Deep Center
Holly Whitfield, PhD, has a diverse work experience spanning various organizations and roles. Starting in 2008, they served as the Development Director for the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center. From 2009 to 2015, they worked as an Office Manager/Billing Specialist for Dr. Robert Monokian. In 2013, they became the Campaign Manager for Pfeiffer University at Charlotte. Holly transitioned to the role of Director of Development and Communications at Time Out Youth in 2018. In 2020, Holly founded their own consulting firm, Just Real Consulting, where they served as the Founder and CEO, focusing on fair and equitable hiring practices and employee engagement. Holly also took on the role of Executive Director for the Shepherd's Center of Charlotte in January 2020. In September 2021, they became the Executive Director for the Alliance for Full Acceptance until December 2022. Holly also has experience in academia, as an Adjunct Professor at Pfeiffer University from 2017 to 2021 and the College of Charleston from 2022 onwards. Currently, they are serving as the Executive Director for Deep Center.
Holly Whitfield, PhD has a comprehensive educational background. Holly completed their Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Keiser University-Ft Lauderdale, from 2017 to 2022. Before that, they pursued their Masters of Science in Leadership, specializing in Organizational Behavior Studies, at Pfeiffer University, completing it in 2015. In 2003, Holly obtained their Master of Science (MS) in Education from Nova Southeastern University. Holly began their educational journey with a Bachelor's degree in Education from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis in 1992. Outside of formal academic institutions, Holly also gained knowledge in real estate through Superior Real Estate.
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Deep Center
Deep Center’s mission is to empower Savannah’s youth to thrive as learners, community leaders, and agents of change. Through creative writing, cultural production, and art, Deep creates platforms for the city’s youth and the village of support around them, including their families and adult allies, to share stories, engage in debates, and make Savannah a more just and equitable place. Deep’s framework is trauma-informed and culturally responsive. We promote a roots-cause model of youth and community development that works on three parallel tracks: direct service, systems change, and narrative change. Deep lifts up youth and their village, advocates for just policies, and disrupts dehumanizing narratives with firsthand stories of community members healing, growing, and thriving throw individual growth and collective action. Our Pedagogy Deep uses writing, art, and culture to help youth and families connect their learning to their lives, their lives to their communities, and their actions to transformational change. We meet people where they are, at their joys, unique funds of knowledge, and community literacies to celebrate them, challenge them to express themselves powerfully, and support their critical awareness of how their stories intersect with their neighborhood block, their city, and the world beyond. Deep’s pedagogy is assets-based, encouraging participants to use their lives, families, and communities as the primary source material for their original writing, artwork, and leadership activities. Our organizational place in the communities with which we work is defined by the values of inclusion, transparency, and institutional humility. We listen. Our Village Deep pushes beyond the barriers that keep communities from coming together for change, and we work on the assumption that storytelling and culture have the unique power to create spaces where people can meet heart-to-heart to learn, connect, create, and have hard but life-changing conversations.