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How Executive Director Dana Loatman Is Upholding Virgil Abloh’s Mission To Support Underrepresented Creatives

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As the Executive Director of the Virgo Abloh Foundation, Dana Loatman is preserving the late fashion designer’s mission of supporting underrepresented creatives.

The New York native credits her time at Bowie State University, Maryland’s oldest HBCU, for sowing the seed of helping overlooked creators, a mission that has guided her career.

“That’s where I got my passions really, for investing in our communities and minority communities and really ensuring that we have the same access that our counterparts have,” she explained to “Black Tech Green Money” host Will Lucas.

Loatman’s career journey reflects this spirit, including seven years at the Obama Foundation, where she held multiple roles, including senior director, chief of staff, advisor to the CEO, and director of corporate partnerships.

Her work helped secure more than $100 million from companies, including Apple, Nike and AT&T, targeting racial and gender equity and investing in future leaders, her LinkedIn notes.

As the executive director of the Virgil Abloh Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Virgil Abloh, whose imprint includes Off-White and making history as the first Black Men’s Artistic Director of Louis Vuitton.

“Virgil was a multi-hyphenate. He redefined what it meant to be a creative in so many ways,” Loatman mentioned on the podcast. “He was also a DJ, an architect, a designer, an engineer by degree, and so really redefined and reshaped what it means to be a creative.”

She added, “He was the first in many places but did not want to be the last. And so that legacy for him, when you asked me what is Virgil ABOs legacy, it really is continuing the work that he has started to continue his story by investing in young creatives, specifically young underrepresented creatives.”

Loatman said the foundation’s work continues Abloh’s legacy of elevating Black voices and diverse perspectives.

Abloh Air

The foundation’s initiatives include Abloh Air, a 10-month program designed for 17- to 18-year-old students living in Chicago. The program embodies the foundation’s three pillars: exposure, access, and opportunity.

Participating students will have the chance to attend a trip to Paris and London, receive mentorship and attend a monthly creator series, learning both soft and hard skills to gain a deeper understanding of the fashion industry.

“They’re getting tangible skills that they can put on their resume, and they’re graduating in the next few weeks from the program, and they’re all going to college as next steps,” Loatman told Lucas. “Some are studying marketing, some are looking forward to integrating political science with their photography interests. And so this program really was built on Virgil’s quote that a lot of people will know. Everything he did was for the 17-year-old version of himself. And so I had the north star of leading that program forth and continuing it and growing it and scaling it too.”