January 6, 2023 | Read Time: 4 minutes
Rasmuson Foundation
Gretchen Guess, executive director of operations at the Providence health care system in Spokane, Wash., has been tapped as the $728 million foundation’s next president and CEO. She will begin her new role on February 28.
Guess follows Sammye Pokryfki, the Alaska foundation’s former senior vice president, who is serving as interim CEO after the departure of its longtime CEO Diane Kaplan.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
Tyrell McElroy has joined the mentoring organization as vice president of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. He will be based in Odessa, Fla.
McElroy was most recently national director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
Helen Keller International
Shawn Baker, chief nutritionist for the U.S. Agency for International Development, has returned to the global-health charity as chief program officer, based in Senegal.
He previously worked at Helen Keller International for 19 years before departing in 2013.
More New CEOs
Joshua Davis has been promoted from senior director of operations at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston to executive director of the Edgerley Family South Boston Club. He replaces Harry Duvall, who has departed after 18 years there.
Alisahah Jackson, system vice president for population-health innovation and policy at CommonSpirit Health, will serve as the first president of CommonSpirit’s Lloyd H. Dean Institute for Humankindness and Health Justice.
Gideon Maltz has been promoted from executive director to CEO of the Tent Partnership for Refugees.
Melanie Schild, CEO of Girls Scouts Heart of the South, has been tapped as CEO of the Association of Junior Leagues International.
Danielle Staton, senior director of program at iMentor Baltimore, has been named executive director of the Jeremiah Program’s new campus in Baltimore.
Margaret Weigers Vitullo, deputy director of the American Sociological Society, has been hired as executive director of the Linguistic Society of America.
Tsione Wolde-Michael, founding director of the Smithsonian’s Center for Restorative History, has been named executive director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. She is the first Black person to lead the organization.
Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation
Matthew Denn, a litigation partner at the law firm DLA Piper, has been hired as a managing director. He served as lieutenant governor of Delaware from 2009 to 2015 and then as attorney general from 2015 until 2019.
In addition, Nicole Pollock has joined the global venture-philanthropy firm as chief of staff. She recently stepped down after eight years as chief of staff and chief of policy and innovation at the City of Providence, R.I.
Other Notable Appointments
Carlos Basualdo has been promoted from senior curator of contemporary art to deputy director and chief curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In addition, Jessica Todd Smith has been promoted to director of curatorial initiatives. She will continue serving as curator of American art.
Renee Ford has been named chief operating officer at HCA Houston Healthcare Southeast. Previously she was vice president of operations at HCA Houston Healthcare Tomball.
Crystal Page, chief of staff for the office of Terra Lawson-Remer, supervisor of San Diego County’s District 3, has joined the Conrad Prebys Foundation as director of communications.
Brent Reidy, senior director for digital research, has been promoted to director of the research libraries at the New York Public Library. He has served as its interim director since April, following the retirement of William Kelly.
Sharon Scalora, assistant vice president of internal communications at RWJBarnabas Health, has been named division co-director of communications at Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. She will work alongside Sheryl Hoffman, who is its division co-director of marketing.
Angela Wambugu Cobb has been promoted from senior associate vice president for institutional advancement to vice president for institutional advancement at the State University of New York College at Old Westbury.
Hongwei Zhang was promoted from director of operations to vice president of operations at Consumer Directed Choices, a nonprofit agency that offers services in payroll and program administration to seniors and people with disabilities who employ personal assistants through Medicaid.
Departures
Dana Bezerra, president of the F.B. Heron Foundation since 2017, has departed. She began working at the $275 million foundation in 2006.
Myung Lee has left after two years as president and CEO of Volunteers of America-Greater New York. Dan Lombardo, president and CEO of the Volunteers of America Delaware Valley/Southern New Jersey, has stepped in as interim president CEO.
Cynthia Zwick, executive director at Wildfire since 2003, will depart at the end of January. Governor Katie Hobbs of Arizona has appointed Zwick director of the state’s Residential Utility Consumer Office. Kelly McGowan, deputy director at the antipoverty charity, will be interim executive director until a permanent successor has been named.
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