Shawn Dove ’84

Shawn Dove’s remarkable career is proof positive that Wesleyan graduates go on to make a better world. As former CEO of the Campaign for Black Male Achievement and current Managing Partner for New Profit, a venture philanthropy firm investing over $325 million to address systemic societal change and activating $1.7 billion in government funding for social innovation, Shawn has dedicated forty years to working at the nexus of youth-development, media literacy, racial justice and philanthropic leadership. In his work with New Profit, Shawn also curates and cultivates “The Well”, a multi-racial, multi-generational, multi-cultural coalition to cultivate justice, opportunity and collaboration in America. In 2022, Shawn co-authored I Too Am America: On Loving and Leading Black Men and Boys, which offers insight and practical inspiration for guiding young men of color, and the people who love them, to their full potential.

The culture and support he found at Wesleyan was a catalyst for Shawn, merging his innate talents as a writer and his commitment to cultivating the opportunities for youth he benefitted from himself. “In my very first exposure to Wesleyan as a young person, I experienced a sense of soul-settling—that this was the place for me. The student body I was in company with and the culture at Wesleyan pushed me to think deeply, not only about the inequities in the world, but how I was called to do something about those problems. My experience as a student was the inspiration for my activism and racial justice work in so many glorious ways. I got involved first as a writer and contributor to the poetry magazine Expression, and in my sophomore year, became Editor-In-Chief. Often, our writing was socially conscious, which taught me about becoming the master of your own media as a Black person. For the rest of my career, I have used the skills I gained in writing, expression, media, and media literacy at Wesleyan as a means of lifting others up. There is a distinct leaning to social justice—a seed planted and cultivated in the Wesleyan experience that intersects creativity and academia. That seed took hold in me, informing a deep sense of purpose in my career and work.”