Speakers

 

Jason oversees a portfolio of our growth investments, serving as a strategic partner to leaders as they maximize their organizations’ performance and impact. He also helps to scout new investment opportunities for the American Journalism Project and contributes to the development of our venture support strategies. As the organization’s first hire, he oversaw its launch and first 18 months of operations.

Previously, Jason was project director for NewsMatch, a national campaign that has helped raise more than $100 million for nonprofit newsrooms. Jason has worked as a consultant with Democracy Fund, the Institute for Nonprofit News and local nonprofit news organizations, and he was associate director of InvestigateWest, a nonprofit investigative newsroom in Seattle. 

He lives in Washington, D.C., with his family. Jason is an advisor to Listening Post Collective and the Colorado Media Project.

Jason serves as a Success Partner to Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, Chalkbeat, Documented, El Paso Matters, Enlace Latino, The Marshall Project, Open Campus, San José Spotlight, Spotlight PA and Wisconsin Watch and the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service.

Jane Clover Alexander, CFRE, has an immense love for her community, a strong belief in the power of giving and an enduring interest in what makes people tick.

She was tapped as President and CEO of the Community Foundation in August 2012. Since she began her tenure, the Foundation has grown to $80 million in assets, with more than 300 funds – more than double its size in 2012. In November 2017, CFM completed an expanded vision, mission and footprint, which led to its new naming, Community Foundation for Mississippi.

She currently serves on the boards of the Philanthropy Southeast and the Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy and is a past board member of the Rotary Club of Jackson and past president of the Mississippi chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. She is a member of the CEO Forum of SECF, was a state captain for Foundations on the Hill, and serves on SECF’s Strategic Planning, Government Relations and Program Committees. She was elected to membership in International Women’s Forum in 2017.

A former magazine editor, Jane was editor of Mississippi Magazine and founded South Magazine, about the people, places and popular culture of the region. She taught journalism at Mississippi College and worked for Communication Arts Company creative agency. Her nonprofit professional experience includes work with Easter Seals, Millsaps College and the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra. She has served on the boards of the Oaks House Museum, Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and New Stage Theatre, among others.

A native of Jackson, Jane attended St. Andrews Episcopal School, Jackson Prep and Millsaps College. She earned a master’s degree in journalism with an emphasis in nonprofit public relations from the University of Mississippi. She also studied at the Else School of Management, St. John’s College, Oxford and the University of London.

Jane’s husband, Brent, is a public policy consultant and they are the parents of twin 12-year-old girls: Elizabeth Chandler and Emily Clare. They are communicants of St. James Episcopal Church in Jackson.

The daughter of longtime community leaders and activists, Jane believes her work at the Community Foundation pays tribute to the legacy of service her parents instilled in her from the tender age of 3.

Calvin Allen was promoted to MDC’s Vice President for Partnerships and Programs in December 2022, honing MDC’s programmatic vision and direction while supervising MDC’s program leaders. He also cultivates and manages key state, regional, and national partnerships across the 13 southern states MDC supports.

With 30 years of nonprofit experience in organizational development, philanthropy, rural community economic development, conflict management, and leadership development, Calvin holds a bachelor’s degree and a certificate in nonprofit management from Duke University, where he has also been a co-instructor at the Nicholas School of the Environment for the past 10 years for their Community Based Environmental Management practicum.

Calvin joined MDC in 2021 as Senior Program Director for the Rural Forward program. He co-founded Rural Forward in 2014 after serving three years with the Golden LEAF Foundation as a community grantmaking program officer. He also served as deputy director at the Southern Rural Development Initiative, director of the National Community Forestry Service Center at the Conservation Fund, and associate director at the Dispute Settlement Center of Orange County.

He is a 1994 graduate of Leadership Durham and a 2003-2005 graduate of the William C. Friday Fellow for Human Relations through the Wildacres Leadership Initiative where he serves on the board of directors.

Sara Barba is Principal at Integer, LLC, where she manages clients in the government relations practice. She is known for her coalition-building expertise and substantive tax policy knowledge.

At Integer, Sara represents individual, corporate and nonprofit tax interests on Capitol Hill and in the Administration, developing and executing strategic advocacy efforts to advance clients’ priorities in the tax code. Her experience includes regulatory and legislative analysis, local engagement with Members of Congress, bill writing, and coordination of sector-wide advocacy campaigns.

Prior to Integer, Sara was Vice President at Urban Swirski & Associates, LLC and held several positions with Members of Congress, including Representative Mike Coffman (R-CO) and Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO). She worked both in district and in Washington, DC, where she supported policy, communications and field staff.

Sara is pursuing a Master of Arts in Philanthropic Studies from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. She graduated with honors from the University of Missouri, Columbia, with bachelor’s degrees in Journalism and Political Science. She is a skilled writer and editor, and her work is featured in Wealth Management where she provides insightful analysis of breaking financial issues and policy trends to watch for in Washington.

Jennifer Barksdale (she/her) joined the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation in 2007 and serves as Chief Finance and Operations Manager. A certified public accountant, Jennifer handles the organization’s budgeting, financial accounting and reporting, audit and tax coordination, grant accounting and human resources. She serves as a liaison for the Foundation’s investment committee and financial advisers who oversee a portfolio of market-rate investments that adhere to environmental, social and governance best practices. Jennifer also manages financial aspects of program-related investments. 

For eight years, Jennifer taught Accounting and Financial Reporting for Governmental and Not-for-Profit Organizations as an adjunct professor at Wake Forest University. Her previous positions include chief financial officer for NC Child, finance director for Uplift, Inc. and audit manager for Arthur Andersen. Jennifer is a member of the North Carolina Association of CPAs and the American Institute of CPAs. 

In her spare time, Jennifer serves on the the board of directors and as Treasurer of the Riverwood Therapeutic Riding Center. She also serves on the board of the Children’s Law Center of Central North Carolina as well as the Philanthropy Southeast board of directors where she is Secretary-Treasurer and Chair of Finance Committee. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Wake Forest University. 

Joe earned a Ph.D. in ethics from the University of Chicago, a Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt University, and a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Religion from TCU. He’s an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He previously served as the founding Executive Director of the Center for Community Engagement and Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy at High Point University. He’s the author of the book “To Love Our Neighbors: Radical Practices in Solidarity, Sufficiency & Sustainability” as well as numerous articles and book chapters on ethics, economics, and sustainable community development. In addition to serving on several nonprofit boards, he chairs the North Carolina Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service. Joe lives in High Point with his wife and two children.

Shirley Bondon is the Executive Director of the Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis (BCCM), one of the principal organizations of the Greater Memphis Housing Justice Project (GMHJP). GMHJP is a multi-year advocacy project designed to conduct research, raise awareness, tell renters’ stories, and explore policy and structural changes to address the housing crisis in Memphis. Shirley is a licensed attorney and an accomplished and passionate Change Agent with a wealth of experience and proven talent, leveraging creative aptitude and business acumen to drive industry-leading performance. She applies skills acquired while working in government, nonprofit, and for-profit entities to advise organizations in advancing policies that promote social and economic justice. Shirley has significant experience training others to develop public policy, increase public awareness of a concern, change public perception of an issue, and help shape and monitor legislation.

Russell W. Booker is a devoted champion of education and community service, bringing 30 years of diverse experience in the field. His passion centers on empowering students for lives of leadership and service. Under his leadership, Spartanburg Academic Movement is driving an ambitious integrated economic mobility plan, Movement 2030, aimed at providing thousands of children in Spartanburg a pathway to upward mobility.

Having retired as Superintendent of Spartanburg County School District Seven, Dr. Booker has left an indelible mark on the local education system. He currently chairs the StriveTogether Board of Directors, serves as a board director of Purpose Built Communities, and holds roles as a trustee at Wingate University, the Mary Black Foundation and the Spartanburg Regional Hospital Foundation.

His contributions have led him to be recognized with the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Humanitarian Award, South Carolina Superintendent of the Year recognition, and induction into the South Atlantic Conference Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Athlete Alumni. In 2020, he was awarded the Order of the Palmetto, the state's highest civilian honor, acknowledging his years of dedicated service in education. He was most recently given OneSpartanburg Inc.'s 2023 Neville Holcombe Distinguished Citizen Award.

A proud member of the Spartanburg Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi, Fraternity Inc., and the South Carolina Liberty Fellowship, Dr. Booker is deeply rooted in his community. He earned his B.S. degree in Education from Wingate University and holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of South Carolina, Columbia. Currently, he serves as a By All Means Senior Fellow at Harvard University's EdRedesign Lab in the Graduate School of Education.

Russell and his wife Sheryl reside in Spartanburg and are the proud parents of two sons. Grant graduated from the US Naval Academy and commissioned as a US Marine Corps officer in 2023, and Maxwell is a member of the Harvard College Class of ’26. They are members of Mt. Moriah Baptist Church.

Lajuana Bradford is head of Corporate Philanthropy and Partnerships for Regions, a regional bank that operates throughout the South, Midwest and Texas and is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.

In her role, she manages major bank giving and community partnerships, disability services and outreach, and  service member and veterans affairs.

Bradford’s extensive career in the financial services industry spans more than 33 years. Prior to joining Regions in 2009, Bradford was a Community Relations Executive at Wachovia/Wells Fargo. She led their philanthropic and employee volunteerism programs and oversaw the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) compliance initiatives.

Bradford holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Rhode Island College in Providence, Rhode Island, and is a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Executive Leadership Program. She also completed Boston College’s Management Development Program in Corporate Community Involvement. She is a graduate of Leadership Birmingham and the Momentum program for female executives.

Bradford’s recognitions include Birmingham Urban League 2024 I’m Every Woman Award, Positive Maturity 2023 Top 50 over 50, Alabama Humanities Alliance 2023 Wayne Greenhaw Service to the Humanities honoree, 2023 YWCA Central Alabama Decades of Passion honoree, Salute Selma 2020 Woman of Excellence, Savoy Magazine’s 2018 Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America.

Her current and past board memberships include Red Mountain Theatre Company, Miles College Board of Trustees, Women’s Foundation of Alabama, the YWCA of Central Alabama, Alabama Humanities Alliance, and Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, and The Links, Incorporated.

Nicole Bronzan brings journalistic roots and an advocate's passion to her role as the Council's vice president of communications and content. Most recently she was a senior communications officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, working to ensure that everyone has a fair and just opportunity for health. Previously she led communications at ProPublica, the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom; Freedom to Marry, helping to secure marriage equality; and the Legal Action Center, working to fight discrimination and restore opportunity for people with arrest and conviction records, substance use disorders, and HIV or AIDS.

Before her work in communications, she held various news editing roles, most recently as assistant Metro editor at The New York Times.

When not at work, Nicole can be found running (or otherwise playing outside), seeking out chocolate, or bemoaning the latest grammatical indiscretion.

Amber serves as the Director of Programs for Grantmakers for Southern Progress. In her role, Amber provides strategic leadership for GSP’s programs, connecting philanthropy to grassroots movements and leaders fighting for liberation in the South. Prior to joining GSP, she worked at a community foundation where she led grantmaking programs centered around culture & identity, foundation-wide evaluation efforts and DEI initiatives, and supported the creation of the first public policy agenda from a philanthropic organization in South Carolina. Amber holds a B.S. and M.A. in Psychology, which has supported her passion for community health and overall wellbeing. Amber is an SC native, a mother, and a lover of a good book. 

Dahlia joined the Foundations’ staff in 2020. She previously served for six years the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS), most recently as the Deputy Division Director of Strategy, Innovation and Engagement. Prior to DFCS, she led the Family Violence Division at the Georgia Governor’s Office for Children and Families and spent several years doing frontline social work in the nonprofit sector. Dahlia received a B.A. degree in psychology and a correlate sequence in Africana Studies from Vassar College, and earned an M.P.H. degree from Morehouse School of Medicine.

Phil Buchanan, president of CEP, is a passionate advocate for the importance of philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. Hired in 2001 as the organization’s first chief executive, Phil has led the growth of CEP into the leading provider of data and insight on philanthropic effectiveness.

Phil is author of Giving Done Right: Effective Philanthropy and Making Every Dollar Count, published by PublicAffairs and named the “Best Philanthropy Book of the Year” by Inside Philanthropy in 2019. He is co-host of a podcast, also called Giving Done Right, with CEP’s Grace Nicolette. Phil is a frequent blogger for the CEP Blog, author of op eds that have appeared in a variety of publications including The New York Times and Financial Times, and a frequent commentator on philanthropy in the media.

Phil is co-founder of YouthTruth, an initiative of CEP’s designed to harness student perceptions to help educators and funders accelerate improvements in K–12 schools and classrooms. In 2016, he was named the Nonprofit Times “influencer of the year” and he has been named 12 times to that publication’s “Power and Influence Top 50” list, most recently in 2023. Phil serves on the boards of directors of the National Council on Aging (where he has chaired the Governance Committee) and the Institute for Nonprofit Practice.

Born in Toronto, Phil grew up in Portland, Oregon before attending Wesleyan University, where he majored in Government and was awarded the Butterfield Prize for character, leadership, intellectual commitment, and concern for the Wesleyan community. He also has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Professor of Economics at UVA.  A member of the UVA Faculty since 1988. Have taught more 3rd and 4th year students at UVA than any other professor in school history.

Have a B.A. and M.A. in Economics from Rice University and a Ph.D in Economics from Northwestern. 

Previously taught economics at Cornell University, Rice University and York College.  

Served on three public company boards and still serve on the Board of SL Green Realty (SLG: NYSE). 

Served 17 years as a Trustee of Virginia Retirement System; Chairman of the Virginia Retirement System from 1997-2001. 

Spent ten years running the Options Department at Smith Barney (at the time, the 8th largest such department in the world); ten years as President of Rothschild Financial Services (Evelyn Rothschild was Chairman of the Board); and two years running investment banking and public finance (municipals) at Interstate Johnson Lane.

Currently serve as an investment advisor to Danville Regional Foundation (in Danville, Virginia) and as an investment advisor to the Teamsters Pipeline Fund.

Regular weekly appearance on WINA (1070) in Charlottesville at 8:40 AM every Wednesday on economics topics.  Have done this show off and on for more than 20 years.

Dena Chadwick was named president and CEO of Philanthropy Southeast in June 2024. She has been with the organization since 2009, including serving as chief operating officer with her predecessor and mentor, Janine Lee.

Dena played a leading role in the development of the Equity Framework, the organization’s groundbreaking commitment to inspire and strengthen learning, leadership and actions within Southern philanthropy dedicated to the advancement of equity in the field and region. The Framework, adopted in 2019, has since influenced the development of a new mission and vision. Dena is also a key architect of Philanthropy Southeast’s Courageous Leadership Strategy, which calls on the organization to take risks and make leaps that mobilize the people and resources needed to address critical issues facing philanthropy in the South and communities in the South.

Throughout her career at Philanthropy Southeast, Dena has leveraged her expertise and prior experience to ensure effective stewardship of financial resources. Working with the Board of Trustees and Finance Committee, she has led work that has placed Philanthropy Southeast in a strong and sustainable position. She also spearheaded successful efforts to operationalize the organization’s commitment to equity, including the creation and adoption of a DEI Policy and a new Employee Handbook.

In addition to her work at Philanthropy Southeast, Dena serves on the board of the United Philanthropy Forum. She also served as a board member for The Museum School of Avondale Estates from December 2010 to January 2013 and served as its Treasurer from December 2010 to June 2012. She continues to serve on its Advisory Board.

Dena began her career in philanthropy as a staff accountant and assistant controller with the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation in 1991. She earned a bachelor’s of business administration degree in accounting from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta.

Dena, an Atlanta native, has two adult children. She lives with her partner and their two dogs and enjoys when the house is full and everyone comes home.

