Amy Gianficaro, Joel Johnson, Courtney McCormick, Joseph O’Neill and Natasha Patterson
The HealthSpark Foundation elected the following board new and reelected members: Amy Gianficaro, new board member; Joel Johnson, AICP, PCM, Board Secretary, reelected; Courtney McCormick, MPH, RDN, LDN, reelected; Joseph O’Neill, new board member; and Natasha Patterson, new board member.
Ms. Gianficaro is the Director of Marketing for National Philanthropic Trust in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. She is also a volunteer with several organizations including serving on the Marketing Committee for the North Penn YMCA, the Growth and Solutions Committee for the Bucks County Opportunity Council, and the Towamencin Youth Association. She is a former newspaper editor and Community Affairs Director.
Mr. Johnson is the Executive Director for the Montgomery County Housing Authority. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and a certified Public Housing Manager. He previously served as the Chair for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh’s Affordable Housing Advisory Council, currently serves as the Chair of Your Way Home Montgomery County’s Advisory Council ,and is a member of the boards of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania, Regional Housing Legal Services, and the Housing Equality Center of Pennsylvania.
Ms. McCormick is a Manager of Clinical Research and Nutrition at Tivity Health, Inc. She is a member of both the national Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and its Pennsylvania chapter. Ms. McCormick is a Licensed Registered Dietician Nutritionist in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Mr. O’Neill is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Huntingdon Valley Bank. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Financial Managers Society of Philadelphia.
Ms. Patterson is an Assistant Professor of Public Health at The College of New Jersey and a professional practice faculty member at Arcadia University. She is a member of the American Public Health Association. Ms. Patterson serves as the President for the National Association of University Women in the Suburban Philadelphia Branch and is a Co-Chair for the Nominating Committee for the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Pennsylvania Chapter. She is a board member with the Temple University Black Alumni Alliance.
Contact: Russell Johnson
Phone: 215.716.5400
Email: rjohnson@healthspark.org
Marc J. Holley
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation selected Marc J. Holley as Vice President of Strategy and Programs, effective September 3, 2019. Mr. Holley will lead all aspects of the organization’s global grantmaking and will serve as an officer of the foundation.
Mr. Holley joins the Hilton Foundation from the Walton Family Foundation, where he most recently served as its Interim Executive Director. For nine years, he was its Director of Strategy, Learning, and Evaluation where he developed and operationalized a robust approach to evaluation and learning that included integration of program and project design. Mr. Holley also guided the research and evaluation agenda for the grantmaking programs, spanning education, environment, and home region initiatives.
Mr. Holley began his decade-long career at the Walton Family Foundation in 2008 as a Program Officer in Education. He managed a large portfolio of grants and relationships with education-based organizations and school districts in Denver, Colorado and New Orleans, Louisiana. He then led strategy, research, and evaluation, during which he made tremendous inroads driving operational effectiveness. Earlier this year, he was named Interim Executive Director. Mr. Holley has authored a number of scholarly articles, essays, op-eds, and a book on topics spanning education, accountability, and measurement. Before joining Walton, he worked in several roles within education policy research and was an adjunct professor of education policy at the University of Arkansas. He began his career as a K-12 teacher and coach.
Contact: Courtney Howard
Phone: 818.540.0511
Email: courtney@hiltonfoundation.org
Victoria Flint and Omari Richens
The Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) has hired Victoria Flint as Grants Manager and Omari Richens as Community Health Fellow.
In her role, Ms. Flint optimizes the efficiency and effectiveness of MSHF grant and scholarship programs. She updates and formalizes grant administration policies and procedures, establishes new procedures to monitor, evaluates, and tracks grants and scholarships, and formalizes procedures for grant closeout and grantee reports. Ms. Flint came to the foundation from the Mat-Su Borough School District, where she served most recently as Ed Tech Coordinator and previously as an Instructional Coach. She is a veteran of the United States Navy.
Mr. Richins joined the foundation as Community Health Fellow to assist in the areas of evaluation and research. He will play a key role in completing the foundation’s 2019 community health needs assessment, and will also oversee evaluation of programs including Behavioral Health in Schools, Youth 360, and High Utilizer Mat-Su. He has experience as a community initiatives assistant planner with WellFlorida Council, Inc. and as a rural health advocacy and policy intern with Suwannee River Area Health Education Center.
