Judy Freiwirth, Psy.D. is the Principal of Nonprofit Solutions Associates. For over 30 years she has been consulting to, coaching, and training for national, regional, and community-based social justice nonprofits, networks, foundations, and coalitions. Nationally-known for her dynamic speaking engagements, she has been a keynote speaker and trainer at international, national, and regional conferences and trainings. Her areas of consulting and coaching include: strategic planning; governance/board development; racial equity, inclusion, diversity initiatives; shared leadership; executive transition; community/constituent engagement; leadership development; organizational restructuring; collective impact and coalition building; community and organizational assessment; program evaluation; human resources; organizing campaign strategy and team development. She uses a racial justice lens as an underlying framework for her consulting and coaching.
Much of her practice is devoted to working with social justice and other progressive social change organizations, networks, and movements, especially those that serve immigrant communities, communities of color, and low-income communities. She has worked extensively with the Latino, Haitian, Brazilian, African, African-American, Southeast Asian, South Asian, and Cape Verdean communities. She works both independently and as part of a cross-racial consulting teams.
She is the primary developer and action researcher for a new, innovative governance approach, Community-Engagement Governance™, a framework in which community stakeholders are engaged in shared governance decision-making and leadership. This innovative framework builds effectiveness and efficiency for nonprofits, providing a mechanism that goes beyond the board of directors as the sole locus of governance, and implements governance based on democratic, participatory principles.
For over 30 years, she has been active as an executive director, board member, officer, community organizer, and committee member in a wide variety of international, national, and community multi-cultural nonprofit organizations, coalitions, and progressive movements. Additionally, she has an organizing background that includes experience in building local, national, and international grassroots, social justice coalitions around specific educational, advocacy, community empowerment, and social change campaigns. She served as the Executive Director and National Field Organizer of a national multi-issue social justice movement organization. Dr. Freiwirth’s national and community organizing experience includes, but is not limited to, leadership development, the building of multicultural organizations, campaign strategy, coalition-building, and membership development and engagement.
Judy has published numerous articles for The Nonprofit Quarterly and a contributing author for two published books, Nonprofit Governance: Innovative Perspectives and Approaches, Routledge Publishers; and You and Your Board: New Practices for Challenging Times from Researchers, Provocateurs, and Practitioners. She is an affiliated consultant with the Social Transformation Project and the Mel King Institute for Community Building and is a Certified Board Trainer with BoardSource.
She serves on the Board of the national Alliance for Nonprofit Management (the national organization of capacity builders) and as the Chair of its national Governance Affinity Group, a network of capacity builders focused on developing new approaches to governance, conducting research, and promoting research-based practice. She also serves on the Editorial Board the Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership and holds a doctorate in psychology, specializing in organization development.
Judy currently resides in Massachusetts.