Our Team
Benny Overton
Co-Exective Director
Benny is the former president of United Auto Workers Local 737 in Nashville, Tennessee. His other roles have included vice chairman of Nashville Organized for Action and Hope (NOAH), president of the Dickson County Branch NAACP, a vice president of the Tennessee AFL-CIO, executive board member of the Nashville Area-Middle Tennessee Central Labor Council, and adjunct professor at the Tennessee State University College of Business. Benny holds an M.B.A. from Tennessee State University. Prior to his involvement with cooperatives, Benny was responsible for planning and instituting self-directed work groups in an automotive supply facility (in which he co-led the development of over 70 self-directed groups); in these groups, workers had decentralized operational decision-making authority.
Reach Benny at benny@sec4cd.org
Rosemarie Henkel-Rieger
Co-Executive Director
Rosemarie is a community organizer, author, lecturer, and a co-founder of the Southeast Center for Cooperative Development. She has been involved with worker rights advocacy as the community engagement coordinator with the Dallas AFL-CIO Central Labor Council and director of Texas New ERA Center/Jobs with Justice. Before working in nonprofit and cooperative development, Rosemarie worked in biotech research for many years and was a Montessori educator. She holds an M.S. degree from Eberhard Karls University (Germany) and an M.Ed. degree from Loyola University Maryland.
Reach Rosemarie at rosemarie@sec4cd.org
ROSA PONCE
Loan Organizer
Originally from a border town in Arizona, Rosa has been in TN for over 20 years, and has been organizing here since 2014. Rosa has been involved with various organizations, unions, and causes including SOCM (Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment), IUPAT (International Union of Painters and Allied Trades), Jobs with Justice, and Labor Notes. When she’s not organizing, she enjoys spending time in nature, listening to old Spanish rock bands, spending time with friends, and with her daughter, Ale, on the road discovering new places, ideas, and foods.
Reach Rosa at rosa@sec4cd.org
josh corlew
Program Development Co-lead
Josh studied Information Systems and Management in undergrad and worked for many years in the IT industry. In 2007 Josh moved to the nonprofit sector, first as an AmeriCorps volunteer, and then by building an urban farm focusing on youth development through the lens of urban agriculture through a program that served hundreds of young people and utilized thousands of volunteers in activities ranging from tilling fields to building curriculum evaluation metrics. After completing a Masters in Social Responsibility and Sustainable Communities, Josh worked as a Project Manager for a small consulting company helping nonprofits develop a systems-oriented view to building resiliency through data collection and analysis.
Reach Josh at josh@sec4cd.org
induja kumar
Communications Lead
Originally from Arizona, Induja has found a home in labor and youth organizing in Nashville over the past couple of years. Alongside organizing, Induja brings to the role a background in community-based research partnerships and leading strategic communications, especially for worker-led organizations. Recent experiences include spearheading media campaigns for tenants' associations and gig-worker organizing across TN, and being selected as an AFL-CIO Organizing Institute Fellow. Induja is excited to learn more about cooperative economics, especially in relation to sustainable development. Being from a part of the US particularly threatened by climate change, and having seen firsthand how labor and climate issues often overlap, Induja hopes to learn more about the possibilities presented by solidarity economies in achieving a truly just transition for all people.
Reach Induja at indu@sec4cd.org
Our Board
Terry Clayton
Terry is an attorney with Terry Clayton and Associates, P.C., in Nashville, Tennessee. He is an active member of Nashville Organizing for Action and Hope, and serves on the Board of the Tennessee State University Foundation and Samaritan Ministries of Temple Baptist Church. Mr. Clayton served in the Army National Guard for 11 years and as the Equal Opportunity Officer for the Tennessee National Guard for 14 years. He holds a J.D. from Howard University School of Law.
Terry is the President of our founding Board along with Benny and Rosemarie.
Lauren Rogal
Lauren Rogal is an Associate Clinical Professor at Vanderbilt University. She developed and teaches Vanderbilt’s Turner Family Community Enterprise Clinic, in which students support nonprofit organizations and start-up entrepreneurs. Lauren has represented nonprofits and social enterprises, where she focused on developing sustainable financing structures for community development and facilitated complex international transactions. Her current scholarship focuses on reforming executive compensation in the nonprofit sector.
Loraine Segovia-Paz
Loraine is a small business owner who started a business in the food industry after immigrating from Bolivia and Peru to Nashville in 2001. She served as board chair for the Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce from 2013 to 2015, is currently a board member of the Southeast Center for Cooperative Development and Connectus Health and has served on the boards of the Tennessee Region American Red Cross, Comprehensive Care Center, and the ALIAS Chamber Ensemble. She was also appointed by Mayor Karl Dean to the Nashville Metro Human Relations Commission.
Vonda mcdaniel
Vonda grew up in Nashville, TN, where her commitment to activism was sparked early through her church, the First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill. She joined the United Rubber Workers (URW) in 1992 at the Bridgestone-Firestone Lavergne Plant, where she has been for the last 30 years. Since then, she has been involved in various organizations and efforts like A. Philip Randolph Institute, American Association of University Women (AAUW), and NAACP, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., and the Tennessee State University National Alumni Association. Today she also serves as President of the Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee. It is her belief that working at the intersections of labor, civil rights, faith and community organizing can bring us closer to the promise of equality for all and build real power for transformative change.