Contact: Robin Minard
Phone: 907.352.2892
Email: rminard@healthymatsu.org
Tamela Luce
The Phoenixville Community Health Foundation has named Tamela Luce its new President and CEO effective August 5, 2019.
Ms. Luce has over two decades of philanthropic experience. She spent more than seven years as the Senior Program Officer for HealthSpark Foundation, a private foundation that works with health and human services organizations in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania to build a more resilient safety net. Prior to that role, Ms. Luce was the Director of Grantmaking for Women’s Way, one of the nation’s oldest and largest women’s funding organizations.
While at HealthSpark, Ms. Luce worked to improve nutrition and food access for vulnerable populations in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. She established a countywide network of emergency food providers and spearheaded the creation of the MontCo Anti-Hunger Network, a coalition of hunger relief organizations, the region’s food bank and county government officials working together to make healthy foods available to all communities in the county.
Ms. Luce has held numerous leadership positions within the philanthropic sector. She served as Co-Chair for the Greater Philadelphia Food Funders, launching several gatherings of philanthropic organizations across the commonwealth involved in food systems work. She participated in statewide policy initiatives around food, including helping to inform Setting the Table: A Blueprint for a Hunger-Free PA. She served on the national strategy committee for the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders.
Contact: John Colarusso
Email: jcolarusso@pchf1.org
Sammye Pokryfki and Lebron McPhail
Wasilla resident Sammye Pokryfki has joined the Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) board of directors. She brings a wealth of nonprofit management and volunteer experience to her new role.
Ms. Pokryfki is a lifelong Alaskan who has lived in the Mat-Su Borough for more than 36 years. She was senior vice president at the Rasmuson Foundation until 2017, where she worked for 12 years. Currently she works as a consultant and adjunct faculty member in the University of Alaska Anchorage Honors College. Previously, Ms. Pokryfki was Executive Director of United Way Mat-Su and Denali KidCare rural outreach coordinator for Chugiak Children’s Service. She has also served as a volunteer leader on nonprofit boards, government boards and commissions, blue ribbon committees, and in soup kitchens, domestic violence shelters, faith communities, mentoring programs, recreational events, and as a Court Appointed Special Advocate.
Additionally, Lebron McPhail, who joined the board in 2016, was chosen as Vice Chair.
Service on Mat-Su Health Foundation Board of Directors is on a volunteer basis, and applicants apply through a process that includes a written application and interview. Board members serve an initial three-year term, and each term may be renewed for two additional three-year terms.
Contact: Robin Minard
Phone: 907.352.2892
Email: rminard@healthymatsu.org
Dr. Steve Pu
Health Literacy Media’s (HLM) founding visionary and HLM board of directors President Steve Pu passed away. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in May.
Dr. Pu’s passion for patient-centered health care and health literacy, combined with his strategic yet collegial approach, created the very foundation of Health Literacy Media over a decade ago. His leadership over the years set the stage for our continuing growth and expansion while staying true to its original mission of improving access to useful and actionable health information for people and communities.
Through all of this, Dr. Pu insisted on shining the spotlight on staff and colleagues on the board rather than himself. He led by example. His calm, steady presence was a source of strength and stability for the entire organization. He was a great friend, with a natural gift for connecting with all people – especially his patients and professional colleagues – in real, sincere, and meaningful way.
As he wrote in commemorating the 10th anniversary of HLM, we are “looking back on what we’ve learned, looking forward to what comes next, and expressing our gratitude for all the partners and friends we’ve made along the way”–we can’t express our gratitude to Dr. Steve Pu enough.
Phone: 314.361.9400
Email: info@healthliteracy.media
Erin Matthews Thomas
Erin Matthews Thomas has been named Senior Program Officer at Potomac Health Foundation.
Ms. Thomas has been with the DC Department of Health since 2010 as Public Health Analyst and Cessation Specialist. In her role, she led the “DC Calls It Quits” cessation campaigns and oversaw the DC Tobacco Quitline. She also served as Project Officer to grantees providing cessation services in DC and monitored grants to identify technical assistance needs. She previously had roles with the Fairfax County Health Department, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and Washington Regional Transplant Community.
Contact: Susie Lee
Phone: 703.523.0630
Email: susie@potomachealthfoundation.org