Commission Members

Marla Blow is the President and COO of the Skoll Foundation where she leads Skoll’s program work, grants, investments, and financial management, including operations, endowment, and portfolio partnerships. Previously, she was North America lead at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, and before Mastercard, she was Founder and CEO of FS Card Inc., a subprime credit card venture (sold to strategic acquirer).

Ms. Blow won the EY Mid Atlantic Emerging Company Entrepreneur of the Year Award for 2018, and has been listed as one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business. Marla was featured in the April 2018 Vanity Fair “26 Women of Color Diversifying Entrepreneurship” photo shoot, and she is a Henry Crown Fellow as part of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Marla sits on the Board of Directors of Square Financial Services, an independent subsidiary of Square, Inc.

Previously, she was part of the Implementation Team to stand up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and ultimately served as the Assistant Director for Card and Payment Markets, where she shaped the CFPB’s regulatory priorities in these markets.

Prior to joining the CFPB, Marla spent seven years in a variety of functions at Capital One in the credit card business. Ms. Blow is a member of the US Capital Chapter of YPO, and previously served on the Board of Directors of Care.com (NYSE: CRCM, sold to IAC), and on the Board of Directors of Factor Trust (sold to TransUnion). Marla holds an MBA from Stanford University and an undergraduate degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ann Mei Chang is the CEO of Candid and author of Lean Impact: How to Innovate for Radically Greater Social Good. A leading expert on social innovation, Ann Mei previously served as the Chief Innovation Officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Mercy Corps, and Pete for America. As the first Executive Director of the US Global Development Lab, she harnessed best practices for innovation to accelerate the impact and scale of solutions to the world’s most intractable challenges.

Prior to her pivot to the public and social sector, Ann Mei was a seasoned technology executive, with more than 20 years’ experience at such leading companies as Google, Apple, and Intuit, as well as at a range of startups. As Senior Engineering Director at Google, she led worldwide engineering for mobile applications and services, delivering 20x growth to $1 billion in annual revenues in just three years.

Ann Mei earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Stanford University and is a member of the Aspen Institute’s Henry Crown Fellows’ class of 2011. She has been recognized as one of the “Women in the World: 125 Women of Impact” by Newsweek/The Daily Beast in 2013, “23 most powerful LGBTQ+ people in tech” by Business Insider in 2019, and “20 Top LGBTQ+ Entrepreneurs, Executives and Thought Leaders” by Global Shakers in 2019.

Dr. Cecilia Conrad is the CEO of Lever for Change, emerita professor of economics at Pomona College, and managing director of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Lever for Change is a new nonprofit affiliate of the MacArthur Foundation whose mission is to unlock philanthropic capital and accelerate solutions to the world’s biggest social challenges. In addition to her role at Lever for Change, Dr. Conrad oversees the MacArthur Fellows program and MacArthur’s 100&Change, the Foundation’s competition for a single $100 million grant to help solve a critical problem of our time.

Before joining the foundation in January 2013, Conrad had a distinguished career as both a professor and an administrator at Pomona College, Claremont, CA. and Scripps College.

In 2002, she was recognized as California’s Carnegie Professor of the Year, a prestigious national award that recognizes faculty members for their achievement as undergraduate professors. Conrad’s academic research focuses on the effects of race and gender on economic status. Her work has appeared in both academic journals and nonacademic publications including The American Prospect and Black Enterprise. Before joining the faculty at Pomona College, Conrad served on the faculties of Barnard College and Duke University. She was also an economist at the Federal Trade Commission and a visiting scholar at The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Dr. Conrad is a member of the board of trustees of Bryn Mawr College, The Poetry Foundation, the National Academy of Social Insurance, IES, and the Sylvia Bozeman and Rhonda Hughes EDGE Foundation. She is a trustee emerita of Muhlenberg College.

Dr. Conrad received her BA degree from Wellesley College and her PhD in economics from Stanford University.

Asha Curran is CEO of GivingTuesday, which works to inspire generosity in communities around the world through its distributed leadership network. She was formerly Chief Innovation Officer and director of the Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact at 92nd Street Y.

She is the recipient of the 2015 Social Capital Hero Award, and was named a 2016 Woman of Influence by New York Business Journals and a 40 Over 40 Women to Watch honoree. Asha serves as Chair of the board of directors of Guardian.org, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing civil discourse and issues-driven journalism at The Guardian and elsewhere; and on the board of directors of the Scout Film Festival, which amplifies the work of teen filmmakers. She is a Fellow at Stanford University’s Digital Civil Society Lab within the Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society. She was named to the Nonprofit Times’  Top Fifty Power and Influence list in 2019, 2020, and 2021.

Clotilde Perez-Bode Dedecker is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo. An innovative and visionary leader, she is creating positive long-term change in her community and beyond. For more than 100 years, the Community Foundation has worked with individuals, families, foundations and organizations to steward their charitable assets. Today, the Community Foundation has grown to more than $720 million in charitable assets and is recognized for leading transformative change on key issues.

Since 2005, Clotilde has led the Community Foundation’s strategy to create meaningful community change on behalf of the donors who have chosen to support this work. The Community Foundation brings together community partners to advance systems change through initiatives like Say Yes Buffalo, Greater Buffalo Racial Equity Roundtable and the WNY Impact Investment Fund, to name a few. Seen as a changemaker, Clotilde’s work has attracted more than $100 million to Western New York to support these collective efforts.

Clotilde is past chair of the Foundation Center- which merged with Guidestar to form Candid. Candid is widely considered the premier source for global social sector information. She is also a member of the boards of FSG, Foundation Executives’ Alliance to Expand Opportunities for Boys and Young Men of Color and the Global Fund for Community Foundations.
In recognition of her civic sector expertise, Clotilde was appointed to the White House Council on Service and Civic Participation and named co-chair of the U.S. Committee of the United Nations International Year of the Volunteer. Clotilde speaks frequently about the role of philanthropy, community impact and nonprofit governance around the world. She presented at the U.S. Partnership on Mobility from Poverty Summit supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Washington, D.C. and the Asia Forum on Philanthropy for Better Cities in Hong Kong.

For her contributions, Clotilde has received numerous honors and awards, including accolades from the Points of Light Foundation, the Governor’s Award for Service, the President’s Award for Service and The Buffalo News Citizen of the Year Award. She was named the 2018 Buffalo Niagara Executive of the Year by the University at Buffalo School of Management and received the Humanitarian Award from the Urban League in 2020. She is the recipient of the Dean’s Service Award from the State University of New York at Buffalo Graduate School of Education and the Canisius College Distinguished Citizen Award. An alumna of both institutions, Clotilde received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Canisius College and Masters of Arts degree in Education from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is a naturalized U.S. citizen and a native of Cuba.

Heather Templeton Dill is the President of the John Templeton Foundation. Prior to this role, Ms. Dill served as executive liaison to the president under her father, the late Dr. Jack Templeton. Ms. Dill is the granddaughter of the late Sir John Templeton.

Prior to joining the foundation staff, she taught high school history, government, and economics in Pennsylvania. While living in Charlottesville, Virginia, she was a homeschool educator as well as a manuscript editor and research assistant at the University of Virginia. She served as a trustee of the John Templeton Foundation from 1997 to 2003 and 2009 to 2015 and has been a member of the foundation’s executive, finance, and strategic planning committees.

Ms. Dill is currently a member of the board of First Trust Bank and previously served on the Templeton Religion Trust steering committee and the Templeton World Charity Foundation board. Ms. Dill earned a master’s degree from Villanova University and is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a bachelor’s degree.

Wendy Guillies is the president and chief executive officer of the Kansas City-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. With more than $2.5B in assets, the Kauffman Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States. The Foundation approaches its work from the middle of the country with a solid Midwest mindset – working to build practical and workable solutions to today’s challenges.

Guillies leads the Foundation’s work to boost student achievement in the Kansas City region and to accelerate entrepreneurship across the country. Before becoming CEO, she played an instrumental role in building the Foundation’s local, national, and global reputation as a thought leader and innovator in its fields. Guillies has worked at the Foundation since early 2000 and was named president and CEO in 2015.

Guillies has deep expertise in communications, marketing, organizational development, and talent management. She serves on the boards of Saint Luke’s South Hospital, Folience, Enterprise Bank & Trust, and the Economic Club of Kansas City. The Kansas City Business Journal has named her to the Power 100 list since 2016, and TechWeek KC named her to the Tech 100 list. She was also selected for the 2017 class of the KC Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business.

Guillies is a native of Kansas City, Kansas, and a graduate of the University of Nebraska. She lives in Overland Park, Kansas, where she and her husband are the proud parents of two daughters.

Kenneth Hodder leads the largest social services organization in the United States, with more than 7,600 centers of operations across the country that together serve 23 million people each year.

