(she/her)

Renee G. Gadsden serves as the Community Engagement Research Analyst and self-proclaimed dot connector for the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Her life purpose is to help build systems and cultures that socially and economically mobilize marginalized communities. Her role in our office is to create, execute, and manage an inclusive community engagement strategy that builds trust with, listens to, informs, and elevates the voice of BIPOC communities across Davidson County.

Renee is the first in her family to graduate college and receive a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree. Renee earned a Bachelor of Science at Bryant University in Rhode Island, where she majored in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing Research and minored in Urban Sociology. She earned her Master’s degree in Public Affairs and certificate in Nonprofit Studies at the University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, where she studied public policy, social and economic mobility, and philanthropy.

Her personal life experience in exploring self-identity and cultural history led her to a career in diversity, equity, and inclusion and engagement. Renee honors all those that saw her potential, elevated her, and opened doors of opportunity and consistently finds ways to pay it forward.