Fatima Angeles
California Wellness Foundation
The California Wellness Foundation (Cal Wellness) announced that Fatima Angeles, Vice President of Programs, left at the end of July to become the next Executive Director of the Levi Strauss Foundation (LSF). LSF is a highly respected corporate foundation that seeks to advance the human rights and well-being of underserved people in the places where the company does business. Ms. Angeles will oversee its global philanthropic strategy.
Since 1998, Ms. Angeles has been a key contributor to advancing Cal Wellness’ mission. She has been part of many of the major accomplishments in our work over the past 23 years. Ms. Angeles joined the foundation as Program Officer, advancing to become a Program Director, Director of Evaluation and Organizational Learning, and Vice President of Programs. As a grantmaker, Ms. Angeles developed and implemented programs focused on worker health, environmental justice, and youth development. Ms. Angeles has built and led a team of smart, passionate people responsible for $40 million in grantmaking annually, helped launch the foundation’s Program-Related Investments program, and established the Hope and Heal Fund, now a leader in reducing gun violence in California.
Contact: info@calwellness.org
Brian Byrd
New York State Health Foundation
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced the appointment of Brian Byrd of the New York State Health Foundation to the New York Fed’s Community Advisory Group. The Community Advisory Group, which is comprised of leaders of nonprofit, community organizations, foundations, and anchor institutions, provides the New York Fed with a real-time view of the issues faced by a diverse set of communities across the Second District. Its primary goal is to provide the New York Fed, including President John C. Williams, with a more thorough understanding of the economy’s impact on communities and individuals.
Mr. Byrd is a Senior Program Officer at the New York State Health Foundation, a private, statewide organization where he manages the Special Projects Fund, a $3 million annual funding opportunity that seeks to improve the health of all New Yorkers, including investing in the upstream social determinants of health. Previously, Mr. Byrd was the director for community partnerships at CARE, an international humanitarian organization. His other past roles include working as Deputy Director for Membership Affairs at the Council on Foreign Relations and as an Assistant Director with the Rockefeller Foundation, where he managed an HIV/AIDS project in Africa.
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Contact: Ellen Simon at 347.978.3036 or Ellen.Simon@ny.frb.org.
The Foundation for Health Equity
The board of trustees of the Green Tree Community Health Foundation announced a new name — Foundation for Health Equity (f4HE) as well as a new website (f4he.org), and strategic direction that renews the 16-year-old foundation’s commitment to the health and well-being of all people in Northwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Established in 2005 from the proceeds of the sale of Chestnut Hill Hospital, Green Tree Community Health Foundation (originally Chestnut Hill Healthcare Foundation) has historically carried out charitable activities in the hospital’s primary service area, spanning Northwest Philadelphia and Eastern Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The foundation has made over 450 grants totaling $8.4 million to a wide array of community organizations, touching the lives of nearly 500,000 community members. While it has funded a variety of health-related organizations since its inception, in recent years it has concentrated its grantmaking in three categories: hunger and food insecurity; services for children; and services for the elderly.
Noting changes in the community and the philanthropic landscape, the foundation initiated a comprehensive strategic planning process in 2020. The effort was both accelerated and informed by the COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate impact on historically marginalized members of the community. With significant input from the people and organizations of Northwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania this process identified health equity as a primary concern for the foundation.
In response to the question—”How do we evolve to achieve greater health equity in a changing world?”—the new Foundation for Health Equity has articulated three, long-term strategies:
- Focused Grantmaking: Maximizing the impact of its grantmaking by concentrating on those Northwest Philadelphia communities facing the greatest barriers to the best health possible.This includes neighborhoods in the 19144, 19138, 19128, 19150, 19119, and 19118 zip codes.
- Intensive Community Engagement: Expanding its existing relationships and inviting leaders in its Northwest Philadelphia catchment area to help set the foundation’s priorities and join in its leadership and governance.
- Thoughtful Advocacy: Working with a range of community partners, adding our voice where appropriate, to support efforts to improve local, state, and national policies and programs that have a meaningful impact on the health of all people in Northwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
To bring its communications into alignment with its new strategic direction, the foundation has adopted
a new name, tagline, and visual identity. The new name emphasizes the centrality of health equity to the foundation’s grantmaking as well as its community engagement and advocacy work. The new tagline expresses the foundation’s refined focus on Northwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And the new logo captures the concept of equity in the progressively fuller bars of the ‘E’, describing a vision of equal outcomes for all, but recognizing the uneven baselines that too many people in our community face with respect to achieving optimal health. The foundation reorganized and redesigned its website to improve its navigability and legibility for applicants, grantees, and other community stakeholders.
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Contact: John Beilenson at 610.453.5993 or jbeilenson@aboutscp.com.
