Our Leadership

C-Suite Leaders

Ralph Bland - CEO

Ralph C. Bland began his career in education as a 1st grade teacher at an all-boys academy in Detroit Public Schools. Since then he has served as a teacher, coach, principal and superintendent. Under his leadership, Detroit Edison Public School Academy (DEPSA) was the first charter school in Michigan to be named a Michigan Blue Ribbon School and is consistently the city's highest performing PK-8 school, also outpacing state-level academic performance. In 2010 Mr. Bland founded New Paradigm For Education (NPFE) to expand the DEPSA instructional model across the region, ensuring access to a rigorous world-class education for thousands of Michigan scholars.

Paris Hodge - Chief Financial Officer

Paris Hodge, C.P.A. serves as the organization’s CFO. She leads the finance and accounting functions for NPFE, as well as the NPFE schools. She directs and manages budget development, financial planning, cash receipts and disbursements, financial reporting and banking relationships. Paris is an accomplished financial executive who has over 15 years of solid school accounting experience.

Dr. Kimberly Bland - Chief Academic Officer

Chief Academic Officer, Kimberly Motley-Bland, possesses over 20 years of school leadership and curriculum experience. As the founding principal of Detroit Edison Public School Academy, Kim created a sound academic plan to outperform the surrounding district and state averages on a number of indicators. She is responsible for developing the network’s curriculum, completing data analysis, providing professional development, and aligning supplemental instruction with state standards and the Common Core.

Board of Directors

Ralph Bland - President

Anthony Morton - Vice President

Anthony Morton brings 20+ years in education, nonprofits, and philanthropic giving in the Metro Detroit area. His previous roles include Director of Corporate Philanthropy at Wayne State University, National Director of Corporate Outreach at National Business League, and Assistant Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at Oakland University. Mr. Morton's current role is Vice President of First Independence Bank. Mr. Morton is Wayne State University Graduate in Communications and Public Relations.

Chris Uhl - Treasurer

Chris Uhl joined IFF as the Executive Director – Eastern Region in 2017. Located in IFF’s Detroit office, Uhl oversees IFF’s full-range of services in Michigan and Ohio, including lending, real estate consulting, and community strategies program operations.

Prior to joining IFF, Uhl served in leadership roles at Rock Ventures LLC, The Skillman Foundation, and Detroit Children’s Fund, as well as working several years as a banker at major financial institutions. As Vice President of Social Innovation at The Skillman Foundation, Mr. Uhl helped the foundation move beyond grants to program-related investments in the form of low-interest loans and loan guarantees. He most recently led community investment efforts at Rock Ventures, a Detroit firm that serves and connects a portfolio of more than 100 companies owned by Dan Gilbert – the founder of Quicken Loans and majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Mr. Uhl is a Michigan native with a M.B.A. from Wayne State University and a B.S. in business administration from Central Michigan University.

Kareim Cade - Secretary

Kareim R. Cade is the President and CEO of Great Lakes Benefit Group, a data-driven firm that helps public and private sector employer groups, unions, and trusts to identify the excesses in the healthcare supply chain while creating a smart & disruptive approach to maximizing benefits and containing costs.

Background

Cass Technical High School, 1990
B.A. Insurance and Risk Management (Clark Atlanta University, 1994)
Licensed Life, Health & Accident, 1995
Leadership Oakland, LOXV
Metropolitan Detroit Association of Health Underwriters ("MDAHU"), Member
National Association of Health Underwriters ("NAHU"), Member
Playworks Michigan, Immediate Past Board Chairman

Ron Clark Academy, Atlanta GA, Board of Trustees
Captive Insurance Company Association ("CICA"), Member

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit, Board Member

Carol Goss

Carol A. Goss is a fellow in the Advanced Leadership Initiative program at Harvard University. Prior to joining Harvard, she served as president & CEO of The Skillman Foundation, a private independent foundation whose mission is to improve the lives of children in metropolitan Detroit by strengthening their schools and neighborhoods.

Involved in philanthropy for the past 20 years, Carol joined The Skillman Foundation in March 1998 as a senior program officer. She was named president & CEO of the foundation in 2004. She has also worked as a program officer at the Stuart Foundation in San Francisco and as program director at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan. Carol was named the 2007 James A. Joseph Lecturer by the Association of Black Foundation Executives. Crain’s Detroit Business cited her as one of Southeast Michigan’s Most Influential Women, an honor that the respected weekly bestows every five years to the region’s most dynamic and powerful women.

Carol’s professional career also includes nearly 20 years’ experience in child welfare, family services, and youth development in Detroit and Oakland, California. A native Detroiter, she has a B.A. degree in sociology and an M.S.W. degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She retired from The Skillman Foundation at the end of 2013.