New Leaders Will Take the Reins of Demos and American Cancer Society This Summer

Demos

Taifa Smith Butler, CEO of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, will be the progressive think tank’s next president, effective in July. She has been a member of its Board of Trustees since 2017.

Butler succeeds K. Sabeel Rahman, who left in January to become a senior counselor at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a division of the Office of Management and Budget, under President Biden.

American Cancer Society

Karen Knudsen will be the next CEO and first woman to lead the American Cancer Society and its advocacy affiliate, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, beginning on June 1. Currently she is executive vice president of oncology services and enterprise director at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Health.

Knudsen follows Gary Reedy, who has served as both organizations’ CEO since 2015 and will now retire.

Bezos Earth Fund

Charlotte Pera, president and CEO of the ClimateWorks Foundation, is becoming vice president for strategy and programs at this environmental grant maker that was created last year with a $10 billion commitment from Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.

Omidyar Network

Michele Lawrence Jawando is joining the $491 million grant maker as senior vice president of programs. In this newly created role, she will oversee the program teams of its focus areas in responsible technology, reimagining capitalism, and pluralism.

Most recently, Jawando was head of U.S. strategic engagement and public-policy partnerships at Google.

More New CEOs

Jim Carroll, chief operating and financial officer at the DiaTribe Foundation, has been promoted to CEO of this nonprofit group for diabetes education and advocacy.

Charity Chandler-Cole, who is finishing a doctorate in educational leadership for social justice at Loyola Marymount University, has been appointed CEO of Court Appointed Special Advocates of Los Angeles. She will be the charity’s first Black leader.

Tierra Dorsey, executive director of development at Goucher College, is the new president of Central Scholarship.

Breena Gold has been tapped as CEO of Our House Grief Support Center. Most recently she was executive director of the Alzheimer’s Association California Southland.

Tony Hoang will be promoted from managing director to executive director of Equality California and the Equality California Institute when Rick Chavez Zbur steps down at the end of the year.

Edward Lewis III, vice chancellor for advancement at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, has been named president and CEO of Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts.

Leticia Longoria-Navarro, who has served as interim executive director of the Pathfinder Network since July, has been named to the post permanently. Previously she was associate executive director at this social-service agency for adults in the Oregon Department of Corrections system and their children and families who live in the community.

Briana Marbury, a finance-strategy consultant in Tampa, Fla., will now serve as executive director of the Interledger Foundation.

Tanya Ramos-Puig, CEO of Pencils of Promise, has been appointed president of the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Latin Recording Academy.

Gail Roddie-Hamlin, national vice president of community engagement at the Alzheimer’s Association, has been named president and CEO of the Children’s Heart Foundation, which raises money for research on congenital heart defects.

Other Notable Appointments

Aamir Ali, who recently completed a postdoctoral scholarship at the University of California at Berkeley, has joined the John Templeton Foundation as program officer in mathematics and physical sciences. In addition, Alexandra Was has been named program officer in character virtue development. Most recently she was a freelance editor and writer who worked with students at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels.

Paul Allen has been named vice president for development at the Paley Center for Media. He most recently worked as director of major gifts and grants at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.

Sam Caplan has been named vice president of social impact at Submittable, a company that makes software to help grant makers and companies manage and measure their impact. He was the chief information officer at the Walton Family Foundation until last year.

Frances Fu has been named chief financial officer at Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Most recently she was chief financial officer at RET Ventures, a venture-capital firm.

Amee Parbhoo, director of investments, has been promoted to managing director at Accion Venture Lab.

Ivy Suriyopas has been appointed vice president of programs at Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees. She comes to the organization from the Open Society Foundations, where she was a program officer focused on immigrant and refugee rights.

Thomas Trinley, director of finance and operations at the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, has been appointed chief financial officer and chief operating officer at the Coleman Foundation.

Lindsay Turley, vice president of museum collections at the Museum of the City of New York, has joined the Shaker Museum as chief donor-relations officer.

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