SPRING 2015
Navigating Legal & Ethical Issues John Hardman Vice President, The Dot & Lam Hardman Family Foundation John Hardman is the Vice President of the Dot and Lam Hardman Family Foundation, a small private family foundation focused on grantmaking in Georgia. In this capacity, John helps determine annual allocations, evaluates investment of the Foundation's corpus, and handles governance and operational issues. John also serves as Vice President of GeoFields, an Atlanta based Software Company with sixteen years of experience providing data management solutions to oil and gas companies, helping them efficiently maintain pipelines and meet regulatory requirements to minimize risks to communities and environments around the world. Previously, John served as President and Investment Manager of First Light Ventures, an early stage impact investment fund affiliated with Gray Ghost Ventures. While at First Light, John invested in and managed a portfolio of 25 social enterprises with operations on five continents around the world. Examples of portfolio companies include a clean water distribution company in rural India, a network of healthcare clinics in Kenya, an technology software company in New Orleans focused on providing teaching tools to collect, analyze and efficiently use student performance and behavior data, an affordable housing company, a sustainable and organic agriculture wholesaler, an Indian salt production cooperative, a Kenya based technology company that integrates mobile money banking systems, and a company that designs and produces safe and risk free IUD inserters. John also helped build and scale the Village Capital program, which spun out of First Light as a nonprofit in 2011. Before First Light, John served as Managing Director of Hardman Advisory Group, practiced law at Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, worked in Financial Management Services at Synovus Financial Corporation, and taught school in the Dominican Republic. John holds a B.A. from Stanford University, a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, and a M.B.A. from INSEAD. Navigating Legal & Ethical Issues Erik S. Johnson Secretary & Treasurer, Robert W. Woodruff Foundation Erik Johnson is Secretary and Treasurer of the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation, Lettie Pate Evans Foundation, Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation, Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center Fund and Ichauway, Inc. Erik joined the Foundations staff in 2006. Prior to joining the Foundations, Erik served as a law clerk to Chief Judge J.L. Edmondson on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He earned his B.A. degree from Emory University in 1994 and his J.D. degree with high honors from the University of Georgia School of Law in 2005.
Managing Your Grants Portfolio Donovan Lee-Sin, MPA Neighborhood & Community Services Officer, The Children's Trust of Miami Donovan Lee-Sin is the neighborhood & community services officer at The Children s Trust in Miami, FL. Before serving in this role, Donovan served as a program officer with The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, leading the Foundation s grant initiatives and focusing on its other strategic focus areas. Donovan had worked previously for the Children s Trust in Miami before his role with The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation where - as Senior Program Director for Community and Neighborhood Services, he managed $45 million in annual grantmaking to neighborhood programs aimed at helping children and families. Prior to joining the Children s Trust in 2006, Donovan worked for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation where he served as Planning and Evaluation Officer. Donovan serves on the Foundation Center s Advisory Board and as board vice president for the Community Indicators Consortium. He is an alumnus of Atlanta Leaders for Results, Leadership Miami, and serves on the Taskforce for a Livable Community. He is an active member of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, Donors Forum of South Florida, Independent Sector, and Southeastern Council on Foundations. He holds a Bachelor's degree in psychology and business administration from Belhaven University in Mississippi and a Master's in Public Administration, specializing in urban development and management from Florida International University. Communicating Funding Decisions & Recommendations Kristina Morris Program Officer, The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta Kristina Morris is a Program Officer at The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. In her role, Kristina is responsible for the implementation of several assigned community initiatives at the Foundation, including Managing for Excellence and the Scholarships program, which provides financial assistance to deserving students pursuing higher education. She also serves as a reviewer on the Foundation s grantmaking programs throughout the year. Kristina joined The Community Foundation as a Program Associate in 2006, working on multiple grantmaking projects and initiatives, including the Common Good Funds program, the Marshall Memorial Fellowship and the Nonprofit Effectiveness portfolio. Prior to her work at The Community
