Join us this Friday to welcome Beverly Ferguson, Senior Director of Community Affairs at the Georgia Pacific Foundation. You can attend via Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86202979419

Bev joined Georgia-Pacific (GP) in 2017 and manages a $5M portfolio of GP Foundation’s philanthropic investments and initiatives focused on four strategic areas (Four E’s): Education, Entrepreneurship, Environment and Enrichment of Community. She is directly responsible for managing all education and enrichment grant applications, investments and initiatives for the Georgia-Pacific Foundation and Georgia-Pacific LLC. She serves as relationship manager for all local and national external nonprofit partnerships that fall within the education and community enrichment focus areas.

Additional areas of responsibility include,

• supporting the philanthropic efforts of over 90 of Georgia-Pacific’s 200+ manufacturing facilities
• managing community programs including Annual United Way Employee Engagement Campaign, Habitat for Humanity Annual GP House Build, GP Foundation’s Employees’ Children’s Scholarship Program; and GP Buddy Tutoring Program, a 23-year Partnership with M. Agnes Jones Elementary School
• supporting the Foundation President in identifying civic board service opportunities for GP’s executive leadership team.

Bev reports to President of the GP Foundation. Prior to joining Georgia-Pacific, She served as senior vice president of Programs & Member Services for 100 Black Men of America, Inc. She served as a senior member of the Headquarters team of the largest African American led mentoring organization in the U.S. with over 100 Chapter affiliates. Bev was responsible for private foundation fundraising, national programs and member services to strengthen the Chapter Affiliate Network, building capacity to extend organizational reach into communities, and ensuring national programs provided the expected ROI of funders and partners. She provided senior staff support to the National Board of Directors and National Committee Chairs to achieve annual goals.

Bev’s professional career is diverse and expands five states. As founder and president of the Ferguson Group, business and educational consulting, she provided services to advance the organizational missions of clients by bolstering impact and driving change management and innovation. At Clark Atlanta University (CAU), she served as a member of the Institutional Advancement team in the role of senior director of alumni relations & development. During her tenure at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Bev served as vice president of education policy where she developed, implemented and managed the business community’s education policy initiatives to improve K-12 education in 11-county metro Atlanta.

Bev also served as education lobbyist and formed strategic partnerships with local and state organization leaders to strengthen a common agenda. Prior to relocating to Atlanta to accept the Metro Chamber’s position, Bev worked in the College of Education at Jacksonville State University. She also taught elementary school for over 10 years in Alabama and Tennessee; and managed her husband’s medical practice in Ohio until eventually selling it. The civic organizations in which she shares her time, talents and treasures as a board member or advisory council member include the Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement (GLISI), The Urban League of Greater Atlanta, Literacy Action Atlanta, Committee for A Better Atlanta (Metro Atlanta Chamber), and Atlanta Partners for Education (Atlanta Public Schools).

Bev is the mother of three fantastic adult children and has six terrific grandchildren. Among her hobbies are writing, gardening, travelling, and fishing from Anchorage, Alaska to the Florida Keys.