Work with Us

StrivEquity offers coaching, consulting, and strategy rooted in equity-responsive leadership. We work with individuals and institutions committed to transformation, not just transactions.

Executive & Career Coaching

Our Equity-Responsive Leadership (ERL) coaching supports mid-career leaders striving to build more equitable lives, teams, and institutions. Grounded in a seven-step model, ERL integrates awareness, emotional intelligence, and vision-setting—while supporting you through the real, day-to-day tensions of leading equity work in under-resourced settings.

Lead coach David DeVaughn is an ICF-PCC certified coach, trained through the Teleos Leadership Institute. ERL coaching helps leaders create individual learning agendas based on their power, positioning, and social identities.

Ideal for: Executives, mid-career professionals, and nonprofit leaders navigating racial equity, burnout, or transition.

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Investment-Level

StrivEquity works with each client to develop a pricing structure that aligns with your goals, scope, and available resources. Whether coaching, facilitation, or strategy support, we value clarity, transparency, and equitable partnership from the start.

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Institutional Development & Leadership Development

We support leaders in aligning their internal commitments with organizational change. Our approach combines ERL principles with strategy support to help you implement equity-responsive leadership across teams and departments.

Through inquiry-based work, we help you organize your vision, clarify your approach, and map resources toward system-wide outcomes grounded in equity, accessibility, and accountability. 

Ideal for: Leadership teams seeking to implement equity strategies or build internal capacity.

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Investment-Level

StrivEquity works with each client to develop a pricing structure that aligns with your goals, scope, and available resources. Whether coaching, facilitation, or strategy support, we value clarity, transparency, and equitable partnership from the start.

Book Now

Strategic Advisory

StrivEquity partners with mission-driven institutions to strengthen equity-centered campaigns, coalitions, and collaborations. We bring experience across food justice, economic justice, public policy, criminal legal reform, and health equity—offering systems-thinking and strategy grounded in lived experience.

We help partners assess alignment, clarify strategy, and build equitable structures for implementation and accountability.

Ideal for: Institutions seeking equity-infused strategy across complex systems or policy spaces. 

Explore Strategic Advisory Support → 

Investment-Level

StrivEquity works with each client to develop a pricing structure that aligns with your goals, scope, and available resources. Whether coaching, facilitation, or strategy support, we value clarity, transparency, and equitable partnership from the start. 

Book Now

Speaking Services

Through dynamic talks and facilitated sessions, David brings storytelling and strategy to the forefront of conversations on leadership, equity, and resilience. Past talks include:

  • Taking a Professional Sabbatical: Risks, Rest, and Reentry
  • Manager-Subordinate Dynamics: Unpacking Power at Work
  • Leading While Black in White-Majority Philanthropy and Nonprofit Spaces
  • Setting Boundaries and Recognizing Burnout in Mission-Driven Work

Ideal for: Conferences, leadership retreats, fellowship cohorts, and staff learning events.

Book David to Speak → 

Investment-Level

StrivEquity works with each client to develop a pricing structure that aligns with your goals, scope, and available resources. Whether coaching, facilitation, or strategy support, we value clarity, transparency, and equitable partnership from the start. 

Book Now

Equity-Responsive Leadership

Why Equity-Responsive Leadership (ERL)?

ERL was developed to meet the unique leadership needs of Black and Brown professionals navigating calls for equity inside institutions that often fall short in commitment and capacity.

Since 2020, many leaders have faced a constant calculation—balancing personal well-being, professional ambition, institutional demands, and the risk of overexposure. Through conversations with peers, mentors, family, and my own Teleos training, it became clear: traditional leadership models weren’t enough.

ERL strengthens awareness, responsiveness, and self-reflection at all levels—body, mind, and spirit. It helps leaders create environments where feedback is possible, decisions are intentional, and leadership is grounded in clarity and care.

While it is especially resonant for those with marginalized identities, Equity-Responsive Leadership is not exclusive to them. All leaders benefit from integrating identity consciousness, equity orientation, and emotional wisdom into their work. 

What are the Elements of Equity-Responsive Leaders?

  • ERLs courageously pursue their personal and professional goals amidst systemic barriers. 
  • They are most successful when supported to heal and thrive, not just survive.
  • ERLs anchor their work in equity, inclusion, accountability, accessibility, and justice.
  • They require consistent inspiration, value alignment, and respect to sustain impact.
  • They understand how social identities shape power dynamics—interpersonally, in teams, and across institutions.

In David’s Own Words

As a cisgender Black man raised in the Northeastern U.S., I am deeply aware of how my upbringing shaped my early misunderstandings about race and power—especially the many ways anti-Blackness manifests across personal, institutional, and structural lines.

I stay in a mindset of learning and practicing through self-care, self-love, familial connection, and collaboration with those committed to Black liberation. My equity practice is fed by ancestral meditation, activism, writing, reading, and multiple therapeutic spaces. I share this not as an expert, but as someone walking the path with others committed to change. 

The Career Break & Sabbatical

Demystifying the Benefits and Challenges

Are you seeking a meaningful pause beyond traditional vacation time? Juggling caregiving, finances, and burnout? A sabbatical might be your next leadership move.

  • Assess your personal and professional readiness
  • Recognize early warning signs of burnout or misalignment
  • Plan your time off to restore purpose and perspective
  • Leverage therapeutic, spiritual, and creative practices
  • Explore the top 12 challenges and opportunities in sabbatical life

Decoding Manager-Subordinate Dynamics

Recognizing Warning Signs

If something feels off in your relationship with your manager—but you can’t name it—this session is for you.

  • Use emotional intelligence to spot red flags
  • Set and hold healthy professional boundaries
  • Understand when growth is no longer possible under current leadership
  • Navigate peer dynamics that either support or block your advancement

Navigating White-Majority Charity Work as a Black Man

Being one of the only Black men in white-led nonprofit spaces brings unique tensions. This talk explores the cost, the opportunity, and the need for boundary clarity.

  • Evaluate whether your institution’s values align with yours
  • Understand the difference between being present and being empowered
  • Conduct a holistic self-inventory for clarity and care
  • Navigate how identity and social currency interact in nonprofit spaces