Board of Directors
Michael
A. Bailin (Vice Chair), President (retired), Edna
McConnell Clark Foundation
Ann
S. Bowers, Board Chair and founding Trustee, Noyce Foundation
Lewis
M. Feldstein (Treasurer), President, New Hampshire
Charitable Foundation
Sherry
Lansing (Secretary), Founder, The Sherry Lansing
Foundation
Beverly
Ryder, Office of Civic Engagement, Los Angeles Unified School
District
Lester
Strong, Chief Development Officer, BELL Foundation
Harris
Wofford, former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania
Ruth
A. Wooden (Chair), President and CEO, Public Agenda
(Vice Chair) was President of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation from 1996 to 2005. The Foundation seeks to improve conditions for people who live in poor and disadvantaged communities, and to support initiatives that create more innovative ways to serve people in need. Previously, Bailin was a founder, former President, and Chief Executive Officer of Public/Private Ventures (P/PV), a nationally recognized nonprofit organization dedicated to improving opportunities for young people in poor communities. Before joining P/PV in 1977, Bailin taught government and urban policy at Dartmouth College, and developed and directed its Urban Education Program in Jersey City, New Jersey. He also has practiced law and directed a national legal services demonstration in five cities. He has taught and served as Vice President for Administration and Community Services at Franconia College in New Hampshire; Deputy Director and Counsel of the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City; and Human Resources Consultant to the City of New York and The Ford Foundation. An honors graduate of Dartmouth College, Bailin attended Yale Law School as a Yale National Honors Scholar and earned, along with his law degree, a master's in Urban Studies from the Yale School of Art and Architecture. He has served as a board member and advisor to numerous public policy and human service organizations, and is a frequent speaker on youth and social policy issues.
is the Chair of the Board and the founding Trustee of the Noyce Foundation. Previously, her career was in human resource management in California's Silicon Valley. She was the first Director of Personnel for Intel Corporation and the first Vice President of Human Resources for Apple Computer. In both of these high-growth, start-up companies and in her consulting practice, she created and implemented the worldwide human resources policies and practices that fostered the growth of organizational excellence. She now coaches CEOs of several start-up organizations, and serves as a Director of the Exploratorium in San Francisco and the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. She is on the Board of EdVoice and the Advisory Board of New Schools Venture Fund. Bowers also is a Trustee Emerita, Presidential Councilor, and on the Life Sciences Advisory Board at Cornell University. She received a B.A. from Cornell University and an honorary Ph.D. from the University of Santa Clara, where she was a Trustee for nearly 20 years.
(Treasurer) is president of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the principal source of venture capital for New Hampshire's nonprofit community. An expert on civic engagement, Feldstein co-chaired Harvard University's three-year executive seminar on civic engagement in America with Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone. He and Putnam co-authored Better Together: Restoring the American Community in 2003. In recent years, Feldstein was selected as one of the 100 People Who Shaped New Hampshire in the 20th Century, published by the Concord Monitor, and one of the 10 most influential people in New Hampshire by Business NH Magazine. Feldstein has held a variety of jobs in the nonprofit and public sectors, starting his career by working with the civil rights movement in Mississippi. Since then, he has served in senior staff positions to New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay and worked as provost of the Antioch/New England Graduate School, among many other jobs. Feldstein serves on several boards, including the Board of Directors of Independent Sector. Feldstein is a graduate of Brown University and holds a Master's in Law and Diplomacy from Tufts University. He has received six honorary doctorates.
(Secretary) is the founder and current chair of the Sherry Lansing
Foundation, a philanthropic organization focused on cancer research,
health and education. Ms. Lansing was the chair of the Motion Picture
Group of Paramount Pictures from 1992 to 2005, where she oversaw
the release of more than 200 films including Academy Award® winners
Forrest Gump (1994), Braveheart (1995), and highest grossing movie
of all time, Titanic (1997). A pioneering studio executive, Lansing
was the first woman in the film industry to oversee all aspects
of a studio's motion picture production. Currently, Lansing serves
on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Friends
of Cancer Research and as a Trustee of the American Association
for Cancer Research. She continues to lend her energy and talents
to such advisory boards and committees as the American Red Cross
Board of Governors, the board of trustees for the Carter Center,
and Stop Cancer, a non-profit philanthropic group she founded in
partnership with Dr. Armand Hammer. Lansing is a Regent of the University
of California and serves as chair of the University Health Services
Committee. In December 2004, she was appointed to the Independent
Citizens' Oversight Committee of CIRM, the California state agency
charged with disbursing $3 billion in funding for embryonic stem
cell research. Lansing graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science
Degree from Northwestern University in 1966.
is an accomplished executive with 30 years of experience in the banking and energy industries. She is currently a Southern California Edison company executive loaned to the Los Angeles Unified School District. Ryder is responsible for helping build business partnerships with the district and is working on a strategic initiative to establish a parent and community engagement office. Ryder joined Edison in 1992 after 16 years in the banking industry. As a vice president in the corporate banking group of Citibank, she was responsible for structuring financial transactions for Fortune 500 clients in the retail, financial services, hospitality and consumer products industries. At Edison International, Ryder served for nine years as the corporate secretary of the holding company and its utility subsidiary, Southern California Edison. Additionally, she was the company's vice president of community involvement, overseeing the company's philanthropic and employee volunteer activities. Commensurate with Ryder's professional career is an active community life. She currently sits on the boards of several nonprofit organizations in the Los Angeles area, including the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Urban League, CORO and the Los Angeles Conservation Corps. She is a trustee of Claremont Graduate University, a former trustee of Stanford University, and a former commissioner of the Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System and the Western Association of Senior Colleges and Universities accreditation commission. Ryder earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Stanford University and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago.
is a man who is very comfortable with change. In a 25-year career as a television producer, reporter and anchor in Charlotte (WBTV), Atlanta (WSB), New York (ABC Entertainment) and Boston (WHDH), Strong won a host of national and regional awards, including five regional Emmy Awards and a White House commendation from Ronald Reagan. Then, in 2000, at the age of 51, Strong moved to the nonprofit sector to follow his passions in an encore career. A long-time proponent and practitioner of meditation, Strong became CEO of the SYDA Foundation, an international organization that provides instruction in yoga and meditation in 46 countries. In 2005, Strong became the chief development officer for the BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life) Foundation, which provides tutoring and mentoring services to about 10,000 underserved, low-income children in New York, Boston and Baltimore.
is a former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania
and former CEO of the Corporation for National Service. He played
a key role in the civil rights movement in the 1950s, and was a special
assistant to President Kennedy for Civil Rights. In 1961 Wofford
helped Sargent Shriver launch the Peace Corps, Wofford has dedicated
much of his life to the goal of making citizen service a common expectation
and experience for all Americans. Wofford joined the board of directors
of America's Promise in March 2001 and was elected chairman in January
2002. He has also served on the boards of Youth Service America and
the Points of Light Foundation, and he is spokesperson for Experience
Wave, which advances federal and state policies that encourage mid-life
and older adults to stay engaged in work and community life. Sen.
Wofford has written extensively and is the author of the highly acclaimed,
Of Kennedys and Kings: Making Sense of the Sixties. Wofford has received
numerous hornors and awards, including the Independent Sector's John
W. Gardner Leadership Award.
(Chair) is President and CEO of Public Agenda, a nonpartisan opinion research organization helping Americans explore and understand critical issues. Before joining Public Agenda, she was Executive Vice President and Senior Counselor at Porter Novelli, an international public relations firm known for its expertise in social marketing and health care. Prior to Porter Novelli, Wooden ran her own communications consulting firm and was President and former board member of the National Parenting Association (NPA), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded to spark a parent's movement to make parenting a higher priority in private lives and on the public agenda. For 11 years before joining NPA, she was President of the Advertising Council, Inc., an organization that yearly mobilizes more than $1 billion of advertising space and time, the creative services of major advertising agencies, and financial support from hundreds of corporations. Wooden led the Advertising Council into important new strategic areas, playing an instrumental role in the 1995 development of "Commitment 2000," the organization's 10-year initiative to build support for family issues. She also was a key player in developing and executing "Kids These Days: What Americans Really Think About the Next Generation," a multi-year study that tracks American attitudes toward children and parents. After leaving the Ad Council and prior to joining NPA, Wooden worked on the Presidential campaign of Senator Bill Bradley, serving as coordinator of the Crystal Team, a group of volunteer advertising professionals who created Senator Bradley's advertising. She received a B.A. from the University of Minnesota and an Honorary Doctorate from Northeastern University.