Introducing our Managing Director, Dahnesh Medora
We’re excited to introduce our first staff member, our managing director, Dahnesh Medora!
Dahnesh has over two decades of leadership experience working directly with community-based organizations and in philanthropy. Early in his career, he served at the Tides Center and Foundation in San Francisco, providing fiscal sponsorship related services to start-up nonprofits around the country. At the National Community Development Institute, he provided capacity building support to groups serving communities of color. More recently, he served as Chief Impact Officer for United Way of the Columbia-Willamette and the Building Community Portfolio Director at Meyer Memorial Trust. He is also currently a Senior Fellow at Western States Center.
When he was young, Dahnesh’s family immigrated from India to Montana, which sparked a lifelong passion for bridging differences. At an early age, he learned how othering and belonging show up in a community, and he experienced both. He realized that all of us, at one point or another, will experience both, sometimes in plain and visible ways, and sometimes in ways that are more subtle. He was genuinely curious about people and driven to investigate what it looks like to work with folks who don’t look like you, whose names don’t sound like yours, who come from different backgrounds.
Dahnesh shared: “I feel lucky that I’m in a position where I can be curious and try to learn what matters to people in their community. Philanthropy needs to be in the listening business, more than anything. My early experiences made me curious and made me inclined to listen. I try to bring that to my work every day.”
With this wealth of experiences, we’re confident Dahnesh will excel in his role at the CareOregon Foundation.
Dahnesh says he was drawn to join CareOregon Foundation for a few reasons. He appreciates the board members’ depth of knowledge and experiences, as well as their focus on all of the factors that contribute to health--not just healthcare, but also things like transportation, poverty, and civil rights. He sees the Foundation’s work as a promising counterbalance to an increase in divisive policies that target vulnerable communities. He is also excited about the opportunity to help build something from the ground up.
Dahnesh is building relationships with individuals, organizations, and communities across the state, listening, learning, and responding to community needs. If you’re interested in connecting with Dahnesh and sharing what’s going on in your community, he’d be happy to hear from you! Send a message to Dahnesh through our contact form.