Fall 2009 Annual Conference Speaker Bios
Rebecca Arno is Vice President of Communications for The Denver Foundation. She has worked in the nonprofit and foundation sectors for 19 years, with responsibility for various aspects of communications, donor relations, and fundraising. Prior to her work with The Denver Foundation, Ms, Arno was Vice President of Communications for The Daniels Fund and communications manager for the Peninsula Community Foundation. She has also worked with nonprofits serving the health and environmental sectors. Ms. Arno earned her Masters Degree in Nonprofit Management from Regis University, as part of the Colorado Trust Fellows program. Among her volunteer activities, she currently is a member of the board of the Colorado Nonprofit Association and both vice chair of the board and chair of the diversity committee for the Logan School for Creative Learning.
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Edith Asibey has recently joined The Atlantic Philanthropies’ team as Communications Executive. Prior to Atlantic, Edith was the Principal of Asibey Consulting, a firm that helps nonprofits and grantmakers strengthen their strategic communication, advocacy and evaluation practices. In this role, Edith provided consulting services, led numerous training workshops and developed practical tools available online at no cost. The latest of such tools is Are We There Yet? A Communications Evaluation Guide, produced in partnership with the Communications Network. Edith also co-authored Continuous Progress, a set of online tools for better advocacy through evaluation created with the Aspen Institute. Edith’s advocacy and communications experience was honed through years working for nonprofits and foundations, including NetAid, a nonprofit that engaged youth in fighting global poverty (currently part of Mercy Corps) and the AVINA Foundation, an international grantmaker that supports social entrepreneurs. Edith holds a Master of Arts in Media Studies from Stanford University. She has native fluency in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
Paul Bachleitner is a communication, marketing, and development consultant currently based in New York City. His current work as a consultant at www.bachwriter.com is focused on the Diversity in Philanthropy project, by helping produce case studies and other work that are increasing the inclusiveness of philanthropy, and also the Marginalized Males Funders Group, by helping to start up the group’s first-ever e-newsletter and serving as the managing editor. Social media and new media are also quickly becoming priority focus areas of Paul’s work. Paul has nearly 10 years of experience in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, including posts at The Minneapolis Foundation as development associate and as a director of grantwriting, fundraising, and communications activities for two Minneapolis-area nonprofits. His personal interests in philanthropy and nonprofit work are grounded in diversity and multiculturalism, race and ethnicity issues, social and economic development, the arts, and men's issues. Creative writing and films are two of his strongest passions, and his work has received national distinction. Paul also works as a film critic and reporter for radio and print. Paul was born and raised in Minneapolis and graduated Cum Laude from Harvard University with a B.A. degree in psychology.
Brooke Bailey is the Communications Manager of the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina, a position she has held since April of 2006. In this position she oversees the marketing, communication and public relations efforts of a statewide grantmaking foundation with over $85 million in assets. She develops and implements communication strategies that are built upon the foundation's efforts in capacity building, public policy and advocacy, grantee program sustainability and other strategic initiatives. She currently serves as co-chair of the communications committee and newsletter editor for the South Carolina chapter of the Public Relations Society of America and technology advisory committee chair of the South Carolina Grantmakers Network. Ms. Bailey is active in the community serving on various boards and committees including the Healthy Learners Marketing and PR Committee, United Way of the Midlands Facing Facts Communications and PR Committee, American Advertising Federation of the Midlands Public Service Committee, First Tee Columbia Board, The Cooperative Ministry Board and the Junior League of Columbia. Ms. Bailey was a 2007 Southeastern Council of Foundations Hull Fellow, which recognizes the Southeast’s next generation of philanthropic leaders. Ms. Bailey holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina. Prior to joining the Foundation, she was the assistant marketing communications manager for Wild Dunes Resort in Charleston, S.C.
Tanya Beer serves as Assistant Director of Research, Evaluation and Strategic Learning for The Colorado Trust. Established in 1985 with the proceeds of the sale of the PSL Health Care Corporation, The Colorado Trust has worked closely with nonprofit organizations in every county across the state to improve health and well-being. In 2008, The Trust committed to a 10-year goal to achieve access to health for all Coloradans by 2018. On behalf of The Colorado Trust, Beer develops and manages Trust-funded evaluations and facilitates the application of evaluation and research data to decision making by internal and external audiences. She is also responsible for identifying and implementing knowledge-sharing tools and learning opportunities that promote dialogue and reflection within the organization and among other stakeholders. Prior to joining The Colorado Trust in 2006, Beer served as Senior Legislative Performance Auditor for the Colorado Office of the State Auditor. In this position, she applied her expertise in qualitative, quantitative, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses to develop performance-based evaluation plans to measure the effectiveness of Colorado state agencies. Beer also previously worked with the Oklahoma Veterinary Medical Association assessing zoonotic disease bioterrorism preparedness among Oklahoma veterinarians, and as a public health campaign manager and evaluator for public awareness campaigns on HIV/AIDS, cholera and malaria in Mozambique. Beer is a member of the Learning Advisory Group and the Conference Planning Committee for Grantmakers for Effective Organizations and a member of the American Evaluation Association. She has been published in the Health Policy and Planning Journal and the Foundation Review, and she presents regularly at conferences and workshops on evaluating advocacy and policy work. She holds masters degrees in public administration and international relations from Syracuse University as well as a B.A. in English and communication studies from Drake University in Iowa.
