Hugh Hogan to Step Down as van Ameringen Foundation Executive Director to Launch Advisory Practice and to Become Senior Advisor to The Action Lab
After a highly successful six-year tenure, Hugh Hogan has announced that following the June 2022 van Ameringen Foundation (vAF) Board meeting, he will be stepping down as Executive Director of the van Ameringen Foundation www.vanamfound.org.
Hugh will formally launch a philanthropic advising and coaching practice later this year, and will serve as a Senior Advisor to The Action Lab https://www.actionlabny.org/, a recently inaugurated retreat center for movement leaders on 26 acres in Westchester County.
In announcing his transition, Hugh shared, “I have learned so much from the van Ameringen Foundation’s incredibly committed grantee partners. I am also deeply grateful to the van Ameringen Foundation Board of Directors. Working with them has been a privilege as we’ve supported compassionate, community-based mental health treatment in neighborhoods and communities traumatized by under-investment, structural racism and poverty.”
Among the many accomplishments achieved during Hugh’s tenure, the van Ameringen Foundation greatly increased its grant making, particularly its support for advocacy to address the profound mental health needs of children, youth, the incarcerated, immigrant communities, and those caught in the vicious cycle of street homelessness, emergency room and jail. Hugh also spearheaded the van Ameringen’s first ever convening of mental health advocates and organizers supported by the Foundation.
According to van Ameringen Foundation Board President Ken Kind, “Hugh’s leadership and his open collaboration have been vital to all the Foundation accomplished over the past six years, as vAF transitioned to a new generation of board leadership and systems. He artfully led the Board to adopt an expanded grants budget -- one that allowed vAF to provide significantly more desperately needed dollars to more service providers and advocates in support of people with mental illness in New York City and Philadelphia. The van Ameringen Foundation Board is incredibly thankful for the tremendous influence he had on the work we accomplished together. We have come to greatly respect Hugh’s strong commitment to a more just world, and completely respect and support Hugh’s desire to put his considerable talents to work to assist in much needed efforts to strengthen our democracy and heighten our stewardship of the planet. His thoughtful guidance and strategic advice have been integral to the success of the Foundation’s philanthropic and mission-aligned investments for nearly six years. We will miss his energy, enthusiasm and expert advice provided both to our grantee partners and to our Board and me. He will make an outstanding, strategic advisor to any individual, family or private foundation with resources to give.”
Andrew Friedman, Senior Director of Strategy at The Action Lab, and one of its founders added, "Hugh has been a dynamic and creative force, as an organizer, leader and grantmaker, for many decades. We are thrilled that he will bring his deep commitment to justice, his can-do mindset and his many, many deep relationships to help realize the vision of The Action Lab - to spark the more joyful, liberated and impactful movement for the racial and economic justice that is so long overdue."
The van Ameringen Foundation will shortly announce plans for the search for Hugh’s successor.