BOARD OF ADVISORS

ImportantGifts has a Board of Advisors of leading experts to provide expertise across the entire spectrum of causes. The current members are listed below.

Causes:

Civic, Ethnic And Religious Affiliations:

Philanthropy & Nonprofits


Alan J. Abramson

  • Director, Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program, The Aspen Institute

Dr. Kathryn Agard

  • Executive Director, Learning to Give

Kenneth Anderson, JD

  • Professor of Law, American University

Manuel Arango

  • Founder, Mexican Center for Philanthropy

Ellen Barclay

  • President, Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers

Senator Bill Bradley

  • Managing Director, Allen & Company

Jed Emerson

  • Senior Fellow, Generation Foundation and Generation Investment Management
  • Former Executive Director, Roberts Enterprise Development Fund

Darian Rodriguez Heyman

  • Executive Director and President of the Board, Craigslist Foundation

Linda Lampkin

  • Research Director, Economic Research Institute

Michael Madnick

  • Senior Vice President, United Nations Foundation

Dr. Richard Marker

  • Strategic Philanthropy Advisor, Marker Goldsmith
  • Former Executive Vice President [CEO], the Samuel Bronfman Foundation

Liz Maw

  • Executive Director, Net Impact

Bruce Schearer

  • Former President and Distinguished Fellow, Synergos Institute

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Accountability


Seb Beloe

  • Director of Research and Advocacy, Sustainability

David Bonbright

  • Founder and Managing Partner, Keystone Institute of Social and Ethical AccountAbility
  • Former Director, Civil Society Programmes Aga Khan Development Network

Sara Olsen

  • Founding Partner, Social Venture Technology Group

Simon Zadek, PhD

  • Chief Executive, Institute of Social and Ethical AccountAbility
  • Senior Fellow, Centre for Government and Business, Harvard University Kennedy School

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Aging


Carol Farquhar

  • Executive Director, Grantmakers in Aging

John Feather, PhD

  • Executive Director and CEO, American Society of Consultant Pharmacists
  • Former Director, AARP Andrus Foundation

James P. Firman, EdD

  • President and CEO, The National Council on the Aging

Nancy A. Whitelaw, PhD

  • Director, Center for Healthy Aging, The National Council on the Aging

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Agriculture & Sustainable Development


Ralph Grossi

  • President, American Farmland Trust

Howard W. Hjort

  • Chair, U.S. Committee for Food and Agriculture Organization

Prof. P.C. Kesavan

  • DAE-Homi Bhabha Chair and Distinguished Fellow, M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation

Bruce McNamer

  • President and CEO, TechnoServe

Susan Sechler

  • Director, Trade and Development Program, The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Ann Tutwiler

  • Program Officer and Managing Director, Trade and Development, Global Development Program, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Tensie Whelan

  • Executive Director, Rainforest Alliance

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Arts & Culture


Laurie Beckelman

  • President, Beckelman & Capalino, LLC

Dr. Marilyn Perry

  • President, The Samuel H. Kress Foundation
  • Chairman, World Monuments Fund

David Resnicow

  • President, Resnicow Schroeder Associates

Joan Shigekawa

  • Associate Director, Creativity and Culture, The Rockefeller Foundation

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Blindness & Vision


Ian Berger, MD

  • Director, Center for Primary Care EyeDevelopment, InFOCUS

Jordan Kassalow, OD, MPH

  • Co-Founder, Scojo Foundation
  • Adjunct Senior Fellow in Global Health, Council on Foreign Relations

Jacob Kumaresan, MD

  • President, International Trachoma Initiative

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Cancer


Michael P. Osborne, MD, MS, FRCS, FACS

  • President, Strang Cancer Prevention Center
  • Chief, Breast Service and Attending Surgeon, The New York Weill Cornell Medical Center

Mitchell Stoller

  • President and CEO, Lance Armstrong Foundation

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Children & Youth


Maya Ajmera

  • President, Global Fund for Children

Carol Bellamy

  • President and CEO, World Learning
  • Former Executive Director, UNICEF

Anthony Lake

  • Chair of the Board, United States Fund for UNICEF

Charles MacCormack

  • President and CEO, Save the Children

William Reese

  • President and CEO, International Youth Foundation

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Civil Society & Democracy


Kenneth Anderson, JD

  • Professor of Law, American University

Anthony Barnett

  • Founder and Editor-in-Chief, openDemocracy

Shulamith Koenig

  • Founder and Executive Director, PDHRE, People's Movement for Human Rights Education

