Craig Demchak and Arin Gencer
The Weinberg Foundation
The Weinberg Foundation announced current Chief Communications Officer Craig Demchak will retire effective October 31, 2022. He will be succeeded by Arin Gencer, who began her role as Senior Director of Communications at the Weinberg Foundation on August 1, 2022. Ms. Gencer currently serves as Senior Advisor at the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Mr. Demchak leads all foundation communications projects and initiatives. His responsibilities include strategic communications planning and development; execution and oversight of creative content, including web and graphic design, as well as video projects and photography; social media management; Israel Mission planning and logistics; media outreach; and special events coordination and production.
Before joining the foundation, Mr. Demchak spent 30 years in broadcast journalism. He worked as a reporter, anchor, or manager at radio and television stations in Maryland, including WBFF-TV in Baltimore, as well as in Pennsylvania and Florida. In addition, Mr. Demchak served as a corporate news manager for a national broadcast group. He is a seven-time Emmy winner, who also led the Weinberg Foundation to numerous awards recognizing creative excellence.
As senior advisor at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Ms. Gencer supports senior leadership on strategic initiatives, projects, and relationships with key internal and external stakeholders. In that role, she also facilitates outreach opportunities and develops speeches for the president and CEO that help to advance the foundation’s mission and priorities.
Ms. Gencer previously led internal communications at Casey. Prior to that, she supported communication efforts for the Casey Foundation’s economic opportunity and community change portfolios. In this role, she spent five years developing messages on fostering financial stability; creating paths to jobs and education for young people and families; and transforming struggling neighborhoods into places where children and families can thrive.
Before joining the Casey Foundation in 2011, Ms. Gencer worked as a writer and editor for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and as a reporter for The Baltimore Sun, Los Angeles Times, and Orlando Sentinel.
To learn more about this transition, click here.
Contact: 212.606.3800.
Brenda Goins
Salem Health and Wellness Foundation
The Salem Health and Wellness Foundation announced the impending retirement of its Executive Director, Brenda Goins, who joined the foundation at its inception. Mrs. Goins’ nonprofit career has spanned over 30 years. She will assist the foundation until a successor is named this summer.
During Ms. Goins’s tenure, the Salem Health and Wellness Foundation has awarded over $58 million in grants to more than 60 nonprofits and expanded its founding areas of interest as the foundation grew. She also spearheaded the establishment of the Matching Gift Program, lead the foundation to create its first strategic plan, worked with the foundation’s nonprofit partners to create a capacity building program, Rebound to Resiliency, and established the Healthy Kids, Bright Futures initiative that focuses on childhood obesity and risky behaviors in teens.
When the local community hospital was slated to be closed, Ms. Goins helped lead major investments in the local hospital allowing for improvements to infrastructure and equipment. These improvements helped secure the merger of the local hospital with a larger health system who will continue to make improvements to services for area residents.
Contact: Brenda Goins at 856.299.4460 or brendagoins@salemwellnessfoundation.org.
Ira Kaplan
Mt. Sinai Health Foundation
Civic leader Ira C. Kaplan has been elected Chair of the 27-member board of directors of the Mt. Sinai Health Foundation. He succeeds Judge Dan A. Polster, who served as board chair for three years and who was elected Life Director of the foundation.
Mr. Kaplan previously served as vice chair and treasurer of the board of directors and has been an active member of the Grants Committee and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Task Force. He currently serves as Executive Chairman and Executive Committee Member of the law firm Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP, where he focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions as well as public and private debt and equity financings. He has served as Board Chair of the Menorah Park Center for Senior Living and is former Board Chair of Bellefaire JCB and the Wingspan Care Group. For the United Way of Greater Cleveland, Mr. Kaplan currently serves as Vice Chair and previously served as Campaign Co-Chair. He also formerly served as the Board Chair of the Cleveland Leadership Center and Engage! Cleveland.
After serving as Chair of the Community Planning Committee and longstanding member of the Board, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland recognized Mr. Kaplan in 2018 with the prestigious Gries Family Award for his lasting impact on Cleveland’s Jewish and general communities.
