Dean Richards is a Program Officer for Learning at The Heinz Endowments where his work focuses on supporting Family and Child Well-being, Holistic Education and Workforce Readiness. Most recently, he served as the Philanthropy Fellow at the BNY Mellon Foundation of Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Additionally, Dean brings to his current role over 15 years of direct service within the nonprofit sector which includes serving as the Program Manager for the Black Male Leadership Development Institute (BMLDI)-a program of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh. Under his leadership, BMLDI, tripled its outreach to connect with hundreds of youth from across the Greater Pittsburgh region and exposed them to more than 130 community leaders, helping to visualize their path to post-high school academic success. Dean has also worked to serve youth through his creation and facilitation of close to 200 curriculum-based workshops which include those he led in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice through its Student Problem Identification and Resolution of Issues Together (S.P.I.R.IT.) program. Dean is passionate about volunteerism and has orchestrated both large and small-scale events resulting in more than 7,200 hours of service-learning experience.
Dean holds a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree with a concentration in Nonprofit Management from the University of Pittsburgh.