Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Borealis Philanthropy Choose Next Leaders

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Samsher (Sam) Singh Gill will become president and CEO of the $2 billion foundation on April 1. Currently he is senior vice president and chief program officer at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

He will succeed Ed Henry, who has led the foundation since 2009.

Borealis Philanthropy

Amoretta Morris has been named president of the $23 million grant maker for racial justice. Most recently she was director of national community strategies at the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Belinda Stubblefield has been hired as head of diversity, equity, and inclusion. She comes to the $4.7 billion grant maker from Year Up, where she was most recently managing director of strategic partnerships.

Newman’s Own Foundation

Miriam Nelson, acting president and CEO for the past year, has accepted the post permanently. She has been a member of its board since 2015 and previously was president of Hampshire College until 2019.

More New CEOs

Loreen Chant, president and CEO of Easterseals South Florida, will become president and CEO of the Health Foundation of South Florida on March 1. She is the first woman leader of the foundation and will replace Steven Marcus, who retired in December after 20 years there.

Susan McIsaac, chief philanthropy officer, has been promoted to CEO of Right to Play International.

Mike O’Brien, who has been CEO of iMentor since 2007, was named CEO of the America’s Promise Alliance, effective April 1. He will succeed Dennis Vega, who has been interim CEO since John Gomperts stepped down last year.

Diana Ortiz, clinical director at Doorways, has been promoted to president and CEO of this agency, which offers services for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, homeless people, and vulnerable children.

Mitra Shavarini, executive director of WorldTeach and a naturalized U.S. citizen, is now executive director of Project Citizenship.

Albert Varas has been promoted from executive director to CEO of the Latino Center of the Midlands.

Heidi Zuckerman has been named CEO and director of the Orange County Museum of Art. From 2005 until 2019, she was CEO and director of the Aspen Art Museum.

Tides

The foundation has named three new executives.

Michael Mosby, interim chief operating officer and former director of business-process redesign, will continue as chief operating officer permanently.

Dan Shannon has joined as chief partnerships officer. Most recently he was partner and managing director at Purpose.

Gwen Tillman, vice president of people development and community engagement at AppDynamics, has been hired as chief people officer.

Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Leadership Conference Education Fund

The two civil-rights organizations have hired three new senior staffers.

Tamara Elaine Chrisler, managing director of government affairs, has been promoted to senior adviser for organizational compliance and development.

Stephen Peters, senior national press secretary and spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, has been hired as director of media relations.

Kiersten Thornton has joined the organizations as vice president of people and culture. Most recently she was managing director of human resources at the National Association of Home Builders.

Other Notable Appointments

Elyssa Campodonico-Barr and Leah Seigel have joined the Lilly Endowment as program directors in community development. Campodonico-Barr joined the $17 billion foundation from Girls Inc. of Greater Indianapolis, where she was president and CEO. Seigel was most recently a lawyer at the Indianapolis law firm Barnes and Thornburg. (The Lilly Endowment is a financial supporter of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.)

Brian Crawford is now director of investments at the John Templeton Foundation, where he will help manage its $2.9 billion in assets. He previously was managing director and senior consultant at Crewcial Partners LLC, an investment consulting firm in New York.

Zsakeba Henderson has joined March of Dimes as senior vice president and deputy chief medical and health officer. She is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist who is also a medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Chris Jackson, founder of Keys2HR Consulting, will be the National Kidney Foundation’s first chief people officer.

Kelly Jin, chief analytics officer for the City of New York, has been tapped as vice president for community and national initiatives at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Judi Kende, vice president and New York market leader at Enterprise Community Partners, has been promoted to senior vice president and chief program officer.

Karen Koenemann, public-health director for Pitkin County Public Health in Colorado, has been appointed vice president of programs at the Mat-Su Health Foundation.

Hanh Le is joining the Consumer Health Foundation as vice president of strategic partnerships. She most recently was executive director of the Weissberg Foundation.

Sara Meaney, secretary of the State of Wisconsin Department of Tourism, will now be chief marketing and communications officer at the Dohmen Company Foundation.

Cheryl Moore, president and chief operating officer at the New York Genome Center, will become director of research programs at the Wellcome Trust in May.

MaeLynn Patten, a fundraising consultant and former associate vice president of advancement and campaign strategy at Babson College, has been named chief advancement officer at Salve Regina University.

Kim Schultz has been appointed director of corporate and foundation relations at Milwaukee School of Engineering. Most recently she was executive director of the Hispanic Professionals of Greater Milwaukee.

Emily Tracy, chief development officer at Polaris, has been hired as chief revenue officer at Code for America.

Jenny Wensink, director of annual giving and alumni relations at Bowling Green State University, is now director of development at the Toledo Museum of Art.

Departures

Nan Aron intends to step down as president of the Alliance for Justice on July 31. She co-founded the group and has led it for 42 years.

Eliza Byard, executive director of GLSEN, will depart after 20 years leading the group previously known as the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network on March 1. Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, deputy executive director, will step in as interim executive director until a new leader has been announced.

Deb Coffin, vice chancellor for advancement at the University of Colorado at Boulder, will retire next month. Derek Bellin, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs in the Office of Advancement at the University of Colorado at Boulder, will serve as interim vice chancellor for advancement.

Allan Jones will leave the Allen Institute once a successor has been named. He joined the medical-research organization, created by the technology billionaires Paul and Jody Allen, during its planning stages in 2003 and became its first CEO in 2010.

Leticia Peguero is departing as vice president of programs at the Nathan Cummings Foundation to start her own executive-coaching consulting company.

Jeff Ulmer, vice president for development and alumni engagement at Stetson University since 2014, has retired. Amy Gipson, associate vice president for development strategy and communications, will replace him on an interim basis.

Legacies

Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire owner of casinos and resort hotels in Las Vegas, Macau, and Singapore, died January 11. He was 87. With his wife, Miriam, he was a major donor to Jewish, science, education, and right-wing political causes in America and Israel and appeared five times on the Chronicle’s Philanthropy 50 annual ranking of donors who give the most. Among his largest gifts were donations of $70 million to the Birthright Israel Foundation in 2018 to pay for trips to Israel for young Jewish adults.

Patricia Champion Frist, whose family owned the Hospital Corporation of America and started the HCA Foundation, died on January 5 at age 81. With her husband, Thomas Frist Jr., the billionaire couple made major gifts to Harvard Business School, which received $10 million from the Frists for a scholarship fund in 2005, and Vanderbilt University, to which they gave $2 million in 1998 to name a nursing school building after Patricia Frist. They also established the Frist Foundation and the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville.

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