CHAIR

Brian Gallagher is president and CEO of United Way of America and has served in this capacity since January 2002. Mr. Gallagher began his career with United Way immediately after college, when the organization selected him as a management trainee. A 20-year veteran of United Way, he most recently served as president of United Way of Central Ohio in Columbus. Under his leadership, the United Way of America has redesigned itself from a fundraising federation to a collaborative community leadership organization focused on advancing the common good through its emphasis on helping children and youth succeed, financial stability and improving access to health care. Mr. Gallagher received his bachelor's degree in social work from Ball State University and a master's degree in business from Emory University. In May 2003, Mr. Gallagher received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Ball State University.

VICE CHAIR

J. D. Hokoyama is the president and chief executive officer and founding board member of Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc. Mr. Hokoyama was a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia. He has been a high school English teacher and department chair, a K-8 elementary school principal, a vice president for fund development and public affairs, the Acting National Director of the Japanese American Citizens League, and the Director of the Office of Asian Pacific American Students Services at the University of Southern California. He holds a B.A. in English, a secondary teaching credential and a M.Ed. in educational administration from Loyola Marymount University. He is also on the boards of both Asian Pacific American and mainstream organizations locally and nationally.


TREASURER

Gary L. Yates is president and chief executive officer of The California Wellness Foundation and serves as a member of the Foundation's board of directors. He is also assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Southern California School of Medicine and is a licensed marriage and family therapist. Mr. Yates joined the Foundation staff in 1992 after more than 20 years of experience in the fields of public health and education. Immediately prior to his association with The California Wellness Foundation, he was associate director of the division of adolescent medicine at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Mr. Yates serves on the boards of the Council on Foundations, the Foundation Consortium, Hispanics in Philanthropy, and the Southern California Association for Philanthropy. He has received official commendations from the governor of California, the California State Senate, the city of Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. He was also the recipient of the 1999 Hispanic Health Leadership Award from the National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services Organizations and the 1998 recipient of the Los Angeles Free Clinic's Lenny Somberg Award. Mr. Yates received his undergraduate degree in government from American University in Washington, D.C., and his master's degree in counseling psychology from the University of Northern Colorado. His primary area of interest and expertise is adolescent health, about which he has written and spoken extensively.


SECRETARY

Luz A. Vega-Marquis is president and CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, where she manages the foundation’s investment portfolio, leads its effort to disburse approximately $30 million in grants annually, and spearheads its focus to positively impact families, youth, and children. Prior to that, Ms. Vega-Marquis served as executive director of the Community Technology Foundation of California and vice president and chief operating officer at the National Economic Development and Law Center. She spent 17 years at the James Irvine Foundation, where she served as director of grants programs, senior program officer in charge of northern California office, and program officer. She is a founder of Hispanics in Philanthropy, has served on numerous boards and serves on The California Wellness Foundation board. A graduate of the University of San Francisco, Ms. Vega-Marquis received a B.A. in modern languages and a master’s degree in Latin American studies from Stanford University.


BOARD MEMBERS

Ellen S. Alberding is president of the Joyce Foundation, which has assets of $975 million and makes grants of approximately $50 million a year on projects to improve the quality of life in the Great Lakes region. Previously she served as program officer and director of portfolio investments. In those capacities she directed the foundation’s Culture Program, worked in the Education Program, and managed the foundation’s investments. She holds an honors degree in English from Brown University and a master of management in finance and marketing from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. In 2004, she served as co-convener of the Governance Committee for the national Panel on the Nonprofit Sector, and as a member of the Public Trust Task Force for the Donors Forum of Chicago.

Stephanie Bell-Rose is a managing director of Goldman, Sachs & Co. and founding president of The Goldman Sachs Foundation, a $300 million international foundation whose mission is to promote excellence and innovation in education and to improve academic performance and lifelong productivity of young people worldwide. One of the top ten U.S. corporate endowments, the foundation utilizes grants, loans, and business expertise to advance its mission. Ms. Bell-Rose specializes in high-impact social investments to promote the development of young people and their families. Her philanthropic work extends from America's inner cities to communities in Europe and Asia. Deeply committed to developing the full potential of all people, she has emphasized the needs of the underserved. Prior to her appointment at Goldman Sachs, Ms. Bell-Rose served as counsel and program officer for public affairs at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, where she directed legal affairs and designed philanthropic initiatives in education and public policy in the U.S. and abroad.

