Kerrien Suarez is executive director of Equity in the Center (EiC), a field-wide initiative to influence social sector leaders to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to achieve race equity. EiC envisions a future where nonprofit and philanthropic organizations advance race equity internally while centering it in their work externally. In 2018, it published Awake to Woke to Work: Building a Race Equity Culture, which details management and operational levers organizations utilize to transform culture.

Her focus on diversity, inclusion and equity developed through work with Surge Institute, Camelback Ventures, EdFuel and National Black Child Development Institute, where she supported emerging and established leaders and social entrepreneurs of color.  

A management consultant with over 20 years of experience, Suarez led engagements to refine programs and scale impact for national nonprofits, including The First Tee and AARP ExperienceCorps, while at Community Wealth Partners, where she also coached grantees of the Annie E. Casey, Wells Fargo and Robert Wood Johnson foundations on issues ranging from organizational capacity and sustainability to place-based collective impact.

Suarez is a graduate of Harvard College and London School of Economics. You can follow her on Twitter at @klrs98 and @equityinthectr.