Tema Okun
Visiting Lecturer, Public Policy Studies

Tema Okun has worked with community-based non-profits for over 20 years. Her work as a staffer for the Rural Advancement Fund, the Carolina Community Project, Grassroots Leadership, and the Institute for Southern Studies has formed the core of her organizational experience, where she has served in such varied roles as development director, training director, and interim executive director.

Tema has worked with literally hundreds of organizations on organizational development issues including fundraising, long-range strategic planning, member and board development, issue and organizing campaigns. She has extensive development experience helping non-profits establish successful donor campaigns. She served on the fundraising staff for Harvey Gantt’s 1990 Senate campaign against long-time incumbent Jesse Helms, where she was responsible for coordinating major donor efforts. With James Williams, she helped to develop Grassroots Leadership’s Barriers and Bridges program, which worked with organizations over a three-year period to address race, class, gender, sexual identity and other issues impeding effectiveness.

For the past 12 years, Tema has partnered with Kenneth Jones and other skilled trainers at ChangeWork, a not for profit training collaborative, to facilitate a Dismantling Racism process designed to help organizations and communities effectively address racism and other oppression issues.

Tema has a B.A. from Oberlin College, Ohio (1975) and an M.S. in Adult Education from N.C. State University (1997). She also teaches at Guilford College in Greensboro in their Justice and Policy Studies Department.