People in Philanthropy

Simon Luethi/The Ford Foundation

SURDNA FOUNDATION HIRES NEW LEADER FROM FORD

Don Chen has been tapped as the $1 billion Surdna Foundation’s next president.

Previously, he served as director of the Ford Foundation’s Just Cities and Regions Team. In that role, he overhauled how the foundation worked to reduce poverty in urban areas and advance sustainability in the United States and parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Chen is the foundation’s third president and will replace Phillip Henderson, who is retiring. Edward Skloot, now a consultant to nonprofits, was the founding president.

AMERICAN DIABETES ASSOCIATION NAMES CEO

American Diabetes Association/PRNewsfoto

Tracey Brown, former senior vice president for operations and chief experience officer at the Sam’s Club division at Walmart, has become CEO of this organization, which raises money for diabetes research.

The charity ranked No. 230 on last year’s Philanthropy 400, the Chronicle’s annual ranking of charities that raise the most money.

ENGENDERHEALTH HAS NEW PRESIDENT

Traci Baird will be CEO of this global women’s health and reproductive-rights organization as of October 1. Previously, she led Shift NC, which works to improve the sexual health of young people in North Carolina. She will replace Rosemary Ellis, interim CEO, who will resume her position on the group’s board.

LEADERSHIP CHANGES AT BENEDUM FOUNDAtION

Jennifer Giovannitti, a community-development manager in the Federal Reserve Bank’s Fifth District, will become president of the $347 million Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation in October. She succeeds William Getty, who has led the Pittsburgh grant maker since 1999 and is retiring.

Benedum Foundation

DISCOVERY PARK OF AMERICA HIRES NEWSEUM OFFICIAL

Scott Williams, president and chief operating officer of the Newseum, has been hired as CEO of this Tennessee children’s museum. He will replace James Rippy, who has led the museum since it was built in 2008 and will now retire.

FOUNDATIONS APPOINT SENIOR LEADERS

Faye Alexander Nelson, who recently completed the Sojourner Truth fellowship at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, is the new director of Michigan programs for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. She is in the $8.2 billion foundation’s Detroit office.

James Cadogan, a civil-rights lawyer and director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund’s Thurgood Marshall Institute, has joined the $1.9 billion Laura and John Arnold Foundation as vice president for criminal justice. Before joining the NAACP, he served as a counselor to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

Open Society Foundations

Open Society Foundations, created by the billionaire financier George Soros, has hired two senior directors. Kavita Ramdas will become director of the Women’s Rights Program, effective September 25. Previously, she was at Madre, a women’s rights organization, and the Ford Foundation, where she served as a strategic adviser to its president. Ayisha Osori, a lawyer and development consultant, has been named executive director of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa.

MUSEUM IN COURT BATTLE NAMES NEW CEO

Chase Robinson, a professor of history and president of the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, will become the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art on December 10.

Van Shields, executive director of the Berkshire Museum since 2011, has retired.

David Ellis, who has also served as interim president of the Boston Children’s Museum and interim executive director of the Harvard Museum of Natural History, will temporarily lead the museum during its executive search.

The Berkshire Museum has generated controversy and lawsuits by offering to sell dozens of pieces of artwork from its collection to shore up its endowment and pay for repairs to its facilities.

MANAGEMENT CHANGES UNVEILED AT NONPROFITS

Adrienne Karecki, regional director for West, Central, and North Africa at the humanitarian-aid group Mercy Corps, has been promoted to chief development and marketing officer. Mercy Corps ranked No. 212 on the Philanthropy 400 in 2017, tallying a total of $349 million in income.

Erika Rudin-Luria, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, has been promoted to president, effective January 1. She succeeds Stephen Hoffman, who plans to retire in December. The federation in Ohio is frequently on the Chronicle’s annual survey of the charities that raise the most money. Last year, it raised $80.5 million.

DEPARTURES

Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation since 2006, plans to leave the higher-education grant maker in July 2019.

LEGACIES

H.F. (Gerry) Lenfest, a billionaire philanthropist who made his fortune in cable television, died August 5 at age 88. He and his wife, Marguerite, gave away an estimated $1.3 billion, focusing primarily on education, journalism, and cultural institutions in the Philadelphia area.

Jeremy Nowak, who served as president of the William Penn Foundation until 2012, died in Philadelphia on July 28 after suffering a heart attack. He was 66. He was also the founder of the Reinvestment Fund, and last year he co-authored the book The New Localism: How Cities Can Thrive in the Age of Populism.

Charles Collier, who worked at Harvard University as its longtime senior philanthropic adviser, died on August 9 of complications from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. He was 70.