Susan V. Berresford is the former president of the Ford Foundation, a position she held from 1996 to 2007. One of the largest foundations in the world, Ford supports programs around the globe that strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. Ms. Berresford joined the foundation’s Division of National Affairs in 1970 and later became officer in charge of its women’s programs and then vice president for the U.S. and International Affairs programs. After serving as vice president in charge of worldwide programming, she was named executive vice president and chief operating officer of the foundation, a position she held until she became president. Prior to joining Ford, Ms. Berresford was a program officer for the Neighborhood Youth Corp and worked for the Manpower Career Development Agency, where she was responsible for the evaluation of training, education, and work programs. She attended Vassar College and then studied American history at Radcliffe College, from which she graduated cum laude. She is a board member and chair of United States Artists, Inc. and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences. Ms. Berresford is also the convener of the US-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin.


Kevin Klose is president and chief executive officer of National Public Radio, America's premier nonprofit news and cultural radio programming service. A former editor and national and foreign correspondent with The Washington Post, Mr. Klose is an award-winning author and international broadcasting executive. Prior to joining NPR in December 1998, he served as director of U.S. International Broadcasting, overseeing the U.S. government's global radio, and as president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), broadcasting to Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. Mr. Klose is a founder of the Intermedia Survey Institute of Washington, a nonprofit research firm specializing in media and opinion survey in Eurasia. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Harvard University. A former Woodrow Wilson National Fellow, he serves on the board of The Eurasia Foundation in Washington. Mr. Klose is the author of Russia and the Russians and Inside the Closed Society, which won the Overseas Press Club's Cornelius Ryan Award. He is also the co-author of four other books.

Marguerite Kondracke was named president and CEO of America’s Promise Alliance in September 2004. Prior to joining America’s Promise, Ms. Kondracke served as Special Assistant to U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, as well as staff director for the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families. Her focus in the 108th Congress was education, health care, social welfare, and the challenges of working families, especially military families. During her 40-year career, Ms. Kondracke has been both an entrepreneur and a public servant. In 1987, with two others, she founded Corporate Family Solutions (now Bright Horizons Family Solutions), to provide more and better child care for working parents through employer sponsorship. Today the $1 billion enterprise, named one of Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For,” employs over 20,000 people and serves over 600 corporate clients at more than 700 child care centers in five countries. Ms. Kondracke was named a Purpose Prize Fellow, awarded by Civic Ventures to those over 60 taking on society’s biggest challenges, and regional Entrepreneur of the Year, awarded by Ernst & Young. An alumna of Duke University, she also holds a master’s degree from Austin Peay State University.

Stanley S. Litow is president of the IBM Foundation and vice president for Global Community Relations at IBM. Under his leadership, IBM launched Reinventing Education, a program serving more than 180,000 teachers and ten million children world wide and won the Ron Brown Award, presented by the president of the United States. Previously, he served as Deputy Chancellor of Schools for New York City, the nation’s largest school system. He also founded and ran Interface, the nonprofit “think tank,” and served as an aide to both the mayor and governor of New York. Mr. Litow serves on the boards of the Harvard Business School Initiative on Social Enterprise, the Citizen’s Budget Commission, and the After School Corporation. He chairs the Global Leadership Network, a consortia of global companies committed to effective corporate citizenship. (Mr. Litow was elected to a one-year term last year to fill the position of a retiring board member.)

Janet Murguía became the executive director and COO of the National Council of La Raza, the largest national Hispanic civil rights organization, in March 2004. She was previously executive vice chancellor for university relations at the University of Kansas, overseeing the university's internal and external relations. She coordinated the university's strategic planning and marketing efforts at the four KU campuses with those of the Alumni Association, the Athletics Corporation, and the Endowment Association. Ms. Murguia began her career as legislative counsel to former Kansas Congressman Jim Slattery, and then worked at the White House in various capacities from 1994 to 2000, ultimately serving as deputy assistant to President Clinton and deputy director of legislative affairs. She was deputy campaign manager and director of constituency outreach for the Gore/Lieberman presidential campaign, and she was also a spokesperson for the campaign. Ms. Murguia has served on the board of directors for the National Council of La Raza and the Kauffman Foundation Youth Development Board and is currently on the board of YouthFriends, a nationally recognized mentoring program. In 2003, she was selected by Hispanic magazine for its annual list of "100 Top Latinas." Ms. Murguia grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. She received three degrees from KU: a B.S. degree in journalism, a B.A. degree in Spanish, and a J.D. degree.

