Board of Directors
Dr. Selen Beduk, President
As an educational leader, Dr. Beduk has 20+ international experience in classroom education, program/research administration overseeing 10+ staff members & 300+ students along with consultancy in transforming UNSDGs to product & content developments. While the majority of her experience is at the Higher education level, she also had the opportunity to work with middle and high school staff and students, as well as district instructional and department leaders in numerous educational initiatives focusing on the promotion of sustainable practices in educational organizations. Her favorite quote for education is from Mahatma Gandhi “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." Mrs. Beduk offers benchmarking to various non-profit, cultural, and governmental partners in Georgia leveraging her access to best global education practices across the world. Her research interests include sustainability practices such as climate change, GHG emissions, waste management, eco-friendly environmental solutions, mitigation policies, conflict resolution, human rights, women entrepreneurship initiatives and the adaptation of UNSDGs into curriculum in K-16 environment. She is self-motivated, service oriented, passionate about creating value in society especially in underserved communities while making a difference to students and faculty with her educational leadership skills.
Tracy Gray, VP of Advocacy
Tracy has more than 25 years of extensive experience in advocacy, community, state, national and global advocacy. He provides advocacy leadership for the United Nations Association and the Atlanta Chapter's Sustainable Development Goals. Through nonpartisan planning and strategy, Tracy works to make life better for all people in the non-violent Beloved community. He also provides tangible advocacy solutions to promote total funding of the United Nations and Peacekeeping missions. Tracy serves to improve the chapter's ability to leverage diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion, (DEAI) for the United Nations mission.
He provides training, program design, and implementation for local, national, and international goal of gender equality, ending extreme poverty, and improving public health.
Tracy is the VP of Advocacy at UNA-ATL and serves on the Board of Directors. He provides authentic and actionable steps to lead teams that collaborate and transform organizations to face the new challenges to protect the planet and ensure that all people can live in peace and prosperity.
He also designs and supervises Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives that leverage employee resource groups (ERGs) to support UNA-ATL organizational goals.
Tracy can enhance economic inclusion and underserved communities by using his systematic approach to recruiting, marketing, media, and facilitation, promoting civil immigration, and enhancing honest human rights conversations.
Tracy has served as a member of the Board of Directors of five local and national non-profit organizations. He is CEO and Senior Consultant of Gray & Associates, a DEAI practice.
His client work includes; The CDC, Chick-fil-A, The Coca-Cola Company, Delta Airlines, Kimberly-Clark Professional Health Care, Pfizer Inc., The Martin Luther King Jr. Center, McDonald's, Morehouse College, U. S. Army, U.S. Navy, and Wachovia Bank.
Tracy is an award-winning journalist and co-author of a book that examines solutions to achieve successful workforce diversity, 'Differences Do Make A Difference,' written with Dr. R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. founder of The American Institute for Managing Diversity, Inc.
Tracy has an undergraduate degree in Journalism from Northern Illinois University. He also completed graduate courses in media management at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. For more information, please visit his website https://www.grayassoc.net/
He provides training, program design, and implementation for local, national, and international goal of gender equality, ending extreme poverty, and improving public health.
Tracy is the VP of Advocacy at UNA-ATL and serves on the Board of Directors. He provides authentic and actionable steps to lead teams that collaborate and transform organizations to face the new challenges to protect the planet and ensure that all people can live in peace and prosperity.
He also designs and supervises Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives that leverage employee resource groups (ERGs) to support UNA-ATL organizational goals.
Tracy can enhance economic inclusion and underserved communities by using his systematic approach to recruiting, marketing, media, and facilitation, promoting civil immigration, and enhancing honest human rights conversations.
Tracy has served as a member of the Board of Directors of five local and national non-profit organizations. He is CEO and Senior Consultant of Gray & Associates, a DEAI practice.
His client work includes; The CDC, Chick-fil-A, The Coca-Cola Company, Delta Airlines, Kimberly-Clark Professional Health Care, Pfizer Inc., The Martin Luther King Jr. Center, McDonald's, Morehouse College, U. S. Army, U.S. Navy, and Wachovia Bank.
Tracy is an award-winning journalist and co-author of a book that examines solutions to achieve successful workforce diversity, 'Differences Do Make A Difference,' written with Dr. R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. founder of The American Institute for Managing Diversity, Inc.
Tracy has an undergraduate degree in Journalism from Northern Illinois University. He also completed graduate courses in media management at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. For more information, please visit his website https://www.grayassoc.net/
Nalat Phanit Black, VP of Education
Nalat Phanit Black is the VP of Education at UNA-Atlanta. She was the Chapter’s President (2015-2017) and Sustainable Development Goals Director (2017-2021) and has been a member of the UNA network for over ten years. She is also a Global Reporting Initiative Certified Sustainability Professional, providing businesses a comprehensive sustainability assessment on the organizations’ impacts on economy, environment, people, including human rights. Nalat has over a decade of nonprofit leadership and project management experience, working in communications, nuclear nonproliferation, human rights, and environmental sustainability. She believes that when human development and the natural environment work in harmony, basic human needs would be met by all, lessening the potential for human rights violations, and creating a more peaceful world. She was featured in VoyageATL Hidden Gems in April 2020 and VoyageATL Local Stories in July 2021 for her work with UNA-Atlanta. Nalat holds a Master of Environmental Studies degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from City University of New York: Baruch College and Macaulay Honors College. For more information, please visit her website at https://www.glocalphilosophy.com/
Ikoie Norman, VP of Fundraising
Ikoie Norman is a Senior Director, Fundraising Strategy and Engagement for the United Nations Foundation where she creates and implements donor stewardship strategies for ongoing cultivation of all donor groups. After more than 25 years of strategy and development work with organizations such as Verizon, PwC, SAIC and Hogan Lovells, Ikoie made the pivot to non-profit development where she could “apply her skills and talent to organizations that serve the greater good”.
Career highlights include facilitating strategy sessions with Fortune 100 organizations, piloting and successfully launching a global HR certification in 49 countries and developing the framework for a national certification for local United Ways throughout the US and Canada.
As a proud graduate of Clark Atlanta University with a BA in Marketing, Ikoie also holds an MBA in Management from Dallas Baptist University. A self-proclaimed continuous learner, Ikoie holds certifications in Mediation (Dallas Baptist University), Marketing (Georgetown University), Strategic Management Accelerator (McKinsey & Company) and Non-profit Leadership (Arizona State University).
Ikoie is very passionate about youth development, community engagement, social justice and gender equality and has logged thousands of volunteer hours for those causes.
Originally from Memphis, TN, Ikoie currently resides in Atlanta, GA
Career highlights include facilitating strategy sessions with Fortune 100 organizations, piloting and successfully launching a global HR certification in 49 countries and developing the framework for a national certification for local United Ways throughout the US and Canada.
As a proud graduate of Clark Atlanta University with a BA in Marketing, Ikoie also holds an MBA in Management from Dallas Baptist University. A self-proclaimed continuous learner, Ikoie holds certifications in Mediation (Dallas Baptist University), Marketing (Georgetown University), Strategic Management Accelerator (McKinsey & Company) and Non-profit Leadership (Arizona State University).
Ikoie is very passionate about youth development, community engagement, social justice and gender equality and has logged thousands of volunteer hours for those causes.
Originally from Memphis, TN, Ikoie currently resides in Atlanta, GA