Kumi Naidoo

  • Secretary General, CIVICUS
  • Chair, Global Call to Action Against Poverty

Raymond Shonholtz, JD

  • President, Partners for Democratic Change

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Disabilities


Jeanne Argoff, PhD

  • Executive Director, The Disability Funders Network

Susan M. Daniels, PhD

  • Principal, Daniels & Associates

Susan O'Hara

  • Trustee, True North Foundation

Tari Susan Hartman-Squire

  • Ein Sof Communications

Susan Sygall

  • Chief Executive Officer, Mobility International USA

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Disaster Relief


Dr. Mohammad Akhter

  • Former President and CEO, InterAction

Steven Denne

  • Vice President, Development Operations, American Red Cross

Ken Hackett

  • President, Catholic Relief Service

Neal Keny-Guyer

  • Chief Executive Officer, Mercy Corps

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Education & Literacy


Maya Ajmera

  • President, Global Fund for Children

Carol Bellamy

  • President and CEO, World Learning
  • Former Executive Director, UNICEF

Edward de Bono

  • Author

Gary Knell

  • President, Sesame Workshop

Wendy Kopp

  • President and Founder, Teach For America

Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.

  • Chairman of the Board, Edison Schools
  • Former President, Yale University

Kyle Zimmer

  • President, First Book

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Enviroment


Terry L. Andreas

  • Founder and Chair, School for Field Studies

Leslie Carothers

  • President, Environmental Law Institute

Melinda Kimble

  • Senior Vice President, United Nations Foundation

Carl Pope

  • Executive Director, Sierra Club

Nina Simons

  • Co-Founder, Bioneers

Robert B. Stang

  • Sustainable Real Estate Developer, Environmentalist

Lloyd Timberlake

  • World Business Council for Sustainable Development
  • Advisor, Avina Foundation

Jack Vanderryn

  • Senior Fellow, Environment and Development, Moriah Fund

Tensie Whelan

  • Executive Director, Rainforest Alliance

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Global Health


Seth Berkley, MD

  • President and CEO, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative

Mushtaque R. Chowdhury, PhD

  • Deputy Executive Director, BRAC
  • Dean, James P. Grant School of Public Health BRAC University
  • Co-Coordinator, Millennium Task Force on Child Health and Maternal Health

William Foege, MD, MPH

  • Senior Fellow, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Laurie Garrett

  • Senior Fellow for Global Health, Council on Foreign Relations

Jeffrey Koplan, MD, MPH

  • Vice President for Academic Health Affairs, Emory University

Lauren Le Roy, PhD

  • President and CEO, Grantmakers in Health

Ruth Levine, PhD

  • Director of Programs and Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development

Allan Rosenfield, MD, GACOG

  • Dean, Mailman School of Public Health
  • DeLamar Professor of Public Health, Columbia University

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Global Warming


Steve Howard

  • Chief Executive Officer, The Climate Group

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HIV/AIDS


Seth Berkley, MD

  • President and CEO, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative

Alex Coutinho, MD

  • Executive Director, TASO Uganda Limited

Tim Thomas

  • Executive Director, The Staying Alive Foundation

Dr. Paul Zeitz

  • Executive Director, Global AIDS Alliance

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Homeless & Housing


Dennis P. Culhane, PhD

  • Professor, University of Pennsylvania

Helen Dunlap

  • Housing Advisor, Shorebank Advisory Services

Judith Hermanson, PhD

  • Senior Vice President, CHF International

Bill Kelly, Esq.

