Jerrell Mason Joins as Community Impact Program Director

The John R. Oishei Foundation is pleased to welcome Jerrell Mason as Community Impact Program Director, Joy, Restoration, Resilience/Individual Power. This role is part of the Foundation’s ongoing evolution as it advances its mission to build financial prosperity for a racially just community where all people can thrive.

Mason joins the Community Impact team as the Foundation further defines and operationalizes its strategic direction through its Community Power-Building Framework, which outlines seven interconnected areas of focus: Individual Power; Organizational Power; Community Control & Asset Ownership; Policies & Practices; Narrative Change; Collective Community Organizing; and Joy, Restoration, and Resilience. Together, these areas guide how the Foundation partners, learns, and invests, centering community voice and long-term systems change.

In this role, Mason will lead work across Joy, Restoration, Resilience and Individual Power, two focus areas that reflect the Foundation’s commitment to centering both healing and agency in its approach to community power-building.

• Joy, Restoration, Resilience: Investing in Black joy as a deliberate act of resistance and a declaration of power, restoring what harmful systems have dismantled, and fostering healing.
• Individual Power: Investing in the individual power people of color hold to support the advancement of purposeful and unified collective action.

As both an internal and external partner, Mason will help translate the Foundation’s strategy into practice, working closely with organizations and partners across Buffalo’s East Side to identify and support opportunities aligned with community priorities and the Community Power-Building Framework. His role includes building and strengthening relationships, supporting equitable and trust-based approaches to grantmaking, and helping ensure the Foundation’s work reflects the voices and experiences of those most proximate to systemic challenges.

He will also work across teams and partners to track progress, understand impact, and support learning over time, helping ensure the Foundation’s investments are aligned with its long-term vision of systems change, shared power, and community-driven outcomes.

“Jerrell brings a powerful combination of lived experience, professional leadership, and deep connection to the East Side of Buffalo,” said Pamela Ross, MSW, Vice President of Community Impact at the Oishei Foundation. “He understands both the challenges and the possibilities within the community, and he leads with authenticity, trust, and a commitment to making sure people are seen, heard, and connected to opportunity.”

Mason’s range of leadership experience spans workforce development, behavioral health, and higher education. Most recently, he served as Senior Director of Buffalo Futures, where he led the development of a first-of-its-kind workforce hub connecting young professionals to career pathways, training, and support. Prior to that, he was Director of Community Engagement at BestSelf Behavioral Health, where he led efforts to strengthen relationships with community partners and advance the organization’s racial equity and inclusion goals. His earlier work includes leadership roles at Niagara University, where he oversaw programs supporting student success, grant management, and community partnerships. Across these roles, his work has consistently focused on connecting individuals to opportunity, strengthening community partnerships, and building pathways to long-term stability and success.

Mason’s work is grounded in both lived experience and a track record of leadership across systems. Having grown up on Buffalo’s East Side, he brings a deep understanding of the challenges many residents continue to navigate—as well as a strong commitment to being part of the solutions.

“I grew up on the East Side of Buffalo, I’ve gone through many of the barriers that folks in that area have gone through,” he said. “This is my community. I have a personal, vested interest in this work.” 

That perspective shapes how he approaches the work, starting with relationships. Throughout his career, Mason has focused on connecting organizations, partners, and individuals in ways that expand access and open new possibilities. 

In his role at the Foundation, Mason will focus on strengthening both individual and collective power—supporting people in recognizing their own agency and connecting them to the resources, relationships, and opportunities that make long-term change possible. His approach is grounded in listening first, and building from what already exists within community.

“I’m going in as myself,” he said. “I’m there to listen, to hear what the community wants.”

Mason’s leadership reflects the Foundation’s broader commitment to working alongside community and supporting individuals and organizations in ways that strengthen relationships, expand opportunity, and address the root causes of inequity.

“I am excited to see our work continue to evolve under Jerrell’s leadership—he is deeply connected to community, grounded in lived experience, and focused on building power alongside others,” said Christina Orsi, President of the Oishei Foundation. “As we put our strategy into practice, that perspective is essential to how we show up and how we move this work forward.”

The Community Impact Program Director, Joy, Restoration, Resilience / Individual position is part of ongoing organizational development at the Oishei Foundation as it aligns its structure, staffing, and approach to fully support its strategic direction and mission. The Community Impact team will continue to grow in the months ahead, building the capacity needed to deepen partnerships across Buffalo’s East Side.