ABOUT MANDEN STRATEGY
Who we Are
Manden Strategy partners with nonprofits, educational institutions, and the public-sector organizations that serve their communities. We help them strengthen leadership, secure funding, and build the operational capacity to turn their missions into lasting results — working alongside your team, not above it.
LEADERSHIP
lED BY ADRIENNE t. cOOPER, pH.d.
Adrienne T. Cooper, Ph.D., is the Founder and Principal of Manden Strategy. She develops strategy and builds capacity for underserved communities and the mission-driven organizations, governments, and educational institutions that serve them — with a focus on economic development, leadership, and the operational strength that turns ambition into durable outcomes.
She also serves as Program Director of DRIVE (Delta Revitalization through Innovation, Vision, and Empowerment) at the University of Memphis — a nationally recognized initiative, honored with the UEDA Award of Excellence for Engaged Universities, that helps underserved Delta communities across Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee secure and manage the funding they need to grow. A 2025 Fellow of the Delta Executive Leadership Institute — through which she earned a Certificate in Community Leadership awarded by Christian Brothers University — and a member of the Delta Leadership Network, she is deeply rooted in the region she serves, a Pine Bluff resident active in local civic life.
A sustainability researcher and engineer by training, Adrienne brings systems thinking and scientific rigor to every engagement — not just frameworks on a slide. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Florida and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tennessee.
$35M+
in grant funding secured across her career — as principal investigator, co-PI, project director, and grant writer — from federal, state, and private sources.
TURNAROUND
Brought a small, under-resourced institution back from accreditation probation when it faced removal.
drive
Program Director of DRIVE at the University of Memphis — winner of the UEDA Award of Excellence (Engaged Universities).
Thirty years across academia, government, and industry, grounded in a Ph.D. in environmental engineering.
OUR MISSION
The North Star that Guides our Work
The mission of Manden Strategy is to build institutional capacity and sustainable communities through strategic engagement. We envision strong, engaged, well-educated, healthy, and sustainable communities. Our mission, vision, and values are adapted from the Manden Charter — and those values shape both who we work with and how.
WHY MANDEN
Our Name Carries Our Values
Our name comes from the Manden Charter — one of the world's oldest declarations of human dignity, proclaimed in West Africa around 1236 and carried forward for generations through oral tradition. Its principles — the worth of every person, peace across difference, care for the land, and education as the path to freedom — are the same ones that guide who we serve and how we work today.
Our Values
The manden charter in our work
Freedom and Sovereignty of Humanity
We believe in the right of every human to live freely, speak freely, and be the sole beneficiary of their own labor.
Environmental Protection and Food Security
We believe in the fundamental right of all people to have access to clean water, breathable air, affordable and renewable energy, safe housing, and healthy nutritious food.
Peace and Social Justice
We believe that without justice, there is no peace. Every society has the fundamental right to live free of fear in a just and equitable community.
Education
We believe that education is the gateway to freedom and security. A well-educated community is a safe and thriving community.