Teniqua has over 20 years of experience working in the nonprofit sector. She ignites creativity and challenges mediocrity to drive desired outcomes through leading organizations and facilitating workshops that focus on nonprofit governance, leadership, equity readiness, culture and growth management.

In 2014, she established her own consulting firm, VerveSimone Consulting as a means to build an organization where she could control the fruits of her labor. She wanted to expand her capacity and use her influence as a community leader to impact the issues and topics most dear to her heart, arts, and culture, women and girls, and underrepresented communities. Today VerveSimone continues to lead change by positively affecting partnerships within our community as displayed by her noted leadership in the nonprofit sector building capacity structures from zero to scale. Such work is evident in leading the State of Black Arizona. As CEO of the State of Black Arizona, she has proven efficacy in enhancing systems, educating communities, and equipping citizens of Arizona. She is passionate about using data to advance the organization’s mission by compelling both leadership and the grassroot community to create solutions that benefit the lives of others.

Additionally, Teniqua curated a space for seven statewide leadership development groups such as Valley Leadership to Greater Tucson Leadership to commit to developing a shared curriculum on racial justice. Her vision is to empower leaders to have honest conversations about the communities we live, work, and play in, and how we as Arizonans can engage to make them stronger.

Teniqua has led the change in equitable grant-making practices as the commissioner chair of the City of Phoenix Arts and Culture Commission. She also executed the transition of leading and new curriculum for the SBAZ’s African American leadership institute from Valle de Sol and the launch of the inaugural institute in Southern Arizona. She currently serves as the chair of the Western States Arts Federation’s (WESTAF) Board of Trustees and a board member of Desert Botanical Garden Foundation and ASU Knowledge Exchange for Resilience (KER) council.

She was awarded Phoenix Titan 100 of Industry in 2022 & 2023 and AZ Big Media’s 50 Business Leaders to Watch in 2024. 2023 NCBW’s Economic Empowerment Legend Recipient and Arizona Capitol Times Women Achievers of Arizona. In 2021, she was awarded the Arizona State University MLK Servant Leader- Leadership award and Phoenix Business Journal’s 2021 Most Admired Leader recipient. In 2017, she was selected by her peers as the recipient of the Arizona Champion Award for the Central Arizona region from the Flinn Foundation’s Arizona Center for Civic Leadership, for my significant contributions to civic leadership.

Teniqua has a master’s degree in education with a focus on Educational Administration and Supervision from Arizona State University, and a bachelor’s degree in educational psychology, with an emphasis on theater for youth from Arizona State University. She is a certified Nonprofit Accounting Professional (CNAP), with certificates in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from the University of Arizona and Boston College and in Equity and Inclusion from the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance.