Valeska Redmond, Ph.D., founder and CEO, is a veteran fundraiser and strategist. She worked for the United Way of the Greater Triangle in Morrisville, N.C. as campaign associate before joining the Raleigh-based Boys & Girls Clubs of Wake County in her role as director of development and marketing. During her tenure at the Boys & Girls Clubs, she successfully led numerous annual campaigns that each yielded $1 million or more and supported a $12 million capital and endowment campaign. She also served as director of strategic partnerships and initiatives at William Peace University in Raleigh, leading a team that developed the first five-year strategic plan for the School of Professional Studies.
Valeska also has extensive teaching experience, both on the graduate and undergraduate level, and taught courses in marketing, public relations, and communications research methods. Born and raised in Germany, Valeska is fluent in German, English, Spanish, and French. She holds a Ph.D. in communications, rhetoric, and digital media from N.C. State University in Raleigh. Valeska is the author of two scholarly books and several scholarly publications.
Valeska enjoys horseback riding, scuba diving, skiing, sailing, and traveling. She lives in Raleigh with her husband and young daughter.
Eric Larson is a frequent collaborator with Dogwood Philanthropy Group and assists clients with strategic planning, board training, and communications strategies. As the founder of The Organizational Detectives, Eric focuses on helping organizations, both for-profit and nonprofit, build the necessary systems and practices to ensure a committed and focused workforce. Prior to his consulting career, Eric created and led leadership growth programs for CompTIA, the world’s largest IT trade association, and its philanthropic arm, CompTIA Spark, for more than a decade.
A former Peace Corps volunteer to the Republic of Kiribati, Eric also worked as an investigative reporter and owned his own digital media company, which earned him Entrepreneur of the Year from his local chamber of commerce and Best in Multimedia from the PR Association of Western North Carolina. As the director of marketing and communications for the College of Design at N.C. State University, Eric led numerous communications campaigns for one of the leading design colleges in the country.
Eric graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in English from Duke University. He earned an MBA from East Carolina University where he also received a Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Management.
A fan of puzzles and games of all types, he is the author of the Rett Swinson Mystery novels under the pen name Eric Lodin. He lives with his family in Raleigh, N.C.