Tanya James and C.J. Eisenbarth Hager
The Episcopal Health Foundation
The Episcopal Health Foundation (EHF) onboarded two new employees: Tanya James as Community Partnerships Officer and C.J. Eisenbarth Hager as Senior Research and Innovation Officer.
Ms. James supports the foundation’s community engagement efforts and works with the Director of Community Engagement to develop and implement EHF’s capacity building strategies for strengthening community health. This new position works with community health coalitions and organizations to advocate for health equity, including the social determinants of health. Ms. James is responsible for developing the strategy and leading the planning and implementation for expanding EHF’s work to strengthen community health coalitions and expand advocacy for health equity in the region. Ms. James previously was the principal of Strategic Outcomes, LLC, a firm specializing in facilitation, planning, and community engagement. She also served seven years in the Louisiana Army National Guard.
Ms. Eisenbarth Hager joined EHF in another new position to provide leadership, planning, strategy development, and management of research projects; develop and maintain strong relationships with external stakeholders in philanthropic, academic, government, policy, and research institutions; and work collaboratively with colleagues across the foundation to develop applied research projects. Building upon the foundation’s efforts to shift health system resources in support of community prevention and upstream priorities, she will contribute to the foundation’s understanding of the policy environment and innovative practices and to generate ideas and strategies to advance this work.
Ms. Hager was the Founding Director of Healthy Communities for Vitalyst Health Foundation in Phoenix, Arizona leveraging policy, systems, and environmental change as a means for lasting impact. She also participated in the PLACES Fellowship through The Funders Network and has been a policy analyst and researcher in previous organizations.
Contact: Laura Thewalt at 713.225.0900 or lthewalt@episcopalhealth.org.
Sean Malone
George Family Foundation
The George Family Foundation selected Sean Malone as its new President. Mr. Malone is the former CEO of three significant nonprofit organizations engaged across diverse genres, including the arts, education, parks and conservation, and large public projects.
Mr. Malone will eventually succeed current president Gayle Ober, who plans to retire at the end of the year. In the coming months, Ms. Ober and Mr. Malone will work side by side to ensure a smooth transition.
Mr. Malone brings more than 20 years of experience in nonprofit leadership to the foundation. From 2017 to 2021, he was the Founding President and CEO of Dix Park Conservancy, collaborating with dedicated community leaders to ensure the creation and success of a 308-acre park in the heart of Raleigh, North Carolina. From 2012 to 2016, he served as President and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, where he led preservation of National Historic Landmarks Taliesin and Taliesin West, extensive educational and public programming, and numerous national endeavors. Prior to that, Mr. Malone was president of Ten Chimneys Foundation, the Wisconsin estate created by Broadway legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, working with staff and board partners to create an inspirational house museum and a national resource for theatre and the arts. Most recently, he was Interim Executive Director of Journalism Funding Partners, an emerging grantmaking organization launched to increase the depth and diversity of local journalism in cities across the country.
Contact: Kate Lilja Lohnes at 952.893.7140 or kate@lilja.com.
Dr. Benjamin Miller
Well Being Trust
Well Being Trust named Benjamin F. Miller, PsyD, as President. A clinical psychologist by training, Dr. Miller is a nationally recognized leader in the area of mental health and health policy. For the past four years, he served as Well Being Trust’s Chief Strategy Officer, where he oversaw the foundation’s portfolio and ensured alignment across grants, research, partnerships, and policy recommendations.
Dr. Miller’s will oversee the implementation of Well Being Trust’s strategies to measurably save lives from deaths by drugs, alcohol and suicide, improve well-being for everyone, and transform the health of the nation.
Prior to joining Well Being Trust in 2017, Dr. Miller spent eight years as an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine where he served as founding director of the Eugene S. Farley, Jr. Health Policy Center. Under his leadership, the Center worked on policies related to mental health and primary care integration, payment reform, workforce efforts, and community-based prevention to help key decision makers positively improve mental health in their communities.
It was Dr. Miller’s early experiences—from helping emotionally disturbed children navigate school and individuals with breast cancer cope with their diagnosis, to helping prisoners plan for a successful return to society and working in primary care clinics—that showed him how the continued marginalization and fragmentation of mental health in America has ripple effects throughout every layer of society.
He has received numerous awards for his work, and he has also written and published extensively on ways we can better integrate mental health, especially through policy change. Dr. Miller is a highly sought-after expert in the field, and most recently testified before Congress on the ways our nation could pursue more robust policy change for mental health. He is also the author of the weekly newsletter Mental: Fighting the fragmentation of mental health one policy at a time.
Contact: Amy Shields at 214.208.7942 or amy@wellbeingtrust.org
Chelsea Perugini, Dolores Winston, Nick Bucci, and Barbara O’Connor
Phoenixville Community Health Foundation
The Phoenixville Community Health Foundation (PCHF) announced four new board members who have backgrounds in finance, community mobilizing, nursing, and social media. Each member will contribute their expertise, as well as their passion for the Greater Phoenixville, Pennsylvania community to the governance of the PCHF.
