May 18, 2006 | Read Time: 5 minutes
NEW ON THE JOB
As editor in chief of Family Circle, Susan Ungaro spent 11 years creating magazines that would appeal to millions of American women amid increasing competition for the time and attention of readers. In her new job as head of the James Beard Foundation, she faces another challenging sell.
Ms. Ungaro, 52, joins the New York culinary organization as it rethinks its mission following the conviction last year of its president for stealing the charity’s money. That revelation drew attention to criticisms that the organization was too insular and elitist and did not put enough money into the scholarships it gives to aspiring chefs.
Under Ms. Ungaro’s leadership, the charity will seek to become a national center for information on good cuisine. It has designed new programs that it will promote to food enthusiasts across the country, among them a conference on culinary careers and a nationwide food festival, called Taste America, to be held in 2007.
The 20-year-old charity has also developed a partnership with New York University, through which it will hold a meeting in Florence, Italy, this week on the Mediterranean diet. It will also publish a magazine for the general public on food and wine, and plans to hold a major conference in the next few years to bring together academics, government officials, and food- industry professionals.
The group will also continue to give its annual James Beard awards for outstanding chefs and restaurateurs, which were unveiled last week.
Under an interim executive director, the Beard Foundation made many changes in the past year designed to improve oversight and accountability.
It has brought in an entirely new group of 22 trustees that includes several chefs, put its scholarship program in the hands of a separate charity, adopted an ethics policy, and posted its financial information online. It also is seeking to expand its sources of revenue beyond income from its signature dinner events, by which chefs pay most of the costs to cook at the organization’s Greenwich Village brownstone, which was the home of James Beard, often called the father of American gastronomy.
With her leadership experience in the magazine world, Ms. Ungaro brings the expertise and contacts she will need to manage a growing organization as it seeks to increase its visibility nationwide, says Barbara Fairchild, editor in chief of Bon Appétit and one of the foundation’s new trustees. Knowing that Ms. Ungaro was looking for a new job after Family Circle was bought by a new owner, Ms. Fairchild floated her colleague’s name to the headhunters conducting the search for a new president. “The qualities you need tend to dovetail nicely with what you need to run any organization,” says Ms. Fairchild. “You need someone who is organized, motivated, who can lead a staff, who is very aware of deadlines, someone who can keep many balls in the air at the same time.”
Ms. Ungaro, unlike her predecessor, Leonard F. Pickell Jr., will receive a salary in her new job. She declined to say how much she will be paid.
In an interview, Ms. Ungaro spoke with The Chronicle about her new position:
Why did this opportunity appeal to you?
When I got the call, would I be interested to take a role at the James Beard Foundation, I was immediately excited and intrigued. I knew there was a lot of work to be done and I felt that the image of the foundation with the right leadership and stewardship was a great opportunity for someone like me looking for a new adventure in the nonprofit world.
What are the biggest challenges as the organization seeks to recover from scandal?
I think the foundation has recovered. We have a new board of trustees. We are starting with a fresh slate. Our biggest challenge is to increase membership and create exciting new events that will bring in more people to the foundation’s membership. As an editor and someone who understands good journalism, and what makes people pay attention, I and the board believe that the foundation really can become a greater center for education, trend spotting, and ideas for best practices in food and nutrition for chefs, restaurateurs, and Americans who love food.
How do you respond to criticism that the group has been more of an eating club than a charity?
Clearly that criticism has been heard and is being responded to by the current board of trustees, and I will certainly be responding to that as well. Our goal is to extend the reach of the foundation beyond the New York metropolitan area by conducting many more events.
Our staff is working on creating a new magazine, and we have plans to expand our Web site.
One of my primary responsibilities and goals is to support our members — the chefs, restaurateurs, and winemakers — and reach out to them in new ways and find out how the foundation can better serve them and what they see as the imperative and future of the culinary world.
How does your magazine experience apply to your new role?
Even in the publishing world the biggest challenge as editor of a mass-market magazine was to get the reader to pick up a copy at the newsstand and feel that they can’t live without this magazine. If I do my job well, with the help of the staff and the board of trustees, we will make the James Beard Foundation the organization that people want to be part of. People will feel this is the place to be.
About Susan Ungaro, president of the James Beard Foundation
Education: Earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communications from William Paterson University, in Wayne, N.J.
Previous employment: Ms. Ungaro began her career in 1976 as an editorial assistant at Family Circle magazine. She served as its editor in chief from 1994 until last year.
Nonprofit experience: Served as president of the American Society of Magazine Editors, chairwoman of the American Magazine Conference, and a board member of the Brazelton Foundation, in Boston, Help USA (Housing Enterprise for the Less Privileged), in New York, and the Marrow Foundation, in Washington.
On her bookshelf: Ms. Ungaro has been reading The Mermaid Chair: A Novel, by Sue Monk Kidd. Next on her list is The Last Days of Haute Cuisine, by Patric Kuh, which shows how old-fashioned French-influenced restaurants gave way in the United States to a more diverse and democratic culinary scene.
