Women's Philanthropy Institute
Kimberly Davis is Senior Vice President, Global Philanthropy, President of the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Her responsibilities include overseeing the firm’s philanthropic activities globally, employee volunteerism, and strategic corporate programs.
With more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, Kimberly has held a wide range of responsibilities in both line and staff functions including, senior vice president & director of Recruiting, Training & Development for Chase Manhattan’s Global Banking organization, Latin America Human Resources Executive, and Vice President & National Sales Manager, Private Banking. The combination of her academic training and corporate experience has provided her with a unique set of skills that have enabled her to assume a diverse career.
Ms. Davis is a trustee of Spelman College and the Kenan Institute at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She is on the board of The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) and is a member of the Executive Leadership Council (ELC), Jack and Jill of America, and the Links, Inc.
Edith Falk’s career spans more than thirty years in institutional advancement. In addition to directing Campbell & Company’s marketing, recruiting and strategic growth initiatives, she is actively engaged in designing and providing strategic counsel on fundraising and marketing communications programs for a broad spectrum of organizations in the arts, education, healthcare, conservation and human service fields.
Active in the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), Ms. Falk has served as president of the Chicago Chapter board, member of the National Board and dean for two years at the Executive Leadership Institute. She is a past recipient of the AFP Chicago Chapter’s President’s Award for outstanding leadership and service to the chapter and was the 2008 recipient of the chapter's Benjamin Franklin Award, for career achievements and role as mentor and role model. Ms. Falk is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Giving USA, the Giving Institute’s annual report on philanthropy; Vice Chair of the Giving USA Foundation and Board member of the Donors Forum, strengthening philanthropy and nonprofit community in Illinois. She is also a frequent lecturer in the field of nonprofit marketing and development.
Ms. Falk is a member of The Chicago Network, an organization of women in the Chicago region who have achieved distinction in business, the arts, the professions, government and academia. She earned her B.A. degree at Oberlin College in Ohio and her M.B.A. degree at Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management, both with honors.
Patricia “Trish” Jackson, Vice President for Advancement at Smith College since September 2005, has been in advancement for over 25 years at several nationally ranked institutions of higher education. Trish began her career in California at Scripps College, her alma mater, in 1983, serving as the assistant director of annual giving. During her tenure there she established the Scripps Association of Families to support admissions, career services, and fund raising. She then spent four years at Claremont McKenna College coordinating a wide variety of campaign activities and publications, and overseeing the corporate fund-raising program during CMC’s successful $50 million campaign in the mid-80s.
In 1988, Trish moved east to become director of major and leadership gifts at Mount Holyoke College during the institution’s $139 million campaign where she was responsible for regional fund-raising efforts as well as a comprehensive planned giving program. From 1991 to 1998, Trish served as director of development at Wheaton College in Norton, MA where she coordinated the $65 million Campaign for Wheaton—an effort that ultimately exceeded its goal by over $25 million.
Trish next spent four years at Dartmouth College as Associate Vice President for Individual and Organizational Giving. In this capacity, she managed all of the direct fund-raising staff, and worked to put together a strong team to conduct the $1.3 billion Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience.
Trish is a committed volunteer for Scripps College completing service as a board member and president of the Alumnae Association followed by current service as Alumna Trustee. Prior to joining the CASE staff, Trish was actively involved as a CASE volunteer at both the international and district levels, having served as Secretary for District VII, as Conference Program Chair and as a board member for District I, and as a faculty member at several conferences. She has recently completed service as Chair of the CASE District I Board, Chair of the judging panel of the Wealth/ID fund-raising awards, and Chair of the 2008 CASE Summit for Advancement Leaders. In 2006, she was awarded the Hebert Award for outstanding service to CASE District I.
Trish earned her B.A. in psychology from Scripps College in 1982, and completed an MBA with an emphasis on economics of non-profits in 1991, at the Drucker School of Management at The Claremont Graduate University.
As a consultant for the International Planning Associates, Kathleen E. Loehr currently advises on capacity building for not for profit organizations. Before that, she worked for the American Red Cross from March 2001 to February 2008. As the interim senior vice president of Development, Kathleen revolutionized the organization’s antiquated funding model by building a collaborative culture, restoring lost trust, re-thinking donor relationships and designing system-wide strategy for 750 units across the country. During Kathleen’s seven years of leadership, the American Red Cross raised over $650 million per year, and $2 billion to support victims of Katrina.
Her 30-year career in fundraising also includes: political fundraising for congressional campaigns, grassroots fundraising for the child care industry, international fundraising (working with world leaders to eradicate wars and genocide in the Balkans, Indonesia, Central Asia, and Africa), major gift fundraising with women leaders at Cornell University, capital campaigns for various projects costing from $3 million to $65 million, and annual fund leadership in a comprehensive $1.5 billion campaign at Cornell University.
