Dekonti Mends-Cole serves as Vice President for the Mid-Atlantic at JP Morgan Chase Global Philanthropy overseeing strategic grant making in the greater Washington region. Dekonti is an economic and community development practitioner having worked on the ground in the country’s most distressed communities. Prior to joining JP Morgan Chase & Co., she served as the Director of Policy at the Center for Community Progress, a national non-profit based in Flint, Michigan, that equips communities with the tools and resources needed to effectively address abandonment, blight, and vacancy. Additionally,

Dekonti served as a Deputy Director at the Detroit Land Bank Authority, the country’s largest land bank, and as a fellow with the White House Strong Cities, Strong Communities initiative embedded in the City of Detroit. She brings international experience and best practice to her grant-making role having previously worked on local economic development projects in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa including infrastructure investment strategies in Iraq and Zambia for the United Nations and community development projects tied to the 2012 London Olympics. She holds an MSc from the London School of Economics in Urban Regeneration and Affordable Housing, a Juris Doctor from Georgetown Law Center, and a BA from University of Miami in International Studies and Economics.