Michael DeVaul named 2025 Changemaker Award recipient

Dec 20, 2025 at 12:52 PM

Darin Gantt

The Carolina Panthers surprise Changemaker nominee Michael DeVaul of the YMCA of the USA on Tuesday, No. 18, 2025 at Community Matters Cafe in Charlotte, NC.

CHARLOTTE — Michael DeVaul has experienced great change in his life.

And he's also helping to create even more.

And for those efforts, he's being recognized Sunday as the Panthers' 2025 Changemaker Award recipient.

Through his role with the YMCA, DeVaul established the Young Men Thriving initiative, which creates support systems to improve outcomes and impacts for boys and young men of color. And what began locally has expanded across the country, into 64 cities serving thousands of young people, and continues to grow. In 2014, he was honored by the White House as a Champion of Change for his efforts in community building, diversity, inclusion, and his leadership in initiating a partnership with the Senegal YMCA in Africa.

But whenever attention comes his way, he's immediately thinking about the next thing.

"You do the work," DeVaul said this week, sounding very much like a football coach pushing toward the playoffs. "When you get the recognition, you think, OK, well, all right, but we've got to keep working.

"You just do the work, and to me, what's compelling is watching young boys in particular, in this instance, I think young leaders, male and female, really create more culturally responsive communities where they're really talking to each other. The real recognition is watching people get eye to eye and ear to ear. That's so important, and particularly for all kids 11 to 17, it's when identity is shaping, you really need people to talk to."

Creating those opportunities to develop young leaders has been a mission for DeVaul since his earliest days.

He grew up in Evanston, Ill., long enough ago that when he began going to YMCAs, they were still segregated.

And when he came to Charlotte in 1999, he found a new home that still included barriers for many. Like many who live here, he was stunned by the now-famous Harvard study that ranked Charlotte 50th out of 50 major cities in economic mobility. Progress has been made since then, but for DeVaul, creating opportunities for young people was the path forward.

"All of a sudden it was like, OK, these are all puzzle pieces sitting in front of me; I've got to pick up the puzzle pieces," DeVaul said of his discussions with fellow Black executives across the country. "So we started out focusing primarily on boys and young men of color, and then it became Young Men Thriving.

"We had had experiences, and to me, the lived and shared experiences become so important, and I think if you look back, our theme for next year is "No Place Like This Place," which, if you think about social justice and belonging, part of it is how do you develop space and place for people to get comfortable."

He often thinks about the words of former YMCA president and Nobel Peace Prize winner John Mott, who said, "Adolescence is a crucial time. If I had my life to live over, I would spend much time with the adolescent age group. These are the habit-forming years, the years of determining life attitude and tendencies, the years of creativeness."

That's what he's trying to build, in Charlotte and beyond. And as Charlotte has become home here, he's seen the progress, he's recognized the work being done, and been a part of it.

He said seeing the way his hometown has pushed forward has influenced him as he's taken a grassroots program national, in the same way this place has changed in the years since he arrived.

Honoring Michael DeVaul as our 2025 Inspire Change Changemaker for his contributions to the YMCA of Greater Charlotte! pic.twitter.com/y2NNXfivKT
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) December 20, 2025

"I think there are places where Charlotte has led the nation in how to work together and get collaborative, because I do think it's become a more collaborative city," DeVaul said. "I would say chronologically when I got here (1999) it was more of a teenager, and I think it's now more of a young adult whose frontal lobe is fully developed. So I think collaboration, I think trying to also take care of folks that may need more access, more opportunity, focusing in on affordable housing and some of the other predictors and symptoms that you need.

"And I think it's that can-do spirit that's evolved, and that collaborative nature and the ability at times to disagree with honesty and then focus on what problem needs to be solved. There are collaborative skills, I would say navigation skills, influence skills. Charlotte taught me a lot of those skills in the years I worked here."

In his role with the YMCA, he's gotten to know a number of Panthers players, including Mike Rucker and Mike Minter. So Sunday's recognition will be special for him, but once it's over, he's onto the next thing.

"OK, I can celebrate that for a moment Sunday, my family will be there, and we'll enjoy it, but Monday, I've got to get back to work," he said. "I've got some more time to put on the clock.

"Rucker said to me once, it's like you win a game, you get to the locker room, you celebrate. And then you win again, and you get to the playoffs. But it's one game at a time, and then you've got to put the celebration behind you and keep going."