team

Desirnai' Hicks, MA, CFRE
Business Development Consultant

Email: dhicks@harrietspeaks.com

Desirnai’ Hicks is a development, marketing, and communications professional with over 20 years of experience in the non-profit sector. She has held leadership positions at several notable non-profit organizations in Detroit, Michigan and Washington, DC, including the Charles H. Wright Museum of African History, The Phillips Collection, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, Accordia Global Health Foundation and Wayne State University.  In 2017, she received the designation of Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE). Her areas of expertise include annual giving, corporate sponsorship, government and foundation grants, major gifts, membership, planned giving and special events. She is also an adept researcher.

Her interest in diversity, equity and inclusion is a result of the different cultural experiences she has had while traveling extensively throughout Africa, Europe, Australia and the Caribbean. Through these experiences, she recognized that with improved health care, access to quality education, viable employment opportunities, and the eradication of poverty, the quality of life for people in many of the countries she visited would improve immensely. 

Desirnai’ received a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism from Howard University and a Master of Arts in Advertising and Public Relations from Michigan State University. She is currently completing a specialized certificate program in Social and Mobile Marketing at Central Michigan University. She is also a proud member Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.