We are committed to collective action

Shané Harris leads Social Responsibility and Partnerships at Prudential and is President of The Prudential Foundation. Her responsibilities include leading the company’s philanthropic strategy, overseeing the distribution of over $62 million in grants and charitable contributions and community volunteer programs, as well as managing Prudential’s shared value initiatives. She is also a member of the senior leadership team for Inclusive Solutions, a Prudential business function that harnesses the power of capital markets to drive financial and social mobility, inclusive economic opportunity, and sustainable growth.

Harris serves as member of the Board of Trustees for Living Cities, a collaborative of 19 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions working to close racial income and wealth gaps in American cities. She also serves as a board member for The Newark Trust for Education and was a trustee for the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund, established to fight the medical, social and economic impact of Covid-19 on New Jersey’s most vulnerable residents. Harris joined Prudential in 2004 where she held a series of leadership positions with increasing responsibility focused on strategic grantmaking, business aligned initiatives and purpose-driven brand visibility. Prior to joining Prudential, she was the director of the New Jersey Nets and Devils Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the New Jersey Nets Professional Basketball Team and the New Jersey Devils Professional Hockey Team. She has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Columbia University and holds a master’s degree in public administration from the New York University Wagner School of Public Service.

Don Chen (he/him) is the President of the Surdna Foundation, a national family foundation dedicated to fostering sustainable environments, inclusive economies, and thriving cultures. He leads the century-old foundation’s efforts to strengthen and further leverage its commitment to racial equity and social justice.

Before joining Surdna in 2018, Don directed the Cities & States program at the Ford Foundation. There, he supported urban development initiatives to make housing more affordable, promote more equitable land use practices, and empower communities to have a powerful decision-making voice in U.S. and Global South cities. He also led a multi-program team to support strengthening social justice organizations and networks in targeted U.S. states.

Previously, Don founded and served as CEO of Smart Growth America, where he led efforts to create the National Vacant Properties Campaign (which later became the Center for Community Progress) and Transportation for America. He also managed a merger with the Growth Management Leadership Alliance.

A writer and speaker on environmental policy, racial justice, and social progress, Don serves as Co-Chair of the Presidents’ Council on Impact Investing and on the boards of Living Cities, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, Philanthropy New York, and the Ms. Foundation for Women. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and master’s degree in environmental studies from Yale University.

Susan K. Thomas is President of the Melville Charitable Trust where she oversees the Trust’s grantmaking strategy, philanthropic partnerships and administration. Formerly the Trust’s Program Director, Susan led the foundation’s housing and racial equity efforts for five years, while managing a state and national portfolio of grants supporting solutions to homelessness. Susan has been instrumental in the creation of Funders for Housing and Opportunity, a national non-partisan, cross-sector funder collaborative focused on tackling the housing affordability crisis by supporting advocacy, narrative change work, and efforts to scale effective practices at the intersection of housing, health, economic mobility, and education. While at the Trust, she was also selected to participate in the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Fellowship program targeting leaders working to improve outcomes for children, families, and communities.

Her experience as a Casey Fellow has been instrumental in helping the Trust develop a targeted grantmaking strategy that focuses on ending homelessness for Black, Indigenous and People of Color. Prior to joining the Trust, Susan was Project Officer for Mayor Kasim Reed of Atlanta, where she was responsible for leading “Unsheltered No More!,” an initiative to dramatically reduce street homelessness that placed over 1,000 homeless men, women, and children into permanent housing. As the former president of Providence Consulting Group, she helped launch a statewide foundation to assist foster families and co-chaired an effort for the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Atlanta Housing Authority to rehouse 420 families as part of a major HOPE VI redevelopment project.

Susan is a former Vice President of Community Investment and Area Development at the United Way of Greater Atlanta. Prior to her nonprofit career, she worked for 15 years in the areas of accounting, management consulting, and strategic planning. She holds a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Maryland.

Lynette Bell is president of the Truist Foundation, an organization committed to collaborating with innovative companies and investing in communities to build better lives. In this role, she is responsible for strategic philanthropy, deepening strong partnerships with nonprofits, and strengthening local communities in the areas of leadership development, economic mobility, thriving communities, and educational equity.

Previously, she served as enterprise community reinvestment officer for SunTrust now Truist, leading the community development program to support underserved communities. In her more than 30-year career with SunTrust, she held positions in operations, regulatory affairs, bank examinations, and compliance.

Bell currently serves on the board of directors of Purpose Built Communities, Honorary Member of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, and Living Cities Foundation. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Manny Ohonme, chair of International Board of Directors at Sanford Health, called Bell a “difference maker” whose “commitment to make lasting change in our communities is truly inspiring.”

She received her bachelor’s degree from Florida State University and certification as a compliance manager from the University of Georgia and the Georgia Bankers Association.