Andrew D. Plepler is president of the Bank of America Charitable Foundation and Bank of America’s global community impact executive. Mr. Plepler manages the company’s philanthropic strategy and coordinates its national focus with local market philanthropic efforts across the franchise. He also oversees the bank’s activities pursuant to the Community Reinvestment Act by coordinating the bank’s commitment to most effectively serve low- and moderate-income communities. Previously, Mr. Plepler was senior vice president of housing and community initiatives with the Fannie Mae Foundation, a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice in the tax division, and served as counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. He founded and continues to serve on the board of the Washington Urban Alliance Foundation.

Edward Skloot is the former executive director of the Surdna Foundation, a family foundation headquartered in New York City that makes grants in five fields: the environment, neighborhood revitalization, youth organizing, arts, and nonprofit sector issues. The foundation's first professional employee, Mr. Skloot built a staff of 20 and helped Surdna, which has assets of nearly $700 million, earn a national reputation for entrepreneurial grantmaking, collaborative approaches with other funders and grantees, and aggressive solution-finding for complex problems. Mr. Skloot previously founded and ran New Ventures, a consulting firm that created the field of social venturing and nonprofit entrepreneurship; he also wrote the first article ever published on the subject, in the Harvard Business Review in 1983. He currently serves on the board of Consumers Union (publisher of Consumer Reports) and Venture Philanthropy Partners, a group of venture capitalists helping youth-serving organizations in the Washington, D.C. region. He is a member of the advisory board of the Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit consulting firm. Mr. Skloot has written and spoken widely on the subjects of nonprofit management, social venturing and sectoral leadership and is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. He graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York, and from the Columbia University School of International Affairs.

Lorie A. Slutsky has been the president of The New York Community Trust since 1990. She began her career at The Trust as a grantmaker in 1977, and was named executive vice president in 1987. Ms. Slutsky served for nine years as a trustee and chairman of Colgate University’s budget committee and then served for seven years as a trustee of The New School. She is a former board chairman of the Council on Foundations and vice chairman of The Foundation Center. Ms. Slutsky is a director of Alliance Capital Management, AXA-Equitable Financial, and a board member of BoardSource. She also serves as a co-convener of the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector.

Father Larry Snyder took the helm of Catholic Charities USA in February 2005, after serving for more than five years as executive director of Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis -- the largest private provider of social services in the Twin Cities. Father Snyder joined the agency in 1991 as assistant to the director, was named associate director in 1992, and became its leader in 1999. Father Snyder was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 1988 and served as associate pastor at Epiphany Catholic Church in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, from 1988 to 1990 and Nativity of Mary Church in Bloomington, Minnesota, from 1990 to 1991. Father Snyder earned a bachelor’s degree from Illinois Benedictine College in Lisle, Illinois. He also holds a master’s degree in divinity from the St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, and a MPA from Hamline University in St. Paul.

Kelvin H. Taketa is president and CEO of the Hawaii Community Foundation. Since his appointment in 1998, the Foundation has become a leader in facilitating charitable investments in Hawaii, serving as a resource for philanthropy, and building partnerships and grantmaking programs that have demonstrable impact for the community. Last year, the Foundation invested nearly $38 million in grants and contracts into the community, and has earned national recognition for its substantive commitment to strengthening the leadership and organizational capacities of nonprofits. Mr. Taketa has dedicated 30 years of service to the nonprofit sector. Prior to joining the Foundation, he was vice president and executive director for the Asia/Pacific Region of The Nature Conservancy. Mr. Taketa’s current board service includes, Hawaiian Electric Industries, Hawaiian Electric Company, Independent Sector and Civic Ventures. Born and raised in Hawai‘i, he graduated from Colorado College and received his JD from UC Hastings College of Law.

William E. Trueheart is the former president and chief executive officer of the Pittsburgh Foundation. He was previously president of Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. and the first African-American president of Bryant College in Rhode Island. He had earlier served as Bryant's executive vice president and as a member of the college's board of trustees. While working at Harvard University, he held subsequent appointments as associate secretary of the university in the Office of Governing Boards, and as assistant dean and director of the Master in Public Administration program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Among Mr. Truehearst's consultancies are service to the National Park Service, the Ford Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, and the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. His civic activities include service as chair of the Rhode Island Independent Higher Education Association, vice chair of the National Council of Presidents for the Association of Governing Boards, and director of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He was a Ford Foundation Fellow and an American Council on Education Fellow. He earned his B.A. from the University of Connecticut, his M.P.A. from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and his Ed.D. from the Graduate School of Education at Harvard.