Larry Blumenthal is the Senior Communications Officer at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Larry is an experienced Web and social media strategist who oversees the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Web initiatives. Most recently, he has spearheaded a push into social media, adding blogs, RSS feeds, Twitter, YouTube and other Web 2.0 tools to the Foundation's toolbox.Prior to joining the Foundation, Blumenthal played a leading role developing various health-related Web sites, including DiscoveryHealth.com for the Discovery Channel and InteliHealth.com for Aetna U.S. Healthcare. He also has worked as a newspaper reporter, a business editor at Dow Jones & Co., founding associate editor of the NonProfit Times and editor of Publishing Economics magazine. He is a member of the Social Media Business Council and the Creative Good Customer Experience Councils. Blumenthal received a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Chicago.
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Laura Brahm is the Communications Officer at the Open Society Institute. She has been editor of the Webby-award-winning Open Society Institute website since 2004. She is also responsible for—and a little obsessed with—the organization’s social media (twitter.com/OpenSociety & facebook.com/
Eric Brown is the Communications Director for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Before coming to the Hewlett Foundation, Eric was the communications director at the Center for a New American Dream, a nonprofit organization in the Washington, D.C., area. Prior to that, he was press secretary and speechwriter for Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez, a seven-term member of Congress from New York. As a political media consultant, Eric produced hundreds of television and radio ads for U.S. Senate, Congressional, and statewide campaigns for Alexandria, Virginia-based Murphy Putnam Media. He is also a contributing author of Take Back Your Time (2003, Berrett-Koehler). Eric holds a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California at Berkeley, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
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Julia Coffman is Founder and Director of the Center for Evaluation Innovation, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit that is pushing evaluation practice in new directions and into new arenas. The Center specializes in areas that are hard to measure and where conventional program evaluation approaches are not always a good fit. This includes, for example, advocacy and policy change, communications, and systems change efforts. Julia is an evaluator with particular expertise in the evaluation of advocacy and policy change efforts. Her approach emphasizes real-time learning that helps organizations adapt their strategies and continuously improve. Julia also consults with nonprofit organizations and foundations on evaluation and works with the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP), a research and evaluation organization at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Julia has led much of HFRP’s evaluation work over the last 13 years, which includes conducting evaluations of foundation-funded initiatives and publishing The Evaluation Exchange, a nationally-renowned periodical on emerging evaluation strategies and issues.
Alex Cole is Director of Philanthropic Services for Hattaway Communications, Inc., which offers a wide range of strategic communications products and services to visionary leaders and organizations around the world. The firm employs tools from business, politics, grassroots organizing and digital technology to help its clients achieve their most ambitious goals. Alex has conducted message research and development, branding, and advocacy campaigns for non-profit, philanthropic and political clients such as the Kendall Foundation, Ford Foundation, Council of Michigan Foundations, Woodcock Foundation, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, CARE, Hillary Clinton for President and U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen. He recently served as Communications Director to the Harry Teague for Congress campaign in New Mexico, which won a come-from-behind victory for an open Congressional seat. Previously, he was West Coast director for Democracy Matters, an organization advocating for stronger campaign finance laws. Alex also worked on Capitol Hill for Congressman Marty Meehan. Alex is a graduate of Vassar College and holds a Master of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Kevin Corcoran is a Program Director at Lumina Foundation for Education whose grant portfolio includes work with multiple policy advocacy organizations, news content providers, organizations working to increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of American higher education and states experimenting with international approaches to better identifying and explaining what students learn in college. Before joining the foundation in May 2007 as communication director for media and policy, Mr. Corcoran spent nearly 20 years in print journalism, where he covered state and federal law enforcement agencies, civil and criminal courts, the military and all three branches of state government. He was co-recipient of a George Polk Award for stories that exposed poor care and a high number of deaths in Indiana's proprietary system of care for people with mental disabilities, and his work also has been honored by groups such as the American Bar Association and Human Rights Watch. He completed his career as an investigative reporter at The Indianapolis Star and joined Lumina about the time he finished work on an MBA in corporate finance at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business.
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Denise (Dede) de Percin is the Executive Director of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative. Ms. de Percin has over thirty years of experience with nonprofit organizations at the local, state, and national levels, with over ten years of senior management experience. She has served on numerous local, state, and national boards and commissions related to both her work and interests. Since joining CCHI as executive director in 2006, Ms. de Percin represents consumer healthcare interests on a variety of boards and committees, including the Colorado Division of Insurance Consumer Insurance Council and the Health Facility Acquired Infections Advisory Committee, and the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization, and the Consumer Engagement Committee of the Center for Improving Value in Healthcare. She is also currently secretary for Colorado Whitewater Association. Ms. de Percin has previously served in a number of leadership roles, including the boards of the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment, the Colorado Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. She also served as the vice-chair of the Denver GLBT Commission, and represented the commission on the Human Rights and Community Relations Advisory Board of Denver. Ms. de Percin is a graduate of Cornell University, with a B.A. in History of Science, and is currently pursuing a Master of Nonprofit Management at Regis University. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a National Energy Commendation from the Urban Consortium, Community Advocate from the Denver Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, Business Woman of the Year from the Colorado Business Council, and one of “Seven Who Make a Difference” by the Jackson Hole Guide.
