Our Founders

QUENTIN JAMES

FOUNDER & PRESIDENT

A native of Greenville, South Carolina, Quentin James is the Founder & President of The Collective, including its five legal entities, as well as the co-founder of Vestige Strategies, LLC. Before launching the Collective in 2016, Quentin led a team of Vestige Strategies’ consultants in securing victory for Dr. Keith Rowley as Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago in 2015. Previously, Quentin was the Black Americans Director for the Ready for Hillary PAC. In that role, Quentin directed the PAC’s outreach to the black community across the United States, and helped recruit over 50,000 African American grassroots donors and over 3 million grassroots supporters.

Formerly the National Director for the Sierra Club’s Sierra Student Coalition, the nation’s largest youth environmental organization, Quentin directed the organization to train, empower, and organize youth to run effective campaigns that resulted in tangible environmental victories and developed leaders for the environmental movement. From 2009-2013, Quentin served as a National Board Member for the NAACP, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. Quentin is the founder of Inclusv, a diversity hiring initiative and was named one of the 2017 NBC Blk28 under 28 and named one of the 2018 Root 100 Most Influential African Americans.

STEFANIE BROWN JAMES

CO-FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

An experienced social entrepreneur and civic engagement strategist, Stefanie Brown James is the Co-Founder and Senior Advisor of The Collective – a network of five affiliated organizations which includes The Collective PAC, The Collective Super PAC, Elect Black Democrats Super PAC, Collective Future and The Collective Education Fund – dedicated to supporting and funding Black candidates to win elections on the local, state and federal levels and the engagement of Black voters in the political process. The Collective is strategically focused on creating an equitable democracy where Black people are fully represented in positions of power to create the policies necessary to progress our communities forward.

Founded in August of 2016, The Collective has raised over $50 million from 200,000+ individual contributions; helped 417 Black leaders win elected office; trained over 1,500 candidates and campaign operatives to run successful campaigns; and in 2020, organized one of the largest Black voter engagement campaigns in the country -- registering over 114,000 voters and providing over 100,000 free rides to and from the polls.

In 2013, Stefanie and her husband Quentin James, created Vestige Strategies LLC; a civic and community engagement consulting firm that assists nonprofits, corporations, foundations, and countries to take action and win tangible results for their constituents. Stefanie continues to serve as the firm's CEO and has created a number of successful campaigns for domestic and international clients including the Environmental Defense Fund, Google, Open Society Foundations, and the former heads of state in Lagos, Nigeria, and Trinidad and Tobago.

A native of the Cleveland, Ohio area, Stefanie previously worked at EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, as the organization’s Vice President of Training and Community Engagement. In this position, Stefanie rebuilt the organization's community engagement department and established the Ignite Change Program to train women of color interested in running for public office.

In 2012, Stefanie served as the National African American Vote Director for the Obama for America Campaign and created the national strategy to engage Black leaders and voters to re-elect President Barack Obama, helping to garner the highest Black voter turnout in history. Formerly the National Field Director and Youth & College Division Director for the NAACP, Stefanie developed and administered the national field organizing strategy for the NAACP’s 2,200+ units; serving as the youngest woman to hold this position.

Initiated into Alpha Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, 21 years ago, Stefanie is a member of the National Board of Directors and Co-Chair of the National Social Action Commission for the nation's preeminent service and social action-based sorority comprised primarily of Black, college-educated women. Stefanie is also a former member of the Board of Trustees at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, DC.

A frequent political contributor on ABC News, the BBC, CNN, and MSNBC, Stefanie is the recipient of numerous awards including The Grio 100, the Root 100, the Cleveland NAACP Social Justice Champion Award, and Social Justice honoree for the Culture Creators' Awards. Stefanie’s greatest accomplishment, however, is marrying her business partner Quentin and being the mother of two amazing little boys, Carter & Elijah.