Building the brands, the teams, and the community trust that turns shared vision into lasting change.
A multi-faceted C-suite executive whose work brings together brand, people and talent leadership, fundraising, and community engagement. She builds the trust, the teams, and the resources that help communities thrive with equity at the center.
Dr. Annis Stubbs is the Chief Brand and Engagement Officer for United Way for Southeastern Michigan. She is a multi-faceted C-suite executive whose work brings together brand, people and talent leadership, fundraising, and community engagement. Across two decades, she has led at the highest levels of mission-driven organizations, always with a simple belief: reputation, resources, and results all begin with people and trust.
She is known for helping build Teach For America's Detroit region in partnership with the people who already loved this city. Together they grew a team of one into a team of more than fifty. Along the way she helped bring close to $19 million in investment to local classrooms and reached 10,000 students across 80 schools. The work centered access, dignity, and the voices of the community it served.
At the national level she served as Chief People Officer and as Senior Vice President of Strategy, Innovation and Regional Operations. She led people and talent for an organization of 3,500 staff across 52 regions. That meant building the HR systems, the culture, the leadership pipelines, and the equity practices that let a large team do its best work through seasons of real change.
Her range reaches beyond the nonprofit world. As founder and CEO of The Papyrus Group, she advises mission-driven leaders on brand, people, and growth. That work gives her a close view of the human systems behind any organization that runs well.
Dr. Stubbs is also a researcher. She holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum, Teaching, and Educational Policy from Michigan State University, a master's from Fordham University, and a bachelor's in English and Secondary Education. She is an Aspen Institute Fellow and a Resnick Scholar, and her leadership is grounded in evidence and in community alike.
Stewarding brands that earn trust and move people to act. Shaping the story an organization tells with and about the community it serves.
Building and caring for teams. Leading HR, talent strategy, leadership development, and cultures where people from every background can do their best work.
Raising and sustaining the resources that fuel mission. Turning relationships and trust into lasting investment in community.
Bringing people together across sectors. Centering community voice and moving people from awareness to action as donors, advocates, and neighbors.
Leading through mergers, scale, and change with people at the center. Building the teams and systems that let an organization outlast any one leader.
Leads brand, communications, and community engagement for one of the region's largest social impact organizations, connecting Southeastern Michigan to the work of building a community where households are stable and children thrive.
Advises mission-driven leaders on brand, people, and organizational growth. Founded the firm to help school districts, nonprofits, and community organizations build the systems and culture behind lasting change.
Led people and talent for a national organization of 3,500 staff across 52 regions, building the HR systems, culture, and leadership pipelines behind the work. Helped build the Detroit region in partnership with the community, growing a team of one into more than fifty and bringing close to $19 million in local investment.
Led operations and workforce for a Michigan logistics company, building people systems and technology with frontline dignity and retention in mind.
Led training and support for the New York City Teaching Fellows, one of the nation's largest pathways into the classroom.
Research for Columbia's Campaign for Educational Equity on schooling in communities facing concentrated poverty, alongside earlier leadership in supplemental learning.
I helped build a region of Teach For America in Detroit, in partnership with the people who already loved this city. Together we grew a team of one into more than fifty, and we brought close to $19 million to local classrooms.
People assume the money came from the pitch. It came from relationships, and from the trust we built together long before anyone wrote a check.
I spent years building people systems inside education nonprofits. Then I helped lead a logistics company, alongside the drivers and dockworkers who kept it moving. The people doing the hardest work had the most to teach me.
Three things the best workplaces do to honor frontline workers, and what every mission-driven team can learn from them.
Most organizations treat their people function as a cost to manage. In two decades at the executive table, I have come to see that as the most expensive mistake a leadership team can make.
Why the organizations that grow with their values intact invest in their people, and in who gets access to advancement, with real care.
Crain's Detroit Business (20 in their 20s), Michigan Chronicle (40 under 40), Michigan Women's Leadership (Shooting Star Award), and Leadership Detroit (Class XXXV).
The Clinton Global Initiative, the University of Michigan Revitalization and Business Conference, and Techonomy.
Aspen Institute Fellow and Resnick Scholar, recognizing sustained contribution to leadership in the sector.
Ph.D., Curriculum, Teaching, and Educational Policy, Michigan State University College of Education.