Cohort 5 (2021-2022)

Lina Shalabi has over 15 years of experience in a wide range of roles across an even wider range of organizations. Although diverse, Lina’s past experiences across accounting, microfinance, operations, and support have all helped her to understand her distinctive skill to be a liaison between multiple stakeholders.  

She is currently an Executive Assistant at the Kataly Foundation, where she supports the CEO and steps into and out of workflows across the foundation as needed. Lina holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Master of Arts in Social Entrepreneurship. Her primary areas of interest are immigration, entrepreneurship, and supporting her communities. Born in Puerto Rico to Palestinian immigrants, Lina moved to California as a toddler where she grew up in a multicultural and multilingual household. She currently resides on Coastal Miwok land in the Bay Area. 

Michelle Maryns is the Founder and CEO of We Sparkle Co., a B2B SaaS social enterprise and public benefit corporation dedicated to building a stronger and more inclusive economy by equipping underestimated entrepreneurs with the AI-powered software tools they need to succeed.  

Before We Sparkle Co., Maryns was the Chief of Strategic Initiatives at Meda, a community development financial institution named by the U.S. Department of Commerce as the top minority business development agency in the country for four years in a row. Prior to Meda, Maryns was the Associate Director of Digital Strategy and Innovation at the American Academy of Neurology, Strategy Consultant at Rêve Consulting, Community Relations Specialist at the U.S. Department of Justice, and a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State. 

Feeling called to chart a new path that better reflects the world she wants to live in and pass on to future generations, Meg Boucher is thrilled to be a JEI Fellow. She is specifically interested in the power of entrepreneurship for a community, especially when approached with a collaborative and shared ownership lens. 

Meg earned her CPA and spent time with Deloitte’s international tax practice in Boston and Chicago before deciding that she wanted to focus on serving the investing needs and interests of families, nonprofits, and foundations. She spent four years at Alliance Bernstein, with the last two years culminating in a financial advising partnership with an established principal. Meg was the recipient of the national Royal Reach Award and a graduate of the firm’s leadership development program.  

She serves as a member of the leadership team of the Young Leaders Fund at the Chicago Community Trust. Meg graduated from the University of Notre Dame, where she majored in Accounting and Romance Languages. Born and raised in south central Pennsylvania, Meg and her husband now call Chicago home. She enjoys walking dogs at the no-kill animal shelter, PAWS, volunteering as a soccer coach, and running along the Chicago lakefront.  

Stephone Coward is the CoFounder of BankBlackUSA, and the nonprofit COWRIE Initiative, which leads the #BankBlack grassroots movement through BankBlackUSA. He has managed the #BankBlack online movement since 2016.  

Through this work he has learned, explained, and developed solutions around closing the Racial Wealth Gap in communities that have become banking deserts. This recent work focused on providing people with digestible knowledge and information.  

Stephone has worked in the banking industry in Dallas Fort Worth for 17 years and has spent that time as an economic empowerment advocate for underserved communities. Through collaboration he works to be a liaison between the community and resources to ensure that everyone has access to tools that lay the foundation for opportunities. 

BankBlackUSA was founded in order to continue this advocacy work. It is an initiative that formed out of the larger #BankBlack Movement after deadly police shootings in Black communities in July 2016. This work builds on a long legacy of connecting economic power to improving social and racial justice and equity in America. Minority Depository Institutions can play an integral role in closing the racial wealth gap but are historically under-supported. In 2021, Stephone was named one of Forbes Next 1000, and currently serves on the Board of Impact Ventures. 

Monica Munn has dedicated her career to building more equitable economies, resilient communities, and sustainable systems, and brings over a decade of experience traversing the philanthropic, social enterprise, and private sectors. 

Monica currently serves as Managing Director of Philanthropy at World Education Services (WES), a social enterprise dedicated to helping international students, immigrants, and refugees achieve their goals. In this role, Monica oversees WES’ philanthropic initiatives, including the WES Mariam Assefa Fund, impact investing, funding partnerships, and corporate philanthropy.  

Previously, Monica held several positions at the Rockefeller Foundation focused on global jobs, food security, and rural energy initiatives. Locally, she led neighborhood development, environmental sustainability, and community engagement programs at a community-based organization in New York City. Monica also worked at a social enterprise, Next Street, that fosters inclusive economic growth by backing entrepreneurs and small businesses who have been historically underinvested in.  

She began her career as analyst at Citigroup, and serves on the executive committee of the Workforce Matters Funders Network and on the management committee of the Toronto Workforce Funder Collaborative. Monica holds a B.Sc. in International Politics from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a M.Sc. in Sustainability Management from Columbia University’s Earth Institute.