Currently serving as National Director for Communications & Community Engagement for AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the world’s largest, non-profit, HIV/AIDS service and advocacy organization and Chair, Black Leadership AIDS Crisis Coalition (BLACC), W. Imara Canady, referred to as the “all around go-to guy” by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is a highly respected executive leader, nationally known for building partnerships and collaborations that have a sustainable community impact.
Prior to his current role, Imara served as the Area Development Director for the Atlanta Regional Office of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), where his portfolio included overseeing the community engagement and fundraising operations in South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, annually raising over $2.5 million dollars, in support of the office’s multi-million dollar goal to achieve the organization’s mission of assisting students to get to and through college. Prior to UNCF, he was Vice-President of Programming and Strategic Partnerships for the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, where, as part of the institution’s executive leadership team, he created and developed the Center’s national programmatic infrastructure and foundation. Known as a “connector and bridge-builder” he worked with the national Board of Directors, CEO and Executive Vice-President, cultivating global relationships and building collaborations that connected the center’s vision and mission with a broad array of local, national and international cultural, academic and community organizations and institutions, that led to the successful execution of the institutions historic groundbreaking in June 2012 and the framework for the Center’s current impactful programs and initiatives.
Imara was raised in Atlanta, Georgia, graduated from Northside School of the Arts, though spent most of his early academic years at Woodward Academy. He received an Associate’s Degree in Journalism from Atlanta Metropolitan College and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Mass Communications with an emphasis on Public Relations and Broadcast Journalism from Georgia State University. Currently residing in the Grant Park community in the City of Atlanta, he is an active member of the Baha’i’ Faith, and lives his life in accordance to a quote from the Holy Writings which states “that service to humanity is like service to the Kingdom of God”.