Giving Compass
Ben Klasky, who recently completed an eight-month assignment as deputy director for philanthropic partnerships at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has been tapped as CEO of this online portal to connect wealthy donors with charitable causes. He was previously president and CEO of IslandWood for 12 years.
Humane Society of the United States
Kitty Block, a lawyer and president of the animal-rights group’s international arm, has been named acting chief executive. The outgoing CEO Wayne Pacelle has stepped down in the midst of a sexual-harassment inquiry against him.
Mercy Corps Northwest
John Haines, executive director for the past 15 years, has left his top role to manage and expand the charity’s Community Investment Trust, which makes grants and creates other economic opportunities available to residents of Portland and Gresham, Ore. Lynn Renken, senior youth and adolescent girl adviser at Mercy Corps Northwest, has stepped in as interim executive director.
Meyer Memorial Trust
Michelle DePass, dean of the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy, will become president and CEO in April. She is also a professor of environmental policy and management at the New School, in New York, and was an Obama appointee to the Environmental Protection Agency. She will succeed Doug Stamm, who is stepping down after 16 years leading the organization.
More New CEOs
Diana Breen, a consultant in New York who has worked with charities on fundraising, strategic planning, and program development, has been named interim executive director of Marquis Studios, a nonprofit arts-education group in the New York City public schools. She succeeds David Marquis, the founder and executive director, who died in November.
Kenneth Mendez, senior executive vice president and chief revenue officer at AdvaMed, has been installed as the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America’s president and chief executive officer.
John Miller, national president and CEO of the Tourette Association of America, has been named president and chief executive of the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind and America’s VetDogs.
Other Notable Appointments
Bob Bancroft, director of finance and tax at the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, will join the Nathan Cummings Foundation as vice president for finance.
Anne Marie Boursiquot King, managing director of the Tufts Health Plan Foundation, has become senior program officer at RIZE Massachusetts, a $50 million grant maker that addresses opioid abuse in the state.
Paul Bubb, associate athletic director for development at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, has been named the executive director of development at Western Illinois University.
Hilary Rhodes, a senior research and evaluation officer at the Wallace Foundation, has become the director of evaluation and learning at the William Penn Foundation.
Carol Medlin has joined Feeding America as chief program officer. Medlin is founder and principal of Praxis Social Impact Consulting and has worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as a senior program officer.
Melissa Saul joined the Skin Cancer Foundation as senior director of development. She was previously executive director for greater New York at the National Kidney Foundation.
Ellen Peck has been appointed North American director of mothers2mothers. She has been director of resource development at Save the Children.
Javier Torres has been appointed program director of the Thriving Cultures program at the Surdna Foundation. He was previously the director of national grant making at ArtPlace America.
Mark Walsh, who worked for President Obama as deputy chief of protocol of the United States from 2011 to 2017, has joined RIZE Massachusetts as director of external affairs and philanthropy.
Tamara Wootton Forsyth, associate director of collections, exhibitions, and facilities management at the Dallas Museum of Art, has been promoted to deputy director.
Departures
Ella Baff will leave the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, where she is senior program officer for arts and cultural heritage, in March.
Duane Gordon, who was CEO of the Middletown Community Foundation in Ohio for more than 10 years, has resigned.
John Urban, president and CEO of the Greater Rochester Health Foundation since it was founded in 2006, plans to step down from his post in July.
Legacies
Jon Huntsman Sr., a major philanthropist and businessman in Utah, died on February 2. He was 80. Mr. Huntsman founded the Huntsman Corporation, a chemicals manufacturer in Salt Lake City. Along with his wife, Karen, he gave away over $1 billion of his wealth in his lifetime, landing him on our Philanthropy 50 list three times since 2000. The couple peaked at No. 2 in 2007, in large part for giving $700 million to endow the Huntsman Cancer Foundation, in Salt Lake City.
Sanford Diller, a philanthropist and real-estate developer, died February 2 at the age of 89. Diller founded the Prometheus Real Estate Group in the San Francisco Bay Area and with his late wife, Helen Diller, gave to the University of California at San Francisco as well as to Bay Area hospitals, the arts, and Jewish causes.
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