Prior to this appointment, Commissioner Kenneth Hodder, a sixth-generation Salvationist, served as the territorial commander of the USA Western Territory. Among other vital efforts, they worked diligently to address the growing crisis of homelessness. Last year, Commissioner Kenneth Hodder launched The Way Out, an initiative whose goal is to double The Salvation Army’s response to homelessness over the next five years.

Before service as Salvation Army officers, Hodder had a successful career in the corporate world.

Commissioner Kenneth Hodder graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School and practiced corporate and real estate law in Los Angeles with the firm Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison.

The Salvation Army annually helps more than 23 million Americans overcome poverty, addiction and economic hardships through a range of social services. In the first-ever listing of “America’s Favorite Charities” by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Salvation Army ranked as the country’s largest privately funded, direct-service nonprofit.

Lisa Marsh Ryerson is the Executive Vice President for Strategy and Special Initiatives for Southern New Hampshire University.

Prior to this role, Lisa was the President of AARP Foundation, a charitable affiliate of AARP where she set the Foundation’s strategic direction and steered its efforts to realize an audacious vision: a country free of poverty, where no older person feels vulnerable. During her tenure, AARP Foundation launched initiatives that include Property Tax-Aide, Work for [email protected]+, and evidence-based grantmaking. The Foundation also brought Experience Corps under its umbrella and expanded the reach and outcomes of its workforce programs including its longstanding sponsorship of the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP). Lisa also helped procure a $5 million grant through UnitedHealth Foundation to support vulnerable older adults experiencing social isolation during the pandemic. In its past three-year strategic plan, AARP Foundation generated over $5 billion in income for older adults through work and jobs, tax refunds and credits, and food security benefits.

Through more than 18 years of service as the president and CEO of Wells College in Aurora, N.Y., Lisa helped build new links between AARP Foundation and higher education, including work with community colleges to increase employment opportunities for older adults. She continues to spearhead collaborative partnerships with organizations at the national, regional and community level to advance effective solutions that help low-income older adults increase their economic opportunity and social connections.
She has served on the boards of numerous higher education and nonprofit organizations, both at the local and national level. She currently serves on the National Women’s History Museum, the Root Cause Coalition, and The Shriver Center on Poverty Law.
Lisa holds a Bachelor of Arts from Wells College and a Master of Science from the State University of New York College at Cortland. She has an honorary degree from Southern New Hampshire University; an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the State University of New York at Albany for having met and exceeded each of John Quincy Adams’ standards for leadership; and an Honorary Doctor of Social Services from Dickinson College.

Dr. Michael McAfee became President and CEO of PolicyLink in 2018. During his time at PolicyLink, Michael has played a leadership role in securing Promise Neighborhoods as a permanent federal program, led efforts to improve outcomes for more than 300,000 children, and facilitated the investment of billions of dollars in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty.

Before joining PolicyLink, Michael served as senior community planning and development representative in the Chicago Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Before his public service, Michael served as the director of community leadership for The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and Affiliated Trusts. Michael’s commitment to the needs of people of color and those living in poverty extends to his work on the boards of Bridge Housing, Independent Sector, North Lawndale Employment Network, One Degree, and Sweet Beginnings, LLC, each of which is committed to creating opportunity for those among the 100 million economically insecure people in America.

Previously, Michael served in the United States Army and as Dean’s Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He earned his Doctor of Education in human and organizational learning from George Washington University and completed Harvard University’s Executive Program in Public Management.

Luis A. Miranda, Jr. Luis A. Miranda, Jr. has four decades of experience as a leader in the public, private, political, and advocacy sectors. He is the founding partner of The MirRam Group, founding president of the Hispanic Federation, and board chair of the Latino Victory Fund.  He is recognized as a key contributor to the Senate campaigns of Senator Chuck Schumer, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and former U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton. Most recently he managed Letitia James’ successful campaign to become New York State Attorney General.

For over 40 years, Luis and the Miranda family have championed community activism and Latinx-led organizations. They have created and fostered institutions that work with underserved populations in Upper Manhattan and communities throughout New York City, across the country, and in Puerto Rico. They continue to support advocacy for education, the arts, and social justice, along with a sustained focus on relief and rebuilding efforts in post-Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico.

Natalye Paquin is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Points of Light. An attorney by training, she began her career in private practice as a litigation attorney and spent more than 15 years in the education sector in legal and executive leadership roles. First as a civil rights attorney with the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, and with two of the nation’s largest school districts, the Chicago Public Schools, and the School District of Philadelphia.

She joined the nonprofit sector having been recruited from volunteer board roles, first with the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where she served as Chief Operating Officer, and then as Chief Executive Officer of the Girls Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, the state’s largest girl-serving organization and among the largest Girl Scouts councils in the nation. Prior to joining Points of Light in 2017, Natalye served as Chief Transformation Officer at Girl Scouts of the USA. Natalye Paquin earned a juris doctor from DePaul University College of Law and an undergraduate degree from Florida A&M University. For more than a decade, Natalye has served as an Independent Director of two public companies.

Eboo Patel founded Interfaith America on the idea that religion should be a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division. He is inspired to build this bridge by his identity as an American Muslim navigating a religiously diverse social landscape.

For over 15 years he has worked with governments, social sector organizations, and college and university campuses to help make interfaith cooperation a social norm. Named by U.S. News & World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders of 2009, Eboo served on President Obama’s Inaugural Faith Council and is the author of Acts of Faith, Sacred Ground, Interfaith Leadership: A Primer, and Out of Many Faiths: Religious Diversity and the American Promise. He holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship.

These days, Eboo spends most of his time on the road, doing what he loves: meeting students, educators, and community leaders to talk about the complex landscape of religious diversity and the power of interfaith cooperation in the 21st century.

Valerie Rockefeller chairs the board of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a private foundation advancing social change that contributes to a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world. She also co-chairs BankFWD, a network to persuade banks to phase out financing for fossil fuel and to lead on climate. Her professional background is as a middle school special education teacher for adolescents with learning differences and emotional disabilities. She began her teaching career at Central Park East Secondary School in East Harlem, New York, and also taught in Australia.

Valerie has a M.Ed. in Special Education from Bank Street College of Education and a MAT in secondary Social Studies from Columbia University Teachers College. She majored in International Relations at Stanford University and worked as a confidential assistant to Secretary Richard Riley at the U.S. Department of Education during the first Clinton administration. She also serves as a trustee of Achievement First, the Asian Cultural Council, Columbia University Teachers College, Greenwich Academy, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and The Trust for Mutual Understanding. She was a trustee of Spelman College and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Valerie lives with her daughters Percy and Lucy and her son Davis in Old Greenwich, Connecticut.

Robert Rosen leads a team that oversees the foundation’s relationship with philanthropists and charitable organizations across the globe.

Before joining the foundation in 2007, Robert served as senior director of the Corporate Finance Practice of the Corporate Executive Board, the international business strategy and research firm. Previously he served as political director for Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and in the White House as assistant to the president and director of Advance for President Clinton.

Robert received a Juris Doctorate from Cornell Law School and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Vermont.

Jerre Stead is Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Clarivate Analytics. Jerre served as CEO of Churchill Capital Corp until its merger with Clarivate in May 2019. Jerre has had a long and very successful career as a public company CEO and Clarivate is the tenth public company in which he has served as CEO and/or Chairman. Over the last two decades, he has created a world leader and one of the fastest-growing companies in the information services sector. Prior to leading Clarivate, he served as Chairman and CEO at IHS Markit, Ltd. and previously as Executive Chairman and CEO at IHS Inc. The other highly successful technology and information companies he has led include Honeywell-Phillips Medical Electronics, Square D, AT&T Global Business Communications Systems, AT&T Global Information Solutions (NCR Corporation), NCR Japan, Legent Corporation and Ingram Micro.

In addition, Jerre has served on 37 corporate boards during his career and received numerous accolades for his work, including the Kenneth B. West Lifetime Achievement Award which he received in July 2017 by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) in recognition of his service on corporate and philanthropic boards. A graduate of the University of Iowa and of the Harvard University Advanced Management Program in Switzerland, Jerre earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He is chairman of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute as well as chairman of the board of Garret Evangelical Seminary and he sits on the boards of the American Writers Museum and Guideposts.

Jane Wales is the founder of the Global Philanthropy Forum; former CEO of the World Affairs Council; Vice President of the Aspen Institute; and host of the nationally syndicated National Public Radio interview show “World Affairs” (formerly It’s Your World).

Previously, Wales served in the Clinton Administration as Senior Director of the National Security Council for Science and Technology. She simultaneously served as Associate Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where her office was responsible both for advancing sustainable economic development through science and technology cooperation and for developing policy for securing advanced weapons materials in the former Soviet Union. In the Carter Administration, Wales served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.

In the philanthropic sector, Wales chaired the international security programs at the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the W. Alton Jones Foundation, and she directed the Project on World Security at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. From 2007 to 2008, she served as acting CEO of The Elders, chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and founded by Nelson Mandela. In 2008, Wales was Executive Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Its international arm was awarded the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize during her tenure.