Dahnesh Medora
Dahnesh is motivated to find ways to center marginalized communities while making equity a shared priority for all of us. Dahnesh is the Chief Impact Officer at United Way of the Columbia-Willamette, where he oversees core program areas, serves as the organization’s lead impact strategist and supports the development and implementation of the strategic plan. Prior to joining United Way, Dahnesh served as the Building Community Portfolio Director at the Meyer Memorial Trust. In this role, he helped create and manage one of Meyer’s largest grantmaking programs and channeled more than $30 million over six years to Oregon based nonprofits seeking to build social, economic and political power in communities of color. Prior to Meyer, he served as the Senior Associate for Nonprofit Support at Education Northwest, supporting collective impact projects, nonprofits and governmental agencies like the Social Innovation Fund. As Director of Programs at the Nonprofit Association of Oregon, and at the National Community Development Institute, Dahnesh organized cohort programs focused on organizations serving communities of color. As Director of External Relations at the Tides Foundation, he also worked with new and emerging social justice projects across the United States.
When Dahnesh isn’t serving his community in his role, he enjoys spending time with and entertaining his daughter, who is still young enough to think he is hilarious.