Free Newsletter
Listen to this articleAngela Patton
CEO — Girls for Change
As the leader of Girls For A Change, Angela has been recognized in the local Richmond, VA press as Top 40 Under 40 (2010), by a coalition of girl-serving groups in 2015 identifying Girls For A Change as one of five programs to note, establish a long-term partnership with the NoVo Foundation, by President Obama as a White House Champion of Change (2016), received the Nonprofit Partner of the Year (2018) from the Metropolitan Business League, and Richmond Times-Dispatch 2019 Person of the Year Honoree. Angela is an Ambassador for who she calls “at-promise” (as opposed to “at-risk”) girls and a serial innovator. Angela is committed to “Preparing Black girls for the World …and the World for Black Girls.”
In 2004, Angela founded Camp Diva to honor Diva Mstadi Smith-Roan, a five-year-old who died in a firearm accident earlier that year. That summer, Angela planned a two-week summer experience that gave Diva’s mother an opportunity to share her motherly love with girls in need of a support system. In 2013, the program expanded nationally when Camp Diva merged with California-based Girls For A Change (GFAC), a nonprofit through which 100 girls’ groups throughout the nation work together to envision and execute lasting change in their neighborhoods, cities, or schools.
In 2016, Patton lead her national Board of Directors and staff to retool the focus and build a program structure and provide space for girls to more accurately reflect GFAC’s goal to work with Black girls and to disseminate our programs using a specific, replicable approach.
Angela’s TEDx Talk describing a father-daughter dance for incarcerated dads and their “at-promise” girls has been viewed over 980,000 times to date. Following its release, Angela’s work was featured on ABC’s World News, Inside Edition, NPR’s TED Radio Hour, and CNN’s This Is Life with Lisa Ling. She has been in demand from corporations, at conferences on girls, as well as colleges and universities throughout the country.
When she isn’t inspiring change, advocating gender equality, promoting opportunities, and empowering girls, she is hanging with her family in Richmond, VA, enjoying festivals and concerts with her husband and motivator, Raymond Patton and their loving children, Imhotep and Asani. Her interests include spending a day at the spa, visiting the Caribbean islands, cardio kickboxing, watching documentaries, and attending dinner parties with close friends.
Don’t forget to register for the WOC Innovator Awards!