Other officers elected were James A. Ratner and Beth D. Rosenberg, Vice-Chairs; Michael Goldberg, Treasurer; and Jeremy A. Paris, Secretary. Newly elected directors include Peter Golden, Jr., MD, J. David Heller, Mariely Luengo, and Alan Rosskamm. Mt. Sinai board directors can serve up to three, three-year terms. Officers of the board of directors, including the chair, may serve up to three, one-year terms.
Contact: Mitchell Balk at 216.244-4122 or mitchell.balk@mtsianifoudation.org.
Brenda McDuffie and Sucharita Paul
Health Foundation for Western & Central New York
The Health Foundation for Western & Central New York welcomed two new members to its Board of Trustees: Brenda W. McDuffie and Sucharita Paul, MD. They join their fellow trustees in providing leadership, oversight, and strategic guidance in pursuit of the Health Foundation’s vision of a healthy central and western New York where racial and socioeconomic equity are prioritized and all people can reach their full potential and obtain equitable health outcomes.
Ms. McDuffie is an active community champion who advocates for systemic change and action to make life better for all people in the western New York region and beyond. She was the first woman President and CEO of the Buffalo Urban League, Inc. She retired from that position in September 2020. Under her leadership, the Buffalo Urban League grew to serve more than 20,000 individuals annually, achieving recognition throughout western New York for their advocacy and exemplary holistic work strengthening families, raising education outcomes, addressing health and economic inequities, and creating opportunities for individuals and businesses to prosper.
In addition to the foundation’s board of trustees, Ms. McDuffie serves as the first woman Chair of the Erie County Industrial Agency. Her other board participation includes: Greater Buffalo Savings Bank Board; Independent Health Association; Western New York Regional Economic Development Council; the Western New York Power Proceeds Allocation; Buffalo State College Board of Trustees; University at Buffalo Council; Buffalo and Erie County Workforce Development Board; New York State Re-Entry Council; New York State Farmer Labor Wage Board; Pappy Martin Legacy Jazz Collective; and the National Urban League.
Dr. Paul is an emergency physician who has made community service, disease prevention, and public health education the center of her career and a focus of her volunteer work. She is currently leading efforts to identify and advocate for vulnerable older adult patients in emergency departments throughout western New York. She also trains emergency medicine residents in exploring areas of public health including global medicine, addiction and the opiate crisis, gun violence, health disparities, and social inequities in medicine. Her interest in serving disadvantaged and low-resource communities has led her to become involved in international emergency medicine work in both Vietnam and India.
Dr. Paul’s previous and current board service includes: COVID-19 Working Group of Western New York, UBMD Emergency Medicine, UBMD Emergency Medicine Women Physicians Consortium, Gates Vascular Institute/Buffalo General Hospital, the Carole Fenton Memorial Fund, and the City of Buffalo Emergency Medical Services Board.
The board of trustees also announced that Cheryl Smith Fisher was re-elected Chair; Ann Sedore was re-elected Vice Chair; Marybeth McCall, MD, was re-elected Secretary; and Carrie Frank was re-elected Treasurer. The terms of two long-time Health Foundation trustees also end this year: Denise Dunford, DNS, FNP, RN and David Milling, MD.
For more information, click here.
Contact: Kent Olden at 716.852.3030 or kolden@hfwcny.org.
Dr. Donald Neel, John Parker, and Marcie Timmerman
Foundation for Health Kentucky
Three new members have been selected to join the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky’s Community Advisory Council: Dr. Donald Neel, John Parker, and Marcie Timmerman. The council advises the foundation’s board of directors in overall policy direction in keeping with their mission and as on-the-ground practitioners from various fields, council members bring grassroots insight to the conversation and are advocates for foundation priorities in their own communities.
Dr. Neel is a dedicated pediatrician who has been working with Kentucky children for decades. He spent three years in Germany as a pediatrician for the U.S. Army before coming home to Owensboro, Kentucky, where he had a solo pediatric practice from 1970–2015. Dr. Neel served as a floating pediatrician for Norton Children’s Pediatric Group from 2019–2021 and is currently on staff at Owensboro Hospital. He has been active with the Medicaid advisory council, and was heavily involved with the Kentucky Medical Association, serving on its board, as KMA President in 2001, and as a delegate to the American Medical Association. He is a passionate advocate for Medicaid and hopes to help the development and accessibility for both physicians and patients.
