Ford Foundation and Rhodes Trust Get New Senior Leaders

Ford Foundation

Hilary Pennington has been named the $12.5 billion grant maker’s first executive vice president, overseeing all of the foundation’s programs in the United States and abroad. She was previously vice president for the foundation’s programs on education, creativity, and free expression.

Harvard University

Tamara Rogers, vice president for alumni affairs and development, will step down at the end of 2018. Ms. Rogers oversees the university’s $6.5 billion capital campaign, which concludes in June and as of last year had raised more than $8 billion. She has worked at Harvard for more than 40 years.

Rhodes Trust

Elizabeth Kiss, president of Agnes Scott College, in Decatur, Ga., will become CEO of the organization behind the prestigious Rhodes Scholars program. Ms. Kiss, who begins her new role in August, will be the first woman chief of the program, based at the University of Oxford, in England.

More New CEOs

Shanaysha Sauls has been named president and CEO of the Baltimore Community Foundation. Since 2015, she has been CEO of the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women and also ran its foundation. Ms. Sauls succeeds Thomas Wilcox, who retired in December.

Karen Baker will become CEO of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center on March 1. She succeeds Delilah Rumburg, who plans to retire after more than 20 years at the coalition.

Megan Karch has been named chief executive officer of IslandWood, an environmental-education organization on Bainbridge Island, Wash. Ms. Karch, who has been CEO of FareStart for 17 years, will start on March 12.

Constanza Pachon, president and chief operating officer of the Larta Institute, has been tapped as CEO of the Whole Child, in Whittier, Calif.

Tom Riley, vice president for strategic planning, has been promoted to president of the Connelly Foundation. He takes the reins from Josephine Mandeville, who has served in the top role since the death of the co-founder John Connelly in 1990. She plans to stay on as chair of the Board of Directors.

John Valencia has been named president and CEO of Voices for Children, which works with the Southern California justice system to recruit and train court-appointed special advocates. Most recently, he was vice chancellor for work-force and organizational development at the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District.

Other Notable Appointments

John Butler, secretary for development for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., has been appointed vice president for development and mission advancement at Trinity Missions and Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity.

Sheryl Goldstein, managing director of programs and grants at the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, has joined the Abell Foundation as vice president. She succeeds Lynn Heller, who is leaving to create a new charity that will help low-income communities in Baltimore enjoy the economic benefits of clean energy.

Alan Kwok, who is pursuing a doctorate at the Joint Centre for Disaster Research in Wellington, New Zealand, is the newly named director of learning at San Diego Grantmakers.

Roz Lee, director of social-justice initiatives at the Arcus Foundation, has been named vice president for strategy and programs at the Ms. Foundation for Women.

Bonnie LePard, executive director of Oatlands Historic Home and Gardens, has been named as the Cultural Landscape Foundation’s executive director. Ms. LePard will report to Charles Birnbaum, the charity’s president and CEO.

Ken Modzelewski, who previously worked at the Nature Conservancy in Illinois as major-gifts director, will return to the environmental group as chief development officer. He most recently was the acting regional director at the Trust for Public Land.

Christopher Sickels, executive director of development for neurosciences at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, has been appointed chief development officer at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.

Josh Thiel, senior associate athletics director and chief development officer at Rice University, has been named deputy athletics director for athletics advancement at San Jose State University.

Shanell Watson, an associate program officer, data analyst, and technical coordinator at the Woodward Hines Education Foundation, was promoted to program officer. Her new role will focus on the foundation’s priority of educational persistence and completion.

Departure

Cecile Richards has announced she will step down as president of Planned Parenthood, a role she has had for a decade.

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