The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation in New York City has announced the appointment of DANIEL F. WILHELM as its eighth president. Wilhelm comes to the foundation from the Vera Institute of Justice, where he was a senior fellow and, from 2007-15, served as the organization's vice president and chief program officer. He also has also advised the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, and other organizations on justice-reform strategies and previously was an attorney at Sidley & Austin in New York and served as law clerk to U.S. District Judge Frederic Block in Brooklyn. He will succeed JOSIAH BUNTING III, who served as president of the foundations from 2004 to 2016.

The St. David's Foundation in Austin, Texas, has announced that WILLIAM BUSTER will be taking on the role of executive vice president of community investments at the foundation. Buster, whose previously served as vice president of community investments, will replace BOBBIE BARKER, who earlier this year announced that she was leaving the foundation. In his new role, Buster will direct the Foundation’s grantmaking process, program area development, and school-based dental van program. Prior to joining the foundation, Buster held positions at two foundations — the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation —  and managed his own consultancy, Common-Unity Philanthropic Advisors.

The Kresge Foundation in Troy, Michigan, has announced the addition of KATHY KO CHIN and CECILIA MUNOZ to its board. A daughter of immigrants from China, Chin is president and CEO of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, which works to influence policy, mobilize communities, and strengthen organizations to improve the health of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. A recognized authority on national health policy, she served on President Obama’s advisory commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Muñoz is vice president of policy and technology and director of the national network at New America, a think tank and civic enterprise committed to renewing American politics, prosperity and purpose in the Digital Age, and was director of the Domestic Policy Council under President Obama from 2012 until earlier this year. Before joining the Obama administration, she served as senior vice president for the Office of Research, Advocacy and Legislation at the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest Hispanic policy and advocacy organization, and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2000 for her work on immigration and civil rights.

The foundation also announced the departure of trustees IRENE HIRANO INOUYE and LEE BOLLINGER after sixteen-year terms. Inouye, president of the U.S.-Japan Council, and Bollinger, president of Columbia University, both joined the board in 2001 and were instrumental in shaping the foundation’s direction as it transitioned from an organization that specialized in making capital-challenge grants to one that is working to expand opportunity in America’s cities. Inouye also served as board chair from 2004 through 2006, while Bollinger co-chaired the search committee that recruited Kresge president and CEO Rip Rapson to the foundation in 2006.

The University of Southern California has announced the election of ROD NAKAMATO ’83, MBA ’94, to its board of trustees. A financial adviser, Nakamato concluded his year-long term as president of the USC Alumni Association (USCAA) Board of Governors in May and previously led the USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association from 2011 to 2013. 

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan, has announced the departure of GAIL C. CHRISTOPHER, senior advisor and vice president for TRHT, effective Aug. 31, 2017. Christopher, who has served the foundation as an officer for a decade, was the driving force behind the foundation's America Healing initiative and the architect of its Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) effort, for which WKKF leadership remains fully committed to its successful implementation. Since joining the foundation in 2007, she also has served as vice president for program strategy with responsibility for multiple areas of programming, including Racial Equity; Food, Health & Well-Being; Public Policy; Community Engagement and Leadership; and the foundation’s place-based programs in New Mexico. In her retirement, Christopher plans to devote her creative energy to writing, speaking, and developing the Ntianu Center for Healing and Nature, which she founded to honor the memory of her firstborn child, who died in infancy.

The Eugene and Agnes Meyer Foundation in Washington, D.C., has announced that RICK MOYERS, the foundation’s vice president for programs and communications, is stepping down after fourteen years of service. Moyers joined the foundation in 2003 as a program officer responsible for its capacity-building work, became director of programs in 2009, and was promoted to his current position in 2010. During his tenure, Moyers has contributed to the foundation’s efforts both locally and nationally and was instrumental in shaping its new strategic plan. Moyers will continue to serve Nicky Goren, the foundation's president and CEO, in a senior advisor role after he steps down and plans to pursue other opportunities.

In other news, DOUGLAS BLONSKY, president for the last thirty-two years of the Central Park Conservancy, a nonprofit group founded to rescue New York City’s Central Park from decades of neglect, has announced his retirement. Under his direction, the New York Times reports, the conservancy has “renovated every lawn and meadow…[in the park] and cleaned up water bodies from Turtle Pond to the Harlem Meer. It has refurbished historic buildings that were scarred with graffiti…as well as dozens of bridges, arches and fountains. [And it] has renovated all twenty-one playgrounds — twice.” Blonsky also led a formidable fundraising operation that, over his almost four decades in the job, raised more than a billion dollars for the conservancy’s efforts, including a $100 million gift from the Paulson Foundation in 2012. In the early 1980s, visits to Central Park totaled about 12 million annually, and about a thousand crimes were logged each year. Today, visitation is over 42 million annually, and crimes are down to fewer than a hundred a year. “[Doug] has an intimate physical relationship with Central Park and an emotional one, too,” Adrian Benepe, the city's parks commissioner for ten years before he stepped down in 2012, told the Times. “He fell under the magical sway of the park and took it very personally.”