Chelsea Perugini’s expertise is in social media strategy and online community management. She currently serves as the Associate Director of Social Media at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She is passionate about health education, violence prevention, and volunteerism.
Dolores (Dolly) Winston is a best-selling author, Community Mobilizer for Communities That Care in Phoenixville, and the Community Programs Superintendent for the Borough of Phoenixville since 2000. Ms. Winston’s role with Communities That Care is to observe and examine the risk factors that cause problems in the community. She works with area key leaders and organizations to develop action plans that address both risk factors and their resultant problems. Her true passion is to help people with urgent needs, assisting them in finding services to get back on the right track. Ms. Winston serves on the Chester County Children & Youth Advisory Board and Southeast Region CTC/Commonwealth Prevention Alliance Coalition.
Ms. Winston was the 2017 recipient of “The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award” given by the Phoenixville Social Concerns Committee. She also received an award in 2011 for “Recognition for Leadership, Service, Volunteerism, Dedication and Hard Work to the Community of Phoenixville.” She received the “OIC (Opportunities Industrialization Center) Believing and Achieving in the Better Community Award” in 2006 and the “Woman in Community Award” in 2004. Ms. Winston has participated as a speaker for many leadership panels at several colleges and has been featured on talk shows and in the newspaper.
Nick Bucci joins the board of PCHF with a background in finance. He is a financial advisor with BLBB Advisors, LLC. working with complex family groups and nonprofit institutions. Additionally, Mr. Bucci teaches graduate and undergraduate finance classes at two local universities.
Barbara O’Connor began her nursing career 31 years ago as a RN graduate of Roxborough Memorial Hospital School of Nursing. To further her nurse training and education, she pursued both her BSN and MSN. For the past 20 years, Ms. O’Connor has dedicated her career to the discipline of community health nursing and maintains a certification as a Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist. One of her areas of focus is the health and well-being of the underserved populations, especially the Latino community within the Phoenixville Community. She has advocated for bilingual patient representatives to assist patients in navigating the complex healthcare environment.
Contact: Viviann Schorle at 484.996.332 or vschorle@pchf1.org.
José Quiñonez
Sobrato Philanthropies
Sobrato Philanthropies appointed José A. Quiñonez to the Sobrato Family Foundation board of directors by unanimous vote. Mr. Quiñonez is CEO of Mission Asset Fund (MAF), a nonprofit organization that helps financially excluded communities—particularly low-income and immigrant families—to become visible, active, and successful participants in the financial mainstream. He is an Ashoka Fellow, MacArthur Fellow, and Aspen Institute Fellow, and is currently serving as a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, José Quiñonez and John A. Sobrato, along with their teams, collaborated extensively on the creation and management of the San Mateo Immigrant Relief Fund, which ultimately mobilized more than $16 million in public and private contributions to support undocumented individuals in San Mateo County, California otherwise excluded from other funds and supports.
Mr. Quiñonez is a skilled and experienced financial services innovator who specializes in creating pathways to mainstream financial services and non-predatory credit for individuals with limited or no financial access. A disproportionate number of minority, immigrant, and low-income households are invisible to banks and credit institutions, meaning they have no checking or savings accounts (unbanked), make frequent use of nonbank financial services (underbanked), or lack a credit report with a nationwide credit-reporting agency. Without bank accounts or a credit history, it is nearly impossible to obtain safe loans for automobiles, homes, and businesses, or to rent an apartment.
Through MAF, Mr. Quiñonez has created a mechanism for reporting individuals’ repayment of small, zero-interest loans to credit bureaus and other financial institutions. MAF participants can establish a credit history and gain access to credit cards, bank loans, and other services, and lending circles focused on youth provide individuals with fees for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals applications. All participants are required to complete a financial training class and receive financial coaching and peer support. Since the lending circles were established in 2008, participants’ credit scores, collectively, have increased an average of 168 points.
Mr. Quiñonez has established a network of partnerships within the financial services industry to enable other organizations to replicate his approach. With Mr. Quiñonez and MAF providing the technology necessary to disperse and track loans (a significant hurdle for many nonprofits) and assisting in securing local partners and investors; over 70 nonprofit providers in 18 states and Washington, DC are now using this powerful model in their communities. Mr. Quiñonez’s visionary leadership is providing low-income and minority families with the means to secure safe credit, participate fully in the American economy, and obtain financial security.
Mr. Quiñonez founded Mission Asset Fund in 2007 and continues to serve as CEO. His prior affiliations include the Center for Community Change and Bread for the World. He was the inaugural chair of the Consumer Advisory Board of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Contact: Erin Fogg at 831.515.6403 or media@sobrato.org.