  • Senior Partner, Latham and Watkins
  • Director, Governance Institute, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless

Sister Lillian Murphy

  • Chief Executive Officer, Mercy Housing

Erika Poethig

  • Program Director, Human and Community Development, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Nan Roman

  • President, National Alliance to End Homelessness

Jeff Schaffer

  • Senior Program Officer, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

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Human Rights


Anthony Barnett

  • Founder and Editor-in-Chief, openDemocracy

Cynthia Brown

  • Former Program Director, Human Rights Watch

Larry Cox

  • Senior Program Officer, Human Rights, The Ford Foundation

Alice Tepper Marlin

  • President, Social Accountability International

Aryeh Neier

  • President and CEO, Open Society Institute

Andrew Park, Esq.

  • Senior Philanthropic Advisor, Wellspring Advisors
  • Coordinator, International Human Rights Funders Group

Lois Whitman

  • Director, Children's Rights Division, Human Rights Watch

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Hunger


Robert H. Forney

  • President and CEO, America's Second Harvest
  • Chair, Alliance to End Hunger
  • Former President and CEO, America's Second Harvest

Monty Jones, PhD

  • Executive Secretary, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa
  • World Food Prize Laureate - 2005

Peter McPherson

  • Founding Co-Chair, Partnership to Cut Hunger in Africa

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Landmines


Anthony Lake

  • Chair of the Board, United States Fund for UNICEF

Jody Williams

  • Ambassador, International Campaign to Ban Landmines
  • Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 1997

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Medical Research


William A. Haseltine, PhD

  • President, William A. Haseltine Foundation for Medical Sciences and the Arts
  • Chairman and CEO, Haseltine Associates, Ltd.

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Mental Health


Herbert Pardes, MD

  • President and CEO, New York-Presbyterian Hospital

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Microcredit


Alex Counts

  • President and CEO, Grameen Foundation USA

John Hatch

  • Founder and President, FINCA International

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Peace


Patricia Weiss Fagen, PhD

  • Senior Associate, Institute for the Study of International Migration

Johanna Mendelson Forman, PhD

  • Former Director, Peace, Security and Human Rights Policy, United Nations Foundation

Stephen Jackson, PhD

  • Associate Director, Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum, Social Science Research Council

Katherine Magraw, PhD

  • Executive Director, Peace and Security Funders Group


Aaron David Miller, PhD

  • Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
  • Former President and Advisor, Seeds of Peace

George Perkovitch, PhD

  • Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

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Population & Reproductive Health


Ellen Chesler

  • Former Director and Senior Fellow, Program on Reproductive Health and Rights, Open Society Institute

Valerie De Filippo

  • Director of External Affairs, International Planned Parenthood Federation

Jill Sheffield

  • President, Family Care International

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Poverty Alleviation


Lael Brainard

  • Vice President and Director, New Century Chair in International Economics, The Brookings Institute

Naved Chowdhury

  • Research and Policy in Development Programme, Overseas Development Institute

Bruce McNamer

  • President and CEO, TechnoServe

Bruce Schearer

  • Former President and Distinguished Fellow, Synergos Institute

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Public Broadcast & Communications


Charlie Firestone

  • Executive Director, Communications and Society Program, The Aspen Institute

Harlan Mandel

  • Deputy Director, Media Development Loan Fund

Pam Meyer

  • Chief Executive Officer, Simpatico Networks

Alisa Miller

  • President and CEO, Public Radio International

Marita Rivero

  • Vice President and General Manager, Radio and Television, WBGH

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Refugees


Kenneth Bacon

  • President, Refugees International

Patricia Weiss Fagen, PhD

  • Senior Associate, Institute for the Study of International Migration

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Social Entrepreneurship


Susan Davis

  • Vice President and Director, Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship
  • Chair, Grameen Foundation USA

Cheryl Dorsey, MD, MPP

  • President, Echoing Green

Bill Drayton

  • CEO, Chair and Founder, Ashoka

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Technology & Digital Divide


Peter Bladin

  • Director, Grameen Technology Center

Jim Fruchterman

  • President and CEO, Benetech Initiative

Stuart Gannes

  • Director, Reuters Digital Vision Fellowship Program, Stanford University

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Water


Margaret Catley-Carlson

  • Chair, Global Water Partnership
  • Former President, Canadian International Development Agency

Jonathan Greenblatt

  • Founder, Ethos Brands LLC

Roberto Lenton, PhD

  • Chair, Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council
  • Chair, Technical Committee, Global Water Partnership, Earth Institute, Columbia University

