Maya Ennis

Our December 2021 installment of Beam’s Staff Spotlight series featured our Director of Development at Beam Center, Maya Ennis. As the Director of Development, Maya cultivates resources for Beam, including bringing in new funding to support Beam’s mission while maintaining relationships with existing funders and community members.

In addition to working at Beam, Maya is a full-time student at Columbia University's School of Social Work. Maya previously obtained a masters degree in Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and worked for six years with various organizations related to local and national elections. Maya states that she always wanted to do work that was “steeped in community development and economic advancement for low income communities.” After her time in electoral-related positions, Maya said, “I got to a place where I felt there was more I could learn and more I needed to learn to get me back on track to doing community development work.”

Along with being a full-time student and a full-time employee at Beam, Maya is owner of Head Tings. Head Tings was originally founded in the 1980s by Maya’s mother, Xinia; Maya helped restart the business during COVID as a shared project with her mother, who designs the pieces.

We're grateful to have Maya on the Beam Team!