Ann Searight Christiano is the founder and Director of the Center for Public Interest Communications and a clinical professor in the Department of Public Relations at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.

Public Interest Communications uses science-driven strategic communications and storytelling to advance positive social change. Searight developed the first-ever curriculum in public interest communications, connecting practitioners and scholars who are already working in the field, and nurturing and sharing research that can advance this newly emerging academic discipline. She completed a 10-year term as the inaugural Frank Karel Chair in Public Interest Communications in May 2020.

Before coming to the University of Florida in 2010, Searight was a senior communications officer for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, directing efforts for programs that address social actors like housing, education and mental health that drive health and wellbeing.

As a faculty member, she was named University of Florida Teacher of the Year in 2019 and Junior Faculty International Educator of the Year in 2019.

Her writing has appeared in publications such as Barron’s, the Stanford Social Innovation Review and The Conversation. Her work through the Center includes partnerships with the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, the U.S. Department of State, and several agencies who work in this domain. She has worked with several federal and state agencies, the Gates Foundation, the International Labor Organization, and nonprofits and foundations throughout the world.

She regularly trains scientists and other leaders to more effectively convey the importance of their work.

John Churchill oversees all of the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations’ grantmaking programs. These programs comprise initiatives in higher education, interfaith leadership and religious literacy, public educational media, palliative care, and climate change. Prior to joining AVDF, John was a program director at the Templeton Foundation in Philadelphia. He has a PhD in philosophy from Indiana University and a BA in philosophy and psychology from the University of Texas. 

Dr. Agenia Walker Clark became president of Fisk University in November 2023. She is the University’s third female head and the 18th president of the 158-year-old-university, one of the nation’s highest-ranking Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Dr. Clark most recently served as CEO for the Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee – where, during her 19-year tenure, she increased the agency’s operational efficiencies, increased its reserves, built new facilities, and transformed the agency into one of the highest performing of the 111 councils in the Girl Scout network.

Prior to the Girl Scouts, Dr. Clark was the Vice President of Human Resources for the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation, Senior Director of Human Resources at Vanderbilt University and directed human resources for Canadian telecommunications provider Nortel Networks, where she also served as a manager of government relations.

Dr. Clark was named “Nashvillian of the Year” in 2021 and as one of “Nashville’s 100 Most Powerful People,” 2015–2020, by the Nashville Business Journal. An inductee into the Academy for Women of Achievement, she is also a Nashville Post Person-In-Charge (2014–2021). She is also a member of the International Women’s Forum (IWF), a member of the 2016 Class of Leadership Tennessee, and 1996 Class of Leadership Nashville.

She currently serves on the corporate board of directors for FirstBank Financial Corporation (NYSE: FBK) as well as the boards of trustees for Belmont and Simmons Universities – and is a trustee emerita on the board of the Haslam School of Business at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Dr. Clark earned a B.S. and MBA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and her Doctorate in Leadership from Vanderbilt University.

Ciara Coleman is a dynamic philanthropic leader working at the intersection of social justice, entrepreneurship, and community development. With over 10 years of experience, she has crafted a unique skill set in strategic development, grant management, and program direction, consistently driving impact through innovative solutions.

For Ciara, philanthropy is a powerful tool for change. Her work embodies a commitment to equity, using both institutional and community-based approaches to address social challenges. As a “Both/And” Strategist, she pushes organizations to take multifaceted approaches to giving, advancing systemic change and transforming the philanthropic landscape. Her expertise spans racial and health equity, with a focus on initiatives that dismantle systemic inequalities and engage communities as partners in the work.

Ciara began her career at Kellogg Company, where she interned in the Premium Quality and Safety department. During this experience, she began to think deeply about how health and food safety connect to corporate social responsibility. Inspired by the company’s philanthropic efforts, she transitioned to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, where she spent 10 years as a Program Manager overseeing $210M in funding across early childhood education, health, and economic security. She played a pivotal role in driving equity-focused, place-based strategies, supporting grantees and colleagues, and managing external partnerships.

Currently, as the Manager of Economic Practice – Equity and Economic Opportunity (EEO) Initiative at the Rockefeller Foundation, Ciara manages a $30M portfolio aimed at increasing income and assets for low-income workers. She has personally directed over $17.5M to marginalized communities, ensuring that they are active participants in shaping the solutions and administering the resources they receive.

Ciara’s commitment to community extends beyond her institutional roles. She is the Founder of Geaux Girl Giving (GGG), a collective giving initiative that has awarded over $70,000 to 40+ grassroots nonprofits supporting Black women and girls in the New Orleans metro area and has been honored by Community Investment Network as a Giving Circle Award winner. She is also the co-founder of Meet Me At The Bar, LLC (MMATB), an entrepreneurial venture that creates community through networking events, celebrating New Orleans' vibrant culture while fostering meaningful connections.

A recognized leader, Ciara was honored in 2023 by the Women’s Philanthropy Institute as a Black Women Give Back List awardee and was also selected as a 2022 Power Coalition for Equity and Justice She Leads Fellow, 2020 ABFE Connecting Leaders Fellow, and a 2018 PLACES Fellow of The Funders Network. She holds a Master of Public Administration from Western Michigan University and a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition from Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University.

Brittany Collins is a trusted, strategic advisor and social impact strategist with over a decade of experience in urban public education, community development, and the non- profit sector. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Betty and Davis Fitzgerald Foundation in Atlanta, GA. Prior to joining the philanthropic sector, she served as the Founding Director of PAACT: Promising All Atlanta Children Thrive, a citywide alliance of public and private partners focused on improving outcomes for young children in Atlanta. Under her leadership, she deployed a $2 million rapid response grant fund to stabilize the childcare sector and support families with young children during the pandemic. She was also instrumental with supporting Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens' administration to develop a comprehensive early childhood strategy that led to the development of a historic $20M investment fund to improve early childhood access across Atlanta neighborhoods. Prior to joining GEEARS, she served as the Managing Director of Program for OneGoal Metro Atlanta. In that role, she was chiefly responsible for setting, defining and managing the overall direction of the OneGoal program in Atlanta, ensuring efficiency and efficacy in delivery of the model. Before joining OneGoal, Brittany served as a Community Development Advisor at Purpose Built Communities, a non-profit, community development consulting firm that works with local leaders to implement a holistic approach to revitalizing distressed neighborhoods. She managed approximately 18 start-up backbone organizations seeking to replicate and implement a national model. She specifically supported the development and identification of resources to deploy targeted housing, education, and community wellness intervention strategies to improve neighborhood health and life outcomes in over 18 cities; and developed tools to formalize public-private partnerships with a focus on scaling high quality early learning programs.

Ellen Collins serves as the executive director for the Alliance.  In this role, Ellen provides leadership and support to nonprofit and philanthropic organizations in their efforts to strengthen Mississippi’s children, families, and communities. Her work involves interaction with nonprofits organizations, foundations, United Ways, public sector entities, and businesses throughout the state. She is also responsible for day-to-day operations, working to ensure the organization is effectively executing on its long-term strategy, consistently improving performance and productivity, and regularly identifying opportunities to enhance organizational effectiveness. Ellen previously served as associate director for the Alliance, as well as various roles in nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, including the director of the Prosperity Center for Midtown Partners, Inc. She also served as a senior program officer for the Chicago-based McCormick Foundation and director of programs for the Community Foundation of Greater Jackson (now the Community Foundation for Mississippi) where she was instrumental in helping launch the Women’s Fund of Mississippi (now the Women’s Foundation of Mississippi), the only nonprofit foundation in the state that focuses primarily on women and girls’ issues. A native of Starkville, Miss, Ellen holds a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Mississippi Valley State University; a Master of Science in education from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale; and additional studies and certifications in family services and leadership development. She was a member of the Leadership Greater Jackson class of 2008-09 and has served on various boards for nonprofit organizations in the Metro Jackson area. Ellen is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta, Sorority, Inc. and the Junior League of Jackson. She loves photography, traveling, and conducting genealogical research.

Mark D. Constantine joined the Dogwood Health Trust team in April 2023 as Senior Vice President of Community Investment. Prior to joining Dogwood, Mark served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Richmond Memorial Health Foundation (RMHF). He has served as senior vice president at the Jessie Ball duPont Fund in Jacksonville, Florida, where he directed the Program-Related Investment and affordable housing activities of the Fund.

Mark served for more than a decade as a consultant to foundations and national nonprofit organizations on issues related to governance, strategy, and learning. His clients included CFED, Demos, First Nations Development Institute, Ford Foundation, Lilly Endowment, Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Southern Education Foundation. In addition, he served as the assistant executive director of the Kathleen Price Bryan Family Fund and as a senior fellow of the Foundation for the Mid-South.

Mark has authored two books, Wit and Wisdom: Unleashing the Philanthropic Imagination (2009) and Travelers on the Journey: Pastors Talk about Their Lives and Commitments (2005), as well as the award-winning monograph, “Where Hope and History Rhyme: Reflections and Findings from the Mid-South Commission to Build Philanthropy (2005).” Wit and Wisdom was selected by the 2009 Philanthropy Annual Review as one of the two “notable titles” in the Social Justice Philanthropy category.

He holds a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business (Duke University), and a Master of Theological Studies degree from Duke Divinity School. He was a 2006/2007 Fellow of the Emerging Leaders Program directed by the Centers for Leadership at Public Values at the University of Cape Town and Duke University. He serves as the Immediate Past Chair of the Virginia Funders Network, Co-Chair for the Jeffress Trust Awards Program in Research Advancing Health Equity and has served as a faculty member for the Grantmakers in Health Terrance Keenan Institute for Emerging Leaders in Health Philanthropy.

He is the proud father of Noah Balazs Constantine.

Roberto Cremonini is GivingData's Chief Innovation Officer. In this role, he works with colleagues, clients, and thought leaders in the philanthropic sector to help foundations use technology to transform their grantmaking and amplify their social impact. He also oversees GivingData’s annual conference, GDConnect, a three-day event designed to foster knowledge-sharing and showcase innovative applications of the company’s growing suite of tools for grantmakers. Before joining GivingData, he was Chief Knowledge and Learning Officer at the Boston-based Barr Foundation, where he oversaw the implementation of information technology to support foundation strategy, evaluation, and communications. Roberto serves on the Directors Emeriti Advisory Board of the Cambridge Community Foundation and is a former trustee of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) and José Mateo Ballet Theatre.

As Chief Executive Officer of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, Flozell Daniels, Jr. (he/him) leads the overall operations of the Foundation, from grantmaking to investing, communications and strategy, providing both organizational and field leadership. Flozell represents MRBF’s programs and vision for change to our grantee and philanthropic partners, as well as the general public. He partners closely with the board of directors to ensure the Foundation remains on the cutting edge of sound strategic decisions and field-leading philanthropic transformation.   

 Flozell previously served as CEO and President of the Foundation for Louisiana, which launched in 2005 to foster an equitable recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. It has since grown to become a “catalyst for justice,” supporting communities statewide through grantmaking and loan products, leadership development programs, and advocating on myriad issues facing Louisianians, including climate justice, economic justice, criminal justice reform, racial and gender justice, and more. Prior to his 14+ years leading FFL, Flozell was Assistant Vice President and Executive Director of State and Local Affairs for Tulane University and served in the Mayor’s Office during Marc Morial’s tenure as Public Policy Specialist in the Division of Federal and State Programs. 

Flozell has always worked with the understanding that the fates of all Southern people are tied together. From his early work on the Equity and Inclusion Campaign covering Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to his cofounding of Grantmakers for Southern Progress, Flozell holds a longstanding commitment to building the South’s infrastructure for justice and power.   

A New Orleans native, Flozell brings expertise in public policy, community development, criminal justice reform, climate policy, transit equity and asset development. Flozell recently served as Chairman of the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority and Orleans Public Education Network, is board member emeritus of the Urban League of Louisiana, and serves on the Louisiana Public Defender Board and the Governor’s Climate Action Taskforce. He is a 2013 graduate of University of Oxford Said Business School’s Impact Investing Programme, 2011 Fellow of the Opportunity Agenda Communications Institute, a life Fellow of the Louisiana Effective Leadership Program, an alumnus of Leadership Louisiana and a graduate of the Metropolitan Leadership Forum. Flozell holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the A.B. Freeman School of Tulane University and a Bachelor of Arts in Biological Sciences from the University of New Orleans.

Spending most of his life serving nonprofit organizations, Andy brings over 25 years of sector experience to Georgetown Health Foundation.  At GHF, Andy engages Georgetown and Williamson County stakeholders to help create and devise educational opportunities to support the nonprofit sector and the larger community. 

Andy also assists and builds support networks that will assist Georgetown Health Foundation in its efforts to understand best where GHF resources and support can have the most significant impact. Andy also works as an independent consultant and is a regular speaker and presenter on various board leadership topics. 

Before GHF, he spent 15 years at BoardSource, the premier organization focused on nonprofit governance, most recently as the Associate Vice President of Education and Outreach. While there, Andy played a crucial role in creating and developing the frameworks of Purpose Driven Board Leadership and Measuring Fundraising Effectiveness. He also created and co-led the Certificate of Nonprofit Board Consulting course, which has trained over 1,000 nonprofit consultants nationwide.

Andy is the Board Chair of Our Minds Matter in Washington, DC. He previously served as the chair for the national advisory council of AmeriCorps Alums and was a charter member of the Center for Nonprofit Advancement’s Board Leadership Awards. Andy holds a master’s degree in public administration with a concentration in nonprofit management from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Kim is a senior advisor for the Home Region Program and leads the foundation’s work in the Arkansas/Mississippi Delta. Before joining the foundation, he was the Director of External Relations and Economic Development and Director of Education and Workforce for the Northwest Arkansas Council, a regional economic development organization. While at the Northwest Arkansas Council, Kim was appointed to serve on the Arkansas State Board of Education by former Governor Mike Beebe and concluded that service in 2015. He is a member of the class of 2019 Presidential Leadership Scholars, a program operated by the George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Lyndon B. Johnson foundations, designed to hone leadership abilities through interactions with former presidents, key administration officials, leading academics and business and civic leaders.

Kristy Klein Davis is nationally recognized as a thought leader on health equity and the role of philanthropy in catalyzing positive change in communities. Currently President of Georgia Health Initiative, Klein Davis is a creative leader with deep expertise designing and implementing complex philanthropic strategies in public health and social sectors. In her role as President, she works collaboratively with the Board of Directors to achieve the Initiative’s vision of a Georgia in which all people have the opportunity to attain their fullest potential for health. She brings a creative approach to leadership and a strong passion for advancing health equity for all Georgians.

Prior to joining the Initiative, Klein Davis held various program and leadership positions at Missouri Foundation for Health, most recently Chief Strategy Officer. In this role, she drove the evolution of the foundation from a traditional grantmaker to a systems change institution, and built and leveraged internal expertise in grantmaking, policy, research, and communications to achieve long-term, equity-focused change.

In addition to her time at Missouri Foundation for Health, Klein Davis has also held positions in public health and health research organizations. Throughout her career she has worked to improve health equity through adaptive strategies that emphasize community-informed approaches that value and elevate lived experience. Klein Davis is a frequent writer and speaker on systems change, health equity, and modern philanthropy.

Klein Davis earned her Masters degree from The Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis.

Daniela Demaria is a strategic and mission-driven executive with over two decades of diverse C-Suite experience in the U.S. and abroad, specializing in financial services. As Founder and Principal of VaiNow Group since 2019, she leads a dynamic consultancy focused on driving strategy, innovation, and execution for social impact initiatives. Her firm partners with organizations to develop and implement transformative solutions that align business objectives with meaningful community impact.

