Patrick J. McGovern Foundation Names Melinda Marble as First Executive Director (Transitions)

Patrick J. McGovern Foundation

Melinda Marble has been named the first executive director of the grant maker. The foundation is the legacy of businessman Patrick McGovern, who died in 2014. It focuses on information technology and neuroscience research. The foundation has assets of $1.2 billion, according to a spokesperson.

Marble previously was deputy director of the Barr Foundation, director of family philanthropy at Pilot House Associates, and executive director of the Paul & Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation.

USA Gymnastics

Li Li Leung has been named the president of the organization, its fourth leader in two years. She was most recently vice president at the National Basketball Association. USA Gymnastics has been under fire due to lawsuits related to physician Larry Nassar, who was convicted of multiple sex-abuse charges.

Leung was a gymnast at the University of Michigan and helped the school win four Big Ten titles. She also represented the United States for the 1988 Junior Pan American Games.

MacDowell Colony

Philip Himberg will become executive director of the contemporary arts organization. Himberg has been at the Sundance Institute for 23 years and has been artistic director for the theater program.

Himberg succeeds Cheryl Young, who is retiring after 30 years with the MacDowell Colony, according to a news release. Himberg is expected to take over duties in June in New York. David Macy will continue to serve as MacDowell’s resident director in New Hampshire.

Other Notable Appointments

Ronni Baer will be the distinguished curator and lecturer at the Princeton University Art Museum. Baer has written about the history of art collecting and is a scholar of Dutch, Flemish, and Spanish art. Since 2000, she has been a senior curator at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She takes the position in May and will take over for John Elderfield, the inaugural distinguished curator and lecturer, who will retire.

Bridget Doane will be the new director of development for the Abilities Connection, a nonprofit in Ohio that employs, connects, and cares for people with developmental or physical disabilities. Doane previously served in a development position at Rocking Horse Community Health Center and as director of advancement at Catholic Central School. Her most recent position was director of advancement at the Heritage Center with the Clark County Historical Society.

Raina Lampkins-Fielder was named curator of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that documents, preserves, and showcases art by African-American artists of the American South. She most recently was an artistic director and curator at the Mona Bismarck American Center for art and culture in Paris. She will continue to work in France in the new position.

Brent Wilkes was named senior vice president for institutional development of the Hispanic Federation, a membership organization. Before forming his own consulting practice, Wilkes was CEO for the League of United Latin American Citizens for 20 years, according to a news release. Wilkes opened and managed the LULAC National Office in Washington, D.C. and he oversaw the organization’s national policy, legislative advocacy, program development and resource development.

Stephanie Gabriel will join the Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York as director. She has worked at Lehmann Maupin Gallery for 15 years and became partner from 2010 to 2017.

Departures

Lisa Borders, president of Time’s Up, has resigned from the position “to address family concerns that require [her] singular focus.” Borders was previously president of the WNBA, the professional women’s basketball association. She was the first president of the legal-defense fund that combats sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the workplace.

Grace Hou, president of Woods Fund Chicago, will step down from the foundation to become secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services, according to a news release. Hou has been president for seven years. Under her leadership, Chicago was named a partner in the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation effort, a multiyear commitment led by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to bring about transformational, sustainable change in addressing the effects of racism.

Legacy

Geraldine Aaron, a philanthropist and wife of the co-founder of Comcast, died in February at the age of 91. She was born in Philadelphia and married Daniel Aaron after they met as students at Temple University. They had five children. Her husband died in 2003 of Parkinson’s disease.

Geraldine Aaron had supported nonprofits since 1991, including gifts to Arcadia University, the Parkinson Council, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Dan Aaron Parkinson’s Rehabilitation Center at Pennsylvania Hospital, which was named after her husband. She sponsored Taiwanese violinist Ray Chen and other aspiring Curtis students. In Florida, she supported the Sarasota Orchestra, Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, the Neuro Challenge Foundation for Parkinson’s disease in Sarasota, the American Jewish Committee, and the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe. The troupe is building a theater in Sarasota that will bear her name.

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