Teresa Detrich is the Director of Electronic Communication at the Lumina Foundation. Teresa Detrich is an electronic media expert with experience in electronic outreach, social marketing, evaluation and philanthropy. She has done extensive creative work in New Media, television and radio. Prior to entering the field of philanthropy, she honed her communication skills through careers in radio, television and business. Currently, she directs electronic outreach for Lumina Foundation for Education and provides leadership in the KnowHow2GO Advertising Council campaign, designed to help students understand the critical steps they need to take to go to college. Teresa has created award-winning electronic vehicles to communicate Lumina’s mission of helping underserved students complete postsecondary degrees and directed communication strategy for policy initiatives. She also serves as a program officer. In 2008, she was honored with several prestigious Web awards, including a Webby, for Caminoalauniversidad.org – The Road to College for Latinos. Prior to her work at Lumina, Teresa worked as a television news producer at WRTV, Channel Six, Indianapolis, where she developed and honed her Internet and electronic outreach skills.
Gabriela Fitz is the Co-Director of IssueLab, a Chicago-based online publishing forum for nonprofit research. After almost ten years of working as an online strategist and web designer for nonprofit organizations such as Aids Foundation of Chicago, StoryCorps, and America¹s Second Harvest, she turned her attention full-time to co-founding and co-directing IssueLab. She now applies her experience and expertise to helping nonprofits and the organizations that fund them to more effectively archive and disseminate their research. Gabriela received her M.A. in Sociology from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2006, with an emphasis in Organizational Sociology. She received her B.A. in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1994.
Corrie Frasier manages content & distribution strategy for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, focusing on long-range content planning, strategy development and new business partnerships with major media organizations. Corrie joined the foundation in 2004. She developed the foundation’s second-phase Web strategy, which culminated in the redesign of www.gatesfoundation.org in September, 2008. In addition to her work on GatesFoundation.org, Corrie spearheaded efforts to increase effectiveness and reduce the overall cost for grantee portals and other online tools created within the foundation. She also launched the foundation’s intranet, The Commons, in 2006. Prior to joining the foundation, Corrie worked at several Internet startups and at Microsoft, where she developed, produced and managed sites for Windows Media and the Education Solutions Group. She started her career in content and creative product management, working first as a dramaturge and literary manager for Intiman Theater, and then as creative manager for a small toy manufacturing company before entering the online space in the 1990’s. Corrie lives in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood with her husband, Terence and son, Jack.
Christine Haran, M.A., is Director of Online Information for The Commonwealth Fund. In this capacity, she oversees the Fund's website and e-alerts. She is responsible for the site's overall look, as well as the quality of its content, features, and services. Previously, she worked as a health care journalist, writing and editing for Healthology, a distributor of online health content acquired by iVillage.com. She was also a senior editor at MAMM, an advocacy magazine for women with cancer. She has contributed to abcnews.com, The Hartford Courant, Woman's Day, Bride's Magazine, and Publishers Weekly, among other publications. Ms. Haran has a B.A. in English from Skidmore College and an M.A. in Cultural Reporting and Criticism from New York University. She received an Excellence in Women's Health Research Journalism Award from the Society of Women's Health Research for an article comparing the use of hormone therapy for breast cancer in the U.S. and in Europe.
Doug Hattaway is President of Hattaway Communications, Inc., which offers a wide range of strategic communications products and services to visionary leaders and organizations around the world. The firm employs tools from business, politics, grassroots organizing and digital technology to help its clients achieve their most ambitious goals. Since 1986, Doug has served as a consultant and spokesperson to dozens of major organizations, political campaigns and government leaders. He served as the National Spokesman for Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, Communications Director for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and as a consultant to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In the philanthropic arena, Doug and his team have provided communications consulting to foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Packard Foundation. He developed the BeHeard! program with the Woodcock Foundation to provide business-class marketing, branding and strategic services to nonprofit organizations. Hattaway Communications has worked with nonprofits at the local, regional, national and international levels. Nonprofit clients have included CARE, Common Cause, Acumen Fund, Human Rights Campaign, Center for American Progress, Urban Ecology Institute and the Cambridge Energy Alliance. At the international level, Doug has worked as a consultant to political leaders and nongovernmental organizations in Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Middle East. The firm has developed communications strategies for global organizations such as the World Bank and World Health Organization. Doug is a sought-after commentator on CNN, MSNBC and the Fox News Channel. He earned a B.S. degree from Northwestern University’s renowned Medill School of Journalism and a M.A. from Florida State University.
Eric Henderson is a special advisor to LIving Cities, where previously he had been Director of Communications. Before that he served as Director of Account Management for the marketing firm Commonground (Chicago, IL) handling communications and creative strategy for Fortune 100 consumer products companies. His career has spanned multiple industries and sectors, with 14 years of marketing leadership in the U.S. and abroad with General Electric, Citigroup, Xerox, The Pepsi-Cola Company, and Management Leadership for Tomorrow. As a regular contributor to the industry publication, AdAge, Eric is a regular participant in the thought leadership of marketing and advertising disciplines. He is also an adviser on marketing/branding for the Socrates Society Seminars, a program of the Aspen Institute. Eric is an avid marathoner with a personal best of 2:54 as well as an accomplished fine art photographer, having been recognized in The New Yorker magazine for works exhibited at The Studio Museum in Harlem. He continues to conduct global photography projects, shooting exclusively with a 1950 Kodak Brownie Hawkeye, at the request by such entities as The World Bank and Starbucks Corporation. He earned his MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management (Glendale AZ), including one year at ESADE (Barcelona, Spain). He completed his B.A. in Communications at Texas A&M University. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.
