E3 Foundation Announces New Hires – -Supporter Grants Fund Positions

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CHARLESTON, S.C. – – Today, E3 Foundation announced the hiring of two employees to fill newly created positions. Felicia Veasey will fill the position of director of partnerships and workforce development, and Crystal Rouse will serve as director of education advocacy and community organizing.

“We are excited that we are able to add to the E3 Foundation core team. These positions will expand our capacity to do the work that is necessary to engage, empower, and equip people to advocate for themselves, increase our external partnerships that ultimately will support our communities’ increased earning capacities through the Good Job Challenge Healthcare Pathways, as well as enlarge our advocacy work through ProTruth South Carolina,” said Founding Partner and Chief Programs Officer for E3 Foundation LaTisha Vaughn. “It is through grants awarded from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and American Red Cross, we are able to fund these much-needed positions.”

E3 Foundation in partnership with the Charleston Chamber Foundation, through the Charleston Metro Chamber and Roper St. Francis Healthcare, was selected as one of 32 Good Jobs Challenges grantees to receive an $8.4 million grant to ignite inclusive and equitable workforce growth within the healthcare industry, which will fund the director of partnerships and workforce development held by Ms. Vesey. She will be responsible for the development, design, and implementation of Lowcountry Careers Collaborative with a specific focus on serving as a liaison to training and integrated wraparound service providers, tackling regional workforce and economic development challenges head-on alongside employers, critical community leaders, and other stakeholders.

With over 15 years of experience, Ms. Veasey is dedicated to championing and facilitating healthier lifestyles for communities. Most recently she worked as the community systems director for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, where she served 11 counties, as well as lead and directed efforts to support the implementation of community systems development. She also worked to address health equity by improving the systems involved in promoting health and reducing chronic disease in partnership with community, municipal, and state health departments. Ms. Veasey also coordinated required grant-funded activities, facilitated community assessment processes, and acted as a liaison to internal and external stakeholders.

Concurrently, she functioned as the COVID Response Operations Director, in which she oversaw the testing and vaccinations for the Lowcountry Region, resulting in development of more than 1250 testing sites in the region, administered 91,000+ COVID tests, and delivered over 53,500 vaccines. She also eliminated the online registration requirement for vaccine appointments to allow walk-ups, which increased access to vaccines given in underserved areas historically plagued with access challenges.

Ms. Veasey holds a Bachelor of Art in psychology with a minor in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of health administration from Tulane University – School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She was the was a recipient of the 2022 James Clyburn Health Equity Award.

Grants from both the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and American Heart Association will be used to fund the position of director of education advocacy and community organizing filled by Ms. Rouse, former E3 Foundation board member. She will be responsible for advocacy and community engagement and organizing strategy, program development and implementation, and data collection and analysis while leading a team of on-the-ground community organizers, and engaging with statewide partners, national advocacy groups, such as ProTruth South Carolina, as well as communication experts and researchers of E3 Foundation.

A daughter of Charleston, S.C., Ms. Rouse has been working as a facilitator, organizer, child advocate, and parent advocate for over 18 years. She served many communities across the United States and Puerto Rico in both formal and informal educational spaces as a youth organizer, an anti-racism trainer, director of change work, director of strategic partnerships, program manager for educational programs, college administrator, and in various capacities with the Children’s Defense Fund’s Freedom Schools and Young Advocate Leadership Training. In addition, she locally, she held the positions of childcare licensing supervisor at the Department of Social Services for several counties in the Lowcountry, the director of collective action networks for Tri-County Cradle to Career Collaborative, and family & community engagement officer for the Charleston County School District.

Ms. Rouse is a proud graduate of historic Burke High School in Charleston, S.C. and holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Brevard College, a master’s degree in adult education with an emphasis in community and higher education from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, a master’s degree in early childhood education from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C., and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C. One of her proudest moments is serving as a co-chair for the Mississippi Freedom Summer 50th Anniversary’s Youth Congress (FSYC) in Jackson, Miss.

Founding Partner/Executive Director E3 Foundation Audrey Lane said, “Both Crystal and Felicia come to their respective roles with the experience and alignment to the E3 Foundation mission. Our organization is growing tremendously, and I am confident that they will both enable us to go to the next level in serving the Charleston community and beyond.”

E3 is a 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to ensure those most impacted by inequities are educated, empowered, and elevate to exercise their agency collectively in the South. It works to educate Black and Brown families through culturally competent, relevant, and sustainable engagement, to empower through the coalition building of Black and Brown led-organizations, leaders, educators, children, and families, and to elevate Black and Brown communities to act in their power and purpose.