Annis Stubbs, Ph.D., is the Chief Brand and Engagement Officer at United Way for Southeastern Michigan where she leads the organization’s brand and engagement strategy – bringing together communications, marketing, storytelling and volunteer engagement to strengthen United Way’s connection to the people and communities it serves.
A Detroit native, Dr. Stubbs brings more than two decades of experience in education, nonprofit leadership, organizational strategy and community engagement. She previously held several senior leadership roles with Teach For America, including Chief People Officer and Senior Vice President of Strategy, Innovation and Regional Operations. As the founding Executive Director of Teach for America Detroit, she built the organization’s local presence and partnerships from the ground up, ultimately reaching approximately 80 Detroit schools. She later founded The Papyrus Group, where she advised leaders across the education, nonprofit and business sectors.
Dr. Stubbs holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum, Teaching and Educational Policy from Michigan State University, a master’s degree in Curriculum and Teaching from Fordham University and a bachelor’s degree in English and Secondary Education from Michigan State. Her honors include Crain’s Detroit Business’ 20 in Their 20s, The Michigan Chronicle’s 40 Under 40 and Michigan Women Leadership in the Workplace awards. She is also an Aspen Institute Pahara Fellow and Leadership Detroit alumna.
Outside of work, Dr. Stubbs enjoys traveling, gardening, yoga and spending time with her husband and son. Her love of gardening is rooted in childhood summers on her great grandparents’ farm in Shubuta, Mississippi, where she learned “the land remembers everything” – what you tend with care gives back. Today, that lesson shapes not only the way she gardens but the way she thinks about community – as something that requires consistent care, deep relationships and a willingness to keep showing up.