Louie Herr is the Communications Coordinator of KnowHow2GO for the Lumina Foundation. Louie Herr is a technology consultant working primarily on KnowHow2GO, a college access campaign sponsored by Lumina Foundation, the American Council on Education and the Advertising Council. Louie came to KnowHow2GO shortly before the campaign's January 2007 launch. His early work in the campaign was part of a full-time consultancy with Lumina Foundation, where he became acquainted with some of the ropes of higher education philanthropy before striking out on his own. He continues to work for KnowHow2GO in a part-time capacity as a part of the national web and outreach strategy teams and as support for regional campaign partners. Louie's goal, professionally and personally, is to improve communication efficacy and efficiency by employing new technologies and systems. Louie is a graduate of Indiana University's School of Informatics. He has been based in Portland, Oregon since October 2007. His hobbies include podcast and music production and experimentation with social and new media. His efforts to develop new models for content creation and distribution can be found at BananaStandMedia.com. He tweets as often as possible @LouieHerr.
Jim Jonas is a partner at Peak Creative Media, a Denver-based creative services agency he co-founded in 2000. He has more than twenty years experience producing effective multi-media communications campaigns and projects for a wide variety of corporate, nonprofit and public affairs clients. He and his firm work with leading business and community organizations including Qwest, T-Mobile, R.H. Donnelley, Pinnacol Assurance, Denver Zoo, SkyTel, Denver Public Schools Foundation, Gill Foundation, and many others to provide design services, Web sites, videos, presentations, live event staging and comprehensive messaging campaigns. Jim’s background includes managing congressional campaigns in his native North Carolina, writing and producing national political media with consulting legend Roger Ailes, directing communications for Sen. Lamar Alexander's campaign for the ’96 Republican presidential nomination, and producing an award-winning corporate intranet for US WEST. He’s taught communications courses to diverse public affairs audiences across the country and to emerging political parties in Angola and Cambodia as part of bi-partisan missions sponsored by IRI/USAID. He earned a BA in Political Science from Guilford College and a MPS in Political Management from the Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University. He’s won numerous creative recognitions and awards including several "Pollies" for his political work, an International "Gold Quill" for corporate communications, and was named a "Rising Star" by Campaigns & Elections magazine. Active in local civic affairs, Jim serves on the Board of Directors at Stanley British Primary School and SOAR Charter School, a Northeast Denver K-5 opening in 2010, and on the Advisory Board at Denver Venture School, a charter public high school that opened in 2008. He and his family live in Denver.
Sheila Kim co-directs the Public Insight Journalism team at American Public Media. The Public Insight Journalism team draws upon the experience of over 71,000 people in our Public Insight Network to inform news coverage regionally and nationally. Based in St. Paul, MN, Sheila's responsibilities include framing outreach strategy for our Public Insight Network; delivering technology strategy and deliverables; and guiding our impact measurement work. She has spent most of her career at the intersection of business and technology strategy, connecting vision to execution on transformational efforts. Sheila has been with American Public Media, in consultant and employee roles, since December, 2006. Prior to joining Public Insight Journalism in February, 2009, she focused on idea and project management in our creative organization.
Lisa Keske has been part of the Communications team at the Northwest Area Foundation for six years. Lisa’s primary responsibilities include planning and execution of the Grassroots & Groundwork conference and project management for a wide variety of foundation-related activities. Lisa holds master’s degree in nonprofit management from Hamline University. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in public administration from St. Cloud State University. Lisa resides in Minneapolis with her husband Chris, step-daughter Allysa (11) and daughter, Taylor (1). She enjoys cooking, gardening, playing softball, beadwork and paper crafts. Lisa also volunteers her time in the community by serving on the board of her high school foundation and other community initiatives.
Julie Ann Lee is a Program Communications Consultant at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation. Julie Lee directs communications for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation. She has more than 25 years of experience in the communications field, doing award-winning work in agency, corporate and nonprofit settings. In her current role, she focuses on raising awareness of social, economic and environmental influences on health, helping the foundation serve as a catalyst for change. The sole member of the communications department, she is responsible for all internal and external communications, including strategic planning, web content, e-newsletters, publications, media relations, program communications, research and events. Julie has a master’s degree in zoology from Brigham Young University in Utah and a bachelor’s degree in science from the University of Minnesota. She also did graduate work in communications at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Her eclectic background has served her well; in communications, one never knows what a day will bring.
Tyler LePard is the Associate Program Officer on the Communications team at the Gates Foundation, focusing on Global Health partner communications, reproductive health and media. She supports the implementation of communications strategies, such as the Global Health social media strategy. Tyler joined the foundation in January 2009, after work in media relations, social media and government affairs in Washington, DC. She is also an experienced writer and editor; she developed a strong new media strategy and web presence for Population Action International and helped launch RH Reality Check, an award-winning on-line publication on reproductive health. Tyler earned a Masters Degree in Public Policy at George Washington University, and did her undergraduate work in American Studies at Wesleyan University. Tyler lives in Seattle with her partner Loren, their dog Madigan, and two cats (Taft and Emma). She loves the outdoors – hiking, camping, biking, swimming, kayaking – and is a self-described movie addict. She spent her childhood in Minnesota and grew up in N. Idaho.
Helen Lowe, Catalytica’s president and chief strategist, has been bringing the power of multimedia storytelling to philanthropy since 2001. As the creator of the in-house Visual Communications team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—overseeing video production, photography and design—she helped the foundation integrate communications and program objectives with a multitude of stories from the field. Prior to her tenure at the foundation, Helen worked with Seattle-based software company, MetaStories (purchased by Brightcove), helping them pioneer the broadband world of new media and developing strategies and stories for clients like DATA, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bridges to Understanding and United Way. A graduate of the American Film Institute, Helen spent nearly a decade in Los Angeles writing, editing and producing for film and television; including an award-winning feature documentary distributed by Disney and a long list of shows for networks like Discovery, NBC, A&E, and Travel Channel. Through Catalytica, Helen collaborates with a passionate, talented team of staff and partners to deliver innovative strategies and catalytic stories.