Previously, as Consumer Bank Executive at Flagstar Bank, Daniela led strategic planning and execution across consumer segments and wealth management, where she successfully spearheaded the consolidation of two wealth organizations while managing over $10 billion in assets under management. Her earlier role as SVP & Managing Director of Strategy and Solutions at Fifth Third Bank saw her developing transformative business models and launching innovative digital platforms. At SunTrust Bank (now Truist), she led major transformation initiatives and managed a team of over 100 professionals, achieving double-digit revenue growth while increasing customer retention and satisfaction. Throughout her career, she has been recognized for her authentic, results-oriented leadership style and her ability to solve complex cross-functional problems with innovative approaches.

A dedicated community leader, Daniela currently serves as Board Chair of the Latino Community Fund GA and holds a board position with the Argentine American Chamber of Commerce. Her previous board service includes roles with Cool Girls Atlanta, GA Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and Dress for Success. She holds an MBA from Georgia State University, a B.S. in Chemistry from Universidad del Salvador in Argentina, and executive certifications from Babson College and Georgia Institute of Technology. Daniela is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) and is fluent in English and Spanish, with conversational abilities in French and Portuguese.

Beyond her professional achievements, Daniela is a certified hot power yoga instructor and avid traveler who resides in Atlanta with her two sons. Her unique combination of enterprise strategy expertise, international business acumen, and commitment to community impact makes her a valued voice in discussions about business transformation, social impact, and inclusive leadership.

Lauren is the Director of Food Systems Investment Strategy for Locus. Lauren joined Locus in 2018 to manage the Virginia Fresh Food Loan Fund, a $10 million integrated capital fund that improves access to healthy, local food and generates wealth-building opportunities for small business owners across urban and rural communities.  Lauren also supports facilitation of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Virginia Food Access Investment Fund; Virginia Food Access Coalition; the USDA’s Southeast Regional Food Business Center; and National Food Lenders Network. 

To deepen impact and increase capital absorption, Lauren’s expertise intersects food systems planning, community engagement, and economic development. Her work facilitates partnerships to align community residents, small business owners, impact investors, municipal leaders, and technical assistance providers around place-based investment strategies that respond to regional food systems’ unique assets and opportunities. 

Prior to joining Locus, for over a decade Lauren led non-profit teams, supported business development for startups, helped entrepreneurs navigate local innovation ecosystems, and consulted with executive leaders on creating joy in the workplace while managing change.

An internationally renowned political scientist and management scholar, Daniel Diermeier is the ninth chancellor of Vanderbilt University.

Daniel Diermeier was named Vanderbilt University’s ninth chancellor in late 2019 after an extensive search by the Board of Trust.

A visionary leader and internationally renowned political scientist and management scholar, Diermeier stepped into the role in July 2020 and immediately committed to safely and successfully bringing students back to campus during the COVID-19 pandemic. Vanderbilt was one of a very small number of the nation’s best universities to do so. In the years since, Chancellor Diermeier has led an ambitious program of expansion and improvement in the spirit of  Vanderbilt’s motto, Crescere aude, or “dare to grow.” Under his leadership, the university has risen in stature, topped the $1 billion mark in research expenditures, successfully launched a $300 million fundraising campaign for Vanderbilt athletics and reaffirmed its long-standing commitment to free expression and civil discourse. Diermeier has driven efforts to become the destination for leading faculty and the most promising students, to create a culture of radical collaboration and personal growth for Vanderbilt’s faculty, students and staff and to expand Vanderbilt’s global presence. In 2022, Vanderbilt launched the Discovery Vanderbilt initiative, a multimillion-dollar investment to catalyze and expand the university’s capacity for innovation and discovery across disciplines.

Diermeier has worked to increase Vanderbilt’s innovation partnerships with corporations and the U.S. military, as well as collaboration with Nashville and other communities in Middle Tennessee. He drove development of the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy and the annual Vanderbilt Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats. Under his leadership, Vanderbilt was selected as the host of the Clinton Global Initiative University in early 2023 and launched a yearlong celebration of the university’s Sesquicentennial.

In addition to his role as chancellor, Diermeier is University Distinguished Professor in the Owen Graduate School of Management and Distinguished University Professor of Political Science in the College of Arts & Science. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Guggenheim Foundation. He has published five books and more than 100 research articles in academic journals—mostly in the fields of political science, economics and management, but also in linguistics, sociology, psychology, computer science, operations research and applied mathematics.

Throughout his career, Diermeier has proven to be a bold innovator, combining excellence as a leader, researcher and teacher with an entrepreneurial mindset.

His first faculty position was as an assistant professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1994. In 1997, Northwestern University recruited him to its Kellogg School of Management to build its political economy program. He rose quickly through the ranks at Kellogg, receiving promotion to professor just four years after earning his Ph.D.

In 2000, he was appointed Kellogg’s IBM Professor of Regulation and Competitive Practice. Later, he was appointed director of the Ford Motor Company Center for Global Citizenship. He also held appointments at Northwestern in economics, political science, linguistics and law. He won multiple teaching awards, including the L.G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award and the Alumni Professor of the Year Award. He was a 2007 recipient of the Aspen Institute’s Faculty Pioneer Award, called “the Oscars of the business school world" by the Financial Times.

Diermeier co‐founded the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems and served as the founding academic director of the CEO Perspectives program, one of the leading development programs for C‐level executives. He also served as chairman and co‐founder of the Northwestern Global Health Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to developing low‐cost medical devices.

In 2014, Diermeier was appointed dean of the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, where he was also named the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor. As dean, he led the transformation of the Harris School into the third-ranked public policy school in the nation. His achievements included launching a strategy that doubled enrollment while increasing selectivity; a 50 percent growth in faculty; a major fundraising effort that included funding for the Keller Center, the school’s $80 million, LEED Platinum-certified home; and the recruitment of diverse students, faculty and staff, including bridge programs that led to a notable increase in minority students.

After his successes at the Harris School, the University of Chicago named Diermeier provost in 2016. In that role, Diermeier was responsible for all academic and research programs, as well as oversight of the university’s budget. His first priority was to improve the university’s financial performance without impeding its progress toward greater eminence. Another major theme of his tenure was the expansion of diversity and inclusion. He appointed more women to leadership positions, engaged in a faculty‐led initiative to increase the numbers of underrepresented minorities and women in the STEM faculty pipeline, and significantly increased the number of African American and Hispanic undergraduates who were the first in their families to attend college.

Diermeier also led major expansions of the University of Chicago’s faculty in engineering and applied science, while continuing improvements in economics, policy, business and urban studies. He oversaw sustained investment in the humanities and social sciences. During his tenure, the university’s undergraduate college experienced significant growth, while increasing selectivity and yield. Diermeier also focused on improving doctoral and non‐degree education.

With Diermeier as provost, the University of Chicago increased its level of global engagement, culminating in the opening of the Francis and Rose Yuen Campus in Hong Kong. The university also increased engagement locally with the City of Chicago and neighboring communities through initiatives including the Urban Labs, a faculty-led research center working with city governments to address urgent issues.

Over the course of his career, Chancellor Diermeier has served as a board member for the University of Chicago Medical Center, Argonne National Laboratory, the Civic Consulting Alliance, the Marine Biological Laboratory, the National Opinion Research Center, the Field Museum of Natural History and the Management Board of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He has been an adviser to governments, nonprofits and leading companies, including Abbott, Accenture, Allianz, the City of Chicago, the Government of Canada, Ernst & Young, Exelon, the FBI, Hyatt, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Metro Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers, State Farm, UnitedHealth Group and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

A first-generation college graduate, Diermeier earned a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Rochester. He also holds master's degrees in political science from the University of Rochester and the University of Munich, and he earned a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Southern California.

Andrea is Chief Operating and Financial Officer at the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. She is committed to solid investment, finance, accounting, human resource, operational, and information technology practices and ensures the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation generates sufficient revenue to relentlessly pursue equity for all Arkansans and maintains good stewardship of the Foundation’s financial resources. Andrea has led the Foundation’s journey to become a nationally recognized mission investor and provides support to the Finance and Audit Committees of the Board. In addition to her work at the Foundation, she currently serves as Treasurer for the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts Foundation; and on the Audit and Resource and Development Committees for Philanthropy Southeast, the Racial Equity and Inclusion Committee for Confluence Philanthropy, the Finance Committee for International Funders for Indigenous Peoples, and on the Evaluation and Guarantee Advisory Committees of the Community Investment Guarantee Pool.

David Dodson counsels donors, philanthropies, nonprofits, and communities to confront and remedy
enduring social and racial disparities. He is a veteran leader in social change philanthropy, a trusted
advisor to institutional executives, and a respected voice on the need for leadership to advance equity
and opportunity.

David served as President and CEO of MDC, Inc., a trailblazing social-change nonprofit widely recognized
for its contributions to improving equity in the American South. He was Executive Director of the
Cummins Foundation. He is an experienced nonprofit board member and trustee. In 2020, David
received awards from Yale Divinity School, the William Sloane Coffin Award for Peace and Justice, and
from the Durham Chamber of Commerce, the Durham Civic Award, for his contributions to the civic life
of his home community.

David currently serves as Senior Fellow at MDC.

In this role, Ebio is responsible for leading the development and execution of the Foundation’s philanthropic strategies and manages all aspects of grant making. 

Most recently, Ebio was director, Corporate Social Responsibility Integration (CSRI) at Florida Blue. She was responsible for leading the enterprise corporate social responsibility strategies and corporate sponsorship programming across Florida. Ebio joined Florida Blue in 2002 and has held different roles across the enterprise. 

Throughout her career, Ebio has been very active in the community, serving on various advisory committees and boards, including: First Coast American Heart Association, First Coast American Cancer Society, Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida, Volunteers in Medicine, Episcopal Children’s Services, MaliVai Washington Youth Foundation, LISC Jacksonville, Ascension St. Vincent’s Foundation’s Shircliff Society, and We Filipinos, Inc. She recently served as co-chair of the First Coast Brooks YMCA Advisory Board. In 2014, Ebio was named “Jacksonville’s Finest Young Professional” for exemplary leadership in business and community by Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. She has been recognized for her top volunteerism efforts with The Straight and Narrow Project and Jacksonville Public Education Fund. Ebio completed the Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation’s 2018 JAX MVP Leadership Program. In 2018, she completed the Contributions Academy with the Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals. Ebio was selected to participate in the Grantmakers In Health’s 2022 Terrance Keenan Institute for Emerging Leaders in Health Philanthropy. She is a member of the Leadership Jacksonville Class of 2020 and Florida Blue’s Unleashing Leadership Talent Cohort 2021.

Ebio holds a Bachelor of Business Administration, Management from the University of North Florida.

A descendant of more than nine generations from Appalachia, Rev. Ryan M. Eller is the Executive Director of the Appalachia Funders Network. Following two years at Watershed Partners/Coeuraj, a global social good company confronting systems that are at odds with the people they are intended to serve founded by Canada’s wealthiest family, Eller spun off his own impact firm working on projects ranging from philanthropic, religious, and indigenous engagement to significant initiatives at HBCUs and throughout the South. In this capacity, he is President of The Beloved Community Foundation, an organization born out of his work organizing faith leaders for the cause of racial justice following the death of Breonna Taylor. 

Prior to 2021, Ryan was Executive Director of Define American, the nation’s leading narrative and culture change organization using media and the power of storytelling to transcend politics and shift the conversation about immigrants, identity, and citizenship. Define American was ​named one of the most innovative companies in the world by Fast Company in 2019 and 2020 and called “​one of the most effective social justice organizations of our generation” ​by the Center for Media and Social Impact. ​Eller was also the U.S. campaigns director at ​Change.org​ and the former Executive Director of CHANGE – the largest broad-based community organizing group in the southern U.S. during his tenure. ​Ryan has been widely published across the media, including in The Hill and Politico, and has appeared on Fox News, CNN, NBC, and more. 

Ryan is a frequent guest lecturer, having taught at Wake Forest University, Harvard, MIT, and more. Eller has a BS from Appalachian State University, MDiv from Wake Forest, MPA from Penn State, and is currently a doctoral candidate (ABD) at Duke. 

Ryan is a former officer in the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps and was the first Bill Moyers Fellow at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

Kathleen Enright has focused on making the philanthropic sector more vital, open, and effective for more than two decades. Widely respected as a mission-driven leader and coalition builder, she joined the Council as President and CEO in 2019. Since then, Kathleen has led the organization to establish a clearer vision, offer a distinctive value proposition for the field, and deepen member engagement.

Prior to the Council, Kathleen served as founding President and CEO of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations and as the group director of marketing and communications for BoardSource.

Kathleen is a recipient of the Distinguished Public Service Award from the George Washington University Chapter of Pi Alpha Alpha, a public administration honor society. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Public Administration from The George Washington University.

Kathleen speaks and writes regularly on issues related to philanthropy at national and regional gatherings of executives and trustees.

Committed to public policy issues ranging from health care to water quality to homelessness, Nora Ferrell has spent years helping nonprofits and foundations tell their stories. As the director of communications at the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, her work includes creating public relations strategies to share the work of the Trust and its grantees, building relationships with the media, overseeing the Trust’s online presence, and working hard to make the world of philanthropy understandable to the average person. 

In 2022, working closely with Trust President Dr. Laura Gerald, Nora led the Trust team in planning and executing the Trust’s statewide 75th anniversary events and announcement that the foundation would divest from tobacco and commit to socially responsible investing. Since joining the Trust in 2012, Nora has provided leadership around the launch and implementation of Trust initiatives including Great Expectations, Healthy Places NC and the Innovations in Rural Health Award. In 2018 she led efforts to communicate the Trust’s evolved grantmaking approach and partnered with the program team to hold community conversations around the state. 

Prior to joining the Trust, Nora served as the vice president of the Community Media Workshop, a Chicago-area nonprofit; the communications director and editor at Minnesota 2020, a public policy think tank; and a senior account executive for Valerie Denney Communications (VDC), a public interest public relations firm in Chicago. During her time at VDC, Nora earned the Edwin J. Shaughnessy’s Quality of Life award from the Publicity Club of Chicago for her media work around police torture in Chicago. 

Though Nora lived in the Chicago area for the better part of 11 years, she is happy to be back in North Carolina where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Nora currently serves on the Board of Directors of Leadership Winston-Salem and the NC Local News Lab Fund. When she’s not in the office, Nora enjoys tennis and running and can’t get enough of the North Carolina sunshine. She and her husband are happy to be raising their two children in the Tar Heel state.

Diogo runs Green South Foundation's two grant programs, which fund projects to raise awareness about our changing climate and to accelerate the pace of conservation in the region. He is a former BCG consultant interested in sustainable economic growth and preserving the wonders of the great outdoors. He has an MBA from Harvard and a BSc in Mathematics and Economics from The LSE. Diogo lives in Durham, NC.

Dr. Laura Gerald is president of the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, one of North Carolina’s largest private foundations. A pediatrician who was born and raised in rural North Carolina, Dr. Gerald joined the Trust in 2016 and brings decades of leadership experience in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors to the foundation. At the Trust, she oversees grantmaking of $20 million annually from assets of more than $600 million. Under her leadership, the Trust announced in 2022 that it will divest from tobacco and invest $100 million of the foundation’s corpus in socially responsible funds that support economic opportunity for residents of North Carolina. The announcement coincided with the Trust’s 75th anniversary and further aligned Trust resources with Mrs. Reynolds’ vision of improving the health and quality of life of North Carolinians with low incomes.

Since Dr. Gerald joined the foundation, the Trust has deepened its commitment to racial equity and systems change to ensure all people—especially residents of color and communities that have been historically marginalized—have full access to opportunity and the supports they need to thrive. Guided by Dr. Gerald’s strategic vision, the Trust team has set clear goals and strategies around bodies of work focused on improving rural health, increasing equitable access to health care, and improving equitable health systems around the state. Locally in Forsyth County, the Trust focuses on improving early childhood education through its Great Expectations initiative and creating a more inclusive economy. 