Mr. Parker has diligently served his community as the Bracken County Coroner for the past 38 years and is also a partner at Moore & Parker Funeral Homes and Moore & Parker Monument Co. With a Master Coroner Certification, he has been a licensed funeral director and embalmer since 1973. He is also a partner in Jetland Farms, a commercial beef cattle operation. Mr. Parker plans to retire at the end of 2022, but will continue to serve as Deputy Coroner in Bracken County.
Ms. Timmerman is Executive Director of Mental Health America of Kentucky. Prior to this role, she worked for the Kentucky Equal Justice Center and NAMI Lexington. While at University of Kentucky, Ms. Timmerman was the sole staff support for the first Outpatient Opioid Addiction Clinic, which sparked her ongoing commitment to harm reduction and addiction-treatment advocacy. She is Co-Chair for the Fund988KY campaign – a statewide coalition to support funding the 988 mental health crisis system, co-chair of the Kentucky Mental Health Coalition, support person for Kniffley Racial Trauma Training, a Mental Health First Aid instructor, a Question-Persuade-Refer trainer, and a Trauma-Informed Care trainer.
Jasmine Hall Ratliff
Missouri Foundation for Health
Missouri Foundation for Health announced that nonprofit Build Missouri Health (BMH) welcomed Jasmine N. Hall Ratliff as its inaugural Executive Director.
BMH, a 501(c)(3), was established in 2018 as a subsidiary of Missouri Foundation for Health. BMH can generate national partnerships and take advantage of funding streams that are not available to MFH as a 501(c)(4). Where MFH works within a specific geographic footprint on highly defined strategic initiatives, BMH is structured to be both flexible and nimble, responding organically to support mission-aligned organizations focused on health equity issues that are not currently part of the foundation’s work.
Interactions and field research from MFH found areas of opportunity for BMH, including topics such as public health workforce expansion, healthy and affordable housing, and climate justice. While the nonprofit’s board will work with Ms. Hall Ratliff to distill their mission and priorities, BMH has already shown that it can respond quickly to support local health equity initiatives.
Over the past decade, Ms. Hall Ratliff work has focused on racial equity and removing systemic barriers to health and well-being for everyone. She returns to MFH after working at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and with Keecha Harris and Associates, Inc. for the past two years. During her 10 years at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, she led various projects, including the Kids’ Safe and Healthful Foods Project and the New Jersey Partnership for Healthy Kids. She also secured funding for a national initiative to decrease childhood obesity among American Indians and Alaska Natives.
In Missouri, Ms. Hall Ratliff served as the team lead for the women’s health funding program that was previously at MFH and was heavily involved in the initial stages of the foundation’s efforts to provide dental care to children. She has also worked with CHIPS Health and Wellness Center, supplying grant program oversight, and managing fundraising activities for their youth educators.
Ms. Hall Ratliff brings a demonstrated commitment to health equity to her new role. Her passion for and understanding of systems change and the broad collaboration it takes for real transformation to happen are what make her a natural fit for BMH.
Contact: info@mffh.org.
Adriana Rocha
Neighborhood Funders Group
Adriana Rocha, President of Neighborhood Funders Group (NFG) left the organization on July 5, 2022. In her five years as NFG staff, her many accomplishments include:
- Leading two National Convenings: 2018 in St Louis, MO and a virtual 2020 convening during NFG’s 40th Anniversary year
- Supporting the launch of three new programs: Integrated Rural Strategies Group, Philanthropy Forward, and Midwest Organizing Infrastructure Funders
- Leading the creation of our Strategic Framework, grounded in our Theory of Change
- Supporting the pivot to virtual programming and creating a culture of care for staff throughout the pandemic
Amy Morris has led NFG’s Amplify Fund since 2017 and will be Interim President/Vice President of Special Initiatives. Manisha Vaze has been the Director of NFG’s Funders for a Just Economy since 2017 and will be Interim Vice President of Programs. Melody Baker has been part of Amplify Fund since 2018 and will be Interim Amplify Fund Senior Director. Sarita Ahuja, NFG’s Vice President of Finance and Development, Ms Vaze, and Ms. Morris will form the interim management team.
Contact: Amy Morris at amy@nfg.org.