Ballmer Group, the primary philanthropic vehicle of former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his wife, Connie, has announced the appointment of five new team members. They are REBECCA MUELLER, an executive assistant in the organization's headquarters in Bellevue, Washington; ANNEKA PRESTON, the grants manager on the operations team, who previously worked as a grants manager at the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust; TEMECA SIMPSON, a portfolio manager in the southeast Michigan office, who most recently served as director of management assistance at the Forbes Funds; ESHAUNA SMITH, Ballmer Group's first national director of community mobilization, who currently is president and CEO of Urban Alliance and in her new role will work to improve economic mobility and reduce racial disparities at scale through place-based partnerships; and FRANCES YANG, manager of strategic initiatives, who previously worked at Next Street, a mission-driven advisory firm.

The Daniels Fund has announced the election of Colorado Springs mayor JOHN SUTHERS as board chair, succeeding Jim Nicholson, who will remain on the board. Suthers, who was first elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2019, has served on the Daniels Fund board since May 2015.

The Environmental Grantmakers Association has announced the appointment of TAMARA TOLES O'LAUGHLIN as president and CEO. O'Laughlin most recently served as a strategist to the Global Campaign for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Red, Black and Green New Deal's Black Climate Agenda; she previously was the North America director at 350.org and 350 Action.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has announced the election of KELLY GRANAT and SHERRILYN IFILL to its board of trustees. Granat is a managing director and portfolio manager at investment advisory firm Lone Pine Capital and has served on the boards of the Posse Foundation and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Ifill is president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which she joined in 1988 as assistant counsel; she left in 1993 to teach at the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore, where she established a series of pioneering law clinics, before returning to lead LDF in 2013.

The Washington Regional Grantmakers Association has announced the appointment of RUTH LATOISON IFILL as president and CEO. LaToison Ifill, who has been serving as interim president and CEO since June 2020, previously led the DEI and racial equity portfolio at the Council on Foundations as vice president of culture, talent, and equity and, prior to that, led multi-million-dollar national workforce development programs at Goodwill Industries International.

The board of Americans for the Arts has announced that ROBERT L. LYNCH has agreed to retire as president and CEO of the organization, effective immediately. Lynch, who led AFTA for thirty-six years, had been on paid leave since December, when criticism from current and former employees led to investigations into the organization's "workforce/workplace policy and procedures including, but not limited to, progress regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion." The board announced that it had concluded "multiple independent, third-party investigations" but did not disclose the findings. It also formally approved the appointment of NOLEN BIVENS, a former board member, as president and CEO; he had been serving in the role since December on an interim basis.

The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has announced that BLM co-founder PATRISSE CULLORS is stepping down as executive director. The organization has named two interim senior executives: MAKANI THEMBA, chief strategist at Higher Ground Change Strategies and former executive director of the Praxis Project, and Time's Up Foundation chief operating officer MONIFA BANDELE, both of whom have served as advisors to Black Lives Matter since its inception.

Mission Investors Exchange, an impact investing network for foundations, has named JAMES C.D. WAHLS as senior vice president of programs and initiatives. Wahls most recently served as portfolio manager of social investments at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, where he co-managed an impact investing portfolio of more than $140 million; previously he was an impact investing manager at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, where he co-managed a $100 million market-rate, mission-aligned portfolio and helped double the program-related investments portfolio.