Mark Constantine, Senior Vice President of Community Investment at Dogwood Health Trust in North Carolina, will receive Grantmakers In Health’s 2026 Terrance Keenan Leadership Award. The award recognizes outstanding health grantmakers whose work is distinguished by leadership, innovation, and exceptional achievement. Dr. Constantine was nominated by Dogwood Health Trust’s President and CEO Dr. Susan Mims, with support from David Dodson of MDC, Inc. and Linetta Gilbert of Gilbert & Associates, LLC. The award will be presented to Dr. Constantine at the 2026 GIH Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy in Baltimore, Maryland.
“Since Mark joined our Dogwood Health Trust team, I have seen how he approaches philanthropy in an intentional and thoughtful way and inspires our team to do the same,” said Dr. Mims. “This work is grounded in shared values and shared humanity. Led in service to people and communities, Mark weaves ideas and situations together in creative funding to empower and strengthen partners toward shared goals. He is careful not to impose his own desires but trusts our grantees who are living the work toward justice and healthy communities to lead the work. Mark exemplifies a servant leader and has a history of proven results along each path of his philanthropic journey.”
Dr. Constantine has served Dogwood Health Trust since 2023, leading their community investment team in the visioning, development, and implementation of ambitious program strategies designed to dramatically improve the health and wellbeing of all people and communities in Western North Carolina. He is widely recognized as an advocate for health equity and a champion for comprehensive rural community development approaches that address the interconnected drivers of health.
At Dogwood, Dr. Constantine led the development of a comprehensive strategic framework that guides the organization’s community investments in housing, education, economic development and health & wellness. The framework expands organizational capacity building and general operating support for nonprofits. It promotes and incubates regional collaboration and innovation —enabling community-led, cross-sector partnerships that address complex challenges and scale solutions for improved health and wellbeing. In parallel, he guides broader grantmaking and impact investing strategies that deploy capital in complementary and catalytic ways. His leadership extends to policy and advocacy efforts aimed at addressing systemic barriers to health, including the launch of Dogwood’s first cohort of policy and advocacy grantees. This work is paired with a deep commitment to community engagement, an anchoring principle of Dogwood’s approach, advanced through a newly established team that centers community voices and relationships at the heart of Dogwood’s work.
Several key initiatives under his leadership include transformative investments with partners such as Primary Care Development Corporation and Self-Help Ventures Fund, and expanded work supporting older adults. He provided critical leadership to Dogwood’s response efforts following Hurricane Helene, including the rapid deployment of resources within five days of the storm and more than $350 million invested in relief, recovery and rebuilding since 2024.
Prior to joining Dogwood, Dr. Constantine served for seven years as President and CEO of Richmond Memorial Health Foundation. During his tenure, he led the organization in advancing health equity and racial justice across the Richmond region, with a strong emphasis on investing in community-rooted leaders and solutions. He championed innovative partnerships and funding strategies, leveraging more than $12 million in additional capital from outside the region, and aligned mission and investment practices to support long-term community impact. Under his leadership, the foundation also played a critical role in addressing pressing regional challenges, including COVID-19 response, housing justice, and behavioral health, while helping to shape policy and systems-level change. He also served as Senior Vice President at the Jessie Ball duPont Fund in Jacksonville, Florida, where he directed the Program-Related Investment and affordable housing activities of the Fund.
Dr. Constantine served for more than a decade as a consultant to foundations and national nonprofit organizations on issues related to governance, strategy, and learning, contributing to the work of foundations such as First Nations Development Institute, Ford Foundation, Lilly Endowment, Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Southern Education Foundation. In addition, he served as the assistant executive director of the Kathleen Price Bryan Family Fund and as a senior fellow of the Foundation for the Mid-South.
Dr. Constantine has authored two books, “Wit and Wisdom: Unleashing the Philanthropic Imagination” (2009) and “Travelers on the Journey: Pastors Talk about Their Lives and Commitments” (2005), as well as the award-winning monograph, “Where Hope and History Rhyme: Reflections and Findings from the Mid-South Commission to Build Philanthropy (2005).” “Wit and Wisdom” was selected by the 2009 Philanthropy Annual Review as one of the two “notable titles” in the Social Justice Philanthropy category.
Dr. Constantine holds a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and a Master of Theological Studies degree from Duke Divinity School. He was a 2006/2007 Fellow of the Emerging Leaders Program directed by the Centers for Leadership at Public Values at the University of Cape Town and Duke University. He currently serves as Board member for Grantmakers in Aging, Duke Divinity School, and Partners for Sacred Places and served as the Founding Board Chair of the Virginia Funders Network and as Immediate Past Chair for the Jeffress Trust Awards Program in Research Advancing Health Equity. Dr. Constantine also served as a faculty member for Grantmakers In Health’s Terrance Keenan Institute for Emerging Leaders in Health Philanthropy, and as Lead Facilitator for the Hull Fellows Leadership Program with Philanthropy Southeast. Above all, Dr. Constantine is most proud of his role as a father to his son, Noah Balazs Constantine.
In selecting Dr. Constantine, this year’s committee members were particularly impressed with his work ‘out of the spotlight’—both creatively fostering deep connections with local communities and intentionally linking thought leaders with one another to advance the field.