Madison365 uses excellent journalism to start conversations, find real and lasting solutions, build community, invite action and encourage emerging leaders in Greater Madison’s communities of color, and to foster dialog between members of diverse communities.
Madison365 is operated by 365 Media Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Madison, Wisconsin.
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Our Founders
For nearly twenty years, Henry Sanders Jr. (CEO and Publisher) has been a force for community development, economic development and entrepreneurship in the Madison area, in Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest.He worked for the City of Madison and then-Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin before joining the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce as Vice President. In that capacity he started the Small Business Advisory Council, Latino Chamber of Commerce and the African wAmerican Black Business Association. Sanders is also the founder of the young professionals organization Madison Area Growth Network (MAGNET), Madison Network of Black Professionals, and Capacity 360, a government relations firm that brought more than $15 million to Wisconsin businesses.
Henry ran a statewide campaign for Lieutenant Governor in 2010 and in 2011 joined the Obama Administration as the Small Business Administration’s Region V Advocate, speaking up for small businesses across six states.
In 2018, Henry was named InBusiness Magazine’s 2018 Startup Company Executive of the Year, was given the Amigo Award by LaMovida Radio and was named Outstanding Experiential Learning Host by the Madison Metropolitan School District for allowing students to attend the Wisconsin Leadership Summit.
He serves on the Board of Directors of Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, and chairs its Membership Advisory Council.
For the past decade, A. David Dahmer (Editor in Chief) was editor in chief of The Madison Times Weekly Newspaper, Madison’s only multicultural weekly newspaper focusing on the positive people, places, and events in Dane County’s African American, Latino, Southeast Asian, and Native American communities. He has written well over 1,000 in-depth articles on minority-related people and topics and has managed the direction, content, design, production, and promotion of this multicultural newspaper that has won national awards.
Dahmer is the immediate past president of the Board of Directors of Centro Hispano of Dane County, a Madison agency that works to improve the quality of life for Latinos and others living in Dane County by empowering youth, strengthening families, and engaging the community. A graduate of UW-Madison, Dahmer is an NAACP Unsung Hero Service Award winner for leadership efforts in advancing the mission and goals of the NAACP and untiring service to the community and a Club TNT Waterbearer Award winner for outstanding contributions to the community. Twitter: @DaveDahmer
Robert Chappell (365 Media Executive Editor, Blueprint365 editor, 365 Amplified podcast co-host) began his professional journalism career at the age of 15, covering village government for the Mount Horeb Mail in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. He worked as editor of the Fennimore Times and associate editor of Madison Magazine. He later served Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton as communications director and worked in strategic communications in nonprofit, arts and entertainment and local government sectors for several years.
Twitter: @RobChappell365
Reporting Team
Omar Waheed is a full-time reporter with 365 Media, focused on business reporting for Blueprint365. A native of Milwaukee, he earned a degree in business from Iowa State University and has worked as a reporter for the Des Moines Register and New York Times.
Rodlyn-mae Banting is a freelance contributor to 365 Media. A native of Westchester, New York, she earned a master’s degree in gender studies at UW-Madison. She wrote for Jezebel before returning to Madison earlier this year. She’s published cultural criticism about race, labor, and pop culture in publications like Bitch Media, the Danish feminist magazine Friktion, Tone Madison, and more.
Business Team
Jill Gade (Director of Business Development) graduated from Edgewood College with Bachelor of Science degrees in Business Management and Marketing while working for Ameritech Cellular. That is where she first met Henry Sanders and began her career and professional training. Over the course of the next 25 years she has become a passionate and enthusiastic sales expert with extensive experience in account management, retail management, customer service, staffing and nonprofit fundraising.
Outside of work Jill is married, has two daughters and enjoys volunteering. She has served; St. Paul Lutheran School on the PTO and as a Dance Coach for six years, Lake Mills Library Scholastic Fundraiser for five years, Willowbrook Nursing Home for eight years, Lake View Elementary Food Pantry over the last year and currently is currently serving as the “Special Needs Coordinator” at Abiding Shepherd Lutheran Church.
Stephanie Díaz de León (Director of Outreach and Engagement, 365 Amplified podcast co-host) is a proven professional in outreach, engagement and workplace diversity. She is the lead planner and designer of the Wisconsin Leadership Summit, the state’s premier professional development and community-building event for the state’s leaders of color. She has also served on the Engagement, Inclusion and Diversity Committee at the Wisconsin Union and the Engagement, Inclusion and Diversity Council for the University of Wisconsin, and was a member of the University of Wisconsin’s Latino Staff and Faculty Association. She has overseen and executed many of the Wisconsin Union’s major events, including Diversity Forum every year since 2015, the Memorial Union’s reopening, the grand opening of the new Union South and many more.
Contributors
Rev. David Hart is a pastor, attorney, and author living in Madison.
Gloria Ladson-Billings is the Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Educational Policy Studies for the University of Wisconsin.
Editorial Independence Policy
We subscribe to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News:
Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.
We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.
Our organization may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.
Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $1,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN’s Membership Standards.