Welcome Danette McBride

Children’s Institute is proud to introduce Danette McBride as our new Vice President of Community Innovations. Danette will be responsible for leading our community organizing initiatives around addressing trauma in South Los Angeles. Danette will directly oversee CII’s Innovations II, Neighborhood Schools, Project Fatherhood, Children Exposed to Gun Violence, Health Homes Program, and our Census preparation work.

Danette joins CII with a wide range of experience that spans more than 15 years in program management and community organizing. Notably, she has worked for the Office of Los Angeles County Board Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas where she advanced policy and programs related to education, youth, and human services. In addition, she worked at Para Los Niños, Children Uniting Nations, Excel Family Intervention Programs, and the Dangerfield Institute for Urban Problems where she was responsible for life skills training classes, tutoring programs, mentoring programs, and youth advocacy boards empowering young adults and communities to become the “authors” of their own future.

As a South Los Angeles native, Danette found that education was her passport to a world of possibility, and an equalizer that creates opportunities for personal growth and economic mobility. Importantly, this value has informed her work both at community-based agencies and more recently at the Board of Supervisor’s office. She graduated from Tuskegee University with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and received her Master of Social Work and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Todd Sosna, Chief Program Officer at CII, said Danette is bringing a rare combination of knowledge, experience and passion for community organizing and social services that will be needed to successfully lead CII’s innovative efforts in South LA.

“We currently have a unique opportunity to deepen and expand our work, as part of our neighborhood schools and community engagement initiatives, to achieve real and enduring impact, and I am confident Ms. McBride is singularly well-suited for this critical role,” Dr. Sosna said.