I am Austin Thompson and I started Community Dynamix to help leaders leverage new operating models, data and technology to create stronger strategic plans and maximize their community impact.
I am a philanthropic advisor, technology educator and board member committed to inclusive innovation and equity. Currently, I collaborate with leaders across multiple sectors to ensure equitable funding/fundraising and innovative strategies for broadband expansion, clean energy and workforce at the state and local levels.
I bring a global perspective to my strategy and fundraising work and my international efforts have been covered in El Heraldo in Ambato, Ecuador, and the Washington Post. My first job after college was teaching high school at the Senegalese-American Bilingual School in Dakar, Senegal. I studied abroad at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India. I have an undergraduate degree from Howard University in Washington D.C. and an MBA from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
I have finance and operations strategy experience in both the private and in the social sector sector. I was most recently at Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) in supply chain operations supporting a low latency LEO satellite broadband internet service called Starlink. I led sourcing for multiple assemblies for an optical laser communications system while also launching a global philanthropic effort to connect hundreds of schools in rural and remote locations to high-speed internet in Chile, Brazil and the Ukraine. Altogether, I raised close to $10M in 1.5 years towards digital connectivity in these regions.
I am the former Executive Director of the Youth Engagement Fund (YEF), a philanthropic intermediary created to put the most vulnerable young people and emerging leaders in the driver’s seat of social change across America. I built philanthropic systems that aligned with the core values of the fund, raised and re-granted millions of dollars to civic engagement efforts, and led a strategic planning process before transitioning out.
I previously served as a program consultant for the Technology and Media Innovation Initiative at Four Freedoms Fund for immigrants and refugees. I sourced projects to use machine learning and two-way text platforms to activate audiences in new ways to support immigrants and refugees. I am proud of the work I led at one of the largest service sector unions in North America SEIU where I launched a program for next generation leaders and later served as Special Assistant to the organization’s Secretary
Treasurer.
Today, I mentor dozens of youth and emerging leaders of color and serve on several nonprofit boards including Greenpeace, United We Dream, and the Southern Vision Alliance. I am a somatic practitioner and meditator. I live with my wife on the West Coast.
