TC Duong and Richard Vezina
(Blue Shield of California Foundation)
Blue Shield of California Foundation welcomed Program Officer TC Duong and Senior Program Officer Richard Vezina to the team.
Mr. Duong leads the foundation’s Collaborating for Healthy Communities initiative. He has an extensive career in advocacy, policy, nonprofit program management, training, and technical assistance. Most recently at the Building Movement Project, he brought together learning communities to effectively shift service organizations to a social change model. As the Community Health and Health Equity Program Manager for the Blue Cross Center for Prevention in Minnesota, he managed community partnerships and developed trainings and convenings on building equity and strengthening relationships. He was the Fellowship Program Manager for the Rockwood Leadership Institute managing fellowship cohorts for Immigrant Rights leaders in California, LGBTQ Advocacy Leaders, and activists in Arts and Culture. Prior to his time at Rockwood, he served as the Program Manager for Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment Advocacy and Leadership. In this role, Mr. Duong managed the technical assistance program in Minnesota, providing cross cultural organization development and leadership training to community organizations in Minnesota. He has worked on advocacy and training for several Washington, DC-based organizations such as the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, Southeast Asian American Advocacy Initiative at the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center and Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.
Mr. Vezina works across the foundation’s funding priorities on initiatives that strengthen the evidence base and field capacity for effective prevention of poor health and domestic violence in California. Prior to joining Blue Shield of California Foundation, he was a Vice President at Harder+Company Community Research, where he led evaluation and strategy engagements for foundations, nonprofits, and public agencies. In that role he also led the firm’s business development and communications efforts. Earlier, he worked in a wide range of roles in the health field at organizations such as amfAR, the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, Planned Parenthood, and Greater Philadelphia Health Action.
Dr. Stephanie Kripa Cooper-Lewter and Shenell McClurkin Thompson
Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust
The Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust announced Dr. Stephanie Kripa Cooper-Lewter joined the Trust in June as Executive Vice President of Programs and Administration and Shenell McClurkin Thompson joined the Trust in May as Local Impact in Forsyth County Senior Program Officer.
Dr. Cooper-Lewter is responsible for the leadership and supervision of the daily operational work of staff members across all Trust departments. She will serve as the president’s strategic partner and direct staff, ensuring that the teams work cross-functionally and in support of the mission and vision of the Trust to improve the health and quality of life of people with low incomes throughout North Carolina.
Dr. Cooper-Lewter has spent the past three years in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina area working on economic mobility challenges facing the city. She served as the inaugural Executive Director of Leading on Opportunity, an economic mobility initiative at the Foundation for The Carolinas where she led a county-wide effort to address the finding that Charlotte ranked last in economic mobility among the 50 largest cities in the United States. Most recently, she was the first Executive Director of Financial Security Charlotte, a coalition of nonprofit agencies working to help families achieve greater financial stability.
Dr. Cooper-Lewter served nearly nine years at the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina. As its Vice President of Initiatives and Public Policy, she managed its organizational strategy to ensure community engagement and impact. She also served as the Director of Research and Evaluation at Healthy Learners, and as President and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Columbia.
She is currently on the board of trustees for the Southeastern Council of Foundations and is the Charlotte City Director for Walker’s Legacy. An immigrant from India, she previously served on the national board of directors for Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees.
Ms. Thompson oversees the Trust’s grantmaking activities to create long-term, sustainable solutions for vulnerable and underserved communities in Forsyth County, North Carolina. Specifically, she will work with grantees and partners to build an inclusive economy, to foster economic mobility for those with the greatest need, and develop lasting solutions to the root causes of poverty and inequity. She will also manage the Trust’s special initiative, Great Expectations, to ensure all children in the county enter kindergarten ready to learn – regardless of the color of their skin, their income, and where they live. Ms. Thompson will work closely with the program team to achieve thriving communities, thriving residents, equitable access to care, and equitable health outcomes throughout North Carolina.
As CEO of Brick by Brick Consulting, Ms. Thompson provides direct support to nonprofits working to address racial disparities, asset building, and economic mobility. Prior to founding Brick by Brick Consulting, she was the Director of Assets and Opportunities for Financial Pathways of the Piedmont for 15 years and Program Assistant at Simon Green Atkins CDC for three years. Ms. Thompson serves on the North Carolina Asset Alliance and Prosperity Now committees and is the former chairperson of the Asset Building Coalition of Forsyth County.
