Join CommonBondz for a discussion on career progression for African-Americans while getting advice from professionals. We’re talking with Natalia Brown, Chief Client Operations Officer at National Debt Relief (NDR), Anita Roberson, Leader of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice at Gwynedd Mercy Academy High School in the Greater Philadelphia area, and Finale Norton, CommonBondz Board Member and candidate for VA House of Delegates District 100.
Scroll down to read their bios.
Natalia Brown joined National Debt Relief (NDR) in 2010 and has served as Chief Client Operations Officer since 2019. Natalia plays a vital role in NDR’s client journey, overseeing all client-facing operations of the business. She manages a team of more than 400 representatives servicing 200,000+ clients. She is responsible for creating a collaborative and efficient environment that allows her team to provide an unmatched level of support and guidance to clients on their path to financial stability.
At NDR, she is inspired by the opportunity to help team members thrive, and clients succeed at their goal of becoming debt-free. During her tenure, Natalia has held various positions, including Vice President, Client Success; Director, Training and Development; and Manager, Negotiations Department. Natalia’s areas of expertise include negotiation, operations, customer relationship management, project management, workforce optimization and learning and development.
Natalia volunteers at New Women New Yorkers, a nonprofit that focuses on supporting immigrant women in New York Natalia sits on the advisory board of Four Steps Forward, a program that aims to financially educate one million black women over the next five years founded by The American College of Financial Services. Natalia gained a passion for helping young adults during her work with the Fresh Air Fund, where she counseled and mentored children with and without special needs. She enjoys seeing others succeed and is firm believer that the best work is the kind that lifts others up. Her personal mission is to help young women navigate, understand, and thrive in the financial world.
Natalia is a native New Yorker and has two sons who also inspire her to be the best she can every day. She is a certified debt specialist and holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Lehman College and is pursuing a master’s in operations and project management from Southern New Hampshire University.
Anita Roberson firmly believes, as the late Congressman John Lewis professed, that “if you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something about it.” It is this call to action that has led Anita to live a life of service committed to helping individuals and organizations solve issues related to belonging – the intersection of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice.
In her current role as the Leader of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Justice at Gwynedd Mercy Academy High School in the Greater Philadelphia area, Anita is responsible for executing strategic objectives, developing customized cultural competency programming and providing consultative guidance in support of establishing a more equitable and inclusive school community. Prior to joining Gwynedd, Anita held a variety of leadership positions within national non-profit organizations centered on providing academically talented students of color with access to prestigious independent schools and colleges. Anita also founded a college preparatory elementary school for economically disadvantaged students shortly after transitioning from careers in corporate human resources and workforce development. In her spare time Anita loves to read, listen to podcasts, cycle and play recreational soccer. Anita is a graduate of Cornell University’s esteemed School of Industrial & Labor Relations.
Finale Norton was born in Exmore, a small rural town on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. After college, Finale went to work in a retail store entering their management associate’s program until marrying her college sweetheart in 1986. Finale went on to work for Bank of America in 1988 and that’s when life changed. She was selected for the management associate program; her mom still has the newspaper article showing her promotion to an officer of the bank. It was a big deal for all.
Finale spent the next 10 years managing bank branches. With the support of a mentor and sponsor, she would go on to manage at the regional level and in 2003 became an executive in the company, managing the market in South Carolina and then Hampton Roads. Finale discovered that her greatest strengths were leading and inspiring teams. During her tenure in those markets, her team achieved goals that no one thought were possible.
In 2008 it all began to come crashing down with the recession and in 2009, Finale was not given a regional role in the reorganization and was asked to go to Atlanta, Georgia to run the largest market in the Southeast as a “consolation prize.” Although she did not know it then, it was a firsthand opportunity to see racial disparities in pay and promotions and do something about it. She went about making sure women of color were paid what they were worth. It was exhilarating! That is why today she believes that it isn’t just incumbent on white managers to do the right thing when they are in positions of influence, but it is up to Black leaders to go above and beyond to make sure diversity and inclusion efforts show up in the paycheck too!
In 2010, Finale’s reputation for leading large teams brought her back from Atlanta to Hampton Roads to run consumer contact centers across the country with more than 2,000 contact center associates. Customer Service, Associate Experience, and Diversity and Inclusion were the most important factors in building successful teams. Finale’s results always spoke for themselves, but it became quite clear that success in corporate American required far more than that to keep moving up the ever-tightening ladder.
In 2015, Finale retired from Bank of America and spent a year at Accenture, a consulting company. She retired permanently from corporate America in 2018. She then set up two Sole Props: “Common Sense Consulting” and “Rich Girl Poor Girl.” She spends most of her time on “RGPG,” an interior decorating home business focused on sharing interior decorating with those less likely to have an experience with a design firm. Her future goal is to set up a nonprofit focused on sharing interior beauty with those who cannot do it for themselves focused on seniors and single moms. Though poor growing up, her mom made a clean and lovely home for her and her siblings never knowing that what they had was not the best, but she made it so - thus Finale’s desire to be able to do it for others today.
Finale attributes her success to her mom who never quits, turning her GED and Cosmetology license into a 35-year career that is still strong, and happily working at 77! Though Finale did ok (by her standards) in corporate America, she says she found incredible courage after the death of George Floyd to re-access her 26-year career. She says she has found the courage to speak out honestly on LinkedIn, to say what others will not and give voice to those who may not yet have the courage to speak their truth.
“I am just getting wound up,” she says. “I have a lot lived and packed in those 26 years!”