The Duke Endowment has announced that SHAHEEN TOWLES has joined its staff as associate director of communications. Towles served for more than a decade as the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation’s first communications director. A two-time Emmy-nominated producer, she currently serves on the board of the Women’s Fund of Winston-Salem.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has announced that senior program officer YAZEED MOORE has been appointed to the Michigan Parents’ Council, which was established by Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer to involve parents in the state’s education budgeting process. The 11 appointees to the council will facilitate and organize regional roundtables with families across Michigan to ensure that parents’ voices are heard and incorporated into the education budget process.

The Ronald M. Simon Family Foundation (RMSFF, formerly the Simon Foundation for Education and Housing) in Newport Beach, California, has announced that BENJAMIN DRUTMAN has been appointed president and KATHY ABELS will serve as vice chair of the board. Drutman has served in several RMSFF-related leadership positions, including as executive director of the Simon Scholars Program. While continuing to lead the day-to-day operations of the Simon Scholars Program (SSP), Drutman will develop new programs to be run independently from SSP. Abels will continue in her role as CEO of the Simon Scholars Program.

The Wege Foundation in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has announced the appointment of JAMES LOGAN as president and CEO. Logan previously served as a program officer with the Greater New Orleans Foundation, focusing on environmental justice, racial equity, and workforce development and was founding manager of the City of New Orleans’ NOLA FOR LIFE Reentry Strategy, which streamlined employment and wraparound services for returning citizens transitioning out of incarceration. He succeeds MARK VAN PUTTEN, who has served for seven years as president and CEO.

The Climate Emergency Fund has announced that filmmaker ADAM McKAY, whose works include Don’t Look Up, Vice, and The Big Short, has joined its board and pledged $4 million to the fund. The commitment from McKay, a longtime environmentalist and climate activist, will help support the fund’s strategic decision making and fundraising.

The GroundTruth Project, which oversees Report for America (RFA) and Report for the World, has announced that ANN DAVIS VAUGHAN has been appointed transition chair, taking on the duties of acting CEO while the nonprofit media organization conducts a search for a CEO and president. Vaughan, who joined the RFA board in 2019, is a former Wall Street Journal investigative reporter who covered legal affairs, Wall Street, and the energy industry.

The World Resources Institute has announced the appointment of Ramona Liberoff as executive director for the Platform to Accelerate the Circular Economy (PACE), which aims to double global circularity and help raise circular ambition and action worldwide. Liberoff held leadership roles with multinational corporations before shifting into the international development sphere and focusing on impact finance and innovation. Since 2010, she has led the SPRING Accelerator, supporting businesses in innovating commercially viable products and services for adolescent girls in nine East African and South Asian countries; served as COO Innogy’s global energy futures investment fund; and worked for Roots of Impact, an impact finance pioneer.

And PND notes the passing of WILLIAM E. LaMOTHE and GWEN WALDEN. LaMothe, a former trustee of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and former CEO of the Kellogg Company, wascommitted to supporting affordable health care, quality education, economic development, and regional cooperation. He served as a co-trustee of the Kellogg Foundation Trust from 1992 to 1997 and retired from the foundation’s board in December 2000. Walden served on the boards of the Surdna and East Bay Community foundations as well as Breast Cancer Prevention Partners and was a senior managing director of Arabella Advisors. At the Surdna Foundation, Walden called for the creation of a $6 million program-related investment fund in 2020 to channel additional capital to BIPOC communities as a contribution toward the nation’s racial reckoning.