Mikala Cox (she/her) joined The Skillman Foundation’s Strategic Initiatives team in March 2025, serving as program manager. Mikala has centered her career on youth-centered programming, philanthropy, and social justice, working to ensure young people have the resources, power, and opportunities to shape our future.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Mikala served as the youth programming specialist for the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), where she guided the agency’s strategic vision for building young Arab American leadership by amplifying youth voice and power across the organization and broader Arab American community. Alongside youth at ACCESS, she co-designed the agency-wide Youth Advisory Council, youth-led afterschool programs, and facilitated youth-adult partnership trainings and cross-departmental strategy discussions.

While she was with the Center for Arab American Philanthropy (CAAP), a national community foundation, Mikala led CAAP’s Teen Grantmaking Initiative where she supported youth to drive change through philanthropy and leadership, managed 16 scholarship programs, and supported general operations—including fundraising, events, grantmaking, communications, and donor engagement. She also played a key role as the organizer of the 2019 MOVE Conference, a national convening of 450+ changemakers consisting of artists, activists, philanthropists, scholars, nonprofit leaders, and youth, which focused on mobilizing and exploring intersectionality on a wide range of issues for marginalized communities.

In her early career, Mikala was an instructor with the MSU Adolescent Project and STRIVE Program, where she taught and managed a team of mentors dedicated to equipping young people facing the juvenile justice system with self-advocacy skills and strength discovery.

Mikala embraces lifelong learning as both a personal passion and as a responsibility to take action—she is passionate about advancing social, economic, and racial justice.

She holds a master’s degree in Social Work (Macro Practice) from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology & Sociology from Michigan State University.

Areas of expertise:
Youth-driven program development 

Some of my favorite things:
Going on adventures, playing sports, getting lost in a good fiction book, and catching live music in Detroit 

How I reenergize:
Spending time in nature, eating good food, and spending time with family and friends