August 17, 2023 | Read Time: 4 minutes
Ralph M. Parsons Foundation
Jennifer Price-Letscher, interim president and CEO of the $400 million foundation since January, will remain at the helm permanently. She has worked there for 12 years and most recently was a senior program officer.
Price-Letscher succeeds Wendy Garen, who retired this past winter after 37 years there.
Connecticut Children’s Foundation
Paulanne Jushkevich will become president of the $208 million foundation next month.
She was most recently associate vice chancellor of advancement for health sciences and research initiatives at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Marts & Lundy
Douglas Stewart, who has been chairman of the philanthropic consulting firm’s board since 2017, has been appointed its president and CEO. He previously led its health-sciences practice from 2009 until 2016.
In addition, Frank Interlichia has been promoted from senior consultant to chief operating officer.
More New CEOs
Melinda Cabrera, vice president of United Way of Santa Barbara County, has been named president and CEO of the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara.
Kimberly Horton, interim president and CEO of the Blues Foundation since last fall, will continue leading the Memphis music organization permanently.
James Snyder will become director of the Jewish Museum in November. Currently he is executive chairman of the Jerusalem Foundation. He previously led the Israel Museum in Jerusalem for 22 years before departing in 2018.
Tricia Williams will be promoted from program director to president and CEO of Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation next year. She will succeed Felice Mancini, the daughter of the composer Henry Mancini, who has led the music-education organization for 25 years. In addition, Todd Shipley, director of arts education for the Tennessee Department of Education, has been hired as program director.
Other Notable Appointments
Lilicia Bailey, chief people officer at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, has joined CommonSpirit Health as senior executive vice president and chief people officer.
Connor Boals, a producer who helped found CNN’s Great Big Story, the news organization’s microdocumentary start-up, has been appointed vice president of digital media at OceanX. In addition, Amy Freeland has joined the ocean-exploration nonprofit group as vice president of marketing and communication. She was previously senior director for global marketing at Global Citizen.
Joe Buck will become vice president of advancement at the University of Oregon on September 18. Currently he is vice president of development and alumni relations at Lehigh University.
Melissa Ford has been appointed as the associate vice president for advancement at Park University. Most recently she was director of philanthropic giving at the University of Missouri at Kansas City’s School of Science and Engineering.
Joy Holmes, regional vice president at Primerica, has been hired as chief development officer at Rainbow Village.
Skye Landgraf, director of institutional advancement at the American Association of University Women, has been appointed director of partnerships and programs at We Are Moving the Needle, a nonprofit organization that is working to close gender gaps in the recording studio.
Felicia Macdonald, vice president of strategic communications and public affairs at the personal-hygiene company Thinx, has been hired as senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Americares.
Paul Smail has been promoted from director of litigation to vice president for litigation and general counsel at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Joshua Tobing is now director of strategic partnerships at If, a Foundation for Radical Possibility. Previously he was director of major gifts at the National Partnership for Women and Families.
Leslie VanSant, vice president of philanthropy at Rainforest Trust, has joined the public radio station WAMU as chief advancement officer.
Departure
Michael Linnington plans to retire as CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project in January. He has led the veterans’ organization since 2016.
Legacies
Robert Beren, an oil tycoon and donor to Jewish causes in the United States and Israel, died on August 8 at age 97. Beren was chairman of the Wichita United Jewish Appeal and president of the Mid-Kansas Jewish Federation and the Hebrew Congregation in Wichita, Kan., where he lived after discovering the Hugoton Gas Field in southwest Kansas in the 1990s. In 2007, he gave $1 million to the Robert M. Beren Academy, in Houston,
Gordon Conway, who served as president of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1998 to 2004, died on July 30 at age 85. During his tenure at the helm of the $6.3 billion foundation, he oversaw the creation of its International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and the Mother to Child Transmission Plus Initiative. Conway then was president of the Royal Geographical Society from 2004 to 2009.
Joan Kaplan Davidson, who was president of her family’s J.M. Kaplan Fund from 1977 until 1993, died on August 11. She was age 96. The foundation was established by her father, Jacob Kaplan, in 1945; it now has $174 million in assets. Davidson was also chairwoman of the New York State Council on the Arts in the 1970s, parks commissioner for New York State, and the co-founder and first president of Westbeth Artists Housing.
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