Charles McDonald
Founder & CO-CEO
Charles McDonald is the Founder and CEO for Community Engagement Partners.
Prior to his role at Community Engagement Partners, Charles was the Senior Fellow, Advocacy and Engagement for Education Cities where he used his expertise as an educational justice organizer, strategist, and advocate to support Education Cities’ member organizations with their approaches to community engagement and advocacy, with a special emphasis on activating families and parents most impacted by educational inequity.
He served as Senior Managing Director, External Affairs for Teach For America – South Carolina where he led their district and school partnerships, grassroots teacher recruitment campaign, public and private fundraising, and communications efforts for four years. He also served as Program Manager for Education Pioneers’ Greater Boston Analyst and Graduate School Fellowship programs for two years.
Early in his career, Charles was a youth organizer for the Alliance for Educational Justice and Californians for Justice where he specialized in base building, grassroots mobilization efforts, and leadership development programming. He began his career as a labor organizer alongside home childcare providers and food service workers with the SEIU and AFSCME.
Charles is also the Founder and Principal of Actualize Impact, LLC., a social impact design firm supporting innovative business and community leaders in amplifying their practice of making a positive social impact on the world.
He is a member of the 2016 Pahara Network. Charles has a BA in Political Science from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He lives in rural central Ohio with his wife, three children, and six goats.
John Scott MPA
co-ceo
John is a native of the Cincinnati, Ohio area where he has 20 years of experience in working alongside community leaders to drive positive change in their communities. He holds a BS in Urban Affairs from Wright State University and a master's degree in public administration (MPA) from Northern Kentucky University.
Early in his career as a community organizer, John worked alongside grassroots residents and leaders to organize revitalization efforts within their communities, helping them leverage millions of dollars and other resources to support comprehensive community development efforts. John's early service work also impacted the non-profit community where he served as the Senior Relationship Administrator with United Way of Greater Cincinnati where he managed over $10M in grants to agencies, played a lead role in developing United Ways' new funding model to focus more deeply on addressing the root causes of concentrated poverty, led the organization's diversity/inclusion initiatives, and was named a United Way Worldwide Global Leadership Fellow, where he worked with leaders from across the globe to affect change in their communities.
Following his time with United Way, John served as the Program Manager with Cincinnati
Children's, the #3 hospital in the country, to develop community health and workforce development partnerships to better address social determinants of health throughout the region. As a result of John's work, the hospital broadened its partnerships to include over 100 organizations, experienced an 85% increase in youth and racial minority participation in hospital sponsored career programs, and outreach programs and initiatives reaching 20,000 children/families annually. John was also instrumental in the creation of several new initiatives including the First Ladies for Health faith-based initiative in partnership with the mayor's wife, the first ladies of black churches, and health organizations. John also supported the first Community Advisory Council made up of community leaders and hospital leaders where participants consistently reported improved engagement and communication with the hospital.
From this role, John went on to serve as the VP of Partner Advancement with Accelerate Great Schools, developing the organization's parent and community engagement partnerships that led to the launch and expansion of several high-quality schools (public, private, and charter). John provided strategic planning, community building, and engagement advice to school and community partners to develop and sustain their parent/community engagement initiatives in pursuit of every child in every neighborhood receiving great school options. John's work also empowered families to advocate and access the education their children deserve.
John is a member of Class 21 of the Urban League’s African American Leadership Development Program and is also recipient of numerous leadership and service awards including the MLK Humanitarian Award, ASPA Public Administrator of the Year, and Cincinnati Business Courier Forty under 40. He serves on several boards including the Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission, Most Valuable Kids, and was a founding member of the Covington Independent Public Schools Superintendent’s Parent Advisory Council.
He currently resides in Covington, KY, (as he affectionately calls it South Cincinnati) with his beautiful wife Sophia, who also is a leader in the non-profit community. Together they have three children: Jackson, Joy, and Justus.
Virginia Beltran
Director, operations
Virginia was born and raised in Cali, Colombia. After graduating with a degree in Journalism, she made the decision to move to the United States with her mother and brother.
Virginia has over 15 years of experience in education, running language schools specifically for adults coming from abroad as F-1 visa students. She has expertise in the areas of immigration regulations including F-1 visa, I-20 eligibility, and monitoring and compliance with the Student & Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS).
In her role as Director, Operations for CEP, Virginia ensures the operational health and wellbeing of CEP is in great standing. She supports the CEO and manages the day-to-day operations of the organization in a way that maximizes CEP’s ability to reach their ambitious goals.
Virginia currently lives in Orlando, Florida with her husband, 3 children and a dog. She is passionate about her family, and loves spending her free time at the beach or anywhere in the company of nature.