#205- Kailee Scales: Pencils of Promise (CEO)

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On today’s show, I had the wonderful opportunity to interview the inspiring Kailee Scales, the CEO of Pencils of Promise. Every organization that strives to do great things in the world, needs a strongly empathetic, compassionate and caring leader who is deeply committed to creating lasting change. Kailee Scales has embodied these attributes from early in her life. She has been devoted to a life of service for years and firmly believes that Every human being was born free. But we know for many people there are barriers to this freedom. She believes there are processes that allow people to either have freedom of action and decisions or not to have freedom over their actions and decisions and this is what devoted her life to figuring out why this is. 

Kailee has raised over $100 million and led domestic and international NGOs to address some of the world’s most progressive social and political issues. Most notably, she served as founding national director of Mentor USA and global coordinator of Mentor International, a drug-abuse prevention organization led by Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden, working in close conjunction with HMQ Silvia and United Nations leadership. 

From 2017 to 2020, Kailee served as the first Managing Director of Black Lives Matter Global Network.  In this role, she was responsible for building infrastructure across the global organization..  She launched the Arts+Culture platform and created BLM’s WhatMATTERS2020, a civic engagement campaign targeted towards Black Millennial and Gen Z voters at risk of disenfranchisement.  She also served as the executive producer of the viral video, Rest in Power Beautiful, which aired less than 48 hours after the murder of George Floyd. It was seen over 10M times on social media, BET, CBS, Times Square and the Staples Center. 

 In June 2021, she was chosen by Adam Braun to serve as the CEO of Pencils of Promise. 

This was a deeply insightful conversation and I hope you find a lot of takeaway value in Kailee’s message. I’ve included links to POP in the show notes as well where you can find Kailee on social media. I also encourage to head on over to POP to check out there amazing work. If you are an educational leader or teacher looking to be involved there are lots of ways to connect with them and offer your time. As well, please consider a donation to their cause.

Connect with Kailee:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KaileeScales
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaileescales/?hl=en
Website: https://www.kaileescales.com/about/
Pencils of Promise Website: https://pencilsofpromise.org/