National Gallery of Art Appoints First Woman Director (Transitions)

National Gallery of Art

Kaywin Feldman, director and president of the Minneapolis Institute of Art since 2008, is the new director of the National Gallery in Washington, the first woman to hold the top role. She succeeds Earl (Rusty) Powell III, who is retiring after 26 years.

Grantmakers for Effective Organizations

Gayle Williams, former executive director of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, will serve as interim president of the grant-makers group. She succeeds Kathleen Enright, who is now CEO of the Council on Foundations.

Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation

Rini Banerjee has been named president after serving as its interim executive director since last year. She is the first woman to lead the New York grant maker. Before that, she was executive director of the Foundation for a Just Society.

St. David’s Foundation

Earl Maxwell plans to retire as CEO at the end of 2019, after 20 years at the Austin philanthropy. It reported $940 million in assets in 2017, according to the most recent data available.

More New CEOs

Maria Booker, head of corporate partnerships at the Capital Area Food Bank, has been named executive director of Chance for Life, which raises money for pediatric-cancer research at Children’s National Health System and through Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.

Michelle Esquivel, director of the Division of Children With Special Health Care Needs at the American Academy of Pediatrics, has become executive director of Educare West DuPage.

Carolyn Kindle Betz, senior vice president and executive director of the Enterprise Holdings Foundation, has been promoted to president. The organization is the philanthropic arm of the company that owns the Enterprise Rent-a-Car, National Car Rental, and Alamo Rent a Car. This year, the corporate foundation made $51.8 million in grants.

Robin Merle, former chief development officer and senior vice president at the Hospital for Special Surgery, has joined the City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice as vice president for institutional advancement and executive director of the John Jay College Foundation.

Danielle Moss has been named CEO of Oliver Scholars, a New York nonprofit organization that prepares academically gifted black and Latino students for college. Previously she was chief of staff at the New York Civil Liberties Union.

David Oxtoby has been named president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Most recently he served as president of Pomona College from 2003 to 2017.

Christina Santos, director of development at Providence Health Foundation, has been appointed executive director of the AMGA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the health-care trade association AMGA.

Jonas Philanthropies

This New York health-care charity hired two new staff members.

Mary Fiore, director of constituent engagement at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, is now development and partnerships manager.

Althea Hicks, senior grants and contracts specialist at Weill Cornell Medicine, joined as grants and programs manager.

Other Notable Appointments

George Ashton, co-founder and president of Sol Systems, a renewable-energy investment firm, has been tapped as managing director of strategic investments at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation.

Chelsea Gwyther has been named vice president for development and alumni relations at Lasell College. She was most recently assistant dean of advancement at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Ilana Levinson, senior director of advocacy and public policy for YouthBuild USA, has been named senior director of government relations at the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities.

Jane McIntosh, vice president for development and external affairs at the Central Park Conservancy, has become chief advancement officer at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan.

Mónica Ramirez, co-founder and president of the Alianza Nacional De Campesinas (National Farmworker Women’s Alliance), has joined the National Domestic Workers Alliance as its gender-justice campaigns director.

Astria Smith, executive director for annual giving at Southern Methodist University, was promoted to senior executive director for annual giving and alumni relations.

Paul St. Angelo, executive director of the Indiana United Methodist Children’s Home Foundation, has become vice president for advancement at Music for All.

Alexandra Wheeler, deputy director and chief advancement officer at the Whitney Museum of American Art, has become vice president and chief advancement officer at the Juilliard School.

Departures

Denise Burgess, CEO of Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts since March, has departed the organization. Jim Cronan, its chief financial officer, will serve as interim CEO.

Paula Goldman, vice president and global lead for the Omidyar Network’s Tech and Society Solutions Lab, has left the grant maker to join Salesforce as chief ethical and humane use officer.

Legacies

Victoria Sant, a Washington philanthropist, died December 11 at age 79. With her husband, Roger Sant, the billionaire co-founder of Applied Energy Services, they gave $26.5 million to the National Gallery of Art and millions more to reproductive-health and women’s groups and to support the National Zoo’s giant panda programs. The Sants also signed the Giving Pledge promising to contribute the bulk of their wealth to charity.

Send an email to people@philanthropy.com.

Correction: A previous version of this article said that Gayle Williams is the executive director, instead of former executive director, of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation.