Meet Our Board
Through their dedicated leadership, subject matter expertise, and generosity, our Board of Directors help advance ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµ' goals and performance.
ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµâ€™s Charities Board Of Directors
Gary R. Levante is Chief Communication & Sustainability Officer atĚý. Mr. Levante is a dynamic, award winning, purpose-driven executive and speaker with expertise across corporate responsibility, ESG, sustainable finance, corporate culture, reputation management, and corporate affairs. His passion, ability to inspire and motivate those around him along with his unique understanding of business, stakeholders, and society has led to dozens of awards and accolades. By unlocking meaningful solutions that create shared value, Mr. Levante has helped businesses elevate their impact and performance. An active community member, he serves on the boards of local and national non-profit organizations. He holds a B.A. from St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont.
Laurie is the Market Managing Principal in BDO’s Greater Washington, DC market which encompasses Maryland, District of Columbia and Northern Virginia with over 25 years experience in client service and operations. Overseeing a talented team of nearly 200 professionals, Laurie is responsible for guiding industry focused, targeted growth and people strategies in the market. BDO is the fifth largest accounting and consulting firm worldwide serving public and private clients in various industries with particular focus in the D.C. and Baltimore markets in technology, life sciences, government contracting, real estate and construction, professional services, healthcare, and not-for-profits.
Laurie also serves as the Executive Director of BDO’s Institute for Nonprofit Excellence, guiding the strategy and direction of the Institute’s thought leadership and resources nationally. She has over 25 years experience auditing and consulting on engagements for all manner of tax-exempt organizations including charitable and educational organizations, community-based organizations, trade associations, private foundations and colleges and universities. She also has extensive experience auditing large, complex employee benefit plans including defined contribution, defined benefit, health and welfare and multiple employer plans.
Laurie is a regular speaker at internal and external seminars on topics including industry trends, governance matters, leadership development and diversity and inclusion.
Laurie was awarded one of the 2013 Women to Watch Awards by the Greater Washington Society of CPAs for her contributions to the profession.
Marly Leighton-Colburn leads Corporate Cause Marketing Partnerships at the .
Marly brings expertise in creating and nourishing impactful partnerships with major brands. In her roles as Director, Partner Impact at Discovery Education, and Chief of Staff at DoSomething.org, she secured and managed cause marketing partnerships with CVS, 3M, PwC, Taco Bell, General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, General Mills, Garnier, and other top brands. She was also a key member of DoSomething.org’s Get Out the Vote task force in advance of the 2020 Election, which garnered 250,000 voter registrations.
Prior to her roles in the impact partnerships space, Marly served as a publicist at Polk & Co. representing a portfolio of Broadway productions and performing arts projects including Wicked, If/Then, and The Color Purple.
Marly champions a culture of giving and has volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters NYC, Bike New York, Crisis Text Line, and New York Cares.
Ijeoma is an assurance senior manager with BDO’s assurance practice with extensive experience in several industries including nonprofit, government, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and construction. Ijeoma joined BDO in May 2020 after serving 16 years at Big Four firms in various capacities. Her experience includes:
- Planning, performing, and supervising a wide variety of financial statement and pension plan audits;
- Analyzing internal controls and policies and writing accounting policies and procedure manuals;
- Presenting regularly to audit committees and providing technical support on auditing and accounting issues for those clients;
- Experience in working with organizations with multiple national and International nonprofit andfor-profit entities;
- Knowledge in compliance auditing of organizations receiving federal financial funding inaccordance with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Uniform Guidance;
- Performing federal audits of U.S. government agencies and advising on U.S. governmentappropriations and related accounting for federal requirements;
- Performing donor audits for federal and private grantors based on agreed upon procedures.Some of the organizations that Ij serves include the Society of Human Resources, ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµn Psychological Association, ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµn Association for the Advancement of Science, Catholic Charities USA, Fisher House Foundation, ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµn Physical Society and the Government of the District of Columbia.
Wendell D. Hall, Ph.D., serves as Principal at . Equivolve is a strategy consulting firm that provides research and evaluation, philanthropic advisory services and project design and management to its partners.
He was formerly the Senior Director, Higher Ed Outreach and Partnerships, in the College Board’s Higher Education division, where focused on developing and advocating for policy positions that promote access and equity for all students.
Prior to the College Board, Hall held leadership positions at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU), and the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, an independent federal committee chartered by Congress and tasked with advocating for low and moderate-income students.
Hall earned his Ph.D. in higher education policy from the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his master’s degree in secondary science education from The George Washington University and a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Hampton University. Hall has authored or co-authored several articles and book chapters for higher education publications.
Hall, also a former high school science teacher, is well versed on issues around college access and success, educational equity, and institutional diversity initiatives. He currently serves as an EMERGE Mentor, was previously the Board Vice Chair of DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI), and served as a founding Board Member for College and Career Pathways (CCP).
Hall, who called Washington, DC, home for most of his life, now resides in greater Houston with his wife and two children.
Shani M. Waugh is the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at . In this role, she is responsible for developing and implementing the diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy for the Google Cloud business which consists of more than 40,000 employees worldwide.
Waugh has more than 25 years of progressive human resources experience with Fortune 500 companies in the technology, pharmaceutical, and defense industries. Prior to Google, she led Talent Management for LMI in Tysons, Virginia, where she was responsible for designing and implementing the company’s talent strategy in the areas of employee and leadership development, workforce succession, and inclusion engagement for more than 1700 employees nationwide. For more than a decade, she also worked at Lockheed Martin, where she provided strategic human capital leadership to support business area operations, enterprise diversity and inclusion, and the integration of acquisitions. She has also held human resources roles with Bristol Myers Squibb and Intel Corporation.
Waugh holds a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from the Lubin School of Business at Pace University. She currently serves on the Cornell University Council where she plays an active role in the engagement of the university’s connection of students, alumni, and faculty. In her local community, Waugh is a Board member of the Patuxent River, MD, chapter of The Links, Inc., which provides transformational programming and services that enrich the quality of life of the residents of Upper Montgomery County. She is also a member of the Montgomery County, MD, chapter of The Society Incorporated and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.
Waugh lives in Upper Montgomery County, Maryland, and enjoys traveling with family to beach towns and visits to local theaters and museums.
Rebecca is a human resources professional with more than 25 years of experience in consulting to private and nonprofit organizations. She is the President and CEO of , a consulting firm focused on nonprofit compensation. In addition to leading the firm, she directs a variety of client engagements involving nonprofit compensation and benefits issues.
Prior to joining SmithPilot, Ms. Pilot served as human resources director for a variety of nonprofit organizations, leading the human resources functions for these nonprofits as well as designing and implementing new programs as necessary. Ms. Pilot’s experience also includes advising executives at Accenture on a wide variety of HR issues including staffing, leadership development, compensation planning, performance management, succession planning, and diversity.
Prior to her tenure with Accenture, she managed graduate student and alumni programs in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
Rebecca received her undergraduate degree from Lafayette College and earned a Master of Arts in Communication, Culture, and Technology from Georgetown University. Active in school and community affairs, she and her husband and their three children live in the Greater Washington DC area.
Cody Chandler is the Senior Director Cloud Engineering and Operations for .
For over 20 years, Cody has worked in every aspect of technology from Internet Service Providers to Commercial Space Travel. Specializing in the conversion of startup idea to scalable business and transitioning enterprise methodologies to modern DevOps practices; he evangelizes techniques that shift companies left; allowing for faster conception to production iterations.
Cody holds patents in technology pertaining to medical devices for seizure monitoring and triage alerting systems. He is passionate about leveraging technology to assist families with Cerebral Palsy and Autism. His love for animals introduced him to his wife Dr. Diana DVM and together with their two children, they have rescued numerous dogs with medical conditions that require special attention.
After a successful exit of a startup in 2014: Cody spent 2 years working solely in corporate social responsibility, workspace giving and philanthropy. His work in CSR ultimately led to a partnership with ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµâ€™s Charities. Cody hopes to use his technical experience and contacts to expand into microtransaction donations and corporate asset repurposing.
Cody is a huge fan and supporter of A Walk on Water – Surf Therapy, and Marley’s Mutts – Animal Rescue.
As the CEO for Action for Racial Equity Fellow, Jennifer has co-led the pilot Place-based fellowship platform while also leading a team in the planning and creation of the Place-based toolkit/ guide to facilitate the execution of community mappings, city-specific data analysis/research, facilitation of stakeholder and community listening sessions and focus groups. She has trained a team of 10, including leadership, on Equity Design principles including design systems thinking and the development of equity solutions based on targeted universalism and positive deviance concepts. She has advised fellowship leadership on lived experience and interests of Black Oaklanders as a member of the Oakland Place-based Community Advisory Council, researched on over 200+ Bay Area organizations to distill preliminary top 5 racial equity priorities, led a team of 5 in the development of root cause hypotheses based on Oakland/Alameda County-specific data to be tested, and is co-designing listening sessions for Oakland grass tops organizations, community members, and local government to test and refine root cause hypotheses. In addition, she was the Leader of the Racial Equity in ESG fellowship solution: “Racial equity is ESG: What gets measured gets done.” She interviewed a variety stakeholder partners from former SEC council members, Big 4 accounting firms, and influencers of federal and state public policy, and synthesized ESG-related information from a variety of sources including webinars, academic journals, SEC ESG subcommittee proposed and final recommendations, public company financial statements, proxy statements, Page 1 of 5 federal and state legislation on several ESG-related topics including human capital, business diversity, climate-related disclosures. Jennifer designed the solution implementation plan to be executed by the fellowship and stakeholder partners, including building out of the solution timeline and criteria of success for each phase. She authored the solution policy memo aggregating information, insights, benefits and tactics for risk mitigation, and she is the ESG fellowship subject matter expert providing guidance to fellows whose signatory companies are interested stronger engagement on ESG-related racial equity strategies Economic Empowerment Leader in the fellowship SWAT Team. Jennifer analyzed agendas of over 10 national government entities and NGOs, identified economic empowerment trends to guide the strategic decisions on the fellowship solution portfolio Founder of the fellowship Black Community Council, and increased the fellowship’s practice of human-centered design principles in the successful advocacy for a fellowship Black Community Council (BCC) to represent the interests of our “customer”, the Black community. She provided successful nominations of BCC member, CEO of The Greenlining Institute Creator of the fellowship signatory racial equity initiative sentiment survey, and she coordinated with the fellowship Communications team in the creation of a sentiment survey to be completed by 100+ fellows across 100+ organizations.
Prior to her work with Action for Racial Equity Fellow, Jennifer had experiences with PwC’s Assurance Manager, Southwest Market Black Inclusion Network’s Co-Leader, and she worked on the Justice Project for PwC Impact Space – Northeastern University Civil Rights and Restorative, among many other experiences.
Grace Chung Rhee is the Senior Director of Social Impact Programs for Automation Anywhere, which is committed to reimagining the future of work for everyone, improving efficiency through process automation, and building AI for good.
Prior to joining Automation Anywhere, Grace has led and managed corporate social impact programs at companies such as Zillow Group, AECOM, and Yahoo. At Zillow, Grace created an impact strategy anchored on leveraging Zillow’s product, corporate giving, platform, and employee engagement on three focus areas: housing security, economic opportunity, and equitable industry. At AECOM, she built a global corporate responsibility platform from the ground up for its 90,000 employees. She also previously led strategic partnerships at Pledge, a startup modernizing giving technology, securing partnerships with companies such as Zoom, Box, and Cameo.
Grace graduated with a BA from ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµn University and a Master in Public Policy (MPP) from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She also serves on the board of Access Ventures, a nonprofit committed to building more inclusive economies through mission-aligned investments.
Patrick McCrummen leads global Community Impact, the social impact strategy at , a $14 billion integrated specialty products company with operations in 60 countries. Leveraging DuPont’s unique portfolio of products, innovation platforms, and intellectual capital, his work focuses on creating meaningful differences in the health and well-being of people and communities around the world.
He served for 8 years at Johnson & Johnson, building the company’s first cross-enterprise corporate responsibility platform. He also led the communication and advocacy strategy for J&J’s global community impact work focused on the empowerment of women and girls, strengthening the healthcare workforce, and improving access and health outcomes in maternal and child health.
Prior to J&J, he served as Vice President of Communication and Marketing and other roles for the ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµn Red Cross headquarters in Washington, DC leading disaster public affairs, national preparedness communications, and as the head of communication and marketing across five business lines. He served as a strategy leader and policy advisor in cross-agency public affairs partnerships with FEMA, Dept. of Homeland Security, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including responses to the September 11th attacks, Hurricane Katrina, the H1N1 flu pandemic, and several international disasters.
He currently serves on the advisory board of the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Corporate Citizenship Center.
Zach Skow is the founder of , an organization born from his personal journey of struggle, redemption, and the healing power of dogs.
Zach’s story is one of resilience and transformation. Battling severe addiction and alcoholism, Zach faced a dire prognosis in 2008 with only 90 days to live without a liver transplant— or change everything about his lifestyle. During his darkest times, it was the unconditional love and companionship of his rescue dogs that provided the support and motivation he needed to turn his life around. Advocating for the dogs and a life of service restored him entirely and placed him on this current trajectory with 16 years of sobriety.
In 2009, Zach founded Marley’s Mutts Dog Rescue in Tehachapi, California, as a testament to the life-saving bond between humans and dogs. Named after his beloved Rottweiler-pit bull mix, Marley, the rescue focuses on rehabilitating and rehoming high-risk dogs from Kern County’s high-kill shelters. Through Marley’s Mutts, Zach has saved nearly 10,000 dogs, giving them a second chance at life and love.
One of Zach’s most significant achievements is the creation of the Pawsitive Change Program. This innovative initiative pairs rescue dogs with inmates in California state prisons. The program not only provides a path to rehabilitation for the dogs but also offers inmates a chance to develop empathy, responsibility, and vocational skills. Pawsitive Change has seen remarkable success, with more than 1000 student inmates graduating from the program and significantly reducing their recidivism rates. The program has transformed lives, showcasing the profound impact of human-animal connections.
Zach’s work has earned him national recognition, and Marley’s Mutts has grown into a powerhouse in the animal rescue community, advocating for animal welfare and the benefits of second chances for both dogs and people. Beyond the confines of the rescue, Zach is a passionate advocate for the broader mission of ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµ’s Charities. He is excited to contribute his experience, energy, and vision to help grow and nurture their mission, furthering the cause of charitable giving and community support.
With his compelling personal story and unwavering dedication to making a difference, Zach Skow continues to inspire and drive positive change, proving that with love and support, redemption and new beginnings are always possible.
The consistent theme in Andrea’s career – across corporate philanthropy, audience research, nonprofit consulting and beyond – is a deep curiosity about people and the desire to connect. Corporate philanthropy has provided an incredible opportunity to build relationships and knowledge that allow for creating meaningful social impact.
Andrea currently serves as a Corporate Foundation Leader for PwC Charitable Foundation. Prior to joining PwC, she spent time self-employed as a Strategy & Research Consultant. Upon launching ProvParents, she served as an advocate for families demanding excellence from the public education institutions that serve our young people from birth to careers, created forums for families to connect and learn about the school system and advocated for local and state policy that will benefit all Providence children. She published regular newsletters with updates, opportunities to engage and education-related events; brought parent priorities to conversations with the community, legislators, education department administrators, elected officials and aligned community groups to advance these goals.
Before becoming an entrepreneur, she was a Managing Partner for THREE, wherein she worked closely with people to encourage them to open up as she listened carefully to what they have to say in order to understanding clients’ needs, unearth consumers’ perspectives, and ensure her team’s focus on creative endeavors, starting with the human connection.
Fernando is a strategic social impact professional, grounded in community partnership best practices. He provides leadership experience in corporate philanthropy, employee engagement, college and career readiness, equity in educational access, job skills and career opportunities for military service veterans.
With 15 plus years in volunteer engagement across the public sector, non-profit political advocacy and corporate volunteerism, he has led volunteer programming, non-profit partnership management and skill building for MSO and VSO networks.
Fernando is experienced in grants management, non-profit partnerships, community relations, scaling service programs, supporting communications and program development.