Foundation, Kristina interned at the Southeastern Council of Foundations and Children s Healthcare of Atlanta Foundation and served as a Business Development Manager for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta recruiting, training and matching volunteers from area businesses with students at neighboring schools. Originally from Columbus, Georgia, Kristina received her bachelor s degree in Sociology and Women s Studies from Emory University and her Master of Business Administration from the Terry College of Business at The University of Georgia. She is a 2012 Southeastern Council of Foundation s Hull Fellow and an alumna of the Buckhead Business Association s Leadership Development Program, now known as Leadership Buckhead. Kristina lives in Decatur with her husband Chris and their two daughters. Maximizing Grant Impact & Strategies for Professional Excellence and Personal Satisfaction Lita Pardi Senior Program Officer, The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta Lita Pardi serves as a senior program officer at The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, Inc. In this position, she reviews and evaluates grant applications for the Common Good Funds, the Foundation s broadest discretionary grantmaking program, and manages the Foundation s work around Nonprofit Effectiveness, a portfolio that provides a variety of resources for grantees professional and organizational development, and the Organizational Partnerships program that awards grants to nonprofits that are partnering and going through organizational restructuring. She also works closely with Philanthropic Services staff to match donor interests to community needs and oversees the Champions for Children with Exceptional Needs Initiative, an effort that seeks to address the needs of medically fragile and special needs children and their families throughout the state of Georgia. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2003, Lita worked at The Impact! Group; a housing agency in Gwinnett County and at the Latin American Association, a social services nonprofit serving Atlanta s Latino community. At both organizations Lita was a part of the development departments, primarily working on funding proposals and research. Lita s experience at the Latin American Association includes two years running programs for Latino youth. In addition to regularly contributing to the Foundation Center s publications, Lita has served on the Georgia Council for the Arts Peer Review Panel and the Coca-Cola Two-Year Colleges Scholarship Program Committee. Lita is an alumna of LEAD Atlanta Class of 2007, a program of Leadership Atlanta, and was a Hull Fellow with the Southeastern Council of Foundations in 2004.
A native of Peru, Lita received her undergraduate degree from Berry College in Rome, Georgia. Lita lives in Marietta with her husband Fred and son Luca. Making Sound Funding Recommendations Megan Pietrantonio Assistant Vice President & Relationship Manager, SuntTrust Bank: Foundation & Endowment Specialty Practice Meghan Mucklow Pietrantonio joined SunTrust Bank Foundations and Endowments Specialty Practice in January 2010 and is Assistant Vice President and Relationship Manager in the Atlanta office. She has been working in Atlanta in the nonprofit sector for the past 7 years. Before starting at SunTrust, Meghan was Director of Development for the Southeast Region of the Anti-Defamation League. In that role she raised funds for the annual appeal, specific program support and planned giving throughout Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. Meghan started her nonprofit career at the Metro Atlanta Arts and Culture Coalition (MAACC), where she served as Editor-in-Chief of AtlantaPlanIt.com, metro Atlanta s most extensive listing of arts and cultural events. In January 2007, she was promoted to Interim CEO for the organization. In her current role, she provides comprehensive services, including foundation management and administration, strategic planning, grantmaking, evaluation, board development, regulatory compliance, and general philanthropic consulting, to family, independent and corporate foundation clients with over $40 million in total assets. Meghan holds an MBA from Georgia Tech and is a cum laude graduate of Vanderbilt University. She is delighted to serve as a Board Member of Dance Canvas and the Atlanta Chapter of the Vanderbilt Alumni Association. She volunteers her time with several civic and community service organizations including Georgia Tech, Woodruff Arts Center, Catholic Charities of Atlanta, Boys and Girls Clubs of Atlanta and Junior Achievement. Meghan lives in Collier Hills with her husband Kyle, a principal at Holy Spirit Preparatory School.
Being Grounded in Philanthropy Suzanna Stribling Executive Director, The Wilbur & Hilda Glenn Family Foundation Suzanna Stribling was named Director of The Wilbur and Hilda Glenn Family Foundation in 2010. From 2004-2010, she held several positions (membership, operations, and grantmaker education director) at the Southeastern Council of Foundations, a regional association of 300+ family, corporate, community and independent foundations from across 11 states. From 1990 1997, Ms. Stribling served as the founding director of the Georgia Center for Nonprofits (formerly the Nonprofit Resource Center). Suzanna also served as the part-time director of the Atlanta Grantmakers Forum, and as publications manager and information specialist for The Development and Technical Assistance Center in New Haven, Connecticut. Suzanna holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Berry College. She has served on numerous boards, including the National Council of Nonprofit Associations, the Georgia Society of Association Executives and the Friends School of Atlanta. She was the 1996 chair of National Philanthropy Day in Georgia and is a member of Leadership Atlanta (1994) and Leadership Georgia (1998). Suzanna earned her CAE designation (Certified Association Executive) in 2010.