Independent Sector Members Elect New Board Members

Chair Trueheart Re-elected; Three New Officers Elected

(Washington, D.C., November 15, 2006) – Independent Sector members re-elected William E. Trueheart, president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Foundation, as chair and elected three new officers to the IS Board of Directors during its annual business meeting at the Independent Sector Annual Conference in Minneapolis/St. Paul late last month. IS members also elected five new members to the board.

William E. Trueheart was first elected as chair at the 2004 annual business meeting. During Dr. Trueheart’s tenure, the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector, convened by Independent Sector, delivered to Congress in 2005 and 2006 recommendations on how to strengthen the accountability, governance, and transparency of the nation’s 1.3 million charitable organizations. Dr. Trueheart has served on Independent Sector’s board since the fall of 1999. The Pittsburgh Foundation is the 14th largest community foundation in the U.S. that last year granted over $27 million to nonprofit organizations in southwestern Pennsylvania and across the nation.

J.D. Hokoyama, president, CEO, and founding board member of Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, was elected as vice chair. LEAP is a community-based organization founded to develop, strengthen, and expand the leadership roles played by Asian Pacific Americans. A former Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia, Mr. Hokoyama taught English at several high schools and elementary schools before becoming the associate national director and then acting director of the Japanese American Citizens League. He served as the first director of Office of Asian Pacific American Students Services at the University of Southern California, and then was executive vice president for fund development and public affairs at Keiro Services. He also serves on the boards of both Asian Pacific American and mainstream organizations locally and nationally. Mr. Hokoyama succeeds Gary Yates, president and CEO of The California Wellness Foundation, as vice chair.

Gary L. Yates, president and CEO of The California Wellness Foundation, was elected as treasurer. The California Wellness Foundation works to improve the health of the state’s residents by making grants for health promotion, wellness education, and disease prevention.  A licensed marriage and family therapist, Mr. Yates is also assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. Immediately prior to joining The California Wellness Foundation staff in 1992, he was associate director of the division of adolescent medicine at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Mr. Yates also serves on the boards of The California Wellness Foundation and is a member of the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector.  Mr. Yates is the immediate past vice chair of Independent Sector’s board and succeeds Paula Van Ness, chief executive officer of Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation, as treasurer.

Luz A. Vega-Marquis, president and CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, which works to positively impact families, youth, and children was elected as secretary. Ms. Vega-Marquis previously served as executive director of the Community Technology Foundation of California and vice president and chief operating officer at the National Economic Development and Law Center. She spent 17 years at the James Irvine Foundation, where she served as director of grants programs, senior program officer in charge of northern California office, and program officer. She is a founder of Hispanics in Philanthropy, has served on numerous boards, and serves on board of The California Wellness Foundation. Ms. Vega-Marquis replaces Hilary Pennington, vice chair and co-founder of Jobs for the Future, as secretary.

All officers serve one-year terms. IS members elected the following directors to a first three-year term on the board:

Stanley S. Litow is president of the IBM Foundation and vice president for Global Community Relations at IBM. Under his leadership, IBM launched Reinventing Education, a program serving more than 180,000 teachers and ten million children world wide and won the Ron Brown Award, presented by the president of the United States. Previously, he served as Deputy Chancellor of Schools for New York City, the nation’s largest school system. He also founded and ran Interface, the nonprofit “think tank,” and served as an aide to both the mayor and governor of New York. Mr. Litow serves on the boards of the Harvard Business School Initiative on Social Enterprise, the Citizen’s Budget Commission, and the After School Corporation. He chairs the Global Leadership Network, a consortia of global companies committed to effective corporate citizenship. (Mr. Litow was elected to a one-year term last year to fill the position of a retiring board member.)

Andrew D. Plepler is president of the Bank of America Charitable Foundation and Bank of America’s global community impact executive. Mr. Plepler manages the company’s philanthropic strategy and coordinates its national focus with local market philanthropic efforts across the franchise. He also oversees the bank’s activities pursuant to the Community Reinvestment Act by coordinating the bank’s commitment to most effectively serve low- and moderate-income communities. Previously, Mr. Plepler was senior vice president of housing and community initiatives with the Fannie Mae Foundation, a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice in the tax division, and served as counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. He founded and continues to serve on the board of the Washington Urban Alliance Foundation.

Lorie A. Slutsky has been the president of The New York Community Trust since 1990.  She began her career at The Trust as a grantmaker in 1977, and was named executive vice president in 1987.  Ms. Slutsky served for nine years as a trustee and chairman of Colgate University’s budget committee and then served for seven years as a trustee of The New School.  She is a former board chairman of the Council on Foundations and vice chairman of The Foundation Center.  Ms. Slutsky is a director of Alliance Capital Management, AXA-Equitable Financial, and a board member of BoardSource. She also serves as a co-convener of the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector.

Kelvin H. Taketa is president and chief executive officer of the Hawai’i Community Foundation. Since his appointment in 1998, HCF has redefined its focus, becoming a leader in facilitating charitable investments in Hawai’i, serving as a resource on community and philanthropic issues, and building partnerships and grantmaking programs that have demonstrable impact for the community. Prior to joining HCF, Mr. Taketa served as the vice president and executive director for the Asia/Pacific Region of The Nature Conservancy, the largest conservation nonprofit organization in the United States. Mr. Taketa has served on numerous business and nonprofit boards, including his current service on the boards of Hawaiian Electric Industries, Hawaiian Electric Company, and Grove Farm Co., Inc., and Civic Ventures.

Judy Vredenburgh joined Big Brothers Big Sisters as president and CEO in June 1999 as the first woman to hold the organization’s top national position. Under her leadership, Big Brothers Big Sisters has more than doubled and now serves hundreds of thousands of children in 5,000 communities across the nation. Prior to joining Big Brothers Big Sisters, Ms. Vredenburgh spent six years as senior vice president with the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation following a 22-year career in business. Ms. Vredenburgh is currently a board member of Generations United, and a member of the Board of Overseers for the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, and is a Big Sister herself.

“This is an extraordinary coalition of members and we have seen over the years that by speaking with one voice we are able to accomplish so much more than by working singly,” said Dr. Trueheart. “I look forward to another successful year with the Board and our members.”

“These dynamic leaders will strengthen an already outstanding board of directors and I look forwarding to working with them in the upcoming year,” said Diana Aviv, president and CEO of Independent Sector.  “Their collective expertise and vast experience in the charitable sector will enhance our work and benefit Independent Sector members.”

In addition to re-electing its three new officers to a second three-year term of service, the following board members were elected to a second three-year term:

• Barry D. Gaberman, chair, BoardSource; and
• Brian A. Gallagher, president and CEO, United Way of America.

The board acknowledged the service of its departing members:

• Edward H. Able, Jr., former president and CEO, American Association of Museums;
• David Ford, chief executive officer, Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation;
• J. Bryan Hehir, president, Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Boston;
• Hilary Pennington, vice chair and co-founder, Jobs for the Future; and
• John R. Seffrin, chief executive officer, American Cancer Society.

Click here to read the full biographies of all board members.

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Independent Sector is a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of approximately 600 charities, foundations, and corporate philanthropy programs, collectively representing tens of thousands of charitable groups in every state across the nation. Its mission is to advance the common good by leading, strengthening, and mobilizing the nonprofit community.