Sanford Board Leadership Initiative
We’re grateful to the Sanford Board Leadership Initiative and Jesse Davis (MPP ’26) for partnering with StepUp Durham through this experience.
As a non-voting board member, Jesse truly immersed himself in our Step1 Jobs Training program—supporting both our team and participants. From creating a technology literacy survey to identifying clear pathways for participants to strengthen their skills, his contributions had real impact.
Thank you, @dukesanford and SBLI, for investing in our work and our community.
Get @reshare_app • @duke_sanford Through the Sanford Board Leadership Initiative (SBLI), Jesse Davis MPP’26 served as a non-voting board member for @stepupdurham.
“The experience allowed me to bridge my technology policy concentration with real-world community needs in Durham,” Jesse shares. “By collecting original data and mapping it to concrete workforce pathways, I was able to operationalize concepts from my courses, digital equity, reentry policy, human-centered design, stakeholder engagement, and program evaluation. SBLI also gave me hands-on board experience, strengthened my ability to communicate findings to organizational leadership, and reinforced my commitment to public-sector/nonprofit partnerships that support marginalized populations.”
His biggest takeaway: “Public Policy is first and foremost about people. What do the people need? What are some challenges they encounter in everyday life? Getting to speak to StepUp Durham participants who are using the program to find work and turn their lives around, and include their voices in my work, is a powerful reminder that policy decisions are not abstract; they shape real lives. Hearing their stories grounded my work in empathy and reaffirmed why equitable, accessible workforce development matters so deeply.”