Paula Van Ness is chief executive officer of the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation. This is a new organization created from the merger of two major children's charities—'Starlight' founded by producer Peter Samuelson and 'Starbright' founded by Mr. Samuelson and Steven Spielberg. Starlight Starbright provides programs and resources through a network of local and regional chapters that work cooperatively with more than 1,000 hospitals, healthcare associations, and providers. Prior to joining the Los Angeles-based children's charity, Ms. Van Ness was president and chief executive officer of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America. She has also served in national executive leadership roles with the National Alliance to End Homelessness, National AIDS Fund, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Currently she is on the board of directors of America's Charities and a member of its executive committee, along with being involved with Independent Sector as a member of its Annual Conference Planning Committee four times over the last ten years. She has also volunteered her time as a member of numerous other nonprofit boards and committees. Ms. Van Ness has earned several prestigious awards, including the Outstanding Achievement Award from the assistant secretary of health for U.S. Public Health Services, the Public Relations Society of America's “Silver Anvil Award,” and the U.S. Public Health Service's Special Recognition Award. Ms. Van Ness graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arizona, where she received a bachelor's degree in child development and family relations. She earned her master's degree in human resources and organizational development from the University of San Francisco.

Arturo Vargas is executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, a membership organization of Latino elected and appointed policymakers and their supporters. He is also executive director of the NALEO Educational Fund, which works to strengthen American democracy by promoting the full participation of Latinos in American civic life. Prior to joining NALEO, Mr. Vargas held a series of positions at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, including vice president for community education and public policy and director of outreach and policy. Mr. Vargas was previously the senior education policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza. Mr. Vargas serves on the boards of the Edward W. Hazen Foundation, Hispanics in Philanthropy, Council on Foundations, the National Civic League, the Alliance for a Better Community, Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, and the United Way of Greater Los Angeles. He has received many honors for his work, including Hispanic magazine's Hispanic Achievement Award for Community Service, the National Association for Bilingual Educations 1999 President's Award, the 2004 National School Boards Association Hispanic Caucus Abrazo Award, the 2004 City University of New York Civic Leadership Award. Mr. Vargas holds a master's degree in Education and a bachelor's degree in History and Spanish from Stanford University. He resides in Los Angeles, and was born in El Paso, Texas.

Judy Vredenburgh joined Big Brothers Big Sisters as president and CEO in June 1999 as the first woman to hold the organization’s top national position. Under her leadership, Big Brothers Big Sisters has more than doubled and now serves hundreds of thousands of children in 5,000 communities across the nation. Prior to joining Big Brothers Big Sisters, Ms. Vredenburgh spent six years as senior vice president with the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation following a 22-year career in business. Ms. Vredenburgh is currently a board member of Generations United, and a member of the Board of Overseers for the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, and is a Big Sister herself.

William S. White is chairman, president and CEO of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, a private philanthropy based in Flint, Michigan, that supports projects that promote a just, equitable, and sustainable society. Mr. White joined Mott in 1969, became its president in 1976, and assumed the role of chairman in 1988. He currently serves on the boards of the European Foundation Centre, United States Sugar Corporation (chairman), Network of European Foundations for Innovative Cooperation, the After-School All-Stars, the C. S. Harding Foundation, and the Isabel Foundation. He has previously served on the boards of GMI Engineering & Management Institute (now Kettering University), CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation; Council of Michigan Foundations; the Flint Public Trust, Council on Foundations, the Flint Area Focus Council, American Friends of the Czech Republic, American Water Works, Daycroft School, and Adventures Unlimited. In the 1980s Mr. White was a member of President Ronald Reagan's task force on private sector initiatives, and in the 1990s he served on the Carter Center's observer delegation to the Palestinian elections, on the U.S. Presidential Delegation to observe the Bosnian elections, and on a Presidential Economic and Business Development Mission to Croatia and Bosnia. He received a B.A. and M.B.A. from Dartmouth College, and is the recipient of several honorary degrees.

Ruth A. Wooden is president of Public Agenda, a nonpartisan opinion research and civic engagement organization helping Americans explore and understand critical issues. Prior to that, she was executive vice president-senior counselor at the international public relations firm of Porter Novelli where she led the advertising and cause-related marketing practice. She has also served as volunteer president of the National Parenting Association. Ms. Wooden was also president of The Advertising Council, where, during her tenure, the Ad Council collaborated with Public Agenda on the ground-breaking study Kids These Days: What Americans Really Think About the Next Generation which was named by Congressional Quarterly as one of the 50 most important documents of 1995. Ms. Wooden also worked as account supervisor, senior vice president, and managing director at N.W. Ayer Advertising in New York. She began her career as a research brand analyst at the Ralston Purina Company. She holds a B.A. in sociology and history from the University of Minnesota and an honorary doctorate from Northeastern University.

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