After medical school, Dr. Gerald began her career in her hometown of Lumberton, NC, as a pediatrician. From there, she focused on statewide health improvement and served as the executive director of the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund Commission, which awarded millions in grants statewide annually to decrease tobacco use and increase healthy eating and active living. In 2014, Dr. Gerald was appointed to be the North Carolina State Health Director and the Director of the Division of Public Health where she prioritized the importance of addressing social determinants of health to improve health outcomes across the state. She went on to work with Evolent Health to assist health systems across the country that are transforming healthcare delivery on a pathway to more value-based care.

Dr. Gerald is a graduate of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics and holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges, a medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University School of Public Health. She currently is the Board Chair of Grantmakers in Health, on the Board of Trustees for Winston-Salem State University, and adjunct faculty at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Dr. Gerald is a board-certified pediatrician and fellow in American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. González is the cofounder of Conexión Américas (www.conexionamericas.org), a non-profit organization with the mission to build a welcoming community and create opportunities where immigrant origin families can belong, contribute and succeed. He was responsible for launching several successful initiatives – a homeownership program, an entrepreneurship course for Latino immigrants, and a Financial Literacy curriculum. Under his leadership, Conexión Américas received notable distinctions: Entrepreneurial Venture of the Year, Innovation in Action Award, and Strengthening Families Best Practices Award. Because of the recognition that Conexión Américas enjoys, President Obama came to visit in December 2014.

Dr. González has been recognized as one of a total of 50 most influential individuals leading and shaping Nashville's future. Nashville's Forward Fifty. The local newspaper, The Tennessean, named him as one of Nashville's "Top 40 under [the age of] 40" individuals, for service and commitment to improving the lives of individuals in Middle Tennessee. He is an alum of Leadership Nashville, and Leadership Tennessee; both initiatives that cultivate networks of business, nonprofit, and government leaders committed to addressing community challenges and opportunities. He was named ‘CFO of the year’ by the Center for Nonprofit management and was inducted into the Entrepreneur Center’s Hall of Fame in Nashville, TN.

He serves on the Board of Directors of a couple of private firms in town. Actively involved in Nashville's civic community, his current and past roles include the Board of the Entrepreneur Center in Nashville, Board of directors at Sister Cities of Nashville, the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and The Healing Trust. 

Darrin Goss Sr. is the President & CEO of Coastal Community Foundation, the largest community foundation in South Carolina, serving all nine counties on the coast. With his guidance, the Foundation crafted a Civic Engagement Agenda to communicate the systemic issues and inequities burdening the coastal SC region, and how the Foundation will work as a community leader in areas of housing, education and economic development. He has also been instrumental in establishing the Foundation’s first advocacy initiative, the Policy Agenda, as well as the first Place-Based Impact Investing Program to provide capital to emerging enterprises that address social needs.
 

Kaky McGinness Grant has worked in the field of philanthropy for over 20 years. The ethic of giving back was instilled in her at an early age by way of her parents and grandparents living on Lookout Mountain, TN. Her career in philanthropy started in Washington, DC at the Smithsonian National Zoo and The Field School. For 15 years, she worked as a consultant for CapDev, helping nonprofit organizations across the Southeast develop capital campaign and major gift strategies.

Kaky created Grant Philanthropic Advisors in 2019 to provide a new option for families, family offices and foundations looking to cultivate deeper meaning and impact with their giving. She leads a team that serves clients across the United States to realize their philanthropic planning goals with a particular focus around generational transfer of philanthropic leadership within a family.

Kaky currently serves on the creative arts advisory board at Davidson College and the Board of Trustees at Charleston Day School. She holds a BA from Davidson College and a MA in Philanthropic Studies from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. She is also a 21/64 Certified Advisor.

Dynamic, engaging, and passionate are just a few adjectives describing the work of Impact Alamance’s President, Tracey Grayzer. The Foundation was formed from the merger between Cone Health and Alamance Regional Medical Center. Since its inception, Tracey has led the organization in its strategic initiatives and partnerships to create a healthier, smarter, and stronger community for all. The Foundation is focused on creating a solid grid of resources for members throughout the county to provide them with the tools to thrive. 

Tracey graduated with her undergraduate degree in Journalism from Duquesne University, Pfeiffer University with her MBA/MHA and has also received her Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) from the Public Relations Society of America.

She has been involved in the Women’s Symposium Planning Committee, Alamance Achieves Steering Committee, and New Leaf Society Executive Committee, among many others. You can find her on the tennis court, dance floor or spending time with her husband and two children outside of her numerous other commitments. 

Mónica Guzmán is a bridge builder, journalist, and entrepreneur on a mission to show people the value of staying curious, even when it’s hard. She’s founder and CEO of Reclaim Curiosity, an organization working to build a world that sees itself; Senior Fellow for Public Practice at Braver Angels, the nation’s largest cross-partisan grassroots organization working to depolarize America; and host of A Braver Way, a podcast that equips people with the tools they need to bridge the political divide in their everyday lives. Her book, "I Never Thought of it That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times" has been featured in The New York Times, the Glenn Beck Podcast, Reader's Digest, and U.S. News named it one of the 10 best books to read before college. Mónica received an honorary doctorate degree from Wheaton College, has completed study and research fellowships at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, where she researched how journalists can rethink their roles to better meet the needs of a participatory public, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, where she studied social and political division, and the University of Florida, where she worked with researchers to better understand ways to employ techniques described in her book to boost understanding. Mónica serves as an advisor for Starts With Us and the Generations Over Dinner project, served twice as a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes, and plays a barbarian named Shadrack in her besties’ Dungeons & Dragons campaign. A Mexican immigrant, Latina, and dual US/Mexico citizen, she lives in Seattle with her husband and two kids and is the proud liberal daughter of conservative parents.

Laura Heiman is a firm believer that nonprofits are the backbone to a healthy society and is dedicated to creating operationally strong and resilient nonprofit organizations. She currently leads United Way of Greater Atlanta’s capacity building investments, developing timely and relevant capacity building opportunities that meet nonprofits where they are. Most recently she has focused on increasing wide-spread AI adoption amongst Greater Atlanta nonprofits. Laura has had the privilege of supporting nonprofits in a number of different ways, from the creation of a cross-sector community of practice for leaders of collective impact initiatives to disbursement of $28M in rapid response grantmaking through the Greater Atlanta COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund. She believes in the power of the social sector, and is always looking for innovative ways to support nonprofits to achieve their mission.

Mike Hill leads the Foundations and Endowments Specialty Practice and Institutional Investment Management teams across the Southeast, Midwest, and West Coast, offering more than 30 years of institutional investment management experience successfully driving results for client portfolios. Mike and his team specialize in designing and managing portfolios as a national leading provider of fiduciary investment management services to not-for-profit organizations, which includes private foundations and education, arts, healthcare, and community support institutions.

Mike serves on the board of the CFA Society and is a past board chair of the Nashville Society. An alum of Leadership Nashville, he is a board member of the Nashville Humane Association and a founding member and past board chair of the Nashville Humane Association Supporting Foundation. He is also active with the Southeastern Council of Foundations and a frequent speaker on investment topics.

Keon Holmes is a Managing Director for the Endowment & Foundation Practice at Cambridge Associates.

Keon invests on behalf of universities, foundations, hospitals, cultural institutions, independent schools, and private clients across the world, ranging in size from $100 million to approximately $10 billion.

Keon is a board member at the CFA Society Boston and Council Co-Chair at UNCF NE Leadership Council. He is a trustee and immediate past Board Chair at Lasell University and a current trustee of Spelman College. 

Prior to joining Cambridge Associates in 2005, Keon worked in equity risk management products with UBS AG in Hong Kong while attending business school. Previously, he worked as an Investment Manager for private clients at JP Morgan Private Bank. Prior to this, he was an Associate in the equity derivatives group at JPMorgan & Co. in New York.

Keon received his MBA from Harvard Business School and his BS in Electrical Engineering from Howard University. He is a CFA® charterholder.

Anne Hossner joined the GivingData team in 2023. She brings deep knowledge and experience in building client independence and success. Prior to GivingData, Anne spent the majority of her career in training, customer education, and team management. Past endeavors include being a grants and scholarship administrator at an education foundation and a learning and development manager at a philanthropic software technology company. Outside of work, she chases dogs and children around and swims long distances in cold water.

Dawn is a public health lawyer and experienced state health department policymaker who specializes in the use of law and policy to improve health outcomes and advance racial health equity. Specifically, she is interested in civic health and anti-racism in public health practice, and was the lead author of the Health & Democracy Index and is a co-founder of the Collaborative for Anti-Racism & Equity. Dawn has served as an advisor and partner on several key leadership initiatives including Emerging Leaders in Public Health and Diverse Executives Leading in Public Health and is an advocate for strategies to operationalize equity through a healthy and engaged workforce. Dawn received her MPH in Global Communicable Disease from the University of South Florida College of Public Health, and her JD from Stetson University College of Law.

Victoria Huynh (she/her) is a Community Organizer and has more than 18 years of experience working within international, immigrant, and refugee communities in the state of Georgia. In the most recent role, Huynh served as a  Senior Vice President/Chief Officer of External Affairs at one of the largest AAPI nonprofits in the Southeast.  In October 2022, Huynh formed the Georgia AAPI Hub to support the capacity building of AAPI nonprofits in Atlanta.  

Victoria’s experiences in her limited English proficient (LEP) Vietnamese Refugee household fuels her passion for community building, strategic planning, and policy work within the immigrant spaces. Victoria actively advocates on the local and national level for equitable language access, meaningful civic engagement, protections of immigrant rights, and the enhancements of vital social safety net services and programs. Most recently, Huynh fundraised more than $1,000,000 in 2021-2022 to support vital grassroots AAPI initiatives in Georgia.  

From 2013-2018, Victoria served as an appointed member of the National Regional Health Equity Council. In 2015, 2017, 2022, and 2023 the Georgia Asian Times recognized Huynh as an honoree of the 25 Most Influential Asian Americans in Georgia. In 2020, the Southeast U.S. Pan Asian Chamber of Commerce named her an outstanding AAPI in the Southeast and was named a sHERO by the Center for Asian Pacific American Women and OCA at a National AAPI Womxn’s Conference. Huynh recently ended her three-year federal appointment with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on the Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel. Victoria currently serves as a federal appointee with the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (PACAANHPI).  

Abby Siegel Hyman is a Program Partner for External Partnerships at The Healing Trust. In this role, she manages The Trust’s work beyond grantmaking that supports the care and capacity of grantees, including technical assistance and workshops, leadership circles, and Healing for the Healer retreats. Additionally, she manages The Trust’s Staff Support grant portfolio and the Sabbatical Fund in collaboration with other funders at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.  She holds dual master’s degrees from Vanderbilt University in Theological Studies and Community Development and Action. She is an Honors Program alumna of Murray State University and completed undergraduate studies in Nonprofit Leadership, Public Relations, and Organizational Communication. Abby is also an alumna of Nashville’s Young Leaders Council and Nashville Emerging Leaders and is a founding member of the local Rotaract chapter. She is the former board chair of Tennessee Higher Education Initiative, where she continues to serve.

E. Bomani Johnson serves as ABFE’s Senior Director of Special Initiatives. In this role he leads ABFE’s work to ensure that race-explicit grantmaking and programming continue to be promoted, expanded and protected in the philanthropic sector via the Racial Equity Advancement and Defense Initiative. He also leads ABFE’s efforts to establish funding collaboratives resourcing Black-led and serving organizations in the country. His history with ABFE spans more than a decade as an engaged member, consultant, and an alumni of the 2014-2015 class of the Connecting Leaders Fellowship Program. Prior to his current role, Bomani was Co-Founder and the first Executive Director of Nafasi Fund, – a fiscal sponsor focused on meeting the unique needs of Black-led organizations - Vice President of External Partnerships for The Moriah Group, and Founder and Principal of Emergent Pathways, a racial justice focused consulting firm supporting foundations and nonprofits abilities’ to be effective partners in Black communities and other communities of color. He has more than 30 years of experience in community organizing, program and organizational development, nonprofit leadership, strategic grantmaking and philanthropic organizing having worked with the Greater Washington Community Foundation, Latin American Youth Center, Illinois Center for Violence Prevention, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, and American Friends Service Committee.

Bomani is the father of two beautiful, brilliant Black children and loves to read and play tennis whenever time allows.

L. Gregory Jones is President of Belmont University. Prior to his appointment at Belmont in June of 2021, he was Dean of Duke Divinity School, a position he held for an earlier term from 1997-2010. Between 2010 and 2018, he served in a variety of roles, including vice president and vice provost for global strategy at Duke University and as provost and executive vice president of Baylor University. In addition, he has served in advisory and strategic roles with several foundations and educational institutions in the United States as well as in Armenia. Greg is a dynamic administrative leader, a gifted speaker, a noted writer, and a trusted advisor who helps leaders imagine new possibilities and shape cultures for organizational success and productivity. Greg currently serves on the boards of the John Templeton Foundation, the McDonald Agape Foundation, the Lilly Family Board of Philanthropy at Indiana University, and the India Collective.

Greg is a leader and strategist whose creative engagement has helped institutions across the world create transformational resource models. Greg’s global imagination has guided business, education and religious leaders in Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Europe, and the United States. Greg has a particular gift for incubating talent, ideas, and networks. He is passionate about re-shaping cultures within and across organizations and has coined the term “traditioned innovation” to capture how he re-frames complex challenges to seize significant opportunities. 

Known for his entrepreneurial leadership and fund-raising ability, Greg’s first tenure as dean was marked by significant growth in Duke Divinity School. More than $102 million was raised under Greg’s leadership in The Campaign for Duke (1998-2003). Major new initiatives during his tenure included Leadership Education at Duke Divinity, the Center for Reconciliation, the Thriving Rural Communities Program, the Duke Youth Academy for Christian Formation, the Clergy Health Initiative, the Reynolds Program in Church Leadership and international partnerships, especially with the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, the United Methodist Church in Cote d’Ivoire and the Center for Reconciliation’s Great Lakes Initiative which embraces the central-east African region. As Duke’s Global Strategist, he led initiatives in China and India as well as helped to engage work in Singapore. In Greg’s tenure as Dean of Duke Divinity School, he strengthened the financial trajectoryl, diversified the faculty and staff and led a strategic planning process that has garnered great enthusiasm for the future of the school.

Greg is the author or editor of 19 books, including the recently released co-authored Navigating the Future: Traditioned Innovation for Wilder Seas (with Andrew P. Hogue), Christian Social Innovation, the co-authored Forgiving As We've Been Forgiven: Community Practices for Making Peace (with Celestin Musekura), the co-authored Resurrecting Excellence (with Kevin R. Armstrong), and the widely acclaimed Embodying Forgiveness. Jones, an ordained United Methodist minister, has published more than 200 articles in a variety of publications.

Greg is married to the Rev. Dr. Susan Pendleton Jones, who has served as a campus minister, a local church pastor, and as a senior administrator at Duke Divinity School and as a consultant to the bishop’s office of the United Methodist Church in NC. Greg and Susan are the parents of three children: Nathan, Ben, and Sarah, and are grateful for their two daughters-in-law, Amy Little Jones and Allison Jones, their son-in-law Joey Fala, and their granddaughters: Clara, Audrey, and Sophie.

Sharon Jones is a dedicated nonprofit leader with over 27 years of management experience in the hospitality industry. As the Founder and Executive Director of Paroled2Pride, she has established a vital nonprofit organization that provides essential resources and job opportunities for returning citizens. Since 2007, Sharon has fostered partnerships with local businesses and community organizations to create effective employment and training programs. She has also organized workshops and support groups to aid individuals in their reintegration journey and has been actively involved in community feedings and clothing giveaways.

