Our Team

Charles Evans

Charles is the founder and lead consultant of BlackStar Consulting, which provides project management support, technical assistance and training, and individualized, leadership coaching to address organizational development challenges. Founded in 2011, BlackStar has worked with over 15 small to mid-size nonprofits in the DC metro area and many individual clients including executive directors, organizational founders, lawyers, board chairs and managers.

Charles is also the Regional Director for DC Operations for Progressive Life Center, where he launched two new programs to serve children and families in the District of Columbia. In a prior role, Charles served as a Senior Program Officer with the DC Children and Youth Investment Corporation (CYITC), where he led a team charged with developing and managing capacity building grants for innovative program offerings and managed the Boys of Color Initiative, which sought to develop promising practices for programmatic engagement of African American and Latino males.

Chelsea Brown

Chelsea Brown is an award-winning philanthropist, social impact advocate, and entrepreneur. Trained as a nonprofit management professional, Chelsea has more than eight years of experience in philanthropy, fundraising, sponsorships, and grantmaking. Through her passion for bringing diversity and inclusion to philanthropy, she received the Diverse Communities Scholarship through the Association of Fundraising Professionals International Conference and the Charles R. Stephens Scholarship for the AADO/CASE Conference on Diverse Philanthropy and Leadership.

In 2019, she was selected to be a Forbes Under 30 Scholar, the University of Maryland’s Do Good Institute Philanthropy Fellow, and a William Randolph Hearst Fellow with the Aspen Institute’s Philanthropy and Social Innovation Program. In 2020, she was highlighted as a “Black Woman to Watch in Philanthropy” in BlackHer’s study on Black philanthropy titled “The Black Woman’s Guide to Philanthropy.” As an advocate for community engagement, she has served on over five boards, including the Winthrop University Foundation Board of Directors.

After her time at the University of Maryland, she worked as Exelon’s Senior Corporate Citizenship Specialist, reviewing grant applications and providing funding for more than 150 nonprofit organizations annually in the Delaware, Maryland, and D.C. region. the Nasdaq Foundation as the Corporate Purpose Specialist, providing support for Foundation-related grants administration and corporate social responsibility strategy.

Currently, Chelsea is the founder of The Black Mill; a consulting firm focused on coordinating cross-functional efforts to drive engagement, programs, funding, and partnerships with international nonprofit and for-profit partners. Through her work with The Black Mill, Chelsea has supported grantmaking and grant writing support for the Black and Missing Foundation, The Upwork Foundation, Baltimore Legacy Builders Collective, and more.

Recently, Chelsea received the 2022 BGE Energizing Small Business Grant, earning grant funding support to expand the Black Mill to offer sponsorship and partnership strategies for large-scale cultural events and organizations. Chelsea received her Master of Public Management from the University of Maryland in 2021 and her Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication from Winthrop University in 2014.

Edwin Washington

Prior to taking on this new role, Edwin was providing business development and fundraising consulting through his Washington Worldwide firm and serving as volunteer Church Administrative Officer with Walker Memorial Baptist Church. His career includes:

• Business leadership roles in entertainment, energy and education
• Nonprofit leadership roles in youth development, international relations and fundraising
• Government leadership roles in job creation and internal affairs

Edwin has served as Vice President of Business Development with America’s Charities, and has held leadership positions with Greater Washington Boys & Girls Clubs, Davis Memorial Goodwill (now Goodwill of Greater Washington), Youth for Understanding, District Cablevision and the District of Columbia Government.

Edwin holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Baltimore where he is a 2010 inductee to their Basketball Hall of Fame. He resides in Ward 4 quadrant of Washington, DC with his wife and daughters.

Goldie Patrick

Goldie’s experience spans more than 10 years in youth services and education, including roles such as teacher, curriculum developer, facilitator, program director and executive director in Wards 1, 3, 5, 7, and 8 of the District of Columbia. Goldie is the founder and Executive Director of the organization, F.R.E.S.H.H. Inc. (Females Representing Every Side of Hip-Hop). After successfully completing the Nonprofit Roundtable’s Future Executive Director Fellowship, she began providing consulting services to local foundations and other organizations, helping them more effectively increase their community engagement, advocacy efforts and cultural competency.

Jessica Mailander

Jessica joined the Upper Georgia Avenue Main Street program in March of 2022. She came to the program with almost four years of experience in DC Main Streets, having started as an Event Coordinator for Rhode Island Avenue NE Main Street and eventually taking on the role of Program Manager for the Upper Bladensburg Road program in the Fall of 2019 – both run by the non-profit Friends of Rhode Island Avenue NE (FORIA).

During her time at FORIA, Jessica headed up the events portfolio for the two programs, including Porch Fest and the Procrastinator’s Holiday Market, growing both events to over 1,000 attendees during her time there. She supported small business owners through technical assistance and facade improvement grants, and played an integral role in shepherding the small businesses in Northeast DC through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to her time in DC Main Streets, Jessica worked for FirstNet in the Department of Commerce as an Industry Liaison. Jessica graduated from American University in Washington, DC in 2012 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy. She interned with the Department of Agriculture while pursuing a Masters degree in Social Policy. She currently lives in DC with her husband and their dog, Maple. She is excited to work with the Ward 4 business community on Upper Georgia Avenue.

Sheila Holt

Sheila Holt is an experienced policy analyst and program developer, manager and evaluator. After working in the District of Columbia, Office of the Mayor and as vice president of a nonprofit, she began consulting. She works with government agencies, community organizations, nonprofits and business entities on program assessment and capacity building.

Sheila provides training that assists her clients in establishing effective networks and lines of communication that will allow them to build meaningful collaborations and create sustainable engagement. She recently assisted a CORE service agency, which provides services to individuals with mental and behavioral health disabilities, in reorganizing its struggling programs and becoming both programmatically and financially successful.

Sheila understands the importance of arming her clients with the resources needed to compete in a complex environment and competitive marketplace.

You can reach Sheila by email or phone: 202-302-7323