Tiffany Donelson
Connecticut Health Foundation
The Connecticut Health Foundation has named Tiffany Donelson to be its next President and CEO, effective September 1, 2020. Ms. Donelson will succeed Patricia Baker, who plans to retire after more than 20 years as the foundation’s founding leader. Ms. Donelson currently serves as the foundation’s Vice President of Program, overseeing grantmaking, policy, and communications.
Ms. Donelson joined the foundation in 2014 after serving in several leadership roles at Aetna, including as Deputy Chief of Staff for the company’s national business office and as a director in corporate strategy. She previously worked as a consultant at Ingenix Consulting and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ms. Donelson serves on several boards and advisory committees, including the United Way of Connecticut and the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy, for which she is Vice Chair.
Ms. Baker originally planned to retire at the end of June, but will stay on as President and CEO until September because of the COVID-19 pandemic and challenges of a transition during this time.
Contact: Arielle Levin Becker at 203.901.2362 or arielle@cthealth.org.
Nate Hurst
Wells Fargo Foundation
Nate Hurst joined Wells Fargo & Company on June 1, 2020 where he will oversee sustainability and corporate responsibility. He will also serve as President of the Wells Fargo Foundation. Previously Mr. Hurst was Chief Sustainability and Social Impact officer at HP.
Last June, Wells Fargo & Company committed $1 billion in philanthropic giving through 2025 to expand housing affordability in the United States. Mr. Hurst succeeds Brandee McHale, who briefly led the foundation before returning to the Citi Foundation.
Cara Stewart
Kentucky Voices for Health
Kentucky Voices for Health welcomed Cara Stewart as Director of Policy Advocacy. Ms. Stewart will develop strong working relationships with substance use disorder (SUD), behavioral health (BH), and supportive housing providers. She will participate in local and statewide coalitions to advocate for policies related to SUD and BH services, peer support and navigation assistance, and housing, as well as work collaboratively with state agencies, Medicaid providers, and community organizations to improve coverage and access to care for justice-involved and housing-insecure Kentuckians. Ms. Stewart will identify and track benefits-eligible clients experiencing barriers to coverage or care, mitigating the causes of enrollment churn and access to care barriers, and acting as the liaison between media and boots-on-the-ground partners to collect stories from impacted individuals.
Ms. Stewart’s experience includes Legal Aid of the Bluegrass, Kentucky Equal Justice Center (KEJC), and most recently, Chief of Staff for the Kentucky House Democrats. While at KEJC, she played a larger role in Kentucky’s continuing success with implementation of the Affordable Care Act by conducting community education presentations across the Commonwealth and speaking to local, regional, and national media outlets, including The New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, The Economist, USA Today, and more.
Governor Steve Beshear appointed Ms. Stewart to the Kentucky Healthcare Improvement Authority Board to represent consumers through Sept 2017, and the Kentucky Bar Association appointed her to serve on their Committee on Child Protection & Domestic Violence until 2018. In 2014, she was presented with the Young Lawyer Service to Community Award by the Young Lawyers Division of the Kentucky Bar Association, Berea College’s Young Alumnus Award in November 2015, and the Families USA Health Advocate of the Year Award in 2019.
Contact: Angela Cooper at angela.cooper@kyvoicesforhealth.org.
Kiah Williams and Michele Siqueiros
California Endowment
The California Endowment elected Kiah Williams, Co-founder of SIRUM and Michele Siqueiros, President for The Campaign for College Opportunity, to its board of directors.
As founder of SIRUM, Ms. Williams works to seamlessly deliver unused, surplus drugs to working poor families, using technology to democratize access. Since its founding, SIRUM has helped redistribute more than 750,000 prescriptions worth over $66 million to people across five states. She has been recognized for her work at SIRUM as both a Forbes 30-Under-30 Social Entrepreneur standout and Outstanding Alumni, Silicon Valley Business Journal 40-Under-40, Draper Richards Kaplan Entrepreneur, Grinnell College Young Innovator for Social Justice Prize, and inaugural Westly Foundation Social Innovator.
As the President for The Campaign for College Opportunity, Ms. Siqueiros works to expand college access and success for California students by raising public attention to the critical challenges facing students in California’s community colleges and universities, mobilizing a broad coalition of supporters, and influencing policymakers. Under her leadership in 2010, the campaign led the effort for transfer reform that makes it easier for students to transfer from any California Community College to the California State University system through the Associate Degree for Transfer. Over 217,000 California students have earned the degree and in 2018 the University of California (UC) announced a formal MOU with the California Community College system to provide a UC guarantee for Associate Degree for Transfer earners.
Contact: Jeff Okey at 213.928.8622 or jokey@calendow.org.