Karen Malone Wright is President of ODYSSEY Creative Communications Consulting. In this role she introduces organizations and individuals to social media and contemporary online tools through compelling presentations and customized workshops. She provides comprehensive writing services for online and offline applications and assists her clients in strategically blending social marketing tools with traditional communications efforts. Communications Goddess (www.communicationsgoddess.net), Karen’s blog, is gaining popularity among all types of people interested in Web 2.0 and the evolving ways we communicate now. She is also the author of Web 2.0: Time Well Spent, an e-guide to social media and Internet applications for professional and personal projects. Most recently, Karen served the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland as Communications Director for almost three years, balancing the part-time position with her responsibilities at ODYSSEY, the business she established in 2000. Previously, Karen worked as Vice President, Marketing Communications for the joint venture between the Sisters of Charity Health System and University Hospitals in Cleveland. Prior to that she led public and community relations efforts at Cleveland’s WKYC-TV, WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C. and at WXYZ-TV in Detroit where she also served as Public Affairs Producer. Karen is a Mindspring Expert for Northeast Ohio’s Council on Smaller Enterprises. She also chairs the Governance Committee of the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland Board of Directors where she is the Immediate Past President. She has been published in regional magazines and honored with a national Telly Award, a Catholic Hospital Association Spirit Award and a Cleveland Advertising Club ADDY award. A graduate of the American University School of Communication, Karen also studied graduate level creative writing at the University of Toledo.
Gordon Mayer is Vice President of Community Media Workshop. He has worked as a writer and reporter, communications consultant and director and has managed nonprofit agencies’ programs. Since starting at The Workshop in 2005, Gordon has increased custom workshop collaborations and helped to broaden the organization's scope from the Chicago area to a more regional focus. His training and coaching of nonprofits on communications-related issues have produced headlines on NBC Nightly News and in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today as well as coverage on-line and in trade papers and local and regional media. A former journalist at the Gary (Ind.) Post-Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Chicago Defender, he also completed a master’s degree at University of Chicago for which he focused on Chicago's early newspaper history. He has lived in Chicago for more than 20 years where he and his wife Kate are raising two children. He is a member of both the Society of Professional Journalists and the Public Relations Society of America and serves on the board of IssueLab.org. Contact him at Gordon@newstips.org
Christie McElhinney serves as Vice President of Communications & Public Affairs for The Colorado Trust. Established in 1985 with the proceeds of the sale of the PSL Health Care Corporation, The Colorado Trust has worked closely with nonprofit organizations in every county across the state to improve health and well-being. In 2008, The Trust committed to a 10-year goal to achieve access to health for all Coloradans by 2018. On behalf of The Colorado Trust, McElhinney oversees all communications and public affairs for the foundation, including the development and implementation of strategic communications plans, media relations, publications, website and marketing efforts, and she provides technical assistance to grantees. McElhinney also develops and manages grant strategies to achieve The Trust's vision to achieve access to health for all Coloradans and serves on the foundation's Leadership Team. McElhinney joined The Colorado Trust in 2001. Prior to that she spent 11 years with the Education Commission of the States (ECS), a national, nonprofit education policy organization. As ECS Public Relations Director, she worked with governors, state legislators, chief state school officers, foundation officials, the media, business leaders and many others on all aspects of communicating education improvement efforts. McElhinney previously chaired the communications committee for the Colorado Association of Funders and served on the Council on Foundations Public Affairs Committee. McElhinney holds a B.A. in business from the University of Denver and is currently working toward an MPA at the University of Colorado Denver. She also serves on the Board of the Conference of Southwest Foundations, and is an alumna of Leadership Denver.
Megan Mermis is the Communications Associate at The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. She recently managed the redesign of the Foundation’s website. She previously worked at the Academy for Educational Development in Washington, DC, as part of the communications, dissemination and advocacy team on a project supporting USAID’s Africa Bureau. She served as the project’s representative to the Health Information Professionals Network and the USAID Communications Working Group on HIV/AIDS. Megan worked in the software industry for over 4 years in marketing and communications, for a small international firm located in Chicago. Megan has also worked as a freelance consultant, designing presentations, publications, and communications materials for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations.
Holly Minch is the Communications Consultant to the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, and leader of the Let California Ring project. Holly was Executive Director of the Communications Leadership Institute, which helps nonprofits use high-impact communications to achieve social change. In addition to guiding CLI’s key programs, she led flagship training retreats for nonprofit leaders and grantmakers. Holly also served as Director of the SPIN Project, assisting hundreds of grassroots groups with strategic communications resources. She launched the successful SPIN Academy – currently celebrating its tenth year – and created much of the SPIN Project’s training curriculum and online tools. Holly started out as press secretary for the Sierra Club, alternately doing battle with and cozying up to the Washington, D.C. press corps. She was primary contact for the national media, and created national, regional and local campaigns. Because she wanted to be an English teacher when she grew up, Holly holds a B.A. in English literature and language from the University of Southern California. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and their imaginary dog.
Nushina Mir is currently the Evaluation Officer at the Lumina Foundation for Education and oversees evaluations of college access and attainment initiatives. She earned a PhD from the School of Social Policy and Practice at University of Pennsylvania in 2005 and has held faculty positions at University of Maryland Baltimore and Oakland University, Rochester, MI. Nushina's areas of expertise include the influence of culture on health behavior and the psychosocial factors that affect HIV risk and protection. Nushina also has extensive experience in researching and evaluating HIV prevention and health promotion interventions designed for low income populations both in the U.S. and internationally. Before moving to the United States, she assisted in the evaluation of several community based health projects in India that were funded by the Ford Foundation, the World Bank, and British Department of International Development.
