The League Welcomes Two New Board Members

A current mayor and nonprofit leader were elected to the National Civic League’s board of directors at its last regular meeting. Malik D. Evans, Mayor of Rochester, NY and Ayeola Fortune, Interim Senior Vice President of United Way Worldwide’s Impact Team, were both elected to three-year terms.

The National Civic League board of directors is made up of 25 civic leaders from around the U.S. and meets three times each year to help lead the 127-year-old organization.

Meet our New Board Members

Malik D. Evans
Mayor
Rochester, New York

Malik D. Evans is the 71st Mayor of Rochester. As the leader of the City’s executive branch, Mayor Evans is committed to promoting positive, systemic and structural change by providing transparent and collaborative leadership, offering equitable access to essential municipal services, enabling productive intergovernmental, private, and non-profit partnerships, and promoting increased quality of life through investments that create vibrant neighborhoods and employment opportunities, making Rochester a hope-filled city with an exciting future. He was inaugurated on Jan. 1, 2022.

Mayor Evans was born and raised in the city and graduated from Wilson Magnet High School before going on to earn his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester and his Master’s degree from Nazareth College. The son of parents who were committed to civic activism, Mayor Evans’ dual callings in elected office and the banking industry share the complementary ambitions to help others and share prosperity.

Mayor Evans’ interest in public service can be traced back to his days as a high school student, when he launched a City-County Youth Council to help young people develop an interest in community advocacy. Mayor Evans’ career in elected office began at the age of 23, when he became the youngest person ever elected to the Rochester Board of Education. He served in that role until 2017, including as President of the Board from 2008 to 2013. It was at the School Board that he adopted a mantra that would guide all future decisions in elected office: “We can find solutions to our most pressing challenges by focusing on finding common ground.”

In 2017 he was elected to an at-large seat on the Rochester City Council and held the position through 2021, serving as chair of the Finance Committee.

Prior to becoming Mayor, Mayor Evans worked as an officer in the banking industry for more than 20 years, holding various leadership positions at M&T Bank Corporation and ESL Federal Credit Union. He developed a focus to ensure the financial sector responded to the needs of all customers with equity and fairness by ensuring all individuals and businesses have access to the knowledge, tools and information that will help them build a stronger financial future.

His community involvement included various boards and commissions such as Rochester Area Community Foundation Board of Directors and a founding board member of the Commissary Downtown Kitchen Incubator for foodservice entrepreneurs in Upstate New York. Mayor Evans also served on the Board of Trustees at the Rochester Museum and Science Center, Path Stone Enterprise Center, RIT’s Center for Urban Entrepreneurship Advisory, and the Wilmot Cancer Institute.

Mayor Evans and his wife Shawanda are the proud parents of two sons. Evans enjoys spending time with his family, attending concerts, and traveling to new places.


Ayeola Fortune
Interim Senior Vice President
Impact Team
United Way Worldwide

Ayeola Fortune is the Interim Senior Vice President of the Impact Team at United Way Worldwide. She provides oversight, strategic guidance, and support to team members managing key initiatives in education, economic mobility, and health. She leads UWW’s efforts to support local United Ways to integrate equity into their impact work by developing frameworks, strategies, peer learning and training opportunities, and developing resources and tools. She also leads UWW’s efforts to collect and aggregate data from local United Ways’ to demonstrate collective impact across communities via the Global Results Framework.

Previously, as Senior Director of Global Impact and Results, Ayeola led the initial development of the Global Results Framework, and efforts to build United Way Network capacity to advance impact in their communities. This includes the development of United Way’s Equity Framework which articulates the levers United Ways can implement to advance their work in community focused on closing persistent gaps and disparities, and related learning opportunities. As Director of Youth Success, Ayeola developed strategies, resources, and tools and led major initiatives to build network capacity to improve the number of students that graduate high school prepared for college and career. This included grants focused on out-of-school time, middle grades success, and post-secondary completion, as well as United Way Worldwide’ s Ready by 21 National Partnership. She also helped lead the development of United Way’s education roadmaps which outlined the critical strategies, implementation approaches and potential roles that United Ways can play to improve educational outcomes, especially for at-risk youth, in their communities.

Before joining UWW, Ayeola served as the director of extended learning opportunities and development Project at the Council of Chief State School Officers from 2001-2009. In this role, she developed proposals to support Council activities based on identified state education agency needs relative to implementing federal policy initiatives. Preceding this role, Ayeola was a high school teacher at The Ellis School in Pittsburgh, PA.

Ayeola earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Government from Lehigh University, as well as a Master of Arts in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh.


For more information about the National Civic League board of directors please visit https://www.nationalcivicleague.org/who-we-are/

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