Participants

Liza McFadden

President, Volunteer USA Foundation

Before her tenure as president of the Volunteer USA Foundation—which manages the National Disaster Recovery Fund and many other programs—Ms. McFadden directed the Volunteer Florida Foundation. This organization granted $20 million in funds to local community and faith-based groups to help Floridians rebuild their homes and their lives in the wake of hurricanes Charley, Jeanne, Frances, and Ivan, and another $5 million in literacy, mentoring, and volunteer programs. In recent years, under Ms. McFadden’s leadership, 350 community and faith-based groups received funding to aid in long-term recovery efforts, including efforts by the Mennonites to help rebuild in poor areas as well as innovative projects like Fresh Ministries’ “Women to the Rescue,” a wrap-around service in which women from Jacksonville are mothering families affected by Hurricane Katrina while they live in Florida. In 2005, Ms. McFadden received the Governor’s Award for the outstanding response of the Florida Hurricane Relief Fund.