Meet the Team

Meet the amazing individuals who support and contribute to the success of our Financially Lit program. Behind the scenes, we have a dedicated team of passionate professionals who work tirelessly to ensure the program runs smoothly and effectively. Our team members bring a diverse range of expertise and backgrounds to the table, united by a common goal: empowering students with essential financial literacy skills.

Dondreá Brown

Financial Education Program Coordinator

Dondreá Brown has been committed to providing financial education since 2013. He first began educating himself, then his family and friends on the basic principles of money management. He quickly recognized that educating and supporting others to create and achieve financial goals as social justice work. That reality gave him the drive and motivation to create safe, motivational, educational, and fun environments to learn about money management.

Dondreá Brown is an NFEC Certified Financial Education Instructor and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Kent State University. He is the Founder and Executive Director of 1428 Financial Wellness and Young Money Finance (YMF), both organizations were created to empower families to cultivate healthy relationships with money. They provide high-impact financial educational workshops, tools, and resources. The financial topics he covers include basic money management, credit/debt management, investing, and much more.

His work has led to individuals paying off debt, increasing their income, purchasing homes, investing, increasing their credit scores, creating and accomplishing realistic financial goals, and parents teaching their kids about money management.

Dondrea enjoys spending time with his kids and playing Fortnite in his free time.

Shorouq Almallah

Director for the Richard M. and Helen DeVos Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CEI)

Shorouq Almallah is an ecosystem builder, and an accomplished higher education professional with over 20 years’ experience. As the Director for the Richard M. and Helen DeVos Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CEI) at Grand Valley State University. Almallah has over 15 years of experience in designing and coordinating the entrepreneurial education programs in West Michigan. She is responsible for creating a talent pipeline to foster entrepreneurial skill set and mindset by preparing students through expanded entrepreneurial curriculum and co-curricular activities. She is experienced in launching and running accelerators and tapping into the entrepreneurial ecosystem for resources and support to empower entrepreneurs. She has led numerous initiatives, and developed high impact experiential opportunities to drive entrepreneurship and innovation in the community to grow the regional capability and capacity. She serves on a number of boards and committees, and her work has been recognized both locally and nationally.  She is a lifelong learner and constantly strives to seek knowledge and new insights. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and Linguistics, and a Masters of Information Science from Indiana University, and earned her Master of Business Administration from Grand Valley State University.

Jowei Yek

Graduate Assistant and Designer

Jowei Yek is an international student from Malaysia. He is currently pursuing a Master of Business Administration and a Professional Master of Arts in Social Innovation at Grand Valley State University. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from GVSU in Advertising and Public Relations with a minor in Psychology in 2020. 

As an undergraduate, Yek was an active member of the international student community through Padnos International Center and the Bringing Together the World student organization. His other notable experiences include creating a brand-new social media presence for the Fall Arts Celebration hosted by the GVSU Office of the President and managing the transactional email production for Amway North America. Yek is fluent in English and four different Chinese languages including Mandarin. 

Kendall Leach

Film and Video Coordinator 

Kendall is a Film and Video Production major at GVSU. He is a former collegiate wrestler who is making his way into the film world. Being the Film and Video Coordinator for Financially Lit, he is excited to embark on this position as it is something he has not done before, and could not be more happy to do it with the amazing people at the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation.