Funders

Amy is a Program Officer in the Poverty Program at The JPB Foundation. She manages the program’s public will grant portfolio, grantee capacity building grants, and several internal communication initiatives. Amy comes to JPB with years of experience in the nonprofit sector, having worked at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Commonwealth Fund, and a London-based communications research center. Most recently, Amy led student academic initiatives in the Office of the Provost at The New School.

Meg leads Blue Meridian’s Learning, Evaluation, and Measurement practice, working across portfolios and investments to advance investee-, portfolio-, and organization-wide impact. She also provides strategic and executional leadership on critical business priorities and leads innovation efforts to expand Blue Meridian’s work. Meg has over 20 years of evaluation, philanthropic strategy, program management, organizational development, and leadership experience. Most recently, she served as president of Equal Measure, a philanthropic services nonprofit, after her time as the coordinator for volunteer recruitment, training, and marketing for Experience Corps Philadelphia, a national intergenerational tutoring program. Meg’s prior experience at the United Nations, the World Bank Institute, and the International Longevity Center informed systemic and policy efforts advancing whole-family well-being that create a strong link between postsecondary credentialing, workforce readiness, and economic mobility.

Jamaica is the director of Packard’s Organizational Effectiveness (OE) program, which provides a spectrum of support for leaders, organizations, networks, and the infrastructure that civil society needs to be strong. She joined Packard in 2013 as an OE program officer, launching the development of cohort capacity building projects and managing organizational development support for grantees. Jamaica has also played an important role in the work of both OE and the foundation on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Prior to joining Packard, she spent 11 years at California Environmental Associates (CEA), ran her own organizational development consulting firm, and served as the founding program director for the Roots of Change Fund.

Lissette, a managing director, portfolio strategy and management at Blue Meridian Partners, provides strategic and executional leadership on critical business priorities and leads innovation efforts which will expand Blue Meridian’s work as it evolves. Lissette additionally oversees the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation’s remaining work on the Youth Development Fund and PropelNext. Before joining EMCF in 2010, Lissette held senior leadership positions at YouthBuild USA and the Boston Foundation, and was the founding executive director of Casa Nueva Vida, a shelter for homeless Latina women and their children.

Meredith joined Packard in 2012 with ten years of experience conducting research, implementing programs, and developing internal and external reporting, monitoring, and evaluation processes to improve organizational learning. Prior to joining the foundation, Meredith advised various social change organizations on program development and evaluation, including organizations focused on prevention of mass violence, women’s empowerment, income generation, and governance reform. Most recently, Meredith led Humanity United’s monitoring, evaluation, and learning work, overseeing the implementation of the organization’s planning, assessment, and learning guidelines, which she co-developed in 2009.

Kathy serves as Ford’s director of BUILD, a new initiative to strengthen key institutions fighting inequality worldwide. Previously, she was at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, where she served in various roles, including director of Organizational Effectiveness and Philanthropy, program officer for preschool grantmaking, and policy analyst/editor for The Future of Children journal. Prior to joining Packard, Kathy was policy director at the Social Policy Action Network, served as a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill, and worked for state and local elected officials in California.

Kim  is Irvine’s director of Impact Assessment and Learning. She has more than 25 years of social impact experience with nonprofits, foundations, and the public sector in the United States and abroad. Prior to joining the foundation in 2015, Kim spent 10 years at Informing Change, a Berkeley-based consulting firm, designing, conducting, and overseeing evaluation, strategy, and applied research efforts. Previous positions include directing evaluations and applied research projects at the Stanford University School of Medicine’s Prevention Research Center and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. At the Contra Costa County’s Health Services Department, she facilitated the implementation of a variety of prevention programs and staffed cross-sector networks focused on policy and systems change.

Barbara is president and chair of the board of directors of The JPB Foundation. JPB’s mission is to enhance the quality of life in the United States through transformational initiatives that promote the health of our communities. JPB’s program areas include poverty, specifically in the areas of health and chronic disease, economic opportunity, and democracy; medical research, specifically collaborative consortiums of scientists investigating diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as brain research on learning and memory; and the environment, enabling healthy and resilient communities. JPB’s values include an evidence-based approach focused on impact, intelligent risk-taking, and addressing challenges of poverty at the root cause level. JPB pursues funding that is highly strategic, working with nonprofits and other funders to collaborate, coordinate, and leverage resources to achieve maximum impact.

Betsy is vice president, Poverty, at The JPB Foundation. She is involved with JPB’s efforts to help low-income populations overcome barriers to opportunity. Betsy’s work supports organizations that break the cycle of poverty by creating long-term positive change for disadvantaged communities, specifically in the areas of health and chronic disease, economic opportunity, and democracy. Prior to joining JPB in 2014, Betsy was a consultant to nonprofits and foundations, and was executive director of Youth Advocacy Center, an organization she co-founded.