Julee Newberger is the Online Communications Associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private charitable organization whose primary mission is to foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families. She manages the Foundation’s public website and other online communications efforts. Previously, she was a senior associate with Caliber Associates in Fairfax, VA, serving as web content manager for three websites of the U.S. Children's Bureau. She has also held positions as staff writer and managing editor of ConnectforKids.org at the Washington, DC-based Benton Foundation, and as a communications specialist for the National Association for the Education of Young Children. She holds a BA in English from the State University of New York at Albany and an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from American University. Her fiction has appeared in literary journals and an anthology of Washington, DC area women writers.
Will Novy-Hildesley is the Founder of Quicksilver Foundry, which provides simple, relevant and different brand strategy. Quicksilver works with organizations to increase their impact by helping them focus, align and communicate their purpose. Prior to establishing Quicksilver, Will was a program officer for six years at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. At Packard he led initiatives on strategy development and communications for the Conservation Program, and brought together the team that developed the campaign primer ‘Now Hear This’. Before that, he directed World Wildlife Fund’s international campaign to establish marine protected areas from Washington, D.C. Will’s recent engagements have included training and strategy consultation with the Gates Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Northwest Health Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation. Recent brand strategy engagements have included work with the Ford Foundation, the Delta Institute, Tabitha Healthcare Services and the Global Fund for Human Rights. Will regularly trains groups in how to apply contemporary brand strategy to their organization’s key questions and challenges.
Keith Parker is a seasoned media and community relations professional who is an accomplished expert in the corporate and production communications arena. Keith is currently employed with Twin Cities Public Television as their Director of Special Partnerships, which succeeds nearly twenty years of experience in a variety of technical and senior management positions in the radio, television, and video production environments. At Twin Cities Public Television, Keith played a significant role in developing the well respected
Ehren Reed is a Senior Associate at Innovation Network, where he designs and oversees program planning and evaluation initiatives with nonprofit organizations and foundations. Mr. Reed is skilled in the creation and implementation of data collection instruments as well as quantitative and qualitative analysis. He facilitates and leads trainings and workshops in advocacy evaluation, logic model development, evaluation planning, data collection, and data analysis and reporting. He develops training curricula and collateral materials and has contributed to the design and content of Innovation Network’s online planning and evaluation tools for nonprofits. Ehren has worked with a wide range of grantmakers and grantees in the fields of human services, public/societal benefit, and advocacy. Among his recent clients are The Atlantic Philanthropies, BoardSource, CARE, The California Endowment, the Kansas Health Foundation, the Initiative for Inclusive Security, The Colorado Trust, and the National Council of La Raza. Since 2005, Mr. Reed has been deeply involved in efforts to develop and advance the field of advocacy evaluation. Drawing from his experiences leading evaluations of projects such as the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CCIR) and the California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC), he has contributed knowledge and insight to this burgeoning field. Mr. Reed has been a key contributor in the design of Innovation Network’s advocacy evaluation training curriculum, and has delivered the tailored training to domestic and international advocates, funders, and evaluators. Mr. Reed has presented his work on advocacy evaluation at the American Evaluation Association’s (AEA) annual conferences, and serves as the Co-Chair of the AEA’s Advocacy & Policy Change topical interest group ("TIG").
Frank Rich is an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times. His weekly 1,500-word essay helped inaugurate the expanded opinion pages that the paper introduced in the Sunday Week in Review section in April 2005. Mr. Rich started as a columnist on the Op-Ed Page in January 1994. He first began writing his longer-form essays for the Op-Ed page in 1999, and from 1999 to 2003 was also a senior writer for The New York Times Magazine, a dual title that was a first for The Times. Before writing his column, Mr. Rich served as The Times’ chief drama critic beginning in 1980, the year he joined The Times. From 2003 to 2005, Mr. Rich was the front-page columnist for the Sunday Arts & Leisure section as part of that section’s redesign and expansion. He also served in an advisory role in the revamping of The Times’ daily and Sunday cultural report during that time. Among other honors, Mr. Rich received the George Polk Award for commentary in 2005. In addition to his work at The Times, he has written about politics and culture for many other publications. His latest book, “The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth in Bush’s America,” was published by Penguin Press in 2006 and as a Penguin paperback in 2007. His childhood memoir, “Ghost Light,” was published in 2000 by Random House and as a Random House Trade Paperback in 2001. The film rights to “Ghost Light” have been acquired by Storyline Entertainment. A collection of Mr. Rich’s drama reviews, “Hot Seat: Theater Criticism for The New York Times, 1980-1993,” was published by Random House in October 1998. His book “The Theatre Art of Boris Aronson,” co-authored with Lisa Aronson, was published by Knopf in 1987. In May 2008, Mr. Rich signed on as a creative consultant to help initiate and develop new programming at the pay-TV network HBO. Before joining The Times, Mr. Rich was a film and television critic at Time magazine. Earlier, he had been film critic for The New York Post and film critic and senior editor of New Times Magazine. He was a founding editor of The Richmond (Va.) Mercury, a weekly newspaper, in the early 1970s. Mr. Rich earned a B.A. degree in American History and Literature, graduating magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1971 and serving as Editorial Chairman of The Harvard Crimson. Mr. Rich has two sons. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, the author and novelist Alex Witchel, who is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine.