Kathleen is a transformational leader known for revising what’s possible. She thrives on conquering big challenges and co-creates new solutions that others have not seen. Her skill set includes successful leadership of complex teams and budgets, strong relationship building with donors, leaders and staff, strategic solicitation for major gifts, positive volunteer engagement, expertise in women and philanthropy, creation of systems and best practices for fundraising operations, and mentoring/training of fundraisers.
Michele Minter is Vice President of Development at the College Board, where she oversees fundraising focused on educational advocacy and public school education. Until mid-2007, she served as Director of Development and Campaign Director at Princeton University, where she oversaw the University's $300 million annual fundraising efforts and managed its ongoing comprehensive campaign. While at Princeton, she founded the widely known Women in Leadership Initiative and a new fundraising initiative focused on African American alumni. Michele is the co-chair of the Princeton Area Community Foundation's Fund for Women and Girls. She is a graduate of Yale University and the City University of New York.
Ellen Remmer is President and CEO of The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI), a nonprofit social business with a mission to increase the impact of philanthropy in society. TPI works across the globe to advance the field of strategic philanthropy and advises family, foundation, and corporate donors in their giving. Ellen came to work at TPI in 1993, shortly after her family foundation benefited from TPI’s strategic planning assistance. In addition to working directly with dozens of private, corporate and community donors on making their giving more effective, Ellen has led a number of TPI’s initiatives to strengthen and promote the field of philanthropy, developed signature donor learning programs and is a frequent speaker and writer on the subjects of family philanthropy, strategic giving and women donors. Ellen also serves as a board member of her family’s foundation, which supports programs that help disadvantaged girls, and as a board member of her family’s investment company. Ellen is on the Board of Directors of Associated Grantmakers and the Board of Visitors of Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy. She is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Marcela Orvañanos de Rovzar is a Mexican philanthropist with particular expertise in institutional development and capacity building for non-profits, foundations, and other civil society institutions. Ms. Rovzar has founded several organizations in Mexico and New York City, most recently the Qualitas of Life Foundation, a financial literacy educational organization that seeks to enhance the quality of life of Mexican immigrants living in New York City. In 1995, Ms. Rovzar founded Procura A.C., a training institute in Mexico City that offers courses in institutional development and fundraising for non-profits. Procura has trained more than 10,000 people from approximately 2300 organizations, and works in affiliation with the Center on Philanthropy and The Fund Raising School at Indiana University, for which Ms. Rovzar is the Mexico Representative. More recently, Ms. Rovzar founded the Fondo de Estrategia Social A.C. (Strategic Social Fund, FES), an organization created with the goal of investing private economic resources from the Mexico City community in social causes.
Ms. Rovzar currently works as a consultant with the firm she founded, Fondea Asesorías S.C., which focuses on developing projects with social impact for various clients from public, private, national and international entities. Ms. Rovzar’s consulting clients have included the Secretary of Social Development in Mexico (SEDESOL) as well as the Secretary of Public Education in Mexico (SEP). Ms. Rovzar’s other professional experiences include Director of Public Relations for the Presidential Campaign of Felipe Calderón as well as Director of Development for the Mexican Foundation of Rural Deveopment. Ms. Rovzar is currently completing a Masters degree in International Relations at New School University. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), and a member of The Philanthropy Workshop (TPW) of the Rockefeller Foundation. She holds a certificate from the Fund Raising School at Indiana University on Management for Fundraising and a certificate in Corporate Social Responsibility from the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain.
Ms. Rovzar was President of the Advisory Board of UNICEF Mexico, nominated for the Eisenhower Fellowship Award, and awarded second place for AVON’s Sacil Award for women in business. In November 2008 she was honored with the Henry A. Rosso Medal, a Lifetime Achievement Award in Fundraising, by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Some of Ms. Rovzar’s publications include, “Case Study of the American Cowdray School of Nursing (ABCSN)” with co- author Thomas A. Upton and a participation on the International chapter of, “Achieving Excellence in Fund Raising, Second Edition,” by Hank Rosso. Ms. Rovzar is married with four children and four grandchildren.
Melanie Sabelhaus is a successful entrepreneur with more than 25 years of business and corporate experience. She founded and served as chief executive officer of Exclusive Interim Properties (EIP) from 1986 to 1997, when the company merged with four other companies to form Bridgestreet Accommodations. The company did an IPO in 1997 and went public on the NASDAQ as Bridgestreet Accommodations. Sabelhaus became vice president of Global Sales and served on the board of directors of the publicly held company until 1998. For 15 years prior to starting her own business, she served in a variety of management positions with the IBM Corporation. She served as the Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration from 2002 to 2005.