Sharon is deeply committed to community service and empowerment, as evidenced by her extensive involvement in local initiatives. She serves as a Board Member for Friendly City Garden, working to promote sustainable gardening practices and improve local food security. As a member of the Lowndes County Task Force and Columbus Community Read, she engages in strategic planning, community initiatives, and literacy programs to enhance quality of life and foster personal development. Additionally, Sharon is involved in the North Mississippi Emmaus Walk, focusing on spiritual retreats and leadership development, and she distributes Google Scholarships to support education and skill development in her community.

With expertise in program development, community outreach, team leadership, and strategic planning, Sharon continues to make a significant impact through her dedication to service and her commitment to fostering positive change.

Alesha Judkins currently serves as the Mississippi State Director of Criminal Justice Reform for FWD.us. She began her career in criminal justice in 2008 as a Justice Fellow with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), followed by serving as advocate with the Southern Poverty Law Center where she remained until joining FWD.us in 2019. Throughout her career Alesha has worked with incarcerated people and their families in a variety of capacities. She believes that in the words of Bryan Stevenson, “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”

Kristen Keely-Dinger is the President and CEO of The Healing Trust. She joined the Trust in 2003 as the first Program Officer and has also served The Trust as VP of Programs and Grants and Executive Vice President. Kristen focuses her work on programs that improve the health of underserved populations in Middle Tennessee by expanding access to health services through cross sector partnerships like Get Covered Tennessee, and by preventing adverse childhood experiences. Kristen has experience in prevention education, community organization, and volunteer administration. Kristen received her Bachelor’s of Science in Neuroscience from Vanderbilt University, her Master’s of Science in Social Work from the University of Tennessee, and is currently a Licensed Advanced Practice Social Worker. Kristen was selected as a 2007 Southeastern Council of Foundation Hull Fellow and is a graduate of the 2011 Nashville Emerging Leaders Class.

Mischa Kirby, APR, is Vice President of Strategy & Communications at the Community Foundation of Sarasota County.

As a member of the foundation’s leadership team, Mischa is responsible for developing our strategic position and long-range planning. She leads the teams responsible for assessing and analyzing community needs, and sharing successes, solutions and partnership opportunities to improve our community through external communications, including public relations, marketing and events.

An accredited professional with more than 20 years of experience, Mischa combines her experiences in journalism, agency, and nonprofit management to develop long-term relationships and programs shared through thoughtful (and award-winning) communications campaigns.

Mischa earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Florida and holds an accreditation in public relations (APR) from the Universal Accreditation Board. In 2022 she successfully completed Harvard Kennedy School's Executive Education Program "Leadership, Organizing and Action: Leading Change." Mischa joined the foundation in 2018 and has held various volunteer roles in the community, including that of a past president of the local chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association, and is a graduate of the Leadership Sarasota County program, and is a current member of its Leadership Council.

Mischa and her husband, Chet, live in Venice with their daughter. Mischa finds inspiration enjoying the outdoors and through poetry.

Kristine LaLonde’s career reflects a commitment to supporting individuals, organizations, and communities as they work to learn and thrive. Her experience includes serving as the Director of Shared Strategy for the Metropolitan Housing and Development Agency, Nashville’s public housing authority, and as Co-Chief Innovation Officer of Nashville and Davidson County. LaLonde served as an elected member of Nashville’s Metropolitan Council, the legislative body for the city and surrounding county, representing a rapidly changing urban neighborhood.  

She holds a Ph.D. in American History from the University of Virginia, where she served as the student member of the university’s governing board. She earned a BA in history from the University of Michigan.  

In higher education, she served as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Community Engagement at Vanderbilt University and as the Associate Dean for Lipscomb University’s College of Leadership and Public Service, where she launched and directed the master’s degree program in Leadership and Public Service and the undergraduate program in Urban Studies. She directed a program in leadership studies in the Honors Program at Belmont University, where she was a tenured Associate Professor. After graduating from UVA, her first teaching position was as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the History Department of Howard University.

LaLonde currently works as a facilitator and consultant, partnering with nonprofit and governmental organizations to improve organizational structures and cultures, particularly during times of transition.

Angela leads the Foster Youth Initiative at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. In her role, she manages a grantmaking portfolio that works with partners in Los Angeles, New York City and Atlanta to ensure that all transition age foster youth have the supports they need to lead healthy, meaningful, and self-sufficient lives through pathways that provide them the connections, resources, stability and skills to pursue educational and career opportunities.

Prior to joining the Foundation, LoBue served as Chief Operations Officer at the Coalition for Responsible Community Development, a non-profit community development organization founded in the historic South Central corridor of Los Angeles.

LoBue served as the first Youth Systems Integration Manager at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) where she led a team working with community providers and systems partners to meet the needs of youth experiencing homelessness, and was a Program Manager in the Los Angeles office of the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH), where she developed the local transition-age youth (TAY) initiative. She began her career in direct services to children, youth, and young adults experiencing the child welfare, juvenile/justice, and mental health systems in the San Francisco Bay Area.

LoBue has served as the Thomas M. Menino Fellow at the National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education, & Families. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a master’s degree in public policy and graduate certificate in public management from the University of Southern California School of Policy, Planning and Development.

Meridith Maskara joined GSUSA as chief development officer in 2024. In this role, she draws upon her years of Girl Scout leadership experience to strengthen the organization’s capacity to create equitable opportunities for every girl to feel empowered to lead in their community, the workplace, and the world.

Prior to joining GSUSA, Meridith was chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of Greater New York, where she led her council to exponentially grow their membership and created a culture of philanthropy, catapulting their fund development to achieve record-breaking success. She also oversaw the launch of Troop 6000, a Girl Scout troop that has gone on to serve more than 5,000 women and girls in 30 shelters across New York City. Meridith was previously vice president of product programs and chief operating officer for the council. Before joining Girl Scouts, she spent 17 years as vice president of Max Merchandising, a leading licensing and branding theatrical company. 

Meridith graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City. As a third generation Girl Scout, a troop leader for over ten years, a Gold Award Girl Scout, and a mother of five Girl Scouts, Meridith has seen firsthand the lifechanging opportunities that come from investing in Girl Scouts.

Jerry McCarthy, former PSE trustee and inaugural executive director of the Virginia Environmental Endowment has authored Blueprint for Going Green: How a Small Foundation Changed the Model for Environmental Conservation.

In 1970, Virginia Governor Linwood Holton appointed Gerald “Jerry” McCarthy the first executive director of his new state Council on the Environment, a position that launched a career devoted to the environment and public service. He served in numerous executive and board member positions in state, regional, and national agencies charged with environmental protection, conservation, and philanthropy.  Beginning in 1977, he served for thirty-six years as the founding Executive Director of the Virginia Environmental Endowment, a grant making foundation uniquely created in the aftermath of The Kepone Disaster that poisoned the James River: that environmental catastrophe is the catalyst for this book. 

Jerry has served nine recent Virginia governors as a member of state boards including the Commonwealth Transportation Board, the Commission on the Future of Virginia's Judiciary, the Virginia Conservation and Recreation Foundation (Vice Chair), and the Chesapeake Bay Citizens Advisory Council (Chair), the Virginia Uranium Advisory Committee, and as an advisor to the Commission on Virginia’s Future.  

Jerry has written Op-Ed pieces published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and the Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star, most recently on the importance of preserving the National Environmental Policy Act. He has also published several blog posts about how to achieve greater impact through philanthropy. He was a founder of the Chesapeake Bay Funders Network, the Environmental Grantmakers Association, and the Association of Small Foundations (Now: Exponent Philanthropy), all of which promote collaboration and effectiveness among grant making foundations. In addition he’s served for six years as a Board Member of the Southeastern Council of Foundations (Now: Philanthropy Southeast). 

Since stepping down from the leadership of VEE in 2013 he has remained active in several environmental organizations and continues to serve on the Membership Committee of Exponent Philanthropy, a national association of foundations.
 

Ben McDearmon is the Council's Director of Legal Resources. He is responsible for guiding the legal team's work and provides legal education, information, and analysis on a wide range of issues to community foundations, corporate grantmakers, private foundations, and other philanthropic organizations. He also serves as a legal reviewer for the National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations program and as a contributing editor to Mastering Foundation Law: The Council on Foundations Compendium of Legal Resources. 

Ben is licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia and holds a J.D. from the Washington & Lee University School of Law, where he was a member of the school's tax clinic during his third year.  He received a B.A. in English from the University of Richmond, with a minor in History. Ben was a member of the university's crew team, and also served as a volunteer rowing coach while in law school.

Ben and his family live in Richmond, VA.

James McKissic serves as the President of ArtsBuild, a pivotal force in fostering vibrant communities through the arts. With nearly three decades of experience spanning nonprofit and governmental sectors, James is deeply committed to leveraging arts, humanities, and philanthropy to enact meaningful societal change. A graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at NYU, James has also immersed himself in textile arts and weaving at prestigious institutions such as the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC, and Foxfire in Mountain City, GA. His dedication extends to various board memberships including The River City Company, Tennesseans for the Arts, and Humanities Tennessee, where he plays a pivotal role in shaping cultural discourse. As a founding member of The Sankofa Fund for Civic Engagement and founder of the African American Historic Cemetery Fund, James is an advocate for preserving cultural heritage and community engagement. His textile work is currently showcased in the traveling exhibition "Crafting Blackness: 100 Years of Black Tennessee Craft," highlighting contributions to the state's artistic narrative. Beyond his professional achievements, James finds joy in travel, art collecting, literature, museum visits, and gardening.

Gilbert serves as the board chair of the Bradley-Turner Foundation, and he has served as a trustee of the Beloco Foundation for over two decades, formally joining the board in 2000. He is also a director of W.C. Bradley Company, a family-owned holding company focused on consumer products and commercial real estate development. Gilbert is a past board chair of Philanthropy Southeast, a current trustee of the National Center for Family Philanthropy, and a member of the steering committee of the Georgia Grantmakers Alliance. 

While not in the boardroom, Gilbert manages a small commercial real-estate development partnership and co-owns his family’s 40-year-old Christmas tree business, Kimi Farms. A graduate of the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, Gilbert also serves on the boards of Andrew College, The Nature Conservancy - Florida Chapter, Epworth-by-the-Sea, and the Dean’s Advisory Board of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at UGA. He and his wife, Jamee, have two sons, William and Benjamin, and a daughter, Juliette.

Susan Mims, MD, MPH, FAAP, with over 20 years of experience in clinical and healthcare leadership in North Carolina, currently serves as the President and CEO of the Dogwood Health Trust, a $1.7 billion private foundation, where she leads a team of public health-oriented philanthropists using creative and innovative investments to change the factors that influence health beyond health care services focusing in four strategic priority areas, housing, education, economic opportunity, and health and wellness, grounded in equitable opportunity for all.  

Prior to joining Dogwood Health Trust, Dr. Mims worked with the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) as the Chair of a new Department of Community and Public Health at UNC Health Sciences leading the Asheville campus of the UNC Gillings School of Public Health in collaboration with UNC Asheville, community health outreach programs, rural and minority health professions workforce development.  

Through 14 years with Mission Health System, Dr. Mims held several roles working to meet the healthcare needs of the people and families of western NC, including Vice President for Children’s Services, Chief of Pediatrics, and Vice Chief of Staff. Arriving in western NC in 2000, Dr. Mims served as medical director at the Buncombe County Health Department for six years, leading all aspects of public health and the largest community health primary care clinic in the county.  

Dr. Mims attended college at the University of Georgia on an athletic scholarship. After college she volunteered in Guatemala for a year in community development before returning to UNC in Chapel Hill to earn a Master of Public Health and MD degrees. She continued her medical training at UNC Hospitals in Pediatrics, Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine and Public Health and attained board certification in all three disciplines.  

Dr. Mims is active in national, state and WNC regional community organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics, NC Pediatric Society (Past President), and the Buncombe County Commission on Early Childhood Education. Spending her early years living in a variety of towns and cities in the US, she is grateful to call Western North Carolina home for nearly 25 years now and loves spending time with her family in these majestic mountains.

Katrina is an experienced and respected leader with more than 20 years of experience working on a national and regional level. She has worked in the non-profit, philanthropic and public sector. She has served in leadership roles at the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services, Andrus Family Fund and the National Urban League. She currently serves as the Chief Community Impact Officer at United Way of Greater Atlanta. She led the Greater Atlanta COVID Response and Recovery Fund and is leading the United for Racial Equity & Healing Fund. She is also responsible for a grantmaking portfolio focused on improving child well-being and addressing the systemic issues that put Greater Atlanta at the bottom of the list of U.S. cities in terms of opportunity and economic mobility.

Katrina also served as an advisory member of the Children’s Defense Fund’s Freedom School and as a board member for Westside Atlanta Charter School and the Wellesley College Alumnae of African Descent. She currently serves as Co-Chair for Grantmakers for Southern Progress and a steering committee member for the Atlanta Regional Collaborative for Health Improvement Collaborative. 

Katrina is also the recipient of Rockwood Leadership Institute's Equity in Philanthropy Fellowship, Association for Black Foundation Executives Connecting Leaders Fellowship. Katrina is also a member of Leadership Atlanta Class of 2023 and Leadership America Class of 2018. After receiving a B.A. in English from Wellesley College, Katrina earned a M.Ed. from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

Tom is a Partner and Managing Director at Cambridge Associates, based in Arlington, VA, and joined the firm in 2007. Tom is an investor leading a team that partners with mission-driven institutions and families and builds sophisticated investment portfolios designed to meet critical financial and client alignment objectives. Beyond portfolio management, and throughout his career at CA, Tom has been a leader and champion for helping clients invest their portfolios for impact and mission alignment. Tom helped launch and has continuously worked to advance the firm’s Sustainable and Impact Investing (SII) Platform, a global team that enables clients to cultivate high-caliber and sustainable investment portfolios. He is currently co-chair of the firm’s SII Council, and a member of the team focused on Cambridge Associates execution of its Net Zero commitment. Tom has more than two decades experience in impact finance.

Regan Gruber Moffitt is Vice President of Community Investments at St. David’s Foundation. Regan leads the Community Investments team, overseeing the Foundation’s strategic grantmaking, community collaborations, strategic partnerships, and grants management. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2021, Regan served as Chief Strategy Officer at the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, a private foundation supporting systemic change to achieve equity throughout Arkansas.

Regan’s professional journey began in Texas as an ESL mathematics teacher with Teach for America. She later received a Master of Arts in Education at the University of Texas at Austin and served as a legislative aide in the Texas Legislature. Immediately prior to serving as the Chief Strategy Officer at the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, Regan was an insurance regulatory attorney with Mitchell Williams Law. Regan is active in several philanthropic and community organizations, currently serving as a board member for the Asset Funders Network, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, and the Carl B. and Florence E. King Foundation. She is a former Board Chair for Philanthropy Southeast.

Regan received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Wellesley College, her Master of Arts in Education from the University of Texas at Austin, and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law.

Kellan became the second President and CEO of the John Rex Endowment in 2017.

She leads the overall management and strategic direction for the Endowment, in partnership with five team members and 14 directors. The Endowment’s mission to strengthen organizations that center racial equity and justice to improve the social-emotional health of children living in Wake County (Raleigh, NC)

Kellan has over 30 years’ experience in the philanthropic sector. Prior to the John Rex Endowment, she was the founding executive director of Care Share Health Alliance, served as program officer at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, was supervisor of corporate giving at Progress Energy, and executive director of the Foundation of Hope.

Her proudest accomplishment is working with her board, staff, community, and other funders to re-imagine philanthropy, grantmaking and advocacy by centering racial equity in all that we do. Our journey has just begun, but our commitment is for the long haul.

