Tomeka provides strategic and executional leadership on critical business priorities and leads innovation efforts which will expand Blue Meridian’s work as it evolves. She explores new philanthropic investment opportunities, leads due diligence on potential Blue Meridian investees, and manages relationships with current investees, with a focus on Place Matters.
Prior to joining Blue Meridian, Tomeka served as a Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leading education policy and advocacy grantmaking to civil rights and equity organizations. Before this, she served as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at the Southern Education Foundation, where she supported the foundation’s work to improve student outcomes from early childhood to adulthood and helped implement a broad range of advocacy, research, and coalition building activities impacting public education across the Southern region.
Tomeka served two terms on the Memphis City/Shelby County Schools Board, including a term as Board President. She currently serves as the board chair of the Data Quality Campaign and as a member of the Memphis Education Fund board, the First 8 Memphis board, and the University of Tennessee College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences Dean’s Advisory Board. She is an Aspen Institute Rodel-Fellowship in Public Leadership fellow and a Pahara-Aspen Institute Education Fellow.
Tomeka holds a Certificate in Education Finance from Georgetown University, a JD from the University of Memphis, and an MBA from Kennesaw State University. She received her BS in Marketing Education from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.