Name: Patrice Funderburg
Leadership Charlotte (LC) Class: 35
Title/Company: Director, The Center for Community Transitions, Inc.
Hometown: Buffalo, NY
Education:
- Studied business administration at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) (1991-94)
- BS in Human Resource Management from State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo (1998)
- MS in Organizational Communication and Development from Canisius College (2001)
Current personal or leadership goals:
Continuing focus on revolutionary strategic self-care
What advice would you give to current Leadership Charlotte participants?
Go inward! During your LC experience, challenge yourself to be vulnerable and give yourself the courage to develop a practice of noticing how you are showing up for each program day. What you learn about yourself is foundational to what you will do in, for, and with the community after your LC experience ends.
What’s a lesson that you learned through LC that has stuck with you and why?
Challenge by choice was a gateway to setting and keeping boundaries both professionally and personally.
What would you like to see Leadership Charlotte alumni get involved in and why?
I would like to see more LC alum join grassroots and ‘middle class’ nonprofit boards in Charlotte.
Favorite way to spend a weekend in Charlotte:
When the world began to reopen after the pandemic, I started ‘do nothing’ weekends where I do my best to not leave my house (or neighborhood) for the entire weekend! Greenway walks, sitting on the porch, listening to a book, or just hanging with family or friends at home was a quarantine gift that I am not willing to let go of!
Favorite nonprofit or community organization in Charlotte and why:
In 2024, The Center for Community Transitions (CCT) will celebrate 50 years of working at the intersection of justice-involvement and economic opportunity to create and expand pathways of opportunity for formerly incarcerated people and their families. Yet, most of the major employers in Charlotte cannot articulate the business benefit of fair chance hiring. Emancipating from corporate HR has allowed me to settle into the sweet space of transferrable skills and transformational change for the greater good. #SpiritIsGangsta