Jim Starr is president and CEO of , which inspires employees and organizations to support causes they care about. Jim has set the organization’s focus to raise $1 billion for worthy causes by 2026, as well as its strategic priorities enabling ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµâ€™s Charities to reach that goal. He has led the expansion and growth of ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµâ€™s Charities through strategic partnerships and expanding its service offerings. Jim is a frequent speaker and writer on topics covering Corporate Social Responsibility, employee giving and volunteering, and employee assistance funds.
An accomplished leader with more than 30 years of experience and a proven track record in the nonprofit and healthcare sectors, Jim has served in national and field executive leadership roles with multi-million dollar revenue and expense targets. He also brings a wealth of experience in strategic planning, business development, and partnerships. Prior to joining ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµâ€™s Charities, Jim served the mission of the ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµn Red Cross in a variety of senior leadership roles that touched every aspect of Red Cross services. Preceding his work with the ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµn Red Cross, Jim was a senior management consultant for a strategy consulting firm focused on the healthcare and government sectors.
Jim holds a Masters of Business Administration from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a Bachelors of Arts degree in Organizational Communications from George Mason University.
Community First
Wendell D. Hall, Ph.D., serves as Principal at . Equivolve is a strategy consulting firm that provides research and evaluation, philanthropic advisory services and project design and management to its partners.
He was formerly the Senior Director, Higher Ed Outreach and Partnerships, in the College Board’s Higher Education division, where focused on developing and advocating for policy positions that promote access and equity for all students.
Prior to the College Board, Hall held leadership positions at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU), and the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, an independent federal committee chartered by Congress and tasked with advocating for low and moderate-income students.
Hall earned his Ph.D. in higher education policy from the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his master’s degree in secondary science education from The George Washington University and a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Hampton University. Hall has authored or co-authored several articles and book chapters for higher education publications.
Hall, also a former high school science teacher, is well versed on issues around college access and success, educational equity, and institutional diversity initiatives. He currently serves as an EMERGE Mentor, was previously the Board Vice Chair of DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI), and served as a founding Board Member for College and Career Pathways (CCP).
Hall, who called Washington, DC, home for most of his life, now resides in greater Houston with his wife and two children.
Rebecca is a human resources professional with more than 25 years of experience in consulting to private and nonprofit organizations. She is the President and CEO of , a consulting firm focused on nonprofit compensation. In addition to leading the firm, she directs a variety of client engagements involving nonprofit compensation and benefits issues.
Prior to joining SmithPilot, Ms. Pilot served as human resources director for a variety of nonprofit organizations, leading the human resources functions for these nonprofits as well as designing and implementing new programs as necessary. Ms. Pilot’s experience also includes advising executives at Accenture on a wide variety of HR issues including staffing, leadership development, compensation planning, performance management, succession planning, and diversity.
Prior to her tenure with Accenture, she managed graduate student and alumni programs in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
Rebecca received her undergraduate degree from Lafayette College and earned a Master of Arts in Communication, Culture, and Technology from Georgetown University. Active in school and community affairs, she and her husband and their three children live in the Greater Washington DC area.
Jim Starr is president and CEO of , which inspires employees and organizations to support causes they care about. Jim has set the organization’s focus to raise $1 billion for worthy causes by 2026, as well as its strategic priorities enabling ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµâ€™s Charities to reach that goal. He has led the expansion and growth of ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµâ€™s Charities through strategic partnerships and expanding its service offerings. Jim is a frequent speaker and writer on topics covering Corporate Social Responsibility, employee giving and volunteering, and employee assistance funds.
An accomplished leader with more than 30 years of experience and a proven track record in the nonprofit and healthcare sectors, Jim has served in national and field executive leadership roles with multi-million dollar revenue and expense targets. He also brings a wealth of experience in strategic planning, business development, and partnerships. Prior to joining ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµâ€™s Charities, Jim served the mission of the ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµn Red Cross in a variety of senior leadership roles that touched every aspect of Red Cross services. Preceding his work with the ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµn Red Cross, Jim was a senior management consultant for a strategy consulting firm focused on the healthcare and government sectors.
Jim holds a Masters of Business Administration from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a Bachelors of Arts degree in Organizational Communications from George Mason University.