Turner Foundation
Dean Wilson, founder of Good Life TV, has been appointed president and CEO. This charity, which was formerly known as the Rose Garden Village Foundation, serves the needs of elderly people in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Iowa West Foundation
Brenda Mainwaring, assistant vice president of public affairs at Union Pacific Railroad, will begin serving as president and CEO on September 8. She is the first woman to lead the $392 million foundation.
Mainwaring follows Pete Tulipana, who is retiring after leading the grant maker for eight years.
Southcentral Foundation
April Kyle, vice president, will now serve as interim CEO of the $514 million foundation. She follows Katherine Gottlieb, who is resigning after 29 years as president and CEO of the Alaskan health provider.
Her departure follows the dismissal of three employees, including Gottlieb’s husband, for allegedly falsifying health records. Kevin Gottlieb was vice president and chief of staff at the foundation.
More New CEOs
Mónica Córdova, deputy director, has been promoted to co-executive director of the Funder’s Collaborative for Youth Organizing. Córdova will serve alongside Eric Braxton, who has been executive director since 2012.
Lisa Diekmann, director of development at the Bridger Ski Foundation and regional director of development at the Wilderness Society, has been selected as president and CEO of Yellowstone Forever.
Donna Gustafson, curator of American art and director of academic programs at the Zimmerli Art Museum, will now serve as interim director. She follows Tom Sokolowki, who led the museum from 2017 until his death in May.
Jennifer Owens has been tapped as president and CEO of HealthMPowers. She was most recently senior vice president at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. Owens succeeds Christi Kay, who has retired.
California Endowment
The $3.8 billion foundation has promoted several top leaders to its new program-management team.
Raymond Colmenar, director of the foundation’s Healthy California program, will now be managing director of inclusive development and the north region.
Steve Eldred, program manager for City Heights, has been promoted to managing director of health systems and the southern region.
Tamu Jones is now managing director of justice reinvestment and the Los Angeles region. Most recently she was senior program manager with its statewide justice team.
Judi Larsen, senior program manager, will next be managing director for the CEO office.
Lauren Padilla-Valverde, senior program manager for the Salinas Valley and Monterey County, has been promoted to director of racial equity, practice, and culture.
Castle Redmond has become managing director of schools and the central region. Most recently he led the foundation’s Sons & Brothers Campaign.
Sandra Witt, director of Healthy Communities, North, will now be managing director of power infrastructure statewide.
Livestrong Foundation
The Austin, Tex., charity that develops programs and services for cancer survivors has named four new members to its senior leadership ranks.
Adam Disler is now its chief development and marketing officer. He joins Livestrong from the National MS Society, where he was national associate vice president.
Keith Peterson, global head of brand marketing at iFly Indoor Skydiving, is now vice president of marketing and communications.
Suzanne Stone, vice president of programs and strategy, has been promoted to chief strategic solutions and programs officer.
Traci Walker, a certified public accountant and former corporate controller at Amherst Holdings, has been hired as vice president of finance.
Other Notable Appointments
Amy Acton, director of Ohio’s Department of Health, is rejoining the Columbus Foundation as director of Kind Columbus. She was previously community research and grants management officer at the foundation before her appointment by Gov. Mike DeWine last year.
Chris Biehn, interim vice president for institutional advancement at St. John Fisher College since March, will continue in the role permanently. Prior to March, he was a senior consultant at Washburn & McGoldrick.
Cara Giacomini, director of analytics at the University of Washington’s advancement department, has joined the Council for Advancement and Support of Education as chief research and data officer.
Nancy Hendrix, deputy director of development at the Equal Justice Initiative, is now director of development at the Birmingham Museum of Art.
Edward Yim, president of American Composers Orchestra, will become chief content officer at WQXR on September 28.
Troy Riddle has been named chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a new role at the conservation group. Most recently he was assistant dean of diversity and inclusion at Albany Law School.
Tara Spann, head of diversity and inclusion at Eversource Energy, has been appointed chief people and strategy officer at Mentor, an organization that counsels youths in Boston.
Cheryl Cramer Toto, president and CEO of the Marketing Science Institute, has been named chief operations officer at World Education Services.
Susie Willett has joined the Dream Foundation as director of development. Most recently she was senior director of corporate and foundation relations at Westmont College.
Departures
J.J. Yore has stepped down as general manager of Washington, D.C.'s public radio station WAMU. Staff had revolted over his handling of sexual-harassment allegations against a reporter and conditions that allegedly led to the departure of some Black journalists.
William Carden, artistic director of the Ensemble Studio Theatre since 2007, will step down once a successor has been named. Carden said in a statement that he is stepping aside so that a person of color may lead the Off-Broadway performing-arts group in New York, where he has worked since 1978.
Scott Martinez, president of the North Louisiana Economic Partnership, has resigned after almost eight years there.
Legacies
Doris Buffett, a philanthropist and the older sister of Warren Buffett, died on August 4 at age 92. Warren Buffett frequently sought her advice in philanthropy and relied on her judgment as she vetted people who wrote letters to him asking for help. Using the returns on her own investments in Berkshire Hathaway, Doris Buffett established the Sunshine Lady Foundation and the Learning by Giving Foundation. She and her brother also co-founded the Letters Foundation to make grants to individuals and organizations that advance the education of prison inmates, abused women, and low-income teenagers, and to provide aid to people with mental illnesses and their caregivers. She focused much of giving on the cities she considered her hometowns: Fredericksburg, Va.; Wilmington and Beaufort, N.C.; and Rockport, Me.
Richard P. Mellon, an heir to the Mellon banking fortune, died on July 27 at age 81. The eldest son of Richard King Mellon and Constance Prosser Mellon, he served on the board of the Richard King Mellon Foundation for 45 years, including 25 years as chairman until he retired from that role in 2009. The foundation now has $2.7 billion in assets. He also steered the R.K. Mellon Family Foundation, a separate family grant maker, and gave a donation to the Valley School of Ligonier that allowed the museum to purchase the saddle pistols that George Washington carried during the American Revolution.
Send an email to people@philanthropy.com.
