ABOUT GRANTMAKERS FOR EDUCATION

The NEA Foundation

Sara Sneed

Chairperson | Washington, D.C.

Sara Sneed is president and CEO of The NEA Foundation in Washington, D.C. Sara joined The NEA Foundation in February 2019, after almost 20 years with the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, one of the nation’s largest community foundations. While with the Hartford Foundation, Sara served as director of education investments, promoting educational equity and excellence with partners at the local, state and national levels. Sara also led the development of strategy and policy advocacy to close persistent educational opportunity gaps and improve student outcomes across some of Connecticut’s highest need school districts. She is credited with developing dynamic new learning opportunities both for and with educators and students; successful advocacy for equity-focused fiscal practices among schools and school districts; and effective grants programs, policy advocacy, and cross sector collaboration supporting English Learners, whole child development and increased family, school and community partnership. Among her national leadership roles, Sara currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board of the Institute for Educational Leadership in Washington D.C.; on the Grantmakers for Education Equity Impact Group; and on the steering committees of the Education Funders’ Strategy Group and Community Schools’ Funders Group.

Stuart Foundation

Sophie Fanelli

Vice Chairperson | California

Sophie Fanelli is the president of the Stuart Foundation where she is responsible for leading the foundation’s investments to advance whole child education in California and Washington State. She oversees four grantmaking portfolios: School Finance & Accountability, Educator Leadership, Creativity & Arts Education, and Adolescent Learning. Sophie first joined the Stuart Foundation as senior program officer for education in October 2012. Previously, she served as director of research & policy at the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) at UCLA where she oversaw public policy and legislative efforts focused on education equity and access, student and parent engagement, and school transformation. She also worked at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California where she concentrated on a range of social and racial justice issues including advancing education equity, LGBTQ issues, immigrants rights, and advocacy for the homeless. Sophie was trained as a lawyer in France, Italy and at the University of Texas in Austin where she focused on criminal justice issues.

The Pinkerton Foundation

Danielle Pulliam

Secretary | New York

After graduating from Brown University with a degree in computer science and management, Danielle Pulliam began her career at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).  While there, Danielle found that her pro-bono work was much more rewarding than projects for paying clients.  Her bosses might not have been delighted, but it fueled her interest in public service. She joined the Stanley Isaacs Neighborhood Center (a long-time Pinkerton grantee) and then the United Way, where she earned an MPA from Baruch College through the National Urban Fellows Program. Later, she worked with Public/Private Ventures and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC).  Before joining Pinkerton, Danielle was the director of Strategic Partnerships in the Office of Adult and Continuing Education at the New York City Department of Education. At Pinkerton, Danielle manages grants to literacy, sports and arts programs and serves as a thought partner for the foundation’s Racial Equity Initiative to support BIPOC leaders. She is also co-chair of the New York City Youth & Education Funders Working Group and is active in Grantmakers for Education. Outside the office, she finds joy in practicing her faith and liturgical dance, traveling internationally and enthusiastically sampling the world’s cuisines.

Rodel

Paul Herdman

Treasurer | Delaware

Paul is president and CEO of Rodel, which he joined in 2004. He is a founding member of the Vision Coalition, Delaware’s public-private partnership whose aim is to transform public schools to world-class status. Paul is an Aspen Institute-NewSchools Fellow in entrepreneurial leadership, and a 2010 recipient of the NewSchools Venture Fund “Change Agent of the Year” award. He has served as a senior manager at New American Schools, consulted with Brookings Institution, RAND, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and The World Bank. Paul has taught K-12 in the U.S., South Africa, and Australia, and co-founded an Outward Bound-based school-within-a-school in New York City. He assisted the secretary of education for two governors in Massachusetts during the wholesale redesign of the state’s policies on standards, choice, and finance during the 1990s.

Communities Foundation of Texas

John Fitzpatrick

Member | Texas

John is the executive director of Educate Texas, CFT's statewide education initiative. His role spans five areas: strategy, fundraising, advocacy, culture/talent and what he calls Team CFT. From 1997-2004, John had a dual role as the executive director of Skillpoint Alliance, a central Texas nonprofit, and vice president for education and workforce development at the Austin Chamber of Commerce. John moved to Texas in 1994 to attend grad school at the LBJ School at UT Austin, where he met his wife, Kristen Vassallo. Before that, he worked on Capitol Hill for Republicans and Democrats on education, workforce development, trade and other issues. John taught eighth-grade English and U.S. history for a year in Long Island, New York. He holds a bachelor’s in sociology from Wesleyan University, where he also played soccer.

United Way of Greater Atlanta

Katrina Mitchell

Member | Atlanta, GA

Katrina is an experienced and respected leader with more than 20 years of experience working on a national and regional level. She has worked in the non-profit, philanthropic and public sector. She has served in leadership roles at the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services, Andrus Family Fund and the National Urban League. She currently serves as the Chief Community Impact Officer at United Way of Greater Atlanta. She led the Greater Atlanta COVID Response and Recovery Fund and is leading the United for Racial Equity & Healing Fund. She is also responsible for a grantmaking portfolio focused on improving child well-being and addressing the systemic issues that put Greater Atlanta at the bottom of the list of U.S. cities in terms of opportunity and economic mobility.

