Rockefeller Names Director of Democracy Building; Ford Hires Program Officer for Creativity

Rockefeller Family Fund

Rockefeller Family Fund

Julie Fernandes, advocacy director for voting rights and democracy at the Open Society Foundations, has joined the Rockefellers’ family foundation as associate director of institutional accountability and individual liberty. In this role, she will direct the philanthropy’s grant-making efforts to bolster democratic institutions such as voter registration, fair electoral maps, and investigative journalism and the free press.

Ford Foundation

Lane Harwell, executive director of Dance/NYC, will join the $12.1 billion philanthropy this summer as program officer for creativity and free expression.

Kaufman Music Center

Kate Sheeran, provost and dean of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, has been named executive director of the performing-arts center in New York, effective in August. She will succeed Lydia Kontos, who is retiring.

Maya Angelou Schools

Robert Simmons III has been appointed CEO. Earlier this year, he was named president of Service Year Alliance. Before that, he served as vice president for strategy and innovation for the Campaign for Black Male Achievement.

Miami City Ballet

Tania Castroverde Moskalenko, CEO of the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, has been named executive director of the ballet company in Miami Beach, effective August 7.

New University Fundraisers

Michele Cesca, associate vice president for development at California State University at Fullerton, will become vice president for university relations and development at California State University at Long Beach on August 1.

Michael Kingan, vice president for development and alumni relations at the University of Texas at Arlington, has been named vice president for institutional advancement at Southern Connecticut State University.

Heather Lee Krajewski, assistant vice president for advancement at the University of Richmond, has become vice president for college advancement at Hampden-Sydney College.

Kathy Meza, senior executive director for university advancement at Point Loma Nazarene University, has been hired as the vice president for advancement at Eastern University, effective August 1.

Elizabeth Williams, former director of advancement and major gifts at Holy Names University, has joined the California Jazz Conservatory as director of philanthropy.

Other Notable Appointments

Corinne Godsall has joined the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation as director for corporate, institutional, and global partners. She was most recently director of media operations at Smithsonian Enterprises.

Casey Kellogg, a senior philanthropy adviser at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, has been promoted to vice president of donor engagement and services.

Andrea Sáenz, first deputy commissioner and chief strategy officer at Chicago Public Library, has joined the Chicago Community Trust as its chief operating officer.

Departures

Emmett Carson, chief executive officer of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, has stepped down. The foundation’s board placed Carson on paid leave in April after former and current employees criticized him for tolerating unprofessional behavior by the foundation’s No. 2 executive, Mari Ellen Loijens, who has not commented on the allegations.

Carson said in a statement that some staff members felt “they were not sufficiently heard” and others did not trust the “multiple systems in place, including an anonymous hotline, to report complaints or concerns and have them fully and fairly addressed.”

Carson said he regrets “any role that I may have played in contributing to those feelings.”

Read more of the Chronicle’s coverage of Carson’s departure.

Jenni Frumer, CEO of Alpert Jewish Family and Children’s Service and the Levine Jewish Residential Service in West Palm Beach, Fla., will step down from her position on July 31. She has worked at the two sister charities for 32 years.

Kathlyn Mead, president and CEO of the San Diego Foundation for nearly four years, was dismissed from her post this week. Kay Chandler, vice chair and secretary of the foundation’s Board of Trustees, has stepped in as interim CEO.

Legacies

Robert Higdon, former director of fundraising for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute and later the managing director of the Prince of Wales Foundation until 2011, died June 19 at age 58. The cause of his death has not been released. During his 14-year tenure at the Prince of Wales Foundation, which is based in Washington, he raised millions of dollars for architecture, historic preservation, and the environment.

Send an email to people@philanthropy.com.