OUR TEAM
Tayyib Smith
Co-Founder
As Founder of Little Giant and partner at Pipeline Philadelphia, Tayyib has long served as conduit between artists, niche brands, and multicultural audiences. Smith developed his business acumen from humble beginnings as a music enthusiast, eventually serving as US label manager for BBE music and working with artists such as the Roots, John Legend, Jazzy Jeff, Jill Scott, Pete Rock, J Dilla, and The Foreign Exchange. He serves on the Boards of the Black Star Film Festival, Temple’s Urban Apps and Maps, and Philly Tech Week.
Meegan Denenberg
Co-Founder
She is the co-founder of Meta Global, parent company of Little Giant, and at Pipeline Philadelphia. At LGC, she leads business development and strategic marketing where she has developed successful campaigns for Heineken, vitaminwater, Visit Philadelphia, Mural Arts and Drexel University, amongst others. She previously served as the marketing director of PhillyCarShare. In her 20+ years in the industry, Denenberg has also executed programs for Manhattan-based guerilla marketing firms and conducted national promotions for a variety of clients, including Discovery Channel, the Weather Channel, HBO, Clorox, Avirex and K-Swiss.
Sunanda Ghosh
Director for IHHE
She is nonprofit consultant who has worked with organizations including Human Rights Watch, Habitat for Humanity International, American Friends Service Committee, Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, Asian Arts Initiative and Drexel University. She currently serves on the boards of Skateistan and the Philadelphia Rail Park. She has experience with major gifts, corporate partnerships, grant writing, planned giving, board development, project management, international development and donor communications. Sunanda has worked in India, South Africa, and Brazil. She speaks fluent Bengali and is based in Philadelphia.
Erica Hawthorne-Manon
Facilitator for IHHE. She is founder and director of Small But Mighty Arts (SBMA), a Knight Foundation-supported organization that connects Philadelphia artists to capacity-building opportunities and resources to advance their creative careers. As a creative consultant, Erica works with organizations, local events and non-profits to create partnerships and build connections between creatives and the community. Erica has worked with a number of other Knight-funded projects, including Campus Philly where she served as senior program manager for their new Open Arts program connecting college students to arts and culture throughout the city, while supporting arts organizations in attracting new audiences and future patrons; and currently with the Corzo Center (UArts) for the new Innovations Lab Fellows Program introducing arts students to the principles of innovation and entrepreneurship. A considerable part of her work has included working with students and young adults; working with the Upward Bound program at Swarthmore College and developing the program model for student engagement for the College Access Center of Delaware County. Creatively, Erica is a performance artist (RhapsodE), having performed at numerous venues and colleges throughout the country, and also serving as emcee for a number of events and festivals. She co-founded Spoken Soul 215, a performance collective that currently curates The Harvest, Philadelphia’s largest open mic event highlighting the talents of up-and-coming artists. Erica is a recipient of the University of Kansas Black Alumni Network Innovators Award (2015), Billy Penn Who’s Next: Arts Award (2015), Ignite Philly Community Award (2014), DoGooder Emerging Leader Award (2013) and a Knight Foundation Challenge Grant (2012). Erica graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Business Communications, and Temple University with a Master’s degree in African American Studies.
Melissa P. Howell
Melissa Howell is Chief Design Officer at Social Impact Design Studios providing strategy and systems design for education, business and community development initiatives. She provides program and systems designs for the Africa-America Institute while directly managing the Transformational Leadership Program. Past clients include Frontline Solutions, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Ford Foundation and ELMA Philanthropies Services. She received global recognition for her design and implementation of systems that support international markets and supply chains for Pfizer, Inc., and other notable achievements with The Ford Motor Company.
Melissa develops inclusive, collaborative, high-integrity programs and solutions to address the most critical issues in communities across the globe. Her work has served and impacted more than 300 private sector, non-governmental organizations, and universities in 29 countries across Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Americas.
Richelle Todd-Yamoah
Richelle, a native Philadelphian, is passionate about positive social change and gathering information that reveals the impact of change. She is a motivated, personable leader with 20 years of experience in program design, evaluation and administration of social justice and international development programming. Adept at communicating with clarity and diplomacy with individuals from diverse cultural and language backgrounds, she considers herself a global citizen having lived and worked in over 10 countries. Richelle is a former Peace Corps Volunteer serving in Cote D’Ivoire and Malawi. She holds a BA in Sociology from the University of Maryland and MPA from Rutgers University. Richelle’s motto is “empowering communities is providing the space for them to question your impact.”
Bruce Campbell Jr.
Bruce Campbell Jr., Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Arcadia University in suburban Philadelphia. Throughout his career, Dr. Campbell has focused on embedding relevant issues of diversity and social justice into his practice, scholarship, and service in the education field. He highlights experiences of underrepresented groups so that professionals and institutions can serve these communities more effectively. Dr. Campbell teaches courses in educational leadership, organizational change, urban education, social justice, cultural competency, international musicology, qualitative research methods and program evaluation. Besides his teaching, research and service, Dr. Campbell also runs his own independent record label, Record Breakin’ Music. Additionally, he co-hosts his weekly radio show Eavesdrop Radio on 91.7FM in Philadelphia and also DJ’s locally, nationally, and internationally.
Elizabeth Santry
Elizabeth earned a B.F.A. in Photography right here in Philadelphia then served in AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps. Later she earned a Masters in Branding from the London College of Fashion. Her professional experience is a range of creative and analytic, from Fortune 100 businesses to small start-ups, and a mix of academia and do-it-yourself. In addition to roles in branding and business development, she has also pursued video production, podcasting, art direction, and creative writing.
Taylor “Ivy” McLendon
Ivy is a 2015 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School where she was awarded a B.S. in Economics. Since she graduated, she’s been working as a freelance in curriculum design and marketing/branding, as well as pursuing a career in the music industry, releasing an album entitled Eden in April of 2016. She’s passionate about the intersections of education, hip hop, and entrepreneurship, which is why IHHE is the perfect initiative for her.