Tia Hodges has dedicated nearly 20 years to creating and implementing strategies that drive systemic change at the intersection of philanthropy, non-profit, and social impact sectors to improve social and economic progress in communities across the U.S. This work has been fulfilled through her roles at the Citi Foundation where she led the strategy and investments of the Youth Economic Opportunity portfolio in the U.S. In this role, she was responsible to lead the strategic composition and investments of the portfolio with a focus on workforce, social innovation, mentoring, and financial education.

Tia also spent many years at high impact non-profit organizations including Feeding America of Eastern Wisconsin supporting the organization’s mission to eradicate hunger and the national non-profit organization KaBOOM! where she worked directly with Mayors and civic leaders from more than 200 cities and towns in the U.S. to ensure children and families had equitable access to healthy and vibrant communities.

Tia was selected as a Fellow for the Council on Foundations Leadership Program, the 92y Belfer Center for Innovation & Impact Women inPower, and Johns Hopkins University Leadership Program for Minority Managers.

Lisa M. Lawson is the president and chief executive officer of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private philanthropy dedicated to building a brighter future for children, youth, families and communities in the United States.

Prior to becoming president and CEO, Lawson was the Foundation’s executive vice president and chief program officer, overseeing investments to promote community change, economic opportunity for families and public system reform. She also guided efforts to strengthen the social sector and encourage the take-up of effective strategies. Lawson previously served as vice president of external affairs, leading Casey’s efforts to provide data, analysis, research and policy solutions to help all children realize their potential.

Before joining the Foundation, Lawson worked at UPS for 14 years in various roles, including president of the UPS Foundation and vice president of corporate public relations.

Lawson serves on the boards of the Baltimore Community Foundation, Baltimore’s Promise, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Greater Washington Partnership, Living Cities and StriveTogether. She also is on the advisory board of Twilio.org. An Atlanta native, she earned a law degree from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Virginia.

Lauren Smith, MD, MPH, serves as the vice president of Strategic Portfolios at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). In this role, Smith serves as a member of the Foundation’s senior leadership team and oversees strategy development, implementation, and management of RWJF’s key focus areas, or strategic portfolios, which include Healthy Children and Families, Healthy Communities, Leadership for Better Health, and Transforming Health and Healthcare Systems programs.

Smith comes from the CDC Foundation, where she served as the chief health equity and strategy officer, bringing more than 25 years of extensive experience at the intersection of healthcare delivery, management, public policy, and public health. In this role, Smith was pivotal in developing and driving strategic efforts to embed health equity across the organization’s activities. She focused on addressing structural inequities affecting marginalized populations’ health, wellbeing, and resiliency.

Smith’s career includes leadership positions at FSG, a leading social impact consulting firm, where she served as co-CEO and led the U.S. health practice. Her visionary leadership contributed to the firm’s growth and mission of achieving lasting and equitable social impact. Before FSG, Smith was senior strategic advisor for the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality. She has also served as medical director and interim commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, as the national medical director of the Medical Legal Partnership for Children, and as the medical director of the pediatric inpatient service at Boston Medical Center.

Smith is a graduate of Harvard College where she earned a degree in biology, before earning her MD from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, and an MPH from the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health.

Tonya Allen is a leader and a change agent with a passion for co-creating an equitable, sustainable world. In 2021, she became president of the McKnight Foundation, a Minnesota-based family foundation that advances a more just, creative, and abundant future where people and planet thrive. Tonya heads a majority women, majority people-of-color senior leadership team and a diverse team of about 60.

The Foundation grants approximately $100 million annually in support of equitable communities, a clean energy economy, global food systems, artists and culture bearers, and innovative neuroscience research. In her first year at McKnight, Tonya championed using the Foundation’s investments to advance net zero goals, and elevated McKnight’s voice and leadership to rebuild Twin Cities neighborhoods and small businesses impacted by Covid-19 and the 2020 civil unrest. In 2022, Tonya helped launched the GroundBreak Coalition, an ambitious, multi-sector effort to close wealth gaps in Minneapolis-St. Paul. In 2023, GroundBreak announced nearly $1 billion in commitments towards its goals, which Inside Philanthropy called the “fundraising success story of the year.”

Dominique joined the M&T Charitable Foundation as Executive Director in July 2022. She steers the bank’s corporate giving strategy and ensures the foundation’s community impact remains inclusive, equitable and diverse throughout its 12-state footprint. Goss spent the past four years as senior group manager for corporate citizenship at TD Bank’s charitable foundation, where she was responsible for aligning the bank’s corporate giving goals to its broader strategic priorities and deploying $26 million in charitable investments and sponsorships from Maine to Florida.

Goss graduated from Temple University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2008 and earned an MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University in 2018. She serves on the boards of the Greater Philadelphia Philanthropy Network, Mural Arts Advocates and the Queen’s Museum. Goss also is a 2019-2020 Connecting Leaders Fellow with the Association for Black Foundation Executives and founding partner of the Philadelphia Black Giving Circle.

