Board Of Directors
Our Leadership
Deborah “Debby” Warren, Board Chair
Principal, Debby Warren Consulting
Adjunct Professor, Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy – Duke University
Debby Warren has spent the past 30+ years promoting social and economic justice in the American South, mostly working in the non-profit sector, including serving as the first Executive Director of both the Southern Rural Development Initiative (SRDI) and the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina (CRA-NC). She also served as Co-Director of the legal services entity that preceded the NC Justice Center. Ms. Warren also taught at Duke University’s Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, developing new courses on Nonprofit Leadership and Community Philanthropy.
Billy Hix, Vice Chair
Director, Office of Environmental Health and Engineering
Cherokee Nation
Mr. Hix has been employed with Cherokee Nation for nearly two decades. He graduated from Northeastern State University with a bachelor of science in Chemistry in 1996 and a master of science in Industrial Management in 2000. He is a Registered Sanitarian with the State of Oklahoma and the National Environmental Health Association and holds a Class B Water Operator and Water Laboratory licenses, as well as a Class C Wastewater license from the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality. Mr. Hix works closely with many federal, state and local agencies to address water and sewer infrastructure needs in the Cherokee Nation’s 14-county jurisdictional area of northeast Oklahoma.
Deb Markley, Secretary/Treasurer
Executive Director, LOCUS
Max Sprinkle,
Attorney at Law, Sprinkle Firm
Mr. Sprinkle has an extensive entrepreneurial background, as he has founded and operated several successful businesses. He also serves as a volunteer at Bowen Business Law Group, PLUS Program, Academic Success Program, Moot Court Board, Mock Trial Team as well as several others. He received a bachelor of science in Business Administration/Marketing from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and attended the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Bowen School of Law.
Salomon Torres
Owner/Consultant, Saloman Torres Soluciones
Mr. Torres’ story is one of family, hard work and success. He is the youngest of eight siblings and was raised in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, where he migrated with his family picking seasonal crops from the canneries of Wisconsin to the fields of California. Mr. Torres currently provides government affairs and commercial development consulting services from his Harlingen, Texas, downtown office. Previously, he served three years as Executive Director of the San Benito (Texas) Economic Development Corporation. Mr. Torres served as district director in South Texas for Congressman Ruben Hinojosa for nine years and served three years on Capitol Hill for Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez and the House Small Business Committee.
Donna Kay Yeargan
Principal, DKY Consulting
Donna Kay Yeargan is a native Arkansan born and reared in Howard County. She has been actively engaged in political and social issues throughout her life. Donna Kay lives in her state as many of us live in our communities. After graduating from the University of Arkansas, where she was a campus leader, she married and moved to Foreman, Arkansas, where she was involved in civic and church activities and became active in local, regional and state activities. During that time, Donna Kay earned a Masters Degree from East Texas State University, now affiliated with Texas A&M.
Donna Kay has served on the University of Arkansas Alumni Board of Directors and the Natural State Committee, and as Chairman of the State Parks Commission and the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council, along with serving in a multitude of community and civic organizations. In 1999, Donna Kay joined newly-elected Blanche Lincoln as the Director of Economic Development. She held the post until 1997 when she was named State Director for Senator Lincoln, overseeing the state operations of Senator Lincoln’s offices in Arkansas. She continued in that post until January 2011.
Dominique Gómez
Program Director, Salazar Center for North American Conservation – Colorado State University
Dominique Gómez is the Deputy Director of the Colorado Energy Office, a non-regulatory department within the office of Governor Jared Polis. The Colorado Energy Office works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and consumer energy costs by advancing energy, energy efficiency and zero-emissions vehicles to benefit all Coloradans. Prior to serving in this role, Dominique was the Program Director at the Salazar Center at Colorado State University where she focused on climate adaptation and resilience. Before that she was Chief Operating Officer at WaterSmart Software, where she helped the company grow its operations and advocated for technology and innovation in the water sector.
Dominique served on the Denver Climate Action Task Force which made recommendations to strengthen Denver’s work to address climate change equitably and recommended funding through a sales tax which led to the voter approved Measure 2A, which will generate between $20 and $40 million a year to combat climate change and economic disparity. She also serves on the board of Cascadia Consulting, a sustainability consulting firm based in Seattle.
Dominique graduated with an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and has a BA from Yale University. She lives in Denver with her husband and young daughters.
Justin Maxson
Executive Director, BuildUS Fund
Justin Maxson is a philanthropic strategist and advocate for policy and practice that create economic opportunity and climate progress. Prior to becoming the Executive Director at BuildUS he was Senior Fellow at the Amalgamated Institute and the Deputy Under Secretary at USDA-RD. Justin also served six years as Chief Executive Officer at the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. Before joining the Foundation, Justin spent 13 years as President of the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (now Mountain Association), a multi-strategy sustainable economic development organization and CDFI working in eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia. Justin was on the founding board of the Center for Rural Strategies, and a yearlong fellow at the Sustainability Institute and the Rockwood Leadership Institute. He served at the Kentucky Governor’s request on the Kentucky Climate Action Planning Committee and the planning committee for Shaping Our Appalachian region. He has a master’s degree from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky, both in Anthropology.
Leadership
Ines Polonius
Chief Executive Officer
Ines Polonius is CEO of Communities Unlimited, Inc., a CDFI and community economic development organization in the rural South. Communities Unlimited (CU) works side by side with local leaders to create fair access to resources needed to sustain healthy communities, healthy businesses and healthy families. CU resides in the solutions space, providing direct assistance and capital to micro-enterprises, small businesses as well as water and wastewater systems in persistently poor rural places across Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.
Ines earned an MBA and an MA in Economics from Boston University and received her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
Today, Ines serves on the board of directors of the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) and of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO). She is a 2017 BALLE Fellow, an RWJF Interdisciplinary Research Leader, an active member of the Partners for Rural Transformation and the national WealthWorks network.