Kellan has deep ties to her family, friends, and community. She serves as Board Chair for Raleigh Village East, a nonprofit that helps seniors age in place in their homes. She loves traveling, reading, movies, trying new restaurants, and spending time with her dog, Oliver.

Sutton Mora is the Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis. After graduating from Webster University, she began working in underserved neighborhoods in Chicago, which led her to pursue a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning at The University of Memphis. Prior to joining the Community Foundation, she led several non-profits focusing on issues as diverse as neighborhood development, environmental justice, and education reform. In her current position, she oversees the day-to-day operations of the Foundation, including the Philanthropic Services, Community Impact, Finance, and Marketing & Communications teams. In March 2020, she led the creation of the Mid-South COVID-19 Regional Response Fund and its subsequent implementation in partnership with the City of Memphis, Shelby County Government, United Way of the Mid-South, and the Mid-South Philanthropy Forum. In 2023, she worked with her staff and a community-voiced, community-led volunteer committee to create a new grant program focused on reforming the housing and justice systems in Memphis and Shelby County.

Jenny joined the Foundations’ staff in 2013. She previously worked as an account executive at the marketing communications firm Jackson Spalding. Jenny serves on the President’s Advisory Council for PEAK Grantmaking and is a former Georgia Education Policy Fellow. She graduated summa cum laude from the Georgia Institute of Technology with B.S. degrees in psychology and communications.

Cynthia Muller is the Director of Mission Investment at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation based out of Battle Creek, Michigan.  

Muller is responsible for driving the strategy and performance of the foundation’s $100 million mission driven investments (MDI) portfolio. She manages strategic impact investment activities that address systemic barriers that create vulnerable conditions for historically marginalized communities and children. Over its 15-year history, the MDI program has committed more than $310 million in mission-related investments (MRIs) targeting market rates of financial return, and program-related investments (PRIs) to further WKKF’s mission.  

Cynthia came to the foundation in September 2016 as the program and portfolio officer where she was responsible for developing and managing strategic market rate impact investment activities; sourcing and deploying market rate investments to increase social change impact; analyzing solutions and trends; and developing relationships in the field.

Prior to joining the foundation, Muller developed and managed Arabella Advisors impact investing practice where she helped foundations and individuals understand the field of impact investing; develop strategies and structure investments to accomplish their social and environmental goals. Muller previously worked in community development finance as well as community-based health care in Indigenous communities. She serves on boards of Next Chapter, Enterprise Loan Fund and Mission Investors Exchange.

Muller was born in Anchorage, Alaska and raised in Chugiak. She holds a Master of Business Administration from the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Stanford University.

Dr. Michael Murray is President and CEO of the Foundations. In that role he oversees the development and execution of the strategic objectives of the Foundations in keeping with the values of AVDF’s Board of Trustees. The Foundations seek to promote the flourishing of a diverse and inclusive America by investing in key assets that define our common future including education, spirituality, health, and the well-being of the environment.

Dr. Murray joined AVDF from the John Templeton Foundation where he served first as Vice President of Philosophy and Theology and, since 2011, as Senior Vice President of Programs. In that capacity Dr. Murray was responsible for overseeing the growth of the Foundation’s grant making that supports academic research and public engagement in the sciences and between the science and the humanities. During this period the Foundation’s annual grant support grew from $72M to $162M. He further managed the expansion of the Foundation’s work beyond North America and Western Europe to Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. In 2016, he completed a re-launching of the Foundation’s departments of Communications, Public Engagement, and Strategic Alliances.

Dr. Murray began his career at Franklin and Marshall College where he was the Arthur and Katherine Shadek Chair in Philosophy and the Humanities. He also held faculty positions at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the University of Notre Dame, and Oxford University. He has published numerous academic articles as well as monographs and edited collections with Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Blackwell, and Yale University Press. His research focuses on issues at the intersection of science, philosophy, and theology, as well as on seventeenth century Continental philosophy. Dr. Murray is currently a Senior Visiting Scholar at Franklin and Marshall.

Dr. Murray is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, in philosophy from Franklin and Marshall College, and his Master of Arts and Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. He and his wife Kirsten, a Director at Creative Health Services, a large community behavioral health agency in suburban Philadelphia, have three children, Samuel, Elise, and Julia.

Heather is a partner and the non-profit solutions leader for Aon investments. In this role, she is responsible for ensuring that the firm’s clients and prospects remain informed of key issues impacting the market and have access to innovative solutions to help meet their objectives. Heather serves advisory and OCIO relationships. She is the chair of Aon’s U.S. Investment Committee and a member of the U.S. Responsible Investment Committee.

Prior to joining Aon in 2016, Heather served at Russell Investments. Initially, she worked for Russell’s Japanese consulting business. Her experience at Russell includes manager research, investment management, and consulting. She spent a decade researching fixed income and currency managers, including in London as head of multi currency fixed income research. She also served as senior consultant for large, sophisticated foundation, endowment and retirement funds and finally managing director as a leader for the nonprofit practice. During this period, Heather also researched Private Equity and Hedge Fund of Funds for the firm’s clients. Heather has served on several boards and investment committees Whitman College’ Investment Committee for 12 years and a healthcare investment committee. Heather is currently a member of the John T. Gorman Foundation Investment Committee and the Claremont McKenna College Investment Committee. She first began working in the industry in 1989.

Heather’s expertise includes working with a variety of non-profit clients and other institutional asset pools. She is knowledgeable across the investment spectrum from public to private assets and other types of alternatives and has spent many years engaged with on Responsible Investing and DEI initiatives. Education to Boards and Investment Committees is one of Heather’s passions and strengths. Heather received the P&I Influential Women in Institutional Investing Award in 2023.

Heather has a B.A. in political science and a minor in Japanese studies from Whitman College. She also attended Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. She maintains an FINRA Registered Principal Series 24 License, as well as Series 7 and 63 Licenses.

Kathleen Nolte is the program director for arts and culture at the Lyndhurst Foundation. Kathleen feels especially honored to apply her personal passion for the environment and social justice to Lyndhurst’s dual focus on climate and equity through the creative medium of the arts. Based in Chattanooga, Lyndhurst serves a tri-state, sixteen-county region. In addition to her work in Chattanooga, Kathleen particularly enjoys her work on community-driven creative initiatives in small towns across the region. 

Prior to Lyndhurst, Kathleen founded the Cherokee County Arts Council in Murphy, North Carolina, distinguished by its robust Arts in Schools program, strong advocacy for the arts and artists, and consistent community outreach. She also managed a community-driven economic development process through the NC Rural Economic Development Center, Small Towns, for the Town of Murphy. Kathleen has over twenty years’ experience working in non-profit organizations. She has B.A. degrees in Spanish and Political Science and a M.A. in Conflict Transformation.

Originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, Kathleen has lived in New Mexico, Washington D.C., Texas, Vermont and South America. She has enjoyed exploring regional differences and culture in each community where she has lived. Kathleen is an avid hiker and loves being settled in the historic neighborhood of St. Elmo at the base of Lookout Mountain with her husband, Reed Caldwell, and Australian Shepherd, Oliver.

Jennifer Oldham is the Vice President of Communications and Partnerships at The Healing Trust. Jennifer began as a Program Associate in 2007 and has served the organization in five different roles under the leadership of four different CEOs. During her tenure at The Trust, she has created its strategic communications plans, spearheaded a successful re-branding campaign, created award-winning content, created an internship opportunity specifically for BIPOC students, managed portfolios of grantees, helped to create and managed its sabbatical program, and increased the foundation’s social and print media presence. Jennifer received her Bachelor of Sciences degree in Mass Communications from Tennessee State University and her Master of Theological Studies from Vanderbilt Divinity School. She is a 2010 Hull Fellow of the Philanthropy Southeast, a graduate of the 2017 Nashville Emerging Leaders class, and a member of the Mosaic Changemakers class of 2023.

Social entrepreneur and nonprofit professional with over 20 years of experience in the areas of general management, strategy, operations, marketing and fund development in both for-profit and nonprofit spaces. She is the recipient of the 2018 NFL Hispanic Heritage Leadership Award, the 2018 Women of Inspiration of the Atlanta Dream, named one of the 50 Most Influential Latinos in Georgia and a 2017 Hispanics in Philanthropy Fellow among other distinctions. She was raised in Lima, Peru.

Cheryl is a founding member of Georgia Minority Outreach Network (GA MON) and has a decade of experience in agricultural value chain development. GA MON is partnering with Locus, a Virginia-based CDFI to lead the Southeast Regional Food Business Center serving small and mid-sized farms and food businesses in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. As the Assistant Project Manager for the Center, Cheryl will oversee project implementation and value chain development.

Cheryl co-manages landowner and farmer support and market demand and development for small farmers and farmer collaboratives. Cheryl also assists with the management of the 1148+ acres of the McSEED Community Forest. 

Cheryl works to strengthen families and marginalized communities.  Cheryl worked on a project to build local food systems and agricultural value-chains in the Deep South: Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, which has been featured in the following publications and case studies:

• Ratner, S. Wealth Creation: A New Framework for Rural Economic and Community Development (2019)
• Edited by Mathie, A. and Gaventa, J. Citizen-led Innovation for a New Economy St. Xavier Francis University, Nova Scotia, Canada

In 2021, Cheryl was nominated and selected for The Conservation Fund’s “Women Making Conservation History” recognition. 

Cheryl is a former educator and principal. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Education, a Master of Science in Administration and Supervision and certified as a Teacher Support Specialist. 

Cheryl loves being with her family and friends. She loves traveling, DIY-home improvement projects, landscaping, reading, and gardening.

Joanne F. Pulles serves as Vice-President for Community Engagement at HCA Healthcare. In this role, Joanne leads a diverse team that manages all aspects of community engagement including social and charitable investment, colleague engagement and strategic partnerships and scholarships. 

Joanne also serves as President of The HCA Healthcare Foundation, a position she has held since 1999. As the Foundation’s chief executive, Joanne guides grant making to over 300 organizations annually working with the Foundation Board to manage over $200M in assets and $25M annually in grants and matching gifts. This includes the Healthier Tomorrow Fund, a $76M Impact Fund focused on community health needs and health equity. Joanne also served as the founding President of The HCA Healthcare Hope Fund, HCA Healthcare’s employee relief fund. Since it was established in 2005, more than 53,000 HCA families have received nearly $103 million in assistance. Joanne now serves as the Vice-Chair on the HCA Healthcare Hope Fund Board. Joanne also served on the first HCA DEI Steering Committee established in the early 2000’s and continues to actively serve on both the Executive DEI Council and ESG Steering Committee for the company today.

Joanne holds a Master’s Degree in Health Services Administration from the George Washington University (1988) and a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Emory University (1983). She is currently serving as the Immediate Past President of the Downtown Rotary and the Leadership Nashville Alumni Board after having served on several other local boards. In addition, she is now the Vice-Chair of the Conference Board Corporate Citizenship Leadership Council after having served on the Board for many years.

Joanne is a member of the Franklin First United Methodist Church and is married to Michael McIlwain. She has two married stepdaughters, and is grandmother to a granddaughter and new grandson.

Phil Purcell currently serves as Territory Director of Planned Giving for the Central Territory of The Salvation Army. In this role, he is the directional leader of thirty planned giving staff who close $80 million in planned gifts annually. 

Phil is counsel for the National Community Foundation Legal Help Desk, Philanthropy Southeast, Indiana Philanthropy Alliance, and Philanthropy Ohio. He has served as independent counsel for over one hundred community foundations throughout the U.S. He served as Director of Gift Planning for the Central Indiana Community Foundation, consultant for Kansas Association of Community Foundations, consultant for the Florida Philanthropic Network, and a legal and peer reviewer for the Community Foundations National Standards Board, Council of Foundations.

Phil teaches courses on law and philanthropy, nonprofit organization law and planned giving as adjunct faculty for the Indiana University Maurer School of Law (Bloomington, IN) and Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and Fundraising School (Indianapolis, IN). He is a senior consultant for the Heaton Smith Group, a national legacy planning consulting firm. Phil serves as editor for Planned Giving Today, a national monthly publication, as well as a content editor for Giving USA.

Phil is an attorney and member of the Indiana and American Bar Association.  He serves as Vice Chair of the Charitable Giving and Organizations Committee of the Real Property, Trust, and Estate section of the American Bar Association. He is president of the American Council on Gift Annuities board of directors, and formerly served on the boards of the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners (secretary), Indiana Charitable Gift Planners (president), AFP – Indiana (president), and was AFP-Indiana Fundraiser of the Year.

Phil received his B.A. degree from Wabash College (magna cum laude) and his J.D. and M.P.A. degrees (with honors) from Indiana University.  He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Pi Alpha Alpha as well as a Truman Scholar.

Alice Randall is a New York Times best-selling novelist, award-winning songwriter, educator, food activist, and now memoirist. A graduate of Harvard University, she holds an honorary doctorate from Fisk University, is on the faculty at Vanderbilt University, and credits Detroit’s Ziggy Johnson School of the Theater with being the most influential educational institution in her life. She is widely recognized as being one of the most significant voices in 21st century African-American fiction, the only Black woman in history to write both a number one Country song (XXX’s and OOO’s) and an ACM video of the year (Is There Life Out There? starring Reba McEntire).

Randall has presented across the nation: In auditoriums, libraries, museums, and ballrooms; in fields, in graveyards, and harborside. She once did a talk for a group of students as they marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, In all those spaces she weaves history, literature, practical wisdom, and political passion into powerful exchanges with large and small audiences. She covers expected territory in unexpected ways and makes unexpected territory accessible. My Black Country, a memoir and album, is a summit of her storied career. Randall’s work has been or is currently being taught at a wide range of universities, including Fisk, Harvard, Iowa State, Penn State, Philander Smith, Princeton, Tuskegee, The University of Texas Austin, The University of Virginia, and Wesleyan.

With over 20 years of executive leadership experience in the social sector, Toya Nash Randall serves as Senior Director of Community Initiatives in the office of the CEO at Casey Family Programs. She currently leads a national portfolio of multi-sector alignment and racial equity initiatives centered on community health and safety, school climate and justice, child well-being, and family strengthening.

In addition to her work at Casey, Toya created Voice. Vision. Value., a multi-generational collaborative network of partners committed to celebrating the leadership presence and contribution of Black women working in the sector. In 2023 Voice. Vision. Value. released Portraits of Us, a compelling book of essays and photography capturing the beauty, brilliance, and bold contributions of Black women leading philanthropy across the country; all proceeds from book sales were donated to ABFE (Association of Black Foundation Executives). 

Toya’s other leadership contributions include founding Trustee of the Nafasi Fund, Greater New Orleans Funders Network board member and the Delta Philanthropy Forum steering committee member. She is an inaugural ABFE Connecting Leaders Fellow, one of the founders of the ABFE Black Women in Philanthropy Leadership Retreat, and an inaugural Funders Network for Smart Growth P.L.A.C.E.S. Fellow. In 2021, Toya was named one of 10 inaugural Black Women Give Back honorees by the Women’s Philanthropy Institute and Black Philanthropy Month.

