Governance
A founding board has been constituted who are responsible for guiding the Fund's programmes and operations.
The current board are:
Barry D. Gaberman
Barry Gaberman was born in Shanghai, China on August 9, 1941. He left China with his family in 1949 and, after living for two years in Israel, emigrated to the United States with his father in 1951, settling in Madison, Wisconsin. He graduated from high school in 1960 and joined the army, serving in several locations in the United States and in what was then West Berlin. He returned to Wisconsin in 1964, enrolling in the University of Wisconsin and completing both a B.S. (1966) and an M.A. degree (1968). After continuing graduate study in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin with an emphasis on comparative politics (Southeast Asia concentration), he joined the Ford Foundation in August 1971.
At the Ford Foundation, Gaberman held, in succession, such Ford portfolios as program officer; director of the Office of Program Related Investments (PRIs), deputy vice president for the U.S. and International Affairs component of the Program Division, as well as deputy vice president of that division. He became the Senior Vice President of the Ford Foundation in April 1996 and held that position until his retirement in September 2006.
He has served on the boards of the Council on Foundations, the Independent Sector, the European Foundation Centre, the International Fellowships Fund, Hispanics in Philanthropy, the Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe, and the Center for Global Partnership of the Japan Foundation. He is also the past chair of the Foundation Center and the chair emeritus of the Coordinating Committee of WINGS (Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support).
Since his retirement he has been a part-time senior advisor to the Foundation Center and spent a semester as a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Gerhart Center on Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at American University in Cairo, teaching a course he helped design on the role of philanthropy in society. He was also the co-chair of the Council on Foundations Annual Conference in May 2008 in the Greater Washington, D.C. area. He continues to serve on the boards of the Independent Sector, the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, the Scholar Rescue Fund of the Institute of International Education, Oxfam U.S.A., and the Cooperative Assistance Fund. He is the chair of BoardSource and the chair of the Global Fund for Community Foundations.
Avila Kilmurray
Avila Kilmurray is Director of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland (previously the Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust), a position she has held since 1994. The Foundation is an independent charitable grant-making organization whose mission is to 'drive social change'. She has a particular interest in community development, peace building issues and women's issues. The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland was a founder member of the Foundations for Peace Network: a peer network of independent trusts and Foundations working in divided societies and committed to peacebuilding through philanthropy.
Avila has been working in Northern Ireland since 1975, through community work in Derry, a community education project in Magee, a range of anti-poverty initiatives, and through establishing the Women's Aid organization. She has previously worked with the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action and as coordinator of the rural Action Project. In 1990, she was appointed the first Women's Officer for the Transport & General Workers Union, and has also served on the Northern Ireland Committee and on the Executive Councils of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Ms Kilmurray was active in the Noprthern Ireland Women's Rights Movement, was a founding member of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, and was a member of the Coalition's negotiating team for the Belfast Agreement. She has written extensively on community development, Women's issues, and Civil Society. Ms Kilmurray has recently obtained a doctorate for a study on 'Governmentality and Community Action in Belfast, 1975-1995'.
Bongi Mkhabela
Sibongile (Bongi) Mkhabela is CEO of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, which works to improve the lives of poor children and youths up until the age of 22.
With an honors degree in Social Work and several graduate diplomas, Bongi has a wealth of experience in development issues nationally and internationally, from her work in senior positions at the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Education Programme in South Africa and the South African Counsel of Churches.
Bongi served in the office of the then South African Deputy President Mbeki as programs director responsible for overall programming, with specific responsibility for NGO/Government partnerships and children's programs.
As a student leader, Bongi was an executive member of the Soweto Students Representative Council (SSRC) and South African Students Movement General Secretary.
Monica Patten
Monica has personally assisted in the development of community philanthropy around the world, including in Brazil, Mexico, Central and Eastern Europe, Australia, the Philippines, Thailand and Russia. She was a founder of WINGS (Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support) and served as its chair through 2004 to 2007. She has participated since its inception in the Transatlantic Community Foundation Network (TCFN), a program initiated and led by the Bertelsmann Foundation for the past ten years. In 2008 Bertelsmann invited, Community Foundations of Canada to become the new host of TCFN, a further recognition of of the high regard in which Monica and CFC are held. Monica is a Senior Fellow to Synergos, a New York City-based organisation that promotes the development of foundations and partnerships in the global south.
Monica is well known for her leadership in Canada's voluntary sector. In May 2005, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lawson Foundation in recognition of her "extraordinary accomplishments and leadership." Monica was also honoured by the Public Policy Forum in April 2002 for her contribution to public policy and Canada's voluntary sector. In 2007 Monica was appointed a Mentor with the Trudeau Foundation and more recently to the RioTintoAlcan Fund as a Director. She also serves on various other community Boards.
She is a former member of The Board of Directors of CIVICUS, an international alliance to nurture citizen action throughout the world, especially in areas where democracy is threatened and of the International Committee of the Washington-based Council on Foundations. She presently serves on the Community Foundation Leadership Team of the Council on Foundations.
Maureen H. Smyth
Maureen Smyth has been working with the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation since 1983 and is currently Senior Vice President of Programs and Communications. In this capacity, Ms. Smyth directs the program activities of the Foundation, including regular grantmaking programs and special projects operated by the Foundation. She also oversees all communications activities. Prior to this, she was Vice President of Programs; a Program Officer for the Mott Foundation's Environment Program; and a consulting editor for the Foundation's major publications. Ms. Smyth also worked as a Legislative Liaison for the Michigan Association of School Boards and was a Legislative Analyst with the Michigan House of Representatives.
She chairs the board of the Trust for Civil Society for Central and Eastern Europe. She is a board member of the Great Lakes Protection Fund and the Foundation Center. She also serves on advisory committees for the Center for Effective Philanthropy and Independent Sector's International Program. She has served previously on the boards of the Council of Michigan Foundations, the Environmental Grantmakers Association, and Michigan's Children, and on the Council on Foundation's Legislation and Regulations Committee.
Rita Thapa
Rita Thapa is founder and director of Nagarik Aawaz (2001), an initiative for conflict transformation and peace-building in Nepal. Previously, she founded and led Tewa, the innovative Nepal Women's Fund. She has 30 years experience as a feminist educator and community activist, including service on the likes of International Committee of the Regional Center for Strategic Studies, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka and SACEPS (South Asia Center for Policy Studies). Rita has in the past worked for GTZ, CCO - the Canadian development agency in Nepal, Oxfam UK, and Unifem/UNDP Nepal programme manager and consultant, respectively.
Rita earned her Bachelor of Education in her home town of Kathmandu, before pursuing a postgraduate diploma at the University of Sussex in the UK. In July 2009 she will finish an applied conflict transformation MA degree from Cambodia. She is a former board member/Chair of the Global Fund for Women and the Urgent Action Fund. She is an Ashoka Fellow, Dame Nita Barrow Distinguished Visitor at the University of Toronto (2002) and one of the 1000 peace women around the globe.
Anita Vitullo Khoury
Anita Vitullo Khoury is Deputy Director of Welfare Association’s Resource Development Department. Ms. Vitullo has expertise in the field of development and human rights, working in Beirut, Washington and Palestine over the past 30 years for Palestinian, international and UN organizations, including as Palestine program advisor with the World Food Programme, and consultant with the Palestinian National Poverty Commission. Since 1998 she has served with Welfare Association in program development and resource mobilization. Ms. Vitullo holds an M.A. in political studies from the American University of Beirut, and completed further studies with the London School of Economics/University of London, the International Institute for Human Rights in Strasbourg, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is involved in building the community development fund within Welfare Association to support sustained development in Jerusalem.
