Lucy Bernholz, Ph.D. is the founder and president of Blueprint Research & Design, Inc., a strategy consulting firm that helps philanthropic individuals and institutions achieve their missions. Dr. Bernholz is the publisher of Philanthropy2173, an award winning blog on the business of giving. She is currently the HAND Foundation Fellow in Philanthropy at the New American Foundation and is a visiting scholar at the Stanford University Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. She has also been a visiting scholar at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. She serves on advisory boards to several national and international philanthropy research centers and is a frequent keynote presenter, panelist, and media source on philanthropy and social innovation. Dr. Bernholz is the author of numerous articles and books on the philanthropic industry, including Creating Philanthropic Capital Markets: The Deliberate Evolution. Bernholz has a B.A. from Yale University and a M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University.
Shirley Eis, Chair Emeritus of the NPT Board of Trustees, founded Software Corporation of America in 1981, and as President and CEO has built it into a leading provider of wireless application software and communication tools, spanning landline and wireless network technologies. In 1999, SCA was acquired by Motorola, and Ms. Eis became a Motorola Vice President, assuming responsibility for other acquisitions, including Suncoast Scientific. Ms. Eis has over 25 years of diverse experience in telecommunications, information technology, management and sales and has held various technical and management positions for AT&T, General Foods, and Scudder Steven and Clark. She is a past board member of the Wireless Data Forum and currently sits on the board of Spot-On Networks, a Wi-Fi service provider. She holds a B.A. in mathematics from Marymount College.
C. Wolcott Henry, a former chairman of the National Philanthropic Trust, is also president and director of the Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation and the Henry Foundation, two private foundations which support natural resource conservation. Henry serves on the board of the World Wildlife Fund, and on the advisory boards of the American Fisheries Society, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and Kellogg Environmental Research Center. He is a graduate of Denison University with an M.M. from Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Steven A. Kantor is Executive Vice President of Benefits Data Trust (BDT), an organization that assists poor seniors in the United States enroll and receive prescription drug benefits. Prior to joining BDT, Steve was Director of Market Development for SMART, LLP, a full service business consulting and accounting firm, serving clients throughout the US and globally. Prior to joining SMART, he served as Business Development Manager and later became the Managing Director of the Philadelphia office of Jefferson Wells. He was the founding member of The Philadelphia Board for Corporate Governance, and he serves on the board of advisors of the George and Lois Krall Center for Corporate and Executive Education at The LeBow College of Business at Drexel University. He is founding member of The Delaware Valley Executives Counsel; advisory board member of The CARES Institute at The University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ, board member of The Committee of Seventy; Vice President of the board of alumni of Rutgers University (Camden), and member of the board of Junior Achievement Delaware Valley. Steve is a graduate of Rutgers University with a B.S. degree in Business Administration and a concentration in marketing.
Stephan R. Leimberg J.D., is CEO of Leimberg Information Services, Inc., an email and database service, providing information and commentary on tax cases, rulings, and legislation for financial services professionals, and CEO of Leimberg and LeClair, Inc., an estate and financial planning software company. Named a distinguished Accredited Estate Planner by the National Association of Estate Planners and Councils, Mr. Leimberg is co-author of Tax Planning with Life Insurance and creator and lead author of a 12-book series that includes Tools and Techniques of Estate Planning and Tools and Techniques of Life Insurance Planning. He holds a B.A. from Temple University and a J.D. from Temple University School of Law.
Christopher A. Liedel is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the National Geographic Society. He is responsible for financial administration and reporting, overseeing $700 million in investments, information systems, print manufacturing, distribution, and photographic processing for the Society. Mr. Liedel became Chief Financial Officer in 1997. He joined the Society in 1996 as Vice President for Strategic Planning. From 1991 to 1996, he held several positions at Ringier America, the North American division of Swiss-based publisher Ringier AG, ending as Senior Vice President of Operations. Mr. Liedel was General Manager of American Signature Technologies in Atlanta from 1988 to 1991. He is currently Chair of the NPT Investment Committee, overseeing $500 million in investments. He also serves on the boards of NOVICA and Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research. In addition, he serves as a member of the Nominating Committee of the United States Golf Association. Mr. Liedel earned a bachelor's degree from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, has a master's degree in decision science from Georgia State University, and is a Wharton Fellow from the University Pennsylvania.
Jim Luck is the first ever president emeritus and senior fellow of the Columbus Foundation. During his 20-year tenure, the foundation grew from $50 million in assets to nearly $700 million, awarded $450 million in grants to charitable organizations, and ranks among the top 10 community foundations in gifts, grants and assets. Prior to joining the foundation, he was the executive director of the Battelle Memorial Institute Foundation, and the National Congress on Volunteerism and Citizenship, co-chairman of the HEW Task Force on Citizen Education, and director of forensics at Texas Christian University. Mr. Luck has been a consultant and advisor to the Peace Corps, National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and more than 20 community foundations. He conceptualized and created the first Leave a Legacy program, which is now in operation in more than 150 cities in the United States. He has served on a variety of corporate, community, and nonprofit boards, several of which include: Community Foundation of America, the AAFRC Trust for Philanthropy, The Cardinal Group of Funds; and Antioch University. Mr. Luck received degrees from Ohio State University (B.A.) and the University of Georgia (M.A.).
