Authentic, Engaging and Strategic, Ebony Walden is a mix between a creative catalyst and a community builder. As an urban planner, consultant and facilitator with over a decade of experience working to transform communities, she works with community organizations to design and facilitate meetings, workshops, strategic plans and community engagement processes that explore race, equity and the creation of more just and inclusive communities. She has a artful approach, incorporating collaboration and creativity to inspire others toward vision and action that has a lasting impact.
Ebony is also an adjunct professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Wilder School of Government where she teaches Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the City. She is also on the faculty of Initiative of Change’s Community Trustbuilding Fellowship, a program that equips community leaders to overcome divisions of race and politics.
CAPACITY BUILDER
Prior to founding Ebony Walden Consulting, Ebony worked to build the capacity of non-profit organizations in the community development arena by providing technical assistance in the areas of strategy development, program design, implementation, evaluation and fund development.
COMMUNITY PLANNER
For over a decade, Ebony has worked to facilitate partnerships and shepherd projects to create more thriving and inclusive communities. During her career as a planner, Ebony led comprehensive planning processes, built multi-sector coalitions, coordinated outreach and communications for public engagement campaigns, led corridor and neighborhood planning efforts and developed small business improvement programs in Richmond and Charlottesville. Ebony can engage residents, public officials and community leaders to help shape the future of neighborhoods, commercial corridors and the broader community.
Watch Ebony talk about her passion for Urban Planning at the The 2015 Fellows Initiative Conference. She has also been featured in Cville Magazine and Christianity Today.
TRAINER, FACILITATOR & CONSULTANT
Since 2009, Ebony has led workshops and trainings with organizations such as Georgetown University, City of Richmond Department of Social Services, Piedmont Council for the Arts and Albemarle County Public Schools.
From 2012-2014 Ebony directed the City of Charlottesville’s 5-month leadership development program for community residents, building their capacity to become change agents.
In 2015, Ebony ventured into consulting and has collaborated on projects with TMI Consulting, a diversity and inclusion management consulting firm and KickStart Specialists which provides team building and leadership development services to leaders from various industries.
COACH
Ebony is a professional coach with a certification from The Coach Training Alliance. She specializes in coaching Changemakers (leaders in the non-profit, social entrepreneurship and local government arena) that want to create thriving communities.
Ebony holds a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Georgetown University and a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Virginia. Ebony has always been passionate community transformation. She started her business because she wants to help leaders, organizations and communities move from vision to action that has an lasting impact.
Ebony currently lives in Richmond, VA and works with organizations in Virginia and the mid-atlantic region.