Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum Chooses First Woman Director

National Air and Space Museum

Ellen Stofan, a consulting senior scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, has been named the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s museum for aircraft history and space exploration. From 2013 to 2016, Stofan was chief scientist at NASA. She will be the first woman to lead the museum.

PICO National Network

Alvin Herring, director of racial equity and community engagement at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, will return to this network of faith-based organizations as executive director on May 1. He previously worked at PICO as director of training and formation. Scott Reed, who has led PICO for 41 years, will retire on June 1.

Lilly Endowment

Robert Smith, senior director for corporate responsibility and president of the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, has been appointed vice president for community development at the Lilly Endowment, effective July 1. Smith will succeed Wallace (Ace) Yakey Jr., who is retiring from the $10.3 billion foundation in June.

More New CEOs

Kirsten Brinlee, assistant director and program manager at the Baltimore Collegetown Network, has been promoted to executive director.

Tom Dunn has joined Southampton Arts Center as executive director. Most recently, Dunn was senior director for concert halls operations at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Preethi Herman, country director for India at the Change.org Foundation, has been promoted to be its first global executive director. The organization is the nonprofit arm of Change.org, a website that helps community organizers collect signatures for petitions and lead campaigns in support of human rights and democracy.

Joe O’Reilly, executive director of student achievement support for Mesa Public Schools in Arizona, has been named the director of the Decision Center for Educational Excellence. The center is a partnership between the Helios Education Foundation and Arizona State University to promote education research and data in Arizona.

Lisa Watson, who served as CEO at Downtown Women’s Center from 2000 until 2014, will return to the Los Angeles homeless shelter and advocacy group as interim CEO. She replaces Anne Miskey, who has resigned.

Other Notable Appointments

Michael Antonellis, national director of marketing communications at the National Brain Tumor Society, has been promoted to chief marketing officer.

Nadine Duplessy Kearns, the founder of AccessED, a consulting firm in Washington, has joined the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation as its program director for Washington, D.C.

Alyssa Rayman-Read, assistant general counsel and director of labor engagement at Northeastern University, has been named the vice president and director of the Conservation Law Foundation Massachusetts.

Legacies

Drue Heinz, the widow of the former head of the H.J. Heinz condiment company, died on March 30. She was 103. With her late husband, H.J. Heinz II, she was a longtime patron of the arts through her involvement in the Heinz Endowments, in Pittsburgh. She also served on the boards of many prominent arts organizations, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Academy in Rome.

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