The Ford Foundation has announced the appointment of CARA MERTES as director of its JustFilms program. Mertes, a leader in the field of independent filmmaking, currently serves as director of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and Fund. She also has served as executive producer of PBS's P.O.V. series, as executive director of American Documentary Inc., and curated the Independent Focus series for WNET/New York. She succeeds the program's founding director, ORLANDO BAGWELL, who is returning to filmmaking after eight years at the foundation.

The W. K. Kellogg Foundation has announced the appointments of LINH C. NGUYEN as vice president of learning and impact and ALVIN H. WARREN as program officer for New Mexico. Nguyen, who will report to foundation CEO Sterling K. Speirn, most recently served as managing director of organizational and human capital consulting at Innovate Inc., and earlier worked in management consulting for Accenture, LLP, where his clients included the Kellogg Foundation. During 2008, Nguyen served in the Obama Presidential Transition Team as transition co-lead for the Office of Personnel Management. Warren, a member of the Santa Clara Pueblo, most recently served as executive vice president at Blue Stone Strategy Group and previously was cabinet secretary of Indian Affairs for New Mexico. He also served two consecutive terms as lieutenant governor of Santa Clara Pueblo.

The California Endowment has announced the appointments of C. DEAN GERMANO as board chair and JANE GARCIA as vice chair. Germano, CEO of Shasta Community Health Center, joined the board of the endowment in 2006 and has more than twenty-five years of experience as a healthcare administrator. Garcia, CEO of La Clinica de La Raza, first joined the board of the endowment in 2010 and today serves as chairperson of the Community Health Center Network, Alameda Alliance for Health, and Community Clinic Consortium.

NTEN has announced the appointment of AMY SAMPLE WARD as CEO, effective June 1. Before joining NTEN as acting community lead/
membership director, Ward, a thought-leader and blogger focused on social change and the technology that supports it, previously served as community development manager for TechSoup Global's Community-Driven Innovation program and managed the organization's NetSquared program.

In other news, Hillary Rodham Clinton has hired MAURA PALLY to be executive director of her office at the William J. Clinton Foundation, the New York Times reports. Pally served as acting deputy assistant secretary for educational and cultural affairs while Clinton was Secretary of State and was an adviser on her 2008 presidential campaign and a special assistant in the White House Counsel's Office under President Clinton.