Philanthropy New York Elects New Board Members and Board Chair; Announces 2021 -2022 Executive Committee

Thursday, June 3, 2021

Philanthropy New York Elects New Board Members and Board Chair; Announces 2021 -2022 Executive Committee

On June 2, during the business meeting of Philanthropy New York's 42nd Annual Meeting, the membership elected four new members to PNY's Board of Directors:

Rini Banerjee serves as President of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation. An Integrated Capital Fellow at RSF Social Finance, she has served as Executive Director at Foundation for a Just Society, Program Officer at the Overbrook Foundation and Program Director at the New York Women's Foundation. She is a trustee of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and a Board member of Funders for Reproductive Equity and has cocreated or served on groups including the NYC-based Asian Women’s Giving Circle, Philanthropy Advancing Women’s Human Rights, the Groundswell Fund, and the Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing.

Irfan Hasan is The New York Community Trust's Deputy Vice President for Grants. He oversees the Healthy Lives competitive grantmaking program which covers The Trust's health, behavioral health, biomedical research, and older adults and people with disabilities grantmaking. In addition, he has responsibility for the disbursement of more than $12 million in designated grants to more than 140 nonprofits nationwide. Irfan serves on the board of Governance Matters, serves as the co-chair of Philanthropy New York’s Health Working Group and of the American Public Health Association's Public Health Funder Network, and is an elected Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine.

Heather Nesle is Heather Nesle is president of the New York Life Foundation, the charitable foundation created by the New York Life Insurance Company. In addition to her Foundation duties, she is vice president of New York Life’s Corporate Responsibility Department. Ms. Nesle was the recipient of the 2018 “Charlie Award” from the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP), which is given to a corporate affairs professional who demonstrates perseverance in the pursuit of societal advancement. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Statue Fund and the Afterschool Alliance and is a member of the Philanthropy New York CEO Forum.

Dr. Mariko Silver is the president and CEO of the Henry Luce Foundation. She was previously the president of Bennington College. During the Obama administration, she served for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as Acting Assistant Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Policy. Prior to her government service, Dr. Silver was instrumental in the transformation and expansion of Arizona State University, leading teams in economic development policy and metrics, science, technology and innovation policy, state K-12 and higher education policy, sustainability science, and global health. Dr. Silver is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Board is also pleased to announce that Kenneth Austin, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at The Wallace Foundation, has been elected to a two-year term as Board Chair. He has provided leadership to Philanthropy New York in numerous capacities, including serving as the Chair of PNY's CEO Search Committee last year and guiding PNY's policy work through the Public Policy Committee and Foundations on the Hill. Joining him on PNY's Executive Committee for 2021 - 2022 are Diahann Billings-Burford and Jacqueline Jones as Vice-Chairs, Charles Buice as Treasurer, Teresa Younger as Secretary, and Pam Foster as Chair of the Strategic Direction Committee. Together, the Executive Committee provides critical leadership to the organization and works in close partnership with the board and staff at Philanthropy New York to advance our work in alignment with our values.

Finally, the staff and Board expressed deep gratitude and appreciation for the tremendous leadership of Kyung Yoon, who served as Philanthropy New York's Board Chair for the last two years and served on the Board for seven years, and to four Board members completing their term: Pat Swann, Eric Eckholdt, Jeanne Haws, and Ana Oliveira.

Philanthropy New York is fortunate to have a dedicated board – each member contributing their time and talents to ensuring that this organization is a vital and important resource for the philanthropic community in New York.


Philanthropy New York’s 2021 - 2022 Board of Directors

Kenneth Austin, Board Chair 
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, The Wallace Foundation

Diahann Billings-Burford, Vice Chair
Trustee, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation

Jacqueline Jones, Vice Chair
President and CEO, Foundation For Child Development

Charles Buice, Treasurer
President, Tiger Foundation

Teresa Younger, Secretary
President and CEO, Ms. Foundation for Women

Rosanna Aybar
Vice President, Finance and Administration, William T. Grant Foundation

Rini Banerjee
President, Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation

Don Chen
President, Surdna Foundation

Neill Coleman
Chief Philanthropy Officer, Trinity Church Wall Street

Amy Freitag
Executive Director, The J.M. Kaplan Fund

Pamela Foster
Chief Operating Officer, Co-Impact

Yancy Rubén Garrido
Senior Program Officer, The Clark Foundation

Irfan Hasan
Deputy Vice President for Grants, The New York Community Trust

Nicole Howe-Buggs
Chief Administrative Officer and Corporate Secretary, Carnegie Corporation of New York

Jason McGill
Founder and Prinicipal, Justice Associates, LLC

Maria Mottola
Executive Director, New York Foundation

Heather Nesle
President, New York Life Foundation

Laura Packer
Executive Director, The Howard Gilman Foundation

Leticia Peguero
Vice President of Programs, The Nathan Cummings Foundation

David Sandman
President and CEO, New York State Health Foundation

Mariko Silver
President, The Henry Luce Foundation

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