Stephen J. McCarthy is senior vice president of KCG Capital Advisors, an asset management/foundation administration venture that he co-founded in 1994. He has more than thirty-five years of diversified experience in the financial services and foundation management sectors, including his work with Paine Webber Group, Security Pacific Corporation, Deloitte Haskins & Sells, CitiBank, and others. In the philanthropic arena, McCarthy has been involved with the Council on Foundations, the Association of Small Foundations, the New York Society of Security Analysts, the National Center for Family Philanthropy, and the Support Center for Nonprofit Management. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University, and received an M.B.A. from the Stern Graduate School of Business at New York University. He also completed an Executive Education Management Program on Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Investing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Stephen C. Nill, J.D. is the founder and CEO of CharityChannel, an on-line community that has grown to include more than 100,000 nonprofit professionals from every continent of the world. Mr. Nill, an attorney with an expertise in the law of tax-exempt organizations, charitable planned giving, and taxation, is frequently quoted in Forbes, The New York Times, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Nonprofit Times, London Times, and The Wall Street Journal, and on numerous national and local television and radio programs. Mr. Nill's law practice tax-exempt clients include many of the largest nonprofit institutions in the United States, and his charitable planned giving clients range from the top 50 wealthiest families in the world. In addition to his law practice and consulting activities, Mr. Nill has served as Vice President of Development in a West Coast nonprofit hospital chain, Chief Executive Officer and General Counsel of one of the fastest growing health care foundations in the United States, and as Chief Development Officer of a major West Coast university. He has raised more than $100 million for charity, and has created and administered programs that have produced nearly $1 billion in charitable contributions.
NPT Advisory Committee
Member Bios
Patricia Patrizi, Principal, Patrizi Associates, is a consultant working with a broad range of nonprofit organizations and philanthropies in the areas of evaluation, strategic planning, and organizational learning. She directed the Practice Matters project, and chairs the Evaluation Roundtable, a group of evaluation and program executives at the nation's largest foundations dedicated to improving evaluation practices across philanthropy. Previously, she served as Director of Evaluation at the Pew Charitable Trusts, and conducted health services research as a senior analyst at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics of the University of Pennsylvania and was a member of the faculty. Ms. Patrizi holds degrees from Bryn Mawr College and the University of Pennsylvania. She is a research fellow at Harvard University. She is a member of the United Way Task Force on Impact; the advisory board to evaluate Child Care Matters, through Temple University's Center for Public Policy; and the advisory committee for the Aspen Institute Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program.
Renata J. Rafferty is the founder and principal of Rafferty Consulting Group. For more than two decades, she has assisted individuals, families, and foundations in defining and maintaining a clear focus in their philanthropic activities. Her firm also provides comprehensive consulting, training, and facilitation services for nonprofit and public agencies operating in areas that include education, the arts, health and community, and social services. She has been profiled in Inc. magazine, and writes a weekly column on nonprofit and philanthropic issues for a major Gannett newspaper. Ms. Rafferty is also a lead instructor with the Southern California Center for Nonprofit Management in Los Angeles, and co-founded The Nonprofit Leadership Consortium and the Executive Director's Roundtable, both in Riverside County, California. Ms. Rafferty holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola University of Chicago, a Master of Arts degree from Tufts University in Boston, and is a former Fulbright Scholar with the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.
Nadya K. Shmavonian is an independent consultant who provides strategic direction and management development to foundations and nonprofit organizations. She brings extensive foundation management experience to her practice, including 12 years at The Pew Charitable Trusts where she was executive vice president. Among Ms. Shmavonian's foundation clients are: the Rockefeller Foundation, The California Endowment, The Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, the John Templeton Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and several other private foundations. Ms. Shmavonian serves on a number of non-profit boards including: The Center for Bioethics of the University of Pennsylvania, The Compatible Ventures Group (a research and development arm of the Nature Conservancy), The Pew Fellowships in International Journalism, Abington Memorial Hospital Foundation, and Chestnut Hill College. Ms. Shmavonian holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago, and an M.B.A. in health care management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
John F. White, Jr. is President and CEO of The Consortium, a Community Mental Health/Mental Retardation Center in West Philadelphia. In this role, he advocates for the health and well being of the consumers in the West Philadelphia Community. Mr. White served as a member of Pennsylvania's House of Representatives and during his five-year term, he sponsored several key pieces of legislation tackling a range of public policy concerns. As a member of Philadelphia's City Council, he served as Chairman of Council's Health and Human Services Committee. Mr. White formerly served as Pennsylvania's Secretary of the Department of Public Welfare — the Commonwealth's largest State agency. He also completed a four-year term as the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA), which, prior to his arrival, was one of the most troubled housing authorities in the country. Under his leadership, PHA was removed from the federal list of "troubled" housing authorities by the Office of Housing and Urban Development and became a model that has been hailed as one of the nation's best. Mr. White attended West Chester University and the John F. Kennedy School of Government for Senior Executives.