Katrina also served as an advisory member of the Children’s Defense Fund’s Freedom School and as a board member for Westside Atlanta Charter School and the Wellesley College Alumnae of African Descent. She currently serves as Co-Chair for Grantmakers for Southern Progress and a steering committee member for the Atlanta Regional Collaborative for Health Improvement Collaborative.  Katrina is also the recipient of Rockwood Leadership Institute's Equity in Philanthropy Fellowship, Association for Black Foundation Executives Connecting Leaders Fellowship. Katrina is also a member of Leadership Atlanta Class of 2023 and Leadership America Class of 2018. After receiving a B.A. in English from Wellesley College, Katrina earned a M.Ed. from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. 

The New York Community Trust

Shawn Morehead

Member | New York, NY

Shawn oversees The Trust’s competitive grantmaking program, which distributes approximately $50 million annually. Prior to this position, she served as The Trust’s program director for Human Justice and Education grantmaking. She received her B.A. from Columbia University and her J.D. from Stanford Law School.

The Kresge Foundation

William Moses

Member | Troy, MI

William (Bill) F. L. Moses serves as managing director for The Kresge Foundation’s Education Program, which supports postsecondary access and success for low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students.

The key architect of Kresge’s education programming, Bill leads the team’s continuum of domestic and international grant activities from developing program strategy, reviewing preliminary ideas, and helping grantees develop proposals or initiatives, to awarding funding and monitoring existing grants. Since his arrival at Kresge, Bill has served as a program officer and senior program officer, was instrumental in developing Kresge’s Green Building Initiative and has spearheaded the foundation’s grantmaking in South Africa.

Before joining Kresge, Bill served as executive director of The Thomas J. Watson Foundation in Rhode Island and as a senior analyst at the Investor Responsibility Research Center in Washington, D.C. He also worked as a research officer at TechnoServe and held various administrative positions in Alaska’s state legislature and the federal government, including the U.S. Embassy in Cape Town, South Africa.

A graduate of Claremont McKenna College, Bill holds a master’s degree in international relations from Yale University. He is the author of “A Guide to American State and Local Laws on South Africa” and co-author of “Corporate Responsibility in a Changing South Africa.”  He was the co-chair of the seven-foundation Partnership for Higher Education in Africa and serves on the steering committee of the Africa Grantmakers’ Affinity Group, an organization he co-founded. He also is a member of the National Advisory Board of The College Promise Campaign and a Board Member of APIA Scholars. In 2022, Bill was appointed to serve on President Joe Biden’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with the aim to increase the capacity of HBCUs to provide the highest-quality education to its students and continue serving as engines of opportunity.

Nellie Mae Education Foundation

Gisele Shorter

Member | Washington

Dr. Gisele C. Shorter is the third President and CEO of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, which funds community-rooted educational transformation that challenges racial inequities and advances excellent, student-centered public education for all New England youth. Foundational to Gisele’s career is the deep belief that an equitable society starts with an equitable education system. Over the past 15 years, she has led large-scale community-based programs and research and policy initiatives to advance justice and equity, close health disparities and ensure access and opportunities for Black and Brown youth and communities to flourish.

Dr. Shorter most recently served as the Director of the National Education Strategy at the Raikes Foundation, where she was responsible for impact and strategy coherence across the K-12, post-secondary, education field building, and policy portfolios. Dr. Shorter is an adjunct professor and founding faculty member of the EdD in Leadership and Innovation degree program at NYU Steinhardt Department of Administration, Leadership, and Technology. She advises doctoral students on a wide range of complex problems of practice, from the role of philanthropy in China’s evolving socio-political context to the role of district superintendents as agents for change.

Dr. Shorter earned her doctorate in education from Columbia University Teachers College. She holds a master’s degree from Long Island University and a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College. She is a Pahara Aspen Fellow and active member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Carnegie Corporation of New York

LaVerne Evans Srinivasan

Member | New York

LaVerne Evans Srinivasan is the vice president of Carnegie Corporation of New York’s National program and program director for Education. At the Corporation she oversees grantmaking and amplifying activities aimed at engaging parents and communities, improving teaching and leadership for learning, advancing innovative learning environment designs, providing K–12 pathways to college and career success, and fostering integrated approaches to innovation and learning. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Srinivasan joined Carnegie Corporation in 2014, arriving with extensive experience in senior-level leadership roles in the areas of urban district change, nonprofit education reform, and educational technology. She served as a deputy chancellor of the New York City Department of Education (2003–2006), where, among other accomplishments, she designed and implemented Project Home Run, a strategically redesigned and streamlined system for recruiting, hiring, and placing teachers and school principals that greatly increased the teacher talent available to high-needs schools and which has been replicated nationwide.

Southern Education Foundation

Kenita Williams

Member | Atlanta, GA

Dr. Kenita Williams joined the Southern Education Foundation in 2017 and serves as the chief operating officer. She is responsible for the day-to-day administrative and operational functions of the organization, as well as the implementation of SEF’s programmatic priorities. Additionally, Kenita represents SEF’s values and efforts to key external stakeholders and serves as a thought partner to the president and CEO, helping to create the organizational systems, processes, and culture that ensure that SEF is as catalytic and impactful as possible.

Kenita brings a wide range of knowledge and critical experience to SEF, having held positions in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. She has served as the partnerships manager for Atlanta Public Schools and as senior program manager for Public Policy at the Southeastern Council of Foundations. Kenita spent several years as a consultant for JFM Consulting Group and worked on Capitol Hill as a Legislative Correspondent for then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama. She is also a Teach for America alumna and spent three years teaching third grade in Atlanta.

Kenita earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and history from Yale University, her Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, a teaching certificate from Georgia State University, and her doctorate of education degree from Johns Hopkins University.