Vicki Rosenberg was named Vice President for Education, Communications and External Relations for the Council of Michigan Foundations (CMF) in 2007 after serving as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer since 2000.
Ms. Rosenberg is responsible for the strategic direction and management of: communications and marketing activities; educational services for foundation staff and trustees; as well as special initiatives and strategic partnerships including: the five-year Transforming Michigan Philanthropy Through Diversity and Inclusion initiative, which includes a research and development partnership with the Diversity in Philanthropy Project, and Philanthropy 3D-Michigan, a regional pilot of the Philanthropy Awareness Initiative.
Previously, Ms. Rosenberg served as a Senior Program Officer for the Getty Center for Education in the Arts, a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust, whose mission was to improve the quality and status of arts education in the nation’s public schools. Over an 18-year career at the Getty, Ms. Rosenberg managed national grant programs including the Regional Institute Grant Program for which results were reported in The Quiet Evolution: Changing the Face of Arts Education; and numerous special initiatives in partnership with The Annenberg Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Gerald R. Dodge Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, National School Boards Association, National Conference of State Legislatures and other foundations and associations dedicated to the arts and education.
Ms. Rosenberg has served on numerous boards and task forces. She is currently a trustee of the Communications Network and Michigan’s Children and co-chair of the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers’ (Forum) Task Force on Grantmaker Education and of PolicyWorks for Philanthropy. Ms. Rosenberg serves on the Council on Foundations’ (COF) Committee on Inclusiveness and Diversity in Philanthropy Project’s Phase II strategic planning team. From 2003-2007 she served as a trustee of the Saugatuck (Michigan) Public Schools’ Board of Education.
Ms. Rosenberg is a co-author of Essential Skills and Strategies for New Grantmakers released in 2007. Designed to serve as the standard national introduction to grantmaking, Essential Skills was produced through a partnership between COF and the Forum.
The Council of Michigan Foundations (CMF) is a nonprofit membership association of nearly 400 grantmaking organizations working together to strengthen, promote and increase philanthropy in Michigan.
Holly Ross is the Executive Director of NTEN. Holly has spent more than five years at NTEN, combing through all the technology fads and listening to the NTEN community to line up Webinars, conferences, and research that help nonprofit members (communicators, program staff, fundraisers and more) to use technology to make the world a better place.
Fred Sainz is the Vice President of Communications & Marketing for the Gill Foundation. Fred Sainz brings twenty years of media relations, public affairs, and crisis communications experience to his post as the Gill Foundation's vice president of communications and marketing. Just prior to assuming this position in August 2008, Fred served for three years as the director of communications for the City of San Diego and press secretary to its mayor, Jerry Sanders. In that capacity, he lead a quick-paced external and internal communications office equally adept at proactively promoting the mayor's reform initiatives and responding to crises ranging from the city's inability to access the public bond market to the worst wildfires in California history. Fred has held a number of other challenging positions including serving as the chief administrative officer for the Gateway Computers/Waitt Family Foundation; vice president for public affairs at the San Diego Convention Center Corporation; and director of convention planning for the 1996 Republican National Convention. He began his career as an aide to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush. Fred is a three-time recipient of the Public Relations Society of America's (PRSA) Silver Anvil Award, twice in crisis communications and once in public affairs. Fred and his press office team at the City of San Diego were recently named by PRSA as the "2008 PR Professionals of the Year" for their work responding to the 2007 California Wildfires. Fred is a native Spanish speaker whose parents immigrated from Cuba in 1959. Fred now lives in Denver with his partner, Mike Tipton, an attorney.
Nancy E. Schwartz is a blogger for GettingAttention.org, and the President of Nancy Schwartz & Company. Nancy has guided grantmaker and nonprofit communications programs -- with specialties in strategy, branding, earned income and online communications -- since the very beginning of life online. She shares her marketing expertise beyond her client base via the Getting Attention blog and e-updates.
Mark Sedway is a consultant and the Associate Director of the Philanthropy Awareness Initiative, a project supported by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. He also runs Sedway Associates, a consulting practice that helps foundations and other philanthropy organizations use communications and research to achieve greater impact. Current clients include the California HealthCare Foundation, Grand Victoria Foundation, GrantCraft (a project of the Ford Foundation), Patrizi Associates and the Joyce Foundation. Prior to establishing Sedway Associates, Mark worked for the communications consulting firm Williams Group; served The James Irvine Foundation as its first director of communications; worked for the public affairs firm Kamer-Singer & Associates; served as a consultant to number of nonprofit organizations in Washington, D.C.; and directed People for the American Way’s “Freedom to Learn” project. Mark has written reports, made presentations and conducted trainings for a variety of audiences in the philanthropy world. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Harvard University.
