The William T. Grant Foundation in New York City has announced the promotion of VIVIAN TSENG to the position of senior vice president, program. Tseng has been with the foundation since 2004 and has led its grantmaking programs since 2011. In 2009, she designed and launched the foundation’s groundbreaking initiative on the use of research evidence in policy and practice, and she also developed its support for research-practice partnerships, including a collaborative learning community of partnerships with districts across the country and broader philanthropic and policy support for those partnerships. A graduate of UCLA and New York University, where she earned PhD, Teng serves on the boards of the Forum for Youth Investment, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, and Evidence and Policy.

The Houston Endowment has announced RUSSELL RAMSEY as its new program officer for education. Working within the endowment’s focus area of Post-Secondary Success, Ramsey will focus on efforts to promote school systems that effectively educate all students, increase the number of highly effective teachers and school leaders, and strengthen systems that boost college completion rates. Ramsey brings extensive experience as both a teacher and a school leader to his new position and most recently served as an assistant principal and manager of School Climate Systems for KIPP: New Orleans, where he led professional development and leadership activities, the implementation of restorative practices, and initiatives to improve school climate.

The San Francisco Foundation has announced the appointment of ABDI SOLTANI, executive director at the ACLU of Northern California, to a five-year term on its board of trustees. At the ACLU of Northern California, Soltani has been engaged in a range of civil rights issues, including criminal justice reform, reproductive rights, immigrants’ rights, and the intersection of technology and privacy. Prior to joining the ACLU, Abdi served as a community organizer and led a number of policy campaigns in California, including the “No on 54 Campaign” in 2003. He previously served as executive director of Californians for Justice, the Campaign for College Opportunity, and with the PARSA Community Foundation.

The Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria has announced the appointment of SYLVIE BILLION as interim chief financial officer, replacing DANIEL CAMUS, who is retiring in April. Billion, the Global Fund’s deputy CFO and treasurer, has more than twenty-five years of experience in finance, has been with the fund since 2012. Prior to joining the fund, Billion served as chief financial officer of Electricité Réseau Distribution France, where she was a member of the executive committee, supervising a hundred and thirty staff responsible for accounting, controlling, treasury and energy market functions.

The Wildlife Conservation Society in New York City has announced the appointment of PAULA HAYES as executive vice president and chief of global resources, effective  April 3. Hayes joins WCS after working at the Environmental Defense Fund, where she started as director of development and most recently served as senior vice president of global strategy. Prior to that, Hayes served as a consultant and chief fundraising counsel for UNICEF and Women’s World Banking and helped with fundraising at the United Nations Development Programme. She is a founding member of EarthShare, a consortium of environmental organizations, and has served on the board of Oxfam.

The Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities has announced TONYA ALLEN, president and CEO of the Skillman Foundation in Detroit, as the 2017 recipient of the Nicholas P. Bollman Award, which recognizes a leader in philanthropy committed to building strong, sustainable, and equitable communities. Allen joined the foundation in 2004 after having worked as a program officer for the Charles Stewart Mott and Thompson-McCully foundations,  and has been instrumental in the development of its ten-year, $100-million Good Neighborhoods program, which provides services to meet community-established goals for improving the lives of children and families in a number of Detroit communities. She also was one of the driving forces behind the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren and was a champion of Grow Detroit’s Young Talent (GDYT), an initiative aimed at increasing youth employment in the metro region. In addition, she founded and was the executive director of the Detroit Parent Network and led the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Rebuilding Communities Initiative in Detroit. In 2015, she was named a Detroit News "Michiganian of the Year" and a Crain's Detroit Business Newsmaker of the Year.

The trustees of the Walter & Elise Haas Fund in San Francisco have announced that PAM DAVID, the fund’s executive director, will step down after fifteen years at the end of 2017. Under David’s leadership, the fund launched a program area to address economic security for the working poor, continued its commitment to public education, celebrated the Creative Work Fund’s twentieth anniversary, and supported innovation in the Jewish community. She also spearheaded an effort to create a $1 million annual Safety Net fund to help communities respond to urgent food access and shelter needs, played a leadership role in strengthening the capacity of anchor institutions in low-income neighborhoods, served as a board member and chair of Northern California Grantmakers, and provided leadership to HOPE SF, San Francisco’s signature initiative to improve the lives of public housing residents. "We have benefited greatly from Pam’s ability to facilitate difficult conversations, find common ground, and build effective cross-sector partnerships," said board chair William Goldman, a fourth-generation descendant of Walter and Elise Haas. "While Pam will step down at the end of this year, we know she will continue to offer her leadership and experience to benefit the social good. We applaud and honor all she has achieved as she approaches this next phase of her career."

In other news, PND and members of the Foundation Center community were deeply saddened to learn that SARA L. ENGELHARDT, our former colleague and longtime president of the center, passed away on March 25 at the age of 73 after a long struggle with Lewy Body Dementia. A graduate of Wellesley College and Columbia Teacher's College, Sara worked for the Carnegie Corporation of New York, where she rose to the position of corporate secretary, before joining the Foundation Center as executive vice president in 1987. In 1991, she succeeded THOMAS BUCKMAN (1970-1990) as president and served in that position until her retirement in 2008. Her leadership of the center during those years of sweeping economic and technological change was transformational. "Legacy organizations are not start-ups and Sara knew exactly what do to do in her term as president of Foundation Center,” Brad Smith, the center’s current president, told The Nonprofit Times. “She guided a venerable publisher of foundation directories into the digital age, recruited a talented team, and created a sound financial base for the future before passing the baton to me. She taught me that the job of those fortunate to lead Foundation Center is to build on the past while creating for the future.” Admired and respected by her colleagues in the field, she was named to NPT ’s Power & Influence Top 50 list for ten consecutive years, from 1998 through 2007, and was cherished by her staff and the many people she mentored over the years. Sara, who lost her husband of thirty-eight years, Dean Engelhardt, in 2008 after a too-short battle with pancreatic cancer, is survived by her daughters, Margaret "Peggy" Long  and Barbara Martin, eight grandchildren, and a large and loving extended family. Those of us who had the privilege of working for and with Sara will miss her keen intelligence, her abiding love for the center and its work, and her infectious enthusiasm for life.