Since leaving SBA, Sabelhaus has continued to focus her energy on her passion for nonprofits. She serves on several boards, including the National American Red Cross Board of Governors, the United Way, YWCA, the Alzheimer’s Association of Central Maryland, the Nantucket Historical Society, Women’s Leadership Board of the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and as a member of the Foundation Board of Ohio University. Sabelhaus twice co-chaired the National Summit on Women in Philanthropy and she is national chair Emeritus of the United Way Women’s Initiative. She also serves on the Key Bank Advisory Board. She is past National Chair of the American Red Cross Women’s Initiative, the Tiffany Circle.
Senator Elizabeth Dole Chair of The National Republican Senatorial committee (NRSC), appointed Sabelhaus to Chair the Women’s Majority Network (WMN) steering committee. She serves as the Senior Political Advisor to Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP), a national bi-partisan organization representing more than 520,000 women in Business and women Business owners nationwide.
Sabelhaus has recently joined the Superior Financial Group in Walnut Creek, California as a partner. The company provides capital to entrepreneurs who are starting and growing a business.
Elizabeth Somerset is the Senior Officer for the first ever American Red Cross half-billion dollar National Campaign where she serves as second-in command, working on all aspects of campaign planning and implementation, including project management, fundraiser training, marketing plans and donor cultivation efforts. Elizabeth started with the American Red Cross Development Department on the Corporate Partnerships in 2005. She worked on major accounts such as Nationwide, Merck and AXA securing million dollar multi-year gifts. Most recently Elizabeth managed one of the most successful fundraising programs at the American Red Cross, the Tiffany Circle Program, a woman's leadership giving program. Under her direction, the program saw its membership triple and donations increase from across the country.
Becky Sykes is the Executive Director of the Dallas Women’s Foundation, a public foundation that promotes women’s philanthropy and raises money to support community programs that help women and girls realize their full potential.
A life-long Dallasite, she graduated from Austin College in Sherman, Texas with degrees in French and government. She taught high school civics and French for several years, “retired” to raise two children and volunteer, then returned to full-time employment at Greyhound Lines, KERA Public Television, and the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University.
Most of her work through the years has involved public policy, non-profit management, strategic planning, and fundraising. She has served on a number of community boards including Dallas City Planning Commission, the Junior League of Dallas, the YWCA, the Dallas Summit, the League of Women Voters, and the Women’s Council of Dallas County. She is an elder at First Presbyterian Church of Dallas. She has received several awards including the Maura Award (Women Helping Women), the Susan B. Anthony Award, the Executive Director of the year award from the Women’s Resource Center of North Texas Legal Services, the League of Women Voters Myrtle Bales Bulkley Award, the Women of Excellence Award given by the YWCA and Women’s Enterprise Magazine, “The Athena Award” given by the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce/Women’s Business Initiative, and the Woman of Distinction award from the American Association of University Women (Dallas and Texas branches).
In 1985 she joined with 18 other women to start the Dallas Women’s Foundation and served as its first board chair for three years. She returned to the DWF in 1998 as Executive Director. The Dallas Women’s Foundation is one of the oldest and largest women’s foundations in the U.S.
Lisa Witter is the Chief Operating Officer of Fenton Communications, the largest public interest communications firm in the country. She heads the firm’s practice in women’s issues and global affairs for clients including the Women for Women International, American University in Cairo, MoveOn.org, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, David and Lucille Packard Foundation, American Medical Association, American Lung Association and many others. She is a co-founder of award-winning SheSource.org, an online brain trust of women experts to help close the gender gap among commentators in the news media. She was honored as an outstanding activist and expert on women’s issues by Oxygen.com for her work on a national campaign against privatizing Social Security during the 2000 presidential election.
Lisa is a blogger and political commentator appearing as an expert on NPR, MSNBC, FOX News and has been published in Newsday, The New York Times, The Seattle Times, The Anderson Cooper 360, Huffington Post, AlterNet and Blogher. In 2004, she was a contestant on the Showtime reality show, “American Candidate.” Witter is co-author of The She Spot: Why Women are the Market for Changing the World and How to Reach Them.
Debra Mesch is Professor of Public and Nonprofit Management in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis as well as Professor of Philanthropic Studies at Indiana University. She currently holds the position of Director of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Center on Philanthropy. Debra received both her M.B.A. and Ph.D. in organizational behavior/human resource management from Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Before coming to Indiana University, she taught at Simmons College and Northeastern University, College of Business Administration in Boston. Debra’s recent research agenda has focused on issues of civic engagement, volunteer motivation and management, executive compensation, diversity, and race and gender issues in giving and volunteering. She currently has undertaken a national study examining issues related to board diversity in nonprofit organizations. She has published over thirty articles in management and nonprofit journals and has worked with many nonprofit organizations such as Goodwill Industries, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and United Way in dealing with human resource management issues. She teaches graduate courses in human resource management for nonprofit organizations and her students have worked with over 40 different nonprofit organizations through her courses.