Clay Shirky is a writer, consultant, and teacher on New Media and the Internet. Clay is a provocative new voice on all things Internet: economics and culture, media and community, and the open source movement. He divides his time between consulting, teaching, and writing n the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. His consulting practice is focused on the way network technologies provide new ways for groups to get things done, including collaboration tools, social networks, peer-to-peer sharing, collaborative filtering, and Open Source development. In addition to his consulting work, Clay is an adjunct professor in NYU’s graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), where he teaches courses on the interrelated effects of social and technological network topology- how our networks shape culture and vice-versa. Prior to his appointment at NYU, Clay was a partner at The Accelerator Group, an investment firm focused on early-stage companies. Formerly, he was the chief technology officer of the NYC-based Web media and design firm Site Specific, where he created the company’s media tracking database and server log analysis software. Site Specific was later acquired by CKS Group, where Clay was promoted to VP Technology, Eastern Region. Clay has written extensively about the Internet since 1996. His new book, Here Comes Everybody, explores the effects of open networks, collaboration and user created and disseminated content on organizations and industries. Over the years, he has had regular columns in Business 2.0, FEED, OpenP2P.com and ACM Net_Worker, and his writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, Wired, Release 1.0, Computerworld, and IEEE Computer. He has been interviewed by Slashdot, Red Herring, Media Life, and The Economist’s Ebusiness Forum. Time Magazine featured him with other futurists in a fall 2005 story entitled “What’s Next.” Clay frequently speaks on emerging technologies at a variety of forums and organizations, including TED Global, PC Forum, the Internet Society, the Department of Defense, the BBC, the American Museum of the Moving Image, the Highlands Forum, the Economist Group, Storewidth, the World Technology Network, and several O’Reilly conferences on Peer-to-Peer, Open Source, and Emerging Technology. Clay’s writings are archived at www.shirky.com, and he also maintains a blog on his book at www.hercomeseverybody.org.
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Juan (Kiko) Suarez is the Senior Vice President of External Affairs for the Lumina Foundation for Education. Juan (Kiko) Suarez directs Lumina's overall strategic communication, convenings, evaluation and external affairs programs. Most recently, Suarez served as a consultant and executive for several companies including NextPhase Wireless and CEMEX, where he focused on external affairs, corporate communications and public affairs. His extensive background in corporate communications also includes more than a decade at DuPont, where he rose from the ranks of the online/information technology team to various positions including serving as global online leader. Ultimately, he led corporate marketing and communications for all of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Suarez earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Oviedo (Spain), where he also earned secondary degrees in management of telecommunications and new media. He earned a master's and executive MBA from Oxford International University and Theseus Business School (France), respectively. Through his work, Suarez has often been asked to represent his employers before governments and organizations such as the United Nations, European Union and the Inter-American Development Bank. He has also been a guest lecturer at higher education institutions such as the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), the Monterrey (Mexico) Institute of Technology and Higher Education, and the Universidad de Oviedo.
Ed Walz is the Vice President of Spitfire Strategies, bringing more than a decade of direct public policy experience to the Spitfire team. His experience extends from drafting and advancing successful federal legislation to working with local governments and community-based organizations to secure project funding or regulatory improvements. Ed’s work at Spitfire spans a wide range of issues. He leads a messaging project that helps state-based advocates from coast to coast strengthen children’s health coverage policy. He has also led projects focused on enhancing Medicaid, reforming transportation policy and building a faith-based advocacy network’s presence on the national political scene. Ed is a frequent trainer, leading sessions for Spitfire’s nonprofit and foundation clients on topics from advocacy communications and message development to communications planning, story banking and effective writing. He also led a research effort that informed the development of Spitfire’s Just Enough Planning Guide. Prior to joining Spitfire Strategies, Ed served as legislative director for Congressman (now U.S. Senator) Sherrod Brown, of Ohio. While at Congressman Brown’s office, Ed worked with a bipartisan, bicameral team of legislators and staff to win House floor passage of legislation authorizing the importation of safe, affordable, effective medicine from Canada and other allied nations. Other legislative accomplishments included energy efficiency legislation, funding for a local veteran-owned manufacturing business and appropriations for U.S. trade protections. He developed multimedia communications tools to inform constituents in the debate over Social Security privatization, raise awareness of the Earned Income Tax Credit and help local governments access federal environmental conservation and infrastructure resources. Ed also organized and implemented public events for Congressman Brown that drew significant media coverage. Ed served on the staffs of two other members of Congress, Tom Barrett and Jim Moody, both of whom represented the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. He represented the legislators in constituent meetings and public forums, and he helped constituents navigate the federal bureaucracy. Ed drafted and advanced legislation on issues ranging from gasoline pricing to Medicaid reimbursement for hospitals serving low-income patients. He worked with local officials and community organizations to secure federal funding for local initiatives, including a $20 million public housing revitalization grant. And he worked with nationwide nonprofit organizations to secure Federal Communications Commission regulations reserving the abbreviated telephone dialing code 211 for human services referral hotlines. Ed was raised in southeastern Wisconsin, where his family owned a small restaurant business, and he attended the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater. He started a small charitable foundation, in partnership with a Wisconsin community foundation, and has been an active volunteer in the Washington, D.C. area.
Anne R. Whatley is the Vice President of Cause Communications. She directs the education and research programs at Cause Communications as well as advises on online and social network initiatives. Anne is currently working with the Media Democracy Fund on increasing awareness and support for issues such as net neutrality and digital inclusion and counsels networks of grantees of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Last year, she directed a comprehensive survey of communications practices in the nonprofit sector that identifies shared characteristics of the most effective organizations. (www.communicationseffectiveness.org) Anne’s experience includes managing award-winning public education campaigns, specializing in interactive and online efforts. She has advised clients ranging from nonprofit, government and corporate including the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, AARP, the Susan G. Komen Foundation and the World Wildlife Fund as well as several state and regional teen anti-smoking initiatives. Her projects have been profiled in several books, including PR on the Net and the textbook Strategic Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations and has also garnered praises including winning PR Week New Media Site of the Year, Silver SABRE Best Use of the Web - Healthcare, and Public Relations Society of America Big Apple Award for Best Web site. Anne graduated magna cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis with a B.A. and received her MSc degree with honors from the London School of Economics in the U.K. She is also an alumna of the Coro Fellows program in Public Affairs.