just and Inclusive Communities. She researched the response of Clarksburg, West Virginia to a KKK rally, which resulted in the publication, Steps Toward an Inclusive Community, which includes the “Inclusive Community Assessment Tool.”
From 1995–1999, Potapchuk was Director of the Dismantling Racism Program at the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), St. Louis Region. The Dismantling Racism Institute was chosen as one of seven promising practices in the book, Intergroup Relations in the United States: Seven Promising Practices, funded by the Ford Foundation. She was also project director and primary author of CommUnity-St. Louis, a comprehensive community initiative to address racism, which was chosen as a promising practice by the President Clinton’s Initiative on Race. Potapchuk was honored for her work by the St. Louis YWCA, which gave her its 1999 Racial Justice Award.
She currently serves on the Center for Educational Equity’s board, a reviewer for the Understanding and Dismantling Privilege Journal and on the Advisory Board of the Baltimore Racial Justice Action. She received her B.S. in child and family community services from Bowling Green (Ohio) State University, and her M.Ed. in organizational development and applied group studies and a Social Issues Certificate from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
For more information about Maggie Potapchuk's work, read her curriculum vitae.