Ravi Narayanan

  • Former Chief Executive, WaterAid UK


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Women


Kathy Bonk

  • Executive Director and Co-Founder, Communications Consortium Media Center

Patricia Ellis

  • Executive Director, Women's Foreign Policy Group

Eve Ensler

  • Playwright and Founder, V-Day

Geeta Rao Gupta

  • President, International Center for Research on Women

Ranjana Kumari, PhD

  • Director, Centre for Social Research

Lorraine Sheinberg

  • Board Member, Feminist Majority

Michaela Walsh

  • Founder, Women's World Banking

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African-American


Kenneth Austin

  • President, Association of Black Foundation Executives

Erica Hunt

  • President, 21st Century Foundation

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Catholic


Kenneth Hackett

  • President, Catholic Relief Services

Jack Paquette

  • Vice President - Development, Wisconsin Province of the Society of Jesus

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Interfaith


Reverend Bud Heckman

  • Executive Director, Religions for Peace  USA

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Jewish


Gail Hyman

  • Senior Vice President of Communications, United Jewish Communities

David Mersky

  • Managing Director, Mersky, Jaffe & Associates
  • Lecturer in Jewish Philanthropy and Fundraising, Brandeis University

Jeffrey Solomon, PhD

  • President, Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies

Dr. Jonathan Woocher

  • Chief Executive Officer, Jewish Educational Services of North America


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Lutheran


Phyllis Anderson

  • President, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary

Bishop Stephen Bouman

  • Metropolitan New York Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Don Hallberg

  • Executive Director, ELCA Foundation, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America


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Methodist


Rev. Gary Gunderson

  • Director, Interfaith Health Program
  • Clinical Assistant Professor, Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health

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Muslim


Eboo Patel, PhD

  • Founder and Executive Director, Interfaith Youth Core


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Presbytarian


Rick Ufford-Chase

  • Executive Director, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship

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YMCA


Robert Gilbertson

  • Chief Executive Officer, Tampa YMCA

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Volunteerism


Judith Binney

  • Former Director, Global Volunteer Initiatives, Citigroup

Ami Dar

  • Executive Director, Action Without Borders (Idealist.org)

Susan J. Ellis

  • President, Energize, Inc.

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Editorial Panel


Alice Korngold

  • Author, Leveraging Good Will: Strengthening Nonprofits by Engaging Businesses

James N. McClurg

  • President, Social Enterprise Alliance

Sara Olsen

  • Founding Partner, Social Venture Technology Group

Laura Quinn

  • Founder, Idealware

Mal Warwick

  • Founder, Mal Warwick & Associates, Inc.

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Web & Marketing


Douglas Atkin

  • Author, The Culting of Brands

B.J. Fogg, PhD

  • Director of Research and Design, Persuasive Technology Lab, Stanford University

Ze Frank

  • Artist, consultant

Scott Heiferman

  • Chief Executive Officer, MeetUp

JC Herz

  • Principal, Joystick Nation, Inc

Barry Kessel

  • Director, Global Client Development, Wunderman

Don Levy

  • Senior Vice President, Sony Pictures Digital

Nancy Lublin

  • CEO, Do Something
  • Founder, Dress for Success

Don Middleberg

  • Founder, Middleberg Euro RSCG

Maryam Mohit

  • Former Vice President, Site Development, Amazon.com

Michel Ogrizek

  • Former Vice Chairman, Edelman Public Relations

Barby Siegel

  • Worldwide Leader Consumer Marketing, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide

Micah Sifry

  • Executive Editor, Personal Democracy Forum

Brian Sobelman

  • Associate Vice President for Web/Direct Marketing, Save the Children

Cyndi Stivers

  • Executive Vice President, Martha Stewart Living

Linda Stone

  • Former Executive, Apple and Microsoft Executive

Mal Warwick

  • Founder, Mal Warwick & Associates, Inc.

Frank Zimmermann

  • Vice President, North America, Arvato Systems

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Business Council


David Clossey

  • Partner-in-Charge, International, Jones Day

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Economics & Research


Nicole Goldin, PhD

  • Senior Research Manager, Gerson Lehrman Group


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For more information, contact: info [at] ImportantGifts.org