Posted on January 13, 2013

People in the News (1/13/13): Appointments and Promotions

The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has announced the promotion of JAY FLAHERTY to vice president and chief investment officer and the reelection of DOUGLAS X. PATIÑO to its board. Patiño, founding president of the Marin Community Foundation and an experienced leader in the public and private sectors, served on the foundation's board from 1995 through 2010, when he was named trustee emeritus. Flaherty joined the foundation in 2007 as an investment manager and was named assistant vice president in March 2012. He succeeds MICHAEL J. SMITH, who retired on December 31 after thirty-five years with the foundation.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has announced the appointment of MEGAN RUSSELL JOHNSON as co-lead for its grantmaking efforts in Battle Creek, serving alongside current program officer REGGIE LaGRAND. Johnson, most recently an associate program officer at the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, earlier served as an adjunct English and social sciences faculty member at Kellogg Community College and was a program director at HandsOn Battle Creek. In October 2012, Michigan governor Rick Snyder appointed her to the Michigan Community Service Commission.

The Bush Foundation has announced the addition of LARS LEAFBLAD and ALFONSO WENKER to its Leadership Program and the appointment of ALLISON J. BARMANN as leader of the foundation's program strategy development, organization-wide strategy coordination, and organizational learning and evaluation efforts. Leafblad, who will helm the Leadership team, currently is a principal at executive search firm KeyStone Search, where he specializes in higher education, nonprofit, and philanthropy clients. Wenker, who will serve as the founding fellow of the foundation's new Staff Fellows program, is active in a number of emerging leader networks and has worked on both the grantmaking and fundraising side for organizations, including Minnesotans United for All Families and PFund, a foundation that works for LGBT equality. Barmann currently is on loan from McKinsey & Company, where she has worked since 2004, and serving as director of the Itasca Project, a public/private coalition working to address regional economic and quality-of-life issues in the Twin Cities. Earlier, she worked in a variety of strategy positions at companies in the area, including 3M, where Bush Foundation founder Archibald Bush spent his career and built the wealth that seeded the foundation. Baumann currently serves on the board of Genesys Works-Twin Cities and chairs the board of the Hiawatha Academies school.

In other news, the Rasmuson Foundation has announced the appointments of MATTHEW HIRSCHFELD and AARON SCHUTT to its board, and the promotion of four staff members: SAMMYE POKRYFKI, vice president of programs; CASSANDRA STALZER, communications director; ALEESHA TOWNS-BAIN, program officer; and SHARITY SOMMER, program associate. Hirschfeld, a pediatrician and medical director of maternal child health services at the Alaska Native Medical Center, serves on the boards of several organizations, including the March of Dimes' Alaska chapter. Schutt, who serves on the Rasmuson Foundation's grants committee, is president and CEO of Doyon, Ltd., the Native regional corporation for Interior Alaska, as well as director of health services company Akeela, Inc.; earlier, he worked as an attorney representing tribal and Alaska Native corporations.