Melissa Beck Steps Down as Executive Director of The Educational Foundation of America
The Educational Foundation of America (EFA) announced today that Melissa Beck, its Executive Director since 2013, has stepped down. Beck’s last day at EFA will be May 22, 2020. She has accepted a position as the inaugural Executive Director of the Sozosei Foundation. The Sozosei Foundation is endowed by Otsuka, a global healthcare company.
EFA Board President Heidi Ettinger said, “EFA is grateful to Melissa for her leadership and her creativity. We wish her all the best in her new endeavor.”
Beck said that “it has been an enormous privilege to have led EFA during a period of positive and transformative growth. I am proud to have worked with talented staff, remarkable colleagues, and a committed Board of Directors to advance impactful and strategic grantmaking across the United States.”
EFA’s Board has named David Stocks, Arts Program Director at EFA, as Interim Executive Director. Stocks has led the Foundation’s arts program since 2015. He came to EFA with over a decade’s experience as a nonprofit chief executive, including at the Shaker Museum/Mount Lebanon, in upstate New York, and at Friends of the Katy Trail in Dallas, Texas, where he was also the founding board president.
EFA is a family foundation launched in 1959 by Richard P. and Elsie P. Ettinger. Today, the foundation makes grants in the Arts, Democracy, the Environment, Food Security, and Reproductive Health and Justice. To learn more about EFA, please visit www.TheEfa.org.