Carmen James Randolph’s life and career reflect the core qualities of a transformational leader: visionary, collaborative, challenging the status quo, and a deeply rooted sense of purpose and community. Over the course of her 26-year career in philanthropy, Carmen has made her mark by galvanizing funders, donors, policymakers, and grassroots activists to forever change lives, systems, and communities for good. She is particularly passionate about building prosperity for women and girls of color. In August 2021, Carmen was named Founding President and CEO of a ground-breaking new foundation, Women’s Foundation of the South (WFS). WFS is a public foundation, boldly committed to revolutionizing gender and racial justice in the Southern U.S. and beyond. WFS centers women and girls of color and exits to drive philanthropic resources to womxn of color-led organizations and businesses that are often overlooked or lack proper access to capital. In under three years at WFS, she has raised more than $6M and provided more than $1M in grants and programming support to 95 women-of-color-led nonprofits in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Georgia. She is boldly leading the Foundation’s vision to expand grantmaking to all 13 states within its footprint and become a permanent inheritance for women and girls of color in the South by raising $100M over the next five years. Carmen launched her career at the Humanities Council of Washington D.C., working in 12 public housing communities to build an innovative, community-based public humanities program and bringing the budget from $30k to $750k in only 5 years, and then with the Meyer Foundation in Washington, D.C., where she served as Senior Program Officer. In her 16-year tenure there, she leveraged more than $20M in new investments from national and regional funders to support and transform marginalized communities. Most recently, she served as Vice President for Programs at the Greater New Orleans Foundation, where she significantly transformed the Foundation’s programs in the areas workforce development, environment, economic security, and disaster grantmaking, ultimately building and helming a team of 12 professionals and presiding over $11 million in GNOF’s discretionary and donor advised grantmaking. Carmen holds a BA in American Studies with a concentration in African American Studies from American University.

Armond Reese is a Regional Practice Leader within the Foundations and Endowments Specialty Practice, offering clients 22 years of investment management experience. He holds his Chartered Financial Analyst,® Chartered Alternative Investment AnalystSM, and Accredited Investment Fiduciary® designations.

He advises on the development and implementation of investment strategies to help his clients address their short- and long-term goals. He follows a disciplined process of assessing an organization’s financial situation, forming and executing an appropriate investment plan, and performing ongoing portfolio maintenance to obtain measurable results. 

Armond joined Truist in 1999 and served as a member of its portfolio construction group for several years. In this role, he was responsible for selecting and monitoring fund managers utilized in the firm’s companywide investment strategies. Over the course of his career, he’s developed a deep passion for educating individuals about the importance of financial literacy and strongly believes everyone should have a basic understanding of the financial markets.

A graduate of Georgia Southern University, Armond serves on the board of Decatur Cooperative Ministry and on the investment committee for the Atlanta Society of Finance and Investment Professional Foundation. In addition, he’s a member of the CFA Society of Atlanta and the Atlanta chapter of the CAIA.

Alexander Reid is the National Team Leader of BakerHostetler’s Tax-Exempt Organizations and Charitable Giving team. As a specialist in tax, governance and public policy, his clients include tax-exempt organizations of all kinds, including colleges and universities, health and hospital systems, private foundations, arts and cultural institutions, trade associations and many others. He works with boards of directors and management, often serving as outside general counsel to help organizations with planning, structuring, governance, investigations, tax compliance and transactional matters.

Alex chairs the American Bar Association Tax-Exempt Organizations Committee and previously served as Legislation Counsel to the Joint Committee on Taxation, a nonpartisan body that advises members of the U.S. Congress on tax policy, and as a Fellow at the Office of Tax Policy, U.S. Department of Treasury

Erika Roberts is a creative strategist, poet, and community healer that uses poetry to facilitate radical self-care within communities that have withstood generational and systemic traumas. Her leadership has transformed the way arts-based community engagements can impact civic and non-profit organizations such as The City of Chattanooga, The Hunter Museum of American Art, PopUp Project, CHI Memorial Hospital, Glass House Collective, Westside Evolves Project, Chattanooga Design Studio, Hamilton County Schools, TinkerMa and The United Way of Chattanooga. Erika has been commissioned to write original poetry and perform spoken word for multiple film projects, and city plans including the feature length documentary film The Light We Share that was produced by The PopUp Project in 2020/2021. She has won awards for working in the Westside Evolves process as lead engagement artist. She continues this work in that community as Engagement Strategist with Columbia Residential. Erika is paving a path for artists within city plans as Creative Strategist/ Community Engagement Artist connecting arts & culture with the Civic Center District Plan.  

She has won the Cam Bush NOAH Arts For Health Award in the Arts Advancing Social Justice category for a collaboration with Hunter Museum, Memorial Hospital & Pop up Project, Rick Rushing & Lisa Hill in 2022. She was the host of the Shades of Poetry Showcase 2023. She is the creator and curator of the late-night shows, Midnight Poetry. She co-created the series at the Hunter “Vision + Verse” where artists respond to the art of the museum. She is also one of the creators of the festival show “Shades of Poetry.”  She is a Creative that creates.

She won the BEC  award for Best in the Literary Arts (2023) from the Chattanooga Business Elite & from Chattanooga Black Arts & Idea Festival. She is also the proud recipient of an Impact award from Nooga Vision.  She currently sits on the boards of Arts in Health Council, The Hip-Hop Week Committee,  The Chattery, & the local chapter of American Institute of Architects. She was also nominated by the Mayor and approved by Chattanooga City council to serve on the Parks Outdoor Advisory committee. 

Erika currently has 2 chapbooks available online. 

Commissioned Poetry: 
Glass House Collective (2019)
Placemaking Conference (2019)
City of Chattanooga (2020, 2023)
Hunter Museum (2022)
United Way (2021)
Hunter Museum (2021)
Westside Evolves (2021)
Reflection Riding (2023)
National Park Partners (2024)

Gerry Roll is the founding executive director of the Foundation, committed to helping create places where all people can thrive. Focused on building communities of people with the capacity to create solutions and the ability to leverage the resources needed, Gerry’s work in eastern Kentucky has been focused on engaging local people to create equity in housing, early childhood education, and health. She has led the creation of a regional Community Housing Development Organization, a federally qualified health center; a quality rated early care and education system and a full continuum of other support services for working families. Gerry is a founding member of Appalachia Funders Network and an alumni of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors Community Advisory Council. She is recognized locally, regionally, statewide and nationally as an advocate for rural development and community philanthropy. Gerry lives on the north fork of the Kentucky River in Busy, Kentucky.

On January 1st, 2024, Gerry stepped down as CEO and now serves as the Founder-in-Residence until her official retirement on March 31st, 2025.

Joe Rosier is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Rapides Foundation, a position he has held since 1995. Under Rosier's leadership, the Foundation has continually updated its funding strategies and initiatives to reflect expert advice, issue-specific information and evidence-based research, while holding true to the Foundation's mission to improve the health status of Central Louisiana.

Rosier serves as the Chairman of the Governing Board of Rapides Healthcare System, the Limited Liability Corporation which owns Rapides Regional Medical Center and its affiliates. Rosier also represents The Rapides Foundation at the national, regional and state levels in multiple advisory, steering and participatory roles for panels and organizations whose objectives match to The Rapides Foundation's focus areas.

Rosier received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting from Louisiana State University, and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Louisiana State Society of Certified Public Accountants. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst with an extensive background in accounting, financial, estate, gift and strategic planning, portfolio management and administration.

Amy Rushton is the Chief Nurse Executive and Vice President of Behavioral Health at HCA in Nashville, TN. Prior to her current role, Amy was the Chief Nursing Officer at Dominion Hospital in Falls Church, VA.  She received her Doctorate of Nursing Practice in Executive Leadership at The Ohio State University and her Master’s degree in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing at The Catholic University of America.  Her DNP project focused on nursing director’s leadership style’s as a way to influence work engagement among staff.   She has been a registered nurse since 1994 and an ANCC certified APRN in Psychiatric Mental-Health Nursing since 1998.  Dr. Rushton has worked in a variety of roles and settings: staff nurse, charge nurse, nurse supervisor, therapist in private practice, Director of Continuing Education for the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, and nurse administrator.  Dr. Rushton is dedicated to ensuring both the physical and emotional safety of consumers, families, and service providers.  Her work has focused on the elimination of the need for coercion in treatment setting and the use of seclusion and restraint.  In addition, she is an advocate for the full integration of trauma‐informed care in all care settings, positive partnerships between consumers and service providers, and healing treatments that inspire hope and make recovery possible for all individuals. Dr. Rushton is an active member of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association and has served two terms on the Board of Directors as an elected official, Member-at-Large. Recently, Dr. Rushton joined the board of Directors for the Oasis Center in Nashville, an organization focused on helping young people in Middle Tennessee move into a happy, healthy, and productive adulthood. In her spare time, Dr. Rushton enjoys, traveling with her husband Adam, and staying active with her two Pitt Bull mix rescue dogs.

Ralph is the President and CEO of the Adams County Community Foundation in Gettysburg, PA where he and his team are responsible for encouraging the community to invest in the Community Foundation’s  vision for Adams County.

Prior to joining the Adams County Community Foundation in 2017, Ralph was Vice President of Philanthropy at the Baltimore Community Foundation where he oversaw BCF's successful $100 million Campaign for Baltimore. He was previously the Executive Vice President of the Princeton Area Community Foundation, and directed professional advisor outreach for Community Foundation Silicon Valley. Before entering the community foundation field in 1999, Ralph was with Wells Fargo Bank in California and Chase Manhattan in New York.

Ralph founded the Unrestricted Asset Development Peer Group in 2007, leading 15 community foundation executives through an extensive peer learning and asset building discussion to uncover and put in place successful strategies to raise unrestricted assets. Over time, the group has grown to include over 150 community foundations from across the country.

Ralph is currently on steering committee of the Pennsylvania Community Foundation Association and a board member of the Boston Youth Marching Arts (MA). He is a former member of the Maryland Community Foundation Association Steering Committee, past president of the Gift Planning Council of New Jersey and the York City (PA) Human Relations Commission.

Gabby joined the Foundation in 2020, bringing to this role 25 years in leadership, policy, and capacity-building roles in the public and nonprofit sectors. She worked in senior leadership positions in the non-profit and government sectors, focusing on the development and implementation of public policy and programming for at risk children and youth. Among other roles, Gabby had the opportunity to work in senior positions at the NYC Department of Education, focusing on the support services the school system provides to at risk students; in Mayor Bloomberg’s office as the lead for the development of the Integrated Human Services Project; and as a senior staff at the NYC Administration for Children’s Services. She has written extensively on the child welfare and juvenile justice systems in New York City.

She has also worked as an independent consultant providing strategic planning, accreditation preparation, and project management to non-profit and government agencies in the child and family services fields and served as an Affiliate Consultant at the TCC Group. She served on New Jersey State Education Commissioner Cerf’s Transition Team in 2012 and served as an adjunct professor at Hunter College, School of Social Work in New York City. 

Prior to joining the Tull Foundation, Gabby worked with a coalition of child welfare providers in Georgia to prepare for the implementation of new federal legislation (“Family First Preservation and Services Act”) that has the potential to significantly change the child welfare landscape for family support and foster care providers. 

She is a graduate of Skidmore College and holds a law degree from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

Gabby lives in Atlanta with her husband and two sons. 

Previously, Shih served as the senior vice president of revenue at the News Revenue Hub, where she was instrumental in helping the organization grow from a pilot project into a multimillion-dollar mission driven operation that has helped newsrooms across the country launch membership programs. From 2017 to 2022, she served as a lead partner on NewsMatch by helping to develop trainings, campaign toolkits and coach individual newsrooms on fundraising strategies.

Prior to launching the News Revenue Hub, Shih oversaw the membership and events program at Voice of San Diego. She helped implement digital marketing strategies that increased the member base, deepened relationships with readers and established VOSD as a model for other newsrooms across the country. In collaboration with the newsroom and community partners, she helped plan events and developed products that augmented editorial coverage including the Politifest public affairs conference and A Parent’s Guide to San Diego Schools.

Shih is a San Diego native and holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of Washington and an executive M.B.A. from the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego. She is a member of the Asian American Journalism Association and a graduate of its Executive Leadership Program.

Daniel Shore is an Institutional Investment Advisor with the Foundations and Endowments Specialty Practice at Truist. He offers clients more than 30 years of experience in investment management, commercial real estate, and technology venture development, with the most recent 19 years spent directly in the institutional investment field.

The Foundations and Endowments Specialty Practice delivers comprehensive investment advisory, administration, planned giving, custody, trust and fiduciary services to nonprofit organizations, administering assets for foundations, hospitals, educational institutions, cultural organizations, human service agencies, associations, municipalities, and other nonprofits. 

As a Certified Trust and Fiduciary Advisor (CTFA) and Certified Investment Management Analyst® (CIMA®) professional, Daniel develops and implement s investment strategies to help clients address their immediate and future goals. He follows a disciplined process of assessing a client's financial situation, forming and executing an appropriate investment plan, and performing ongoing portfolio maintenance to obtain measurable results.

Daniel's career in high tech included executive management positions with IBM, EloTouchsystems, Philips Consumer Electronics, and VA Linux Systems.

In addition to Daniel's business interests, he enjoys golf, travel, and has a special interest in serving orphans and at-risk youths worldwide. He's previously served as a board trustee and investment committee chairman for the United Methodist Holston Home for Children and currently supports orphanages in Mexico and Uganda.

Susan Fitzgibbon Shumaker, RN, MHA, FACHE, has served as president of Cone Health Foundation since 2009. Susan earned Master of Health Administration and Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees from Duke University and is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. Susan served as president of Annie Penn Hospital in Reidsville, North Carolina, for twenty years before joining the Foundation. A nurse, Susan enjoys volunteering with historically marginalized populations.

Christy Wallace Slater is a passionate and community-focused philanthropic leader with over 20 years of experience in the public, private, and philanthropic sectors. As the Founder and CEO of Slater Consulting Group, she offers specialized consultancy in nonprofit and philanthropic program ideation and development, executive-level thought partnership, community outreach, and coalition building. Her career, spanning over two decades, reflects her deep commitment to creating lasting change, particularly in communities across the Southern United States.

Christy's journey began in her hometown of New Orleans, where she made significant contributions to the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, focusing on disaster recovery and community rebuilding. As a program officer, she focused on housing and small business development, laying the groundwork for her future contributions to economic opportunity and community resilience. Christy also served as the Director of Economic Opportunity at the Foundation for Louisiana, where she managed grant programs, community leadership initiatives, and supported the foundation’s first program-related investment fund.

At the national level, Christy's impact was felt during her nearly ten-year tenure at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation where she designed and implemented national grant initiatives and place-based investments. Christy led the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's New Orleans team, having directed more than $100 million to economically disadvantaged communities. Her focus on healing-centered approaches to program development and grantmaking resulted in systemic changes that continue to benefit the Greater New Orleans area.

In 2022, Christy took on the role of Vice President of Programs at the Women’s Foundation of the South. In this role, she expanded the foundation’s flagship program WŌC @ Rest® to multiple states, increasing investments in women nonprofit leaders and growing the foundation’s footprint across the South. Additionally, she continued her long standing focus on increasing access to capital for underserved entrepreneurs by partnering with Tulane University’s John Lewis School of Public Administration for a study of Community Development Financial Institutions in Southern states and their support of women of color entrepreneurs. Christy added her expertise to the strategic direction of impact storytelling initiatives Learn with Us and As We Are, and was instrumental in making the foundation’s fundraising gala, Crescendeaux, a signature event.

Christy’s dedication extends beyond her professional life. She is deeply involved in her community, serving as 2nd Vice Chair of the Board of the Urban League of Louisiana and as a Board Member of Brothers Empowered to Teach. Her passion for philanthropy is matched by her commitment to joy and personal fulfillment, which she nurtures through simple pleasures like listening to audiobooks, lighting scented candles, wearing tie dyed clothing, giggling with girlfriends, spending time with her family, and performing in-car concerts during long commutes.

Christy lives in New Orleans with her loving husband Jeffrey, their two teenage children, Jeff and Gabby, and their senior beagle, Oscar.

Erika M. Smith is a social innovator focused on creating economic opportunities for communities of color. She leads Microsoft's philanthropic portfolio for the metro communities (ATL, LA, CHI) focused on advancing digital equity and inclusion – cultivating a dynamic technology workforce, enabling digital transformation for small businesses and nonprofits, and demystifying technology for all audiences.  

