January 5, 2024 | Read Time: 5 minutes
Art Bridges Foundation
Anne Kraybill has been selected as CEO of this $1.2 billion foundation that makes grants to more than 230 museums of American art. It was created in 2017 by the Walmart heiress Alice Walton.
Kraybill most recently served as the director and CEO of the Wichita Art Museum.
Central New York Community Foundation
Melanie Littlejohn will become its president and CEO on March 1. Currently she is vice president of customer and community engagement at National Grid-New York.
Littlejohn will replace Peter Dunn, who has led the $393 million community fund since 2008.
Fund for New Jersey
Brandon McKoy, vice president for state partnerships at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and co-leader of its State Fiscal Policy Division, has returned to the $71 million grant maker as its president. He previously worked there as a program associate and its first philanthropy fellow from 2012 until 2014.
McKoy succeeds Kiki Jamieson, who has departed after 12 years at the helm.
Grand Rapids Community Foundation
LaSandra Gaddy, CEO of Women’s Resource Center, has been tapped as the next president and CEO of the $385 million community fund in Michigan. Her new role will begin on February 5.
Gaddy will succeed Diana Sieger, who began leading the foundation in 1987 and will now retire.
More New CEOs
Marie Beam has been promoted from chief development officer to CEO of the Discovery Museum, a science museum for children in Acton, Mass. She follows Neil Gordon, who has retired after 14 years there.
Sylvie Beljanski, who wrote the book Winning the War on Cancer: The Epic Journey Towards a Natural Cure, has become president of the Beljanski Foundation, a New York nonprofit organization that advances research on natural treatments for cancer. She succeeds her mother, Monique Beljanski, who led the group for more than 20 years until her death in November.
Manikka Bowman, executive director of Project REAP (Real Estate Associate Program), has been hired as Massachusetts executive director at the Nature Conservancy. She will start her new role on February 5.
Alexander Laing has been promoted from executive director to president and artistic director of Gateways Music Festival. Until last year, he was principal clarinet at the Phoenix Symphony. Laing follows Lee Koonce, who will remain involved as a senior adviser to the music festival.
Other Notable Appointments
Elena Ateva has joined Americares as its climate- and disaster-resilience director. Most recently she was deputy director of heat, health and gender at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center.
Ina Clark has been appointed director of development and sponsored programs for the Five College Consortium. Most recently she was interim director of philanthropy at Educate Girls U.S.
Jason Diffenderfer, vice president for university advancement at the University at Buffalo, will start as vice president for university advancement at Baylor University on March 1.
Michelle Gollapalli has been named executive vice president and chief development officer at Food for the Poor. She is the former vice president of development, diversity, and inclusion at the Emergency Care Research Institute.
Lauren Hawkins, controller at the Skillman Foundation, is now director of accounting and finance. In addition, Punita Dani Thurman has become vice president for strategy, after serving as vice president for program and strategy since 2019. The $538 million foundation is searching for a new vice president for program.
Nicole Mastrangelo, director of institutional giving at the GroundTruth Project, is joining the Gannett/USA Today Network as director of national philanthropic partnerships. In addition, Stacy Sullivan has been hired as director of local philanthropic partnerships. He was most recently community relations director at the Arizona Republic.
Amber Pannocchia, deputy director and director of youth programs at the MusicianShip, is now director of arts education and partnerships at Washington Performing Arts.
Susan Saxton, founding president of the American University of Bahrain, has been named chief operating officer at the Middle East Institute.
Departures
Leslie Marcus, managing director at Playwrights Horizons since 1993, plans to step down in the summer.
Max Marmor has retired after 16 years as president of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Lisa Schermerhorn, deputy director at the $76 million grant maker for European art history, will serve as interim president during its search for a permanent successor.
Ian Wardropper plans to retire in 2025 as director of the Frick Collection. He has led the museum and library in New York since 2011.
Legacies
Herb Kohl, a businessman and former U.S. senator from Wisconsin who donated millions in his home state, died on December 27 at age 88. He co-founded the Kohl’s chain of department stores with his brother and father, and served as the retailer’s president until 1978. He then served in the U.S. Senate from 1988 until his retirement in 2012. Among his notable gifts was $100 million to the Greater Milwaukee Foundation to build a new sports arena for the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team, which he owned until 2014. Kohl previously gave $25 million to the University of Wisconsin at Madison to build the Kohl Center, its sports arena that opened in 1998. He also established the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation in 1990 to benefit students, primarily in Milwaukee.
Betty Moore, who co-founded the $8.3 billion Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in 2000, died on December 12. She was 95. Betty Moore worked at the Ford Foundation in the 1950s while her husband, Gordon, completed his graduate studies at the California Institute of Technology. He went on to start the Intel Corporation. Among the foundation’s largest gifts were $100 million in 2009 to endow the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at the University of California at Davis, $50 million in 2014 to the University of California at San Francisco to create the Betty Irene Moore Women’s Hospital at Mission Bay, and $50 million in 2017 for the Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center at Packard Children’s Hospital.
Harold Osher, a Maine cardiologist and map collector, died at age 99 on December 23. In 2018, he donated a collection of 500,000 rare maps, valued at $100 million, to the University of Southern Maine. He also helped the university raise money through a capital campaign to build the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education.
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