The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has named HILARY HARP FALK, an expert in large-scale ecosystem restoration, organizational change, and coalition building, as its next president and CEO. Falk comes to CBF from the National Wildlife Federation, where she has served as chief program officer and, prior to that, vice president for regional conservation. She succeeds WILLIAM C. BAKER, who began working for CBF as an intern in 1976 and has served as president and CEO since 1981.

The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation has announced the appointment of civil and human rights leader and policy expert NICOLE AUSTIN-HILLERY as its new president and CEO. Austin-Hillery comes to CBCF from Human Rights Watch, where she has served as executive director of the U.S. Program. She previously served as the first director and counsel of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Washington, D.C., office; as an attorney with the civil rights employment class action practice at Mehri & Skalet; and as the George N. Lindsay Civil Rights Fellow at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. She is a former president of the Washington Bar Association and the Washington Council of Lawyers and has served on the advisory committee of the ABA Standing Committee on Election Law.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has announced the appointment of FRANCESCA ESMAY as the Alfred Flechtheim Director of Engagement, Conservation and Collections Care in the Conservation Department. In this newly endowed position, funded by a challenge grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Michael R. and Penny R. Hulton, Esmay will collaborate with colleagues to develop educational initiatives and public programming that explore the intersections of art, technology, and science and address issues related to the preservation of modern and contemporary art. She also will oversee the newly established Mentoring Emerging Professionals in Art Conservation initiative, a ten-week paid opportunity for students to work alongside leaders in the field of art conservation and collections care. Esmay joined the Guggenheim in 2010 to co-lead the museum’s Panza Collection Initiative, a collaboration that fused the disciplines of art history and art conservation.

The Hoag Hospital Foundation in Newport Beach, California, has announced the election of four members to its board: IRVING M. CHASE, DIANE A. CONNELLY, PAUL C. LIN, and DEVON R. MARTIN. Chase serves as the portfolio manager for S&A Management, a privately held real estate company; Connelly retired from a career in the software industry in 1997 and established the Connelly Family Foundation, which supports education, human services, the environment, and the arts; Lin is a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, a member of the firm’s corporate practice, and the partner in charge of its Irvine office; and Martin is a board member of New Directions for Women Foundation and a founding member of the DevTo Support Foundation, which supports the well-being of youth and families in Southern California. Board members can serve up to nine years, with terms in three-year increments. The foundation also announced its 2022 Executive Committee members: RICHARD H. TAKETA will serve as chair, DEBORAH H. MARGOLIS as vice chair, KYLE B. WESCOAT as treasurer, CAROLYN C. MCKITTERICK as secretary, and FLYNN A. ANDRIZZI as foundation president.

People For the American Way has announced the full-time appointment of Ithaca mayor SVANTE MYRICK as executive director of the People For the American Way Foundation, an affiliate of the advocacy organization. Myrick, who won a seat on the Common Council while still a junior at Cornell University before becoming the youngest mayor in New York State history at age 24 and Ithaca’s first Black mayor, has served three terms. He will transition from his duties as mayor and part-time executive director of the foundation next month, where his expanded duties will include fundraising, donor cultivation, and media and public speaking roles. People of the American Way also noted the passing of longtime board member MARILYN BERGMAN at the age of 93; the award-winning lyricist had been a collaborator of People For founder Norman Lear.

New York City-based human services nonprofit Rising Ground has announced the election of INGRID GREEN JONES to its board. An attorney, Green Jones has worked at Pfizer since 2017, including as senior counsel for trade channel management and as North American legal lead at Upjohn, and in 2021 was named a CEO Action for Racial Equity Fellow. She also previously served as deputy agency chief contracting officer for the City of New York.

Solar One, a New York City-based nonprofit working to advance sustainability and resiliency in urban neighborhoods, has announced the appointment of STEPHEN LEVIN as CEO. Levin served for twelve years as a member of the New York City Council for District 33, chairing the General Welfare Committee. At Solar One he will lead the organization’s partnership with the Economic Development Corporation, stewardship of Stuyvesant Cove Park on the East River, and construction of a Solar One Environmental Education Center.

And PND notes the passing of banker, philanthropist, and former Rasmuson Foundation board chair EDWARD BERNARD RASMUSON at the age of 81. A third-generation Alaskan, Rasmuson moved up the ranks of the family business, the National Bank of Alaska, from teller to branch manager to chairman of the board. In 2000, he arranged the sale of the bank to Wells Fargo, and when his father died that December, the bulk of his estate was given to the family foundation created by his father and grandmother in 1955. Over the next two decades, as board chair of what became the largest private funder in Alaska, Rasmuson initiated efforts in Anchorage to develop world-class parks and trails, expand the Anchorage Museum, and end homelessness.