New Leaders at the Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy and the Poetry Foundation

Urban Institute

Shena Ashley, assistant professor of public administration and international affairs at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, will become the director of the Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, which conducts research on the nonprofit sector to inform policy makers. She will start the new job in January, succeeding Elizabeth Boris, who founded the center in 1996.

Ms. Ashley taught at Georgia State University before joining Syracuse. She also served as director of research and policy at the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Atlanta Civic Site and trained as an agricultural economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Children’s Museum of Richmond

Shannon Venable, vice president for staffing and diversity at Dominion Resources, was appointed chief executive.

Garrison Institute

Chris Marblo, former president of the Arts Center in Troy, N.Y., was named executive director.

Help Me Grow National Center

Kimberly Martini-Carvell, former associate vice president for programs at the Village for Families and Children, was named executive director.

National Civic League

Doug Linkhart, former executive director of the Denver Department of Environmental Health and a former state senator of Colorado, was appointed president.

Poetry Foundation

Henry Bienen, interim president, will become the president.

Richmond Memorial Health Foundation

Mark Constantine, senior vice president at the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, will be chief executive.

Other notable changes:

Meg Gage, president of Proteus Fund, has stepped down.

Mary MacFarlane, former fundraising consultant for the New Repertory Theater, was appointed capital-gifts officer at Plimoth Plantation.

Rafi Rone, former vice president for Jewish and Israel initiative at the Joseph and Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds, will be program director at the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.

Albert Ruesga, chief executive of the Greater New Orleans Foundation, has announced plans to resign his post in June.

Legacies:

Robert Nathan Mayer, founder and president of the Hulda B. and Maurice L. Rothschild Foundation, died on December 3. He was 66.

Hank Williams, director at Platform, a Tides project that seeks to diversify the innovation economy, died on November 15. He was 50.

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