Kindra Montgomery-Block grew up on both sides of the racial divide. Influenced at an early age by strong African-American female and male family role models making an impact in law, medicine, policy, and faith-based organizations, she became a translator and a movement builder for people of color, building bridges with the traditionally white communities that influenced their well-being and livelihoods. Today, she draws upon this seminal time of development as an African-American executive luminary who is the driving force behind philanthropy and coalitions that are part of the national Black empowerment conversation.
Inspired to drive inclusive and equitable access to philanthropy and opportunity, Kindra is a media persona, sharing her infectious energy and passion with ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, NBA.com, and national radio audiences. In 2020, she was hand-picked by U.S. Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris to serve on a statewide Black maternal health roundtable.
Kindra has twice been named one of Northern California’s Exceptional Women of Color by HUB Magazine. She is also the recipient of community intelligence, innovative, and impact awards, including honors from Women of Color in Maternal Health, NAACP, American Association of Public Administrators, Comstock’s Magazine, and the Greater Sacramento Urban League. She is frequently invited to speak as a keynote and panelist in the areas of inclusive economic development, social justice and change, reductions in youth violence, and maternal health. She has also secured the publication of her teams’ transformative work in scholarly journals.
As the head of a new community and economic development department for the Sierra Health Foundation, Kindra has built and leads an organization of more than 100 people, including employees, consultants, strategic partners, and a steering committee. She is the architect of California’s first public-private countywide health equity and initiative—the Black Child Legacy Campaign. Managing a multimillion-dollar budget, she led her team in delivering a funding and prevention strategy that significantly reduced preventable African-American child deaths and has lowered health disparity across ethnicities. In partnership with the Sacramento Kings NBA team, Kindra also established the Build.Black.Coalition and the respective campaign to inspire investment in African-American youth and the fight for equity. To date, this partnership has raised $2M and has fueled the Teaming Up for Change all-day social justice summit that has grown from 2 to 9 NBA and WNBA teams.
From 2006 to 2014, Kindra served as the Director of Training & Community Relations for the UC Davis School of Education Center for Community School Partnerships—a leadership role dedicated to the creation of full-service community schools in California. She created new sources of funding by launching and leading a revenue-generating community health consultancy that provided training and strategic guidance for foundations and state government and led the transformation of the legacy Healthy Start locations into Family Resource Centers. The $40M that she secured through grant awards was pivotal in her team’s ability to deliver training activations across the state.
The trajectory of Kindra’s career began in places like the Youth Leadership Institute and People Reaching Out where she developed a passion for youth development and engagement. Earlier, she led Friday Night Live Environment Prevention activations for the Riverside County Department of Mental Health and led training for the Anti-Defamation League. She also participated in two health screening delegation trips to Africa.
Kindra holds a Master of Public Administration from Golden Gate University and a B.A. in political science from the University of California, Riverside. She holds a certificate in business communication from Harvard University. In 2020, she was selected to join the California Black Freedom Fund Advisory Board. In 2015, she was elected to the Sacramento County Mental Health Board of Directors and served as Chair in 2018.
Stay in touch with Kindra
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kindra-f-montgomery-block
IG: @k.f.m.block