- Managed the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity's project on Measuring Progress on Structural Racism which included a convening of structural racism and evaluation experts and overseeing the production of Critical Issues Forum Volume Three, Marking Progress: Movement Toward Racial Justice.
- Serve as project manager to conduct an extensive environmental scan of academic and philanthropic diversity best practices for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
- Led a team to conduct research for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, as part of their scanning and assessment process for their racial equity grantmaking. Wrote a report with contributors, Part One: Cultivating Interdependence in a Community Change Process, and co-wrote Part Two: Three Pathways of Race Relations and Racial Justice Work and Moving from Theory to Practice: Helping Communities and Organizations Apply the Structural Racism Framework to Their Anti-Racism and Racial Equity Work.
- Co-developed the website, www.racialequitytools.org with the Center for Assessment and Policy Development
- Conducted an assessment of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Synod Anti-Racism Teams to map the capacity, assets, and needs of the teams and network as whole to help create more effective collaboration with the churchwide office.
- Managed a pilot project with Philanthropic Initiative on Racial Equity and Applied Research Center using their Racial Equity Grantmaking Assessment Tool with two foundations.
- Researched four communities’ work on racial equity and wrote Community Change Processes and Progress in Addressing Racial Inequities, partnering with the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change. Worked with the National League of Cities and the Aspen Institute’s Roundtable for Community Change on the research project, “Lessons Learned: How Communities are Addressing Racial Inequities.” This research systematically documented information about communities that have created comprehensive initiatives to address racial injustices.
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- Led an external assessment of IMPACT Silver Spring’s six-year leadership development program which involved using program alumni to collect and analyze the data, collected through surveys, focus groups and story gathering.
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- Coordinated the development of, and was lead writer of, the monograph Flipping the Script: White Privilege and Community Building with Sally Leiderman, Donna Bivens, and Barbara Major.
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- Co-facilitated the workshop series, Being White in a Multiracial Society for white teachers and administrators from three elementary schools to learn how to work more effectively in a multicultural multiracial community.
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- Worked with the Race Relations Center of East Tennessee to create a program matrix for a nine-county region to address racial inequities and build an inclusive region.
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- Consulted, along with Carolyne Abdullah, for the Community Foundation of Chattahoochee Valley on the Moving Forward Together initiative to ensure that every resident will have access to all opportunities which resulted in an assessment report.
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- Worked with the National League of Cities on the Selma Alabama Community Improvement Initiative to address issues of race, education, governance, and economic development, which resulted in an assessment report.
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- Piloted a workshop for race relations and racial justice organizations using different approaches on how to collaborate more effectively. 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, with a chapter on the role of foundations by Lori Villarosa, PRE’s director.
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- Contributed significantly to building the infrastructure of NABRE, a network of 180 race relations and racial justice organizations. Included serving on the leadership team, developing program strategy and organizational processes, and creating an internal structure for online technology.
- Established partnerships with nine organizations in five states to coordinate a regional conference for 200 participants representing race relations and racial justice organizations in the upper Midwest, which led to the first regional network of the Network of Alliances Bridging Race and Ethnicity (NABRE).
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- Served as technical assistance manager for the Initiative to Strengthen Neighborhood Inter-Group Assets for the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation. This project, now called the Common Ground Fund and administered by the Community Foundation of the National Capital Region. Its mission is to address social justice issues impacting communities of color with a focus on investing in racially diverse neighborhoods. Potapchuk now serves on the Fund’s steering committee.
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- Represented the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies at the World Conference Against Racism, Discrimination, and Xenophobia in Durban, South Africa. Reported on the conference for NABRE and antiracismnet.org web sites.
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- Researched the response of Clarksburg, West Virginia to a KKK rally. Wrote Steps Toward an Inclusive Community, which includes the Inclusive Community Assessment tool. Designed a companion workshop and co-facilitated the workshop for local elected officials and community leaders in West Virginia, Mississippi, Idaho, and Knoxville, Tennessee.
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- Co-developed and directed CommUnity-St. Louis, a comprehensive community initiative to dismantle racism. Included writing grants, chairing a community collaboration council, and coordinating the evaluation process. This initiative was chosen as a promising practice by President Clinton’s Initiative on Race.
- Managed and co-developed eight six-day residential Dismantling Racism Institutes with 216 graduates, which included supervising a six-month faculty planning process, recruiting and interviewing participants, compiling five manuals, and supporting and coaching graduates.
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- Designed and coordinated 13 Building an Inclusive Community one-day community workshops for over 1,000 residents of the St. Louis region, which included recruiting and supervising 12 to 25 volunteer trainers, coordinating logistics, and marketing. Seventy-two percent of evaluation respondents said they used what they learned in the workshop in personal, work-related and/or community situations.
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