Heinz Endowments Will Install Next President in April

Heinz Endowments

Chris DeCardy will become president of the $2.1 billion foundation in April. He is currently a nonprofit consultant in Menlo Park, Calif., and previously served as vice president and director of programs at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

DeCardy will follow Grant Oliphant, who departed last year to lead the Conrad Prebys Foundation.

The Heinz Endowments are a financial supporter of the Chronicle.

ClimateWorks Foundation

The $430 million foundation has hired three new senior leaders.

Michael Bosse has joined as deputy vice president of programs. He was most recently national program director at the Sierra Club.

Illyasha Peete, executive director of the Racial and Social Equity Initiative at California Life Sciences, is now chief of equity, justice, and culture.

Shelagh Whitley, chief sustainability officer at Principles for Responsible Investment, has been appointed senior director of sustainable finance.

Doe Fund

Jennifer Mitchell, executive director of the HOPE Program, will return to the Doe Fund in April as its president and CEO. She previously worked at the $315 million foundation for 12 years.

Mitchell succeeds Harriet Karr-McDonald, who led the foundation for two years following the 2021 death of George McDonald, its founder and her husband.

GroundTruth Project

Rob Zeaske is returning to the nonprofit journalism group as CEO and president. He served as its chief operations officer from 2019 to 2020.

Most recently he was director of Harvard Business School’s Social Enterprise Initiative.

More New CEOs

Bill Bedrossian, CEO of Covenant House California, will be the next president and CEO of Covenant House International, which helps young people who have experienced homelessness or human trafficking. He follows Kevin Ryan, who is retiring after more than 30 years at the organization, culminating in 14 years as its leader.

Caroline Black has been promoted from program director to executive director of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. She has worked there for more than 20 years.

Bernard Cherkasov, national chief operating officer at Cradles to Crayons, is now CEO of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

Sonya Chung will be promoted from deputy director to director of the Film Forum, effective July 1. She will succeed Karen Cooper, who has been its leader for 50 years and will remain with the organization as co-programmer of premieres and an adviser to Chung.

Jean Davidson, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, will begin on April 1 as executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra. She follows Gary Ginstling, who left in October to become the executive director of the New York Philharmonic.

Acooa Ellis, senior vice president of community impact at the Greater Twin Cities United Way, has been named executive director of the Partnership for Equitable and Resilient Communities.

Efrain Escobedo, vice president of public policy and civic engagement at the California Community Foundation, will start as president and CEO of the Southern California Center for Nonprofit Management.

Kevin Foster has been promoted from director of programs to executive director of the John Randolph Foundation. He succeeds Lisa Sharpe, who has retired. She joined the $48 million foundation in 1998 as director of development and grants management and has been its leader since 2005.

Cameron Hickey has been promoted to CEO of the National Conference on Citizenship. Most recently he was director of its Algorithmic Transparency Institute.

Dylan Hoos has been promoted from chief operating officer to executive director of the Johnson Family Foundation. He succeeds Richard Burns, who has served as interim executive director since 2020. Burns will remain with the $58 million foundation as an executive coach and consultant for grant making and the Johnson Justice Fellowship Program.

Denise Hyater-Lindenmuth, executive director of Brain Injury Services, has been appointed executive director of the National Women’s Health Network.

Karen Jolicoeur was promoted from deputy director to executive director of Creative Art Works. She follows Brian Ricklin, who has led the group since 2010 and will now serve as president of its board of directors.

John Jones has been hired as executive director of the VBC Giving Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Volumetric Building Companies. He is a retired staff sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps and most recently was executive director of development at Workshops for Warriors.

Jeremy Klemanski, CEO of Helio Health and the Helio Health Foundation, is now president and CEO of the Gateway Foundation.

YMCA of the USA

Abigail Farris Rogers, president and CEO at the YMCA of Greater Richmond, will now serve as executive vice president and chief development officer at its national headquarters. She will lead philanthropic and strategic partnership development.

Other Notable Appointments

Ebony Baylor has been hired as vice president of government affairs at In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda. She most recently served as both the deputy director of Coalitions and Community Engagement and the Black Coalition director at the Democratic National Committee.

Matthew Bredes, audit director at the international accounting firm Binder Dijker Otte, has been named chief financial officer at the Little Flower Children and Family Services of New York.

Keyla Butts, director of business development at Hawai’i Pacific University, is now director of special events at the University of Hawai’i Foundation. In addition, Marcelo Hanza has been hired as executive director of corporate and foundation relations. He was most recently corporate and foundation relations officer at the Mayo Clinic.

Sheree Carter-Galvan, senior vice president and general counsel at the American Museum of Natural History, will become chief legal officer at the Mellon Foundation in March. Stephanie Ybarra will also join the $9.6 billion foundation as program officer in its Arts and Culture program area, effective April 3. Currently she is artistic director at Baltimore Center Stage.

Michael Chen, senior vice president for finance at the medical-technology company Becton Dickinson and Company, has become chief financial officer at Unicef USA. Chen spent time as a child in refugee camps in Malaysia and the Philippines, where he and his family received aid from Unicef.

Michelle Commander has been named deputy director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Most recently she was deputy director of research and strategic initiatives at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Heather Culp will now serve as senior vice president and chief philanthropy officer for both the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of Maryland Medical Center. She was previously executive director of development for the Fund for Johns Hopkins Medicine at Johns Hopkins University.

Alex Edwards, director of operations for the Washington Intelligence Bureau, has been appointed senior vice president of client development at Altus Marketing.

Alison Kolwaite has joined Arabella Advisors as chief relationship officer. Most recently she was chief external affairs officer for the National Service Office at the Nurse-Family Partnership and Child First.

Malcolm McClain, director of urban agriculture and food initiatives at Greater Newark Conservancy, has joined the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation as a program officer.

Diane Shust, chief of staff for Representative Tom Suozzi of New York, has been appointed vice president for public policy at the Council for Opportunity in Education.

Julie Varughese, interim senior vice president of programs and chief medical officer at Americares since August, will continue serving in the dual roles permanently. She was previously vice president of its technical unit and chief medical officer.

Christopher Watler has been promoted from chief external-affairs officer to executive vice president at the Center for Employment Opportunities.

Laura Whitney, vice president of finance at the University of Hartford, has been appointed chief financial officer at the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford. She succeeds Rhona Morgan, who has retired after 22 years at the $143 million community fund.

Departures

David Binder, artistic director of the Brooklyn Academy of Music since 2019, will depart in July.

Ann Costello, executive director of the Golisano Foundation since 1999, will retire on June 2.

Michael Maso, the Huntington Theatre’s managing director for 41 years, plans to step down this summer.

Ronn Richard, president and CEO of the Cleveland Foundation, intends to retire later this year. He has led the $3.2 billion foundation since 2003. Read more about Richard’s tenure at the foundation in this Chronicle profile.

Lisa Urias has stepped down as chief program and community-engagement officer at the Arizona Community Foundation to become director of the Office of Tourism under Governor Katie Hobbs of Arizona.

Ryan Walters has resigned as executive director of Every Kid Counts Oklahoma.

Legacy

Molly Corbett Broad, who served as the first woman president of the American Council on Education from 2008 until 2017, died on January 2 at age 81.

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