Tawa has responsibility for grantmaking in the Chicago Commitment program, a portfolio aimed at investing in people, places, and partnerships to advance racial equity and build a more inclusive Chicago.

Prior to joining MacArthur, Tawa served as the Director of Education Policy and Partnerships in the Office of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. In this role, Tawa focused on supporting educational opportunities across the K-16 spectrum. Tawa also served as the inaugural Interim Director for Thrive Chicago, a multi-sector collective that aims to increase equitable outcomes for Chicago’s youth. Previously, Tawa served as Executive Director of Strategic Partnerships at the City Colleges of Chicago. Prior to that, Tawa also served as Assistant to Mayor Richard M. Daley for Education and worked at the Chicago Public Schools as Senior Manager of the Community Schools Initiative.

Tawa holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, a Bachelor of Arts degree from Spelman College, and she is a Class of 2018 Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow, the region’s premier civic leadership development program.

A native Chicagoan, Tawa dedicates much of her extracurricular time to community service. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Illinois Humanities, Chicago Women in Philanthropy, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Illinois, and the Parks Foundation of Oak Park. Tawa is also a member of the Theta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, and the Lake Shore Chapter of the Links, Incorporated, organizations dedicated to community service.

Chantel Rush Tebbe is managing director of The Kresge Foundation’s American Cities Program. Her work advances the foundation’s efforts to catalyze effective community and economic development practices that expand opportunities for people with low incomes in American cities.

Chantel joined Kresge in 2015 as a Fellow in the Executive Office before taking on progressive responsibility within the American Cities Program.

Since joining the foundation, she has executed and now leads Kresge’s efforts to partner deeply with communities and support comprehensive place-based work in Memphis, New Orleans, Fresno and a number of other cities throughout the country. Her work supports on-the-ground efforts, exchange of ideas across cities, initiatives seeking to advance community-driven place-based practice, national community development intermediaries, and research aimed at promoting effective urban practice and policy.

Chantel holds a master’s degree in general management from Harvard Business School. She earned bachelor’s degrees in International Relations and Spanish Language from Stanford University, where her studies focused on the interplay between politics and the economy.

She brings to the social sector a background in business strategy and implementation. Prior to Kresge, Chantel served as senior analyst of global strategy and business development at Gap Inc. She started her career in management consulting at Kurt Salmon Associates (now part of Accenture Strategy) where her responsibilities included advising businesses on how to grow and better serve their customers.

Chantel serves on the boards of the National Housing Law Project, Living Cities and Equal Measure.

Lisa Talma is the Vice President of Philanthropic Initiatives at Deutsche Bank and manages the bank’s U.S. community development philanthropy. She represents the bank on multiple funder collaboratives focusing on youth and family homelessness, neighborhood planning and community development. Prior to joining the bank in 2019, Lisa served as the Assistant Commissioner of Property Disposition and Finance at the NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development where she was responsible for the disposition of city-owned property and the financing of preservation and repair programs. Lisa also worked in asset management and construction lending for LIHTC investments at Enterprise Community Partners. Lisa holds a BA in Urban Studies from Stanford University and a Masters in Urban Planning from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

Rhea Williams-Bishop is director of Mississippi and New Orleans Programming for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan. In this role, she supports the foundation’s efforts to promote thriving children, working families and equitable communities.

Williams-Bishop is responsible for leadership and vision in program conceptualization, design, planning, management, coordination, communication, evaluation, policy and learning of grantmaking in Mississippi and New Orleans. Williams-Bishop supports and facilitates the community change process within the region in alignment with the foundation’s mission and strategic framework, in collaboration and partnership with grantees and other external partners in the region, as well as other WKKF staff.

Prior to joining the foundation, Williams-Bishop served as the director of the Mississippi Center for Education Innovation (MSCEI), a nonprofit education intermediary focused on impacting and transforming education through engagement and innovation. As a child and family advocate, she has devoted her career to improving the lives of vulnerable children by enhancing and improving their opportunities in the areas of racial equity, healthcare and education.

Prior to this, Williams-Bishop held several positions with the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), including State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) administrator, executive director of Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids (SPARK) and deputy director of the CDF Southern Regional Office. She has also served as the Kids Count State Coordinator. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, she worked to ensure that children and families were not further traumatized by reuniting families and securing resources for restoration and recovery. Over the course of her career, she has spent nearly 15 years effectively managing people, programs and resources.

Williams-Bishop holds a Ph.D. in education leadership, a master’s degree in public policy and administration and a bachelor’s degree in urban affairs, each from Jackson State University. She has completed leadership programs with the Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Program, Leadership Mississippi, Leadership Madison County, and most recently the Southeastern Council of Foundations – Hull Fellowship Program.