Marselle is a program officer in Hewlett’s Effective Philanthropy Group, managing the foundation’s philanthropy sector grantmaking. Most recently, she was a consultant to philanthropic and nonprofit organizations, supporting funder collaboration and building capacity to integrate racial equity into strategy and operations. Prior to that, she was a grantmaker at the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, supporting development of the infrastructure California needs to sustainably and equitably manage its water and land, including resilient and interconnected leaders and institutions. She had also worked for the sustainability advocacy organization Ceres and served as a NOAA Sea Grant Fellow in Congress.

Jean is a Civil Society and Leadership program officer at Packard, overseeing the foundation’s work in strengthening leaders, organizations, and movements and promoting thriving civic spaces. Prior to Packard, she spent over 20 years working in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector as a strategy consultant and leadership coach. Jean is fueled by a deep commitment to thriving organizations and leaders and has dedicated her career to the importance of clear strategies, strong infrastructure, and leadership sustainability. She believes deeply in investing in people and their wellbeing, and promoting a thriving nonprofit, public and civic sector.

Yvonne is Barr’s director of learning and evaluation, leading the foundation’s efforts to gauge its impact and support ongoing learning — and application of that learning — among staff, grantees, and the fields in which the organization works. She came to Barr from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where, as a senior program officer, she partnered with leading researchers to build evidence on strategies for improving equity and success for low-income, first-generation students and students of color. She also served as a board member for the Queen Anne Helpline, a Seattle social-services nonprofit. Prior to philanthropy, Yvonne worked in education and research in a variety of roles, including in teaching, assessment, evaluation, instructional technologies, and digital-library projects.

Ciciley is Kellogg’s senior program officer for the Office of the President, supporting foundation efforts to promote thriving children, working families, and equitable communities. She provides leadership for program efforts and special initiatives of the president and CEO, develops strategic relationships representing the foundation across the U.S., and is involved with grant-making in the priority areas of early childhood education, workforce development, health equity, and racial equity. Before joining Kellogg in 2016, Ciciley developed and lead talent attraction and retention programs that focused on LGBT workplace inclusion, racial equity, and leadership development at a regional chamber of commerce.

As Hilton’s strategic partnerships officer, Rachel manages the development and implementation of a partnerships strategy that goes beyond financial grantmaking, building and leveraging the work of the foundation to help catalyze and accelerate its goals through high-impact relationships. In her previous role as a program associate, Rachel supported the international program team’s work in disaster relief and recovery, as well as avoidable blindness. Prior to joining Hilton, Rachel worked on water, sanitation, and hygiene at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She has also spent time as a consultant for the National Park Service, a social innovation associate at Mercy Corps, and a rural community development volunteer for Peace Corps, Costa Rica.

Rory joined Barr in 2020, where she serves as a learning officer, working on the Learning and Evaluation team to support efforts to measure impact and support ongoing learning. Rory is also a program officer on Barr’s Sector Effectiveness team, managing a portfolio that aims to strengthen the nonprofit and philanthropic infrastructure in Massachusetts.

Prior to joining Barr, Rory served as evaluation officer at the Michigan Health Endowment Fund, where she developed capacity-building programming to strengthen evaluation and learning practices and advance equitable evaluation across the fund’s ecosystem of grantees and consultants. Before her work in philanthropy, Rory was an evaluation and public policy consultant, working across sectors on transportation, mobility justice, environmental, and health policy issues.

As director of the Hilton Foundation’s strategic partnerships, Shaheen leads the development and implementation of external engagements, including collaborations with peer funders and local, national, and international partners, to unlock resources and shift policies that enable the foundation to multiply its impact. In her previous role as director of international programs, Shaheen oversaw efforts including those around safe water access, children in communities affected by HIV and AIDS, and disaster relief and recovery. She also led grant programs related to global capacity-building, monitoring, evaluation, and learning. Prior to joining the Hilton Foundation, Shaheen was a senior program officer at the UniHealth Foundation and had experience working and consulting in hospital administration, health services, health policy, policy research, public health, and program evaluation in the United States and abroad.

As a program-related investments officer on the Kellogg Foundation’s mission-driven investments team, Andrew is responsible for developing and coordinating strategic investment activities that address systemic barriers that create vulnerable conditions for historically marginalized communities and children. Prior to this role, Andrew co-led the Grand Rapids place-based team, co-directing both strategy and investments. Before joining Kellogg in 2010, he served as the founding executive director of The SOURCE, a nonprofit focused on retention, supports, assets, career mobility and workforce and economic development for employees, family members and employers in one of Grand Rapids’ most economically depressed neighborhoods.

Jennifer serves as the deputy director for strategy and innovation on the Gates Foundation’s Philanthropic Partnerships team. In this role, she leads the cross-cutting strategy work of the team as well as the exploration of trends and opportunities for leveraging the ideas, influence, and resources of philanthropists for catalytic change. Since 2010, Jennifer has served in multiple roles on the team, including the launch and growth of the Giving Pledge and efforts to encourage philanthropy in China and India.

Prior to joining the foundation, she served as a senior consultant with the management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and as an analyst with Pfizer’s Strategic Investments Group.