Erika leverages an equity lens to stimulate economic opportunity in Atlanta Metro communities. She created a movement to amplify and catalyze investment, driving economic growth in underserved communities while preserving culture. She grew investments in community-based organizations, enhanced youth engagement, and established partnerships for SMB solutions in Black and Brown communities. Additionally, Erika served as the Assistant Director of Southside Community and Economic Development with Invest Atlanta; where she designed a comprehensive strategy focused on community wealth building through entrepreneurship, place-based strategies, and strengthening local ecosystems. These efforts shifted how organizations approached engagement, product development, and collective impact.  

Erika's career spans 20 years, including advancing fintech in Nigeria, working in strategic marketing functions at the top US banks, and co-creating Uhuru Concepts, a social innovation and marketing firm.

Jahari A. Soward is a servant leader "who puts the interests of others at the center of her decisions." She has dedicated her career to the development of economic and employment opportunities and entrepreneuship.

She is a Author, Human Capital Consultant, Career Coach and Trainer who has demonstrated expertise in recruitment, streamlining HR processes, organizational effectiveness, project management and people development activities such as resumes, interviewing, salary negotiation and succession planning development.

Jahari is the managing Director of NPursuit Career Partners, a full service recruitment firm skilled in matching top talent with great companies. She is commits her time to helping people GET Hired! and Get Promoted! (TM) In May 2014 she will lead a 100 Day Challenge to GET ATLANTA HIRED! (TM). She has successfully hired over 500 employees for leading Fortune 500 companies throughout the country.

Elaine Summerfield is the Vice President of Community Investment at The Winston-Salem Foundation. Elaine provides strategic direction to advance partnerships and link resources to action in Forsyth County. She leads the Community Investment team, which supports nonprofits, students, and teachers through grantmaking and scholarship support.

Elaine has over 20 years of experience working in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, including multiple roles with the Community Foundation for a Greater Richmond and the Virginia Health Care Foundation. She also provided philanthropic advice to family office clients at Heritage Wealth Advisors.

Elaine has also served in a variety of community leadership roles, including as co-founder of HandsOn Greater Richmond, and as a radio talk show creator and host for Inspire InDeed on WRIR 97.3FM, where she interviewed local changemakers to highlight issues and inform and inspire listeners to get involved.  Elaine earned her Master’s in Public Administration from Portland State University and is a 21/64 certified advisor.

Jason Terrell serves as the President of the Dobbs Foundation. Jason began his journey as an 8th-grade teacher in Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools. In 2014, he became the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Profound Gentlemen, a national agency dedicated to increasing the 2% of male educators of color who teach across the nation. Jason was recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 as one of the world's brightest social innovators who seek to bring about change and equal opportunity for boys and male educators of color. Most recently, Jason served as a Program Officer with the Walton Family Foundation.

A purpose-driven, inspirational, and innovative strategic leader, Karen H. Thompson currently serves as Assistant Vice President of Regional Community Engagement supporting the American Group Divisions. Thompson was selected to lead the initial expansion of the company’s community engagement strategy focusing on addressing the social issues impacting the health and viability of our communities.  Karen oversaw the design and launch of the Healthier Tomorrow Fund, HCA’s $80M national community impact fund. She leads the impact investing in the area of mental wellness, in collaboration with our behavioral health services leaders.

In her previous role within HCA, she was AVP in the Strategy & Innovations Group where she leveraged her collaborative leadership style and business acumen to work with various teams leading to the launch of over $1B in new strategic growth initiatives, over 13 years. 

Thompson has more than 30 years of experience working in leadership roles at industry-leading companies such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, PwC and Bank of America.  

She is frequently invited to share her expertise as a keynote speaker, panelist and guest lecturer at various conferences, leadership organizations and universities.

Karen’s commitment to being a servant leader is evident in her decades of community board service and volunteerism. She recently joined the advisory board of Belmont University’s Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business. Through her innovative leadership she co-created Hack for the Community, a bi-annual program that has delivered over $1M in pro bono technology solutions to non-profit organizations. 

A lifelong learner, Thompson earned a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Bentley University and an MBA from Simmons University. She is committed to continuing education and professional development for herself and the people she serves. She is currently working on her second book.

Dr. Kanika Tomalin is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg. In this role, she leads, directs, and integrates all aspects of the Foundation’s internal and external activities and initiatives. Working closely with the Foundation team, Dr. Tomalin creates and executes the Foundation’s strategic plan—overseeing grantmaking, strategic initiatives, and the Center for Health Equity. She guides the organization as a steward of the community’s resources, consistently reporting back to the community and ensuring decisions and plans of action are mission-aligned and based in equity.

Prior to joining the Foundation, she served as the Chief Operating Officer and Vice President for Strategy at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg. In this role she oversaw the college’s operations, planning and emergency management; strategic planning; institutional effectiveness; external affairs; technology services; sustainability and resilience; and the St. Pete Center for Civic Engagement and Social Impact. Before that, she served eight years as Deputy Mayor and City Administrator of the City of St. Petersburg, working in partnership with former Mayor Rick Kriseman to strategically advance one of Florida’s largest cities toward its goals. Defining initiatives were developed under Dr. Tomalin’s visionary leadership. She was the Founder or Executive Lead on signature advancements such as: the City’s vision, Healthy St. Pete, the Innovation District, integrated water master plan, the For All, From All Housing Affordability plan, the St. Pete Pier, Fire Cadet training program, Youth Development Grants, Citywide diversity training and scholarships, Deuces Rising redevelopment plan, Community Benefits Agreement, Youth Intervention programs, and much more.

Before Dr. Tomalin’s time in City Hall she served as the Regional Vice President of External Affairs for the seven hospital, five-county Bayfront Health Network and Director of Strategy for Health Management Associates’ 23-hospital Florida Group. For more than 13 years as a C-suite executive in various leadership roles for Bayfront Health System, she guided the organization’s strategic planning; government relations; marketing; media; community affairs; external and internal communications and patient experience.

She has also worked at the St. Petersburg Times, the Palm Beach Post, WTXL-TV in Tallahassee, WAVE-TV in Louisville, KY and WRXB radio in St. Petersburg.

Dr. Tomalin received a Journalism degree from Florida A&M University, an MBA from the University of Miami and a Doctorate in Law and Policy from Northeastern University. Her commitment to community is evident in her outreach and service-driven outcomes. She serves on the Boards of The Dali Museum; Academy Prep St. Petersburg; Bayfront Health Foundation; Celma Mastry Ovarian Cancer Foundation; and Eckerd College’s National Advisory Council. Previous board and executive leadership positions include: American Heart Association; St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce Board of Governors; Vice-Chair of the St. Petersburg College Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions; St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership; Bayfront Health, Education and Research Organization; Pinellas County Urban League; YWCA of Tampa Bay; Canterbury School of Florida; Great Explorations Children’s Museum; Pinellas Enrichment for Mental Health Services Advisory Board; USF St. Pete Celebrates! Host Committee; American Heart Association Go Red for Women Executive Cabinet and American Stage.

She has received numerous honors and appointments, including being named: the ACLU’s Gardner Beckett Civil Liberties honoree; St. Petersburg Chamber’s Businesswoman of the Year, inaugural “Iconic Woman to Watch” and Young Business Leader of the Year; Gwen Reese Lifetime Achievement Award; YWCA of Tampa Bay’s Woman of Distinction; one of Florida Business Observer’s 40 Under 40; one of Florida’s Most Powerful and Influential Women; recipient of the Florida Diversity Council’s Glass Ceiling Award; Metro Health Robert Page Distinguished Leadership Award; Studio@620 Honors Community Leadership Award; Pinellas County Urban League Whitney Young Empowerment Award; one of Academy Prep’s Inaugural “Five Fabulous Females”; one of Tampa Bay Business Journal’s 30 Under 30; PEMHS’ PACE Award for Community Service; Association of Healthcare Philanthropists fellow; and a Kaiser Family Foundation urban public health reporting fellowship.

Dr. Tomalin was married for 17 years to well-known adventure journalist Terry Tomalin, until his passing in 2016. She is the fifth generation of her family to call St. Petersburg home and enjoys life here with her children Kai and Nia. Kai recently graduated from American University in Washington D.C. Nia is a second-year student at Barnard College of Columbia University in New York.

As Vice President of Community Impact, Audrey works with foundation leaders, boards, and committees to execute strategic direction for the Community Impact team, which is the grant-making function of the foundation. In her role, she ensures the thoughtful execution and delivery of community investments to support organizations and programs that are addressing the social and equity challenges in the Richmond region.  

She loves to be outside – you might find her exploring the trails in Richmond and across Virginia, hanging in the yard with her husband Derek and their two dogs, or floating the river! Audrey also enjoys live music and spending time on the front porch of thier Northside home with a neighbor or a good book.

John Tyler has been general counsel and corporate secretary for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation since 1999 and its first chief ethics officer since 2004. In these roles for the Foundation and its affiliated entities, Tyler combines his ability to understand and develop theory with his capacity to execute on and translate that theory into practice while complying with the law across the Foundation’s strategic priorities, administration, and investments.

Tyler also serves the Foundation as a liaison to national philanthropy and advocates for philanthropy more generally as a scholar, author, and speaker on topics that include: roles and responsibilities of philanthropy and foundations in society, notions that foundation and charity assets are ‘public money’, transparency and accountability of foundations, governance and compliance, public-private partnerships, private benefit, social entrepreneurship/enterprise, social purpose business forms, business ethics and fiduciary duty, and ‘impact’ investing.

Tyler has also published, spoken, and otherwise engaged on other substantive topics such as reforming U.S. policy regarding high-skilled immigration and improving university technology transfer. Many of Tyler’s more than two dozen academic articles, book chapters, and op-eds have been cited more than 250 times.

Tyler serves or has served on numerous national boards including the Philanthropy Roundtable, the Philanthropic Collaborative, NYU law school’s National Center on Philanthropy and the Law, Independent Sector’s public policy committee, Columbia Law School’s charities regulator project, several Urban Institute projects, among others. His Kansas City-based board service and leadership positions include the school boards for the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph, Genesis School, and Archbishop O’Hara High School as well as boards of the Center for Management Assistance, Science Pioneers, and Ronald McDonald House Charities of Kansas City, among others. He has had active roles in starting three schools: the Kauffman School, Cristo Rey Kansas City, and St. Michael the Archangel Catholic High School.

Tyler also has designed and is teaching two courses for Columbia University’s Master of Science in Nonprofit Management: one on foundations and the other on social purposes business. In 2018, Missouri Lawyers Media recognized him as an inaugural “Top Legal Innovator” in the State.

Before joining the Kauffman Foundation, Tyler was a partner with one of Kansas City’s oldest and largest law firms, Lathrop and Gage, where his practice focused on commercial litigation, personal injury litigation for railroads, and employment law. His undergraduate and law degrees are both from the University of Notre Dame.

Edgar Villanueva is an award-winning author, activist, and expert on issues of race, wealth, and philanthropy. Villanueva is the Principal of Decolonizing Wealth Project and Liberated Capital and author of the bestselling book Decolonizing Wealth (2018, 2021). He advises a range of organizations including national and global philanthropies, Fortune 500 companies, and entertainment on social impact strategies to advance racial equity from within and through their investment strategies. Villanueva holds a BSPH and MHA from the Gillings Global School of Public Health at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe and resides in New York City.

Marcus F. Walton joined GEO with over a decade of practice in both nonprofit management and the ontological learning model. He specializes in operationalizing conceptual frameworks; racial equity facilitation and training; leadership and management strategy; stakeholder engagement; program development and navigating philanthropy.

In his previous role as Director of Racial Equity Initiatives for Borealis Philanthropy, Marcus lead the Racial Equity Initiatives team and worked in partnership with 18 nationally-networked, philanthropy-serving grantee organizations to move past the “transactional” nature of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to a unified movement which prioritizes strategies that close gaps in access to opportunity, resources and well-being (across all categories of gender, identity, sexual orientation, class and ability).

Before that, Marcus served as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE), where he oversaw its operations, HR and staff development functions, including the overall strategy, conceptualization and administration of racial equity programming. Prior to ABFE, he combined his organizing experience and passion for public service in the role of Program Officer of Community Responsive Grantmaking with the Cleveland Foundation and Sr. Program Officer with Neighborhood Progress, Inc.

Marcus is a Newfield Network-trained ontological coach, with additional training in the Action Learning systems coaching model. He promotes coaching as a tool for personal mastery, racial equity & systems change, social sector excellence and transformation within marginalized communities.

Marcus received a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science from Bowling Green State University and has continued graduate studies in public administration at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Public Policy as well as Rutgers University’s School of Public Affairs and Administration.

Dr. Kenita T. Williams joined the Southern Education Foundation in 2017 and serves as the chief operating officer. Kenita is responsible for the day-to-day administrative and operational functions of the organization, as well as the implementation of SEF’s programmatic priorities. Additionally, Kenita represents SEF’s values and efforts to key external partners and serves as a thought partner to the president and CEO—helping to create the organizational systems, processes, and culture that ensure that SEF is as catalytic and impactful as possible.

Kenita brings a wide range of knowledge and critical experience to SEF, having held positions in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. She has served as the partnerships manager for Atlanta Public Schools and as senior program manager for Public Policy at the Southeastern Council of Foundations. She spent several years as a consultant for JFM Consulting Group and worked on Capitol Hill as a Legislative Correspondent for then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama. Kenita is also a Teach for America alumna and spent three years teaching third grade in Atlanta.

Kenita earned her bachelor’s in political science and history from Yale University, her Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, a teaching certificate from Georgia State University, and her doctorate of education degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Margaret White is Community Initiatives Manager of Alabama Power Charitable Giving, where she is responsible for managing organizational, corporate, and community partnerships to define, track, and grow the overall impact of the company’s philanthropic initiatives. White’s team leads community initiatives through grant programs, nonprofit training, conferences, communications, volunteerism, and the management of the Alabama Business Charitable Trust.

With more than 18 years of experience within the Southern Company system, White has held positions of increasing responsibility with roles in Corporate Communications, Public Relations, and Charitable Giving at Southern Company and Alabama Power. 

Most recently she served as director of Public Relations at Alabama Power, where she led brand strategy and creative for the Alabama Power brand, leading teams responsible for advertising, brand research, social media, sponsorships, and creative services. White joined Southern Company in 2006 and held various roles in Corporate Communication supporting both Southern Company and Georgia Power before moving to Alabama Power in 2013. 

Prior to joining Southern Company, White worked at Cohn & Wolfe, Grey Global Atlanta, and BOHAN Advertising agencies, where she and her teams created and implemented integrated marketing strategies that involved all media platforms, research, grassroots marketing, and collateral for a variety of clients. White worked in multiple business verticals with clients that included Chick-fil-A, Major League Baseball, Hilton Hotels, The Greenbrier, Philip Morris, World Market, Coca-Cola, Southern Company, and Georgia Power.

A Huntsville, Alabama native, White is a graduate of Auburn University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in French and English. While working in the Auburn University Athletic Department for the men’s basketball and football programs, White earned a Master of Arts in Communication.

White has participated in various leadership development programs, including the 2012 Georgia Power External Affairs Leadership Development Program, the 2014 Alabama Power Leadership Development Program and the 2020 Alabama Power Experienced Leadership Development Program. She is a member of the Association of National Advertisers Nonprofit Federation.

White has been active in civic and philanthropic arenas, serving on the board of directors for The Coach Safely Foundation, Create Birmingham, and The Service Guild of Birmingham. She actively volunteers at The Bell Center in Homewood, Alabama, and is a member of the Alabama Power Service Organization. White is married to John White and they have two children, Lydia (14) and Luke (12).