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Dhyia Thompson-Phillips
Executive Director, Workforce Equity
Professional Background
Dhyia Thompson-Phillips is a dynamic and accomplished professional in the realm of social innovation and strategic implementation, with a wealth of experience spanning various key roles within educational and community-focused organizations. Dhyia has made significant contributions to the growth and direction of ventures aimed at advancing social good, fostering creativity through ideation, and driving impactful initiatives in her community. Her expertise encompasses a diverse skill set in planning, consulting, project management, and strategic leadership.
Throughout her career, Dhyia has held prominent positions, including her role as the Deputy Chief of Planning at GALS Inc., where she was responsible for guiding urban planning projects that intricately align with community needs and values. Her ability to think strategically while incorporating innovative solutions has allowed her to thrive in collaborative environments and produce tangible results.
Her tenure as Director of Strategic Initiatives at City Colleges of Chicago provided Dhyia with the opportunity to leverage her passion for education and community engagement to introduce programs that support student success and institutional growth. She has always demonstrated a commitment to nurturing educational opportunities for all individuals, leading initiatives that promote inclusion and accessibility within the Chicago area.
Dhyia has also made her mark in the consulting sphere as Lead Consultant at Virgo Project Consulting and previously as a Consultant at Huron, where she applied her analytical skills to assist organizations in navigating complex challenges and harnessing their potential. Notable is her role as Project Manager at Quad Communities Development Corporation, where her focus on community development projects helped to forge strong partnerships and links essential to the advancement of urban revitalization efforts.
Education and Achievements
Dhyia rooted her professional journey in education, earning her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a respected institution known for its commitment to academic excellence. Continuing her educational pursuits, she obtained a Master of Education (M.Ed) from Loyola University Chicago, further enhancing her understanding of the intersections between education, innovation, and societal change.
Additionally, her foundational education at St. Scholastica Academy equipped her with a solid grounding in critical thinking and community values, influences that remain evident in her professional interactions and leadership style. She seeks to positively influence and innovate in the education and non-profit sectors, striving to uplift those around her through collaborative ventures and positive ideation.
Achievements
In her remarkable career, Dhyia Thompson-Phillips has been recognized for her strategic vision and tireless advocacy for social innovation. She has successfully developed and implemented initiatives that not only spur economic growth but also empower individuals and communities through education and planning.
Dhyia’s work emphasizes the importance of nurturing ideas that have the potential to transform and uplift communities. Through her various leadership roles, she has gained recognition as a thought leader in strategic initiatives, driving forward discussions on best practices in social innovation, particularly in educational settings.
Future Aspirations and Continued Learning
This fierce advocate for education and urban planning is actively engaging in lifelong learning, connecting with like-minded professionals, and exploring new horizons to better serve her community. Dhyia is committed to staying abreast of emerging trends in social innovation and is passionate about sharing insights through social media platforms, where her tweets explore the intersections of ideation, strategic implementation, and community support.
Highlights
Calling on my network to help a fund development colleague embark upon a new career opportunity...
I am reaching out to share that I have a colleague new to the job market and is seeking a role as a fund development leader. I could not resist sharing this news with LinkedIn because this person is a force of nature when it comes to fundraising and driving revenue for mission-driven organizations. If I was a CEO, they'd be my first hire without question. What makes them unique is their long view in building a strategic fundraising approach that snowballs into sustainable long-term funding while building a consistent pipeline of new revenue opportunities and growth year-over-year - so their organization's exposure to risk from unexpected funder priority shifts won't adversely impact its operating budget. What CEO doesn't want that peace of mind?
Please share this with your network, especially those overseeing searches for roles like, but not limited to, VP of Advancement, Chief Development Officer, or Senior Director of Grants and Administration. Please see a short blurb of their experience below:
A Fund Development and Grants Administration lead with a career accomplishment of raising over $200M in contributed revenue in resource development and communications, with last fiscal year having raised $12M in new revenue. They are skilled in nonprofit, for-profit organization and fee-based/earned income business models and can bring a vast knowledge and network of relationships within the Chicago and national grant-making community. Expertise in federal, state and local government/public policy; corporate and individual giving, cultivating major donors; marketing communications and using and integrating social media to create organizational visibility and growth. Quite astute in marketing strategies, prospecting new clients, and building a pipeline of new business opportunities within defined geographic boundaries.
I would warmly welcome and pass along any job leads, headhunters intros, JDs or referrals for coffee chats I can pass along. I am also happy to share their resume with those undergoing searches for the above or similar roles. Their desired compensation is north of $150k. Thank you for your time!
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.