Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Taps Three New Executives

Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

The $2.4 billion foundation has named three new executives.

Allison Greenwood Bajracharya, chief strategy and communities officer at America Achieves, will join the foundation as vice president for program strategy on April 15.

Yvonne Owens Ferguson has been appointed vice president for research, learning, and evaluation. She previously led the National Institutes of Health’s Common Fund Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society program.

Gloria Jackson-Leathers has been promoted to senior adviser for community engagement. She has worked at the foundation for 25 years, and was most recently vice president of its Kansas City Civic program.

Center for Nonprofit Management

Meagan Flippin has joined the organization as its president and CEO. Previously she was CEO of United Way Rutherford County.

Flippin succeeds Wanda Lyle, a board member who stepped in as interim president and CEO when Tari Hughes retired in February 2023.

Open Society Foundations

Binaifer Nowrojee, a human-rights lawyer and vice president of programs, has been promoted to president of the grant makers founded by the billionaire financier George Soros.

She will take the helm in June when she follows Mark Malloch-Brown, who has led the $18 billion foundations since 2021.

Read more about Nowrojee’s appointment in the Chronicle.

More New CEOs

Jim Bush has been promoted from president to CEO of the Winkler Group, a national fundraising consulting firm that advises organizations on capital campaigns. Starting June 1, he will follow Tim Winkler, who is stepping down 20 years after founding the company and will remain its board chair.

Emily Foster Day will return to the Massachusetts College of Art and Design as vice president of advancement and executive director of the MassArt Foundation on May 1. She is currently the co-executive director of the Boston Center for the Arts, and previously worked at the college as executive director of alumni relations and annual giving from 2010 until 2013.

Natalie Madeira Cofield has been hired as CEO of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity. Most recently she was a consultant and co-founder of the Capital Ready Coalition, an organization that helps Black women entrepreneurs.

Thomas Giffin, senior director of development for the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s School of Health Professions, will now serve as executive director of the Onslow Memorial Hospital Foundation.

Other Notable Appointments

Crystal Bowyer, president and CEO of the National Children’s Museum, will return to the Museum of Science and Industry as chief strategy and external affairs officer on April 22. She previously served as the Chicago museum’s director of external affairs and director of individual and major gifts from 2013 to 2017.

Azaleea Carlea, director of policy and advocacy at Project Guardianship, has become legal director of Legal Momentum, a legal defense and education fund for women.

Andrea Grant, human-capital consultant at FutureSense, has been appointed executive vice president and chief of staff at CHC: Creating Healthier Communities.

Nicole Wickenhauser has been named director of development at the Pacific Institute, a think tank that specializes in water research and policy. Most recently she was director of strategic partnerships and institutional advancement at the Stroud Water Research Center.

Departures

Ellen Agler plans to step down in June after 12 years as CEO of the END Fund. Diana Benton Schechter, chief operating officer, will serve as interim CEO until a permanent successor has been named.

Carl Falconer has departed after three months as CEO of Homeward Bound, a nonprofit group that serves homeless people in Asheville, N.C.

Legacy

F. Duke Perry, who retired in 2006 as president and CEO of the West Virginia University Foundation, died on February 22 at age 84.

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