Barbara Beck

A resource to nonprofit organizations on strategic communications planning and media relations, Barbara co-founded Sage Communications Partners 2003. Since that time, she has helped social service agencies, arts, education and health organizations create and manage strategies to strengthen the visibility of their programs among important stakeholders in the community. Prior to her work at Sage, Barbara brought her communications expertise to The Pew Charitable Trusts and the University of Pennsylvania. At the Trusts, Barbara was the resource for media relations, implemented the communications strategy for its national environment program and managed communications conferences for the Trusts’ grantees. She was the director of news and public affairs at The University of Pennsylvania for a number of years and was responsible for strategic marketing, issues management and crisis communications. Barbara has more than two decades of experience in the news business as an editor and reporter at The Los Angeles Herald Examiner and The Philadelphia Daily News. She has a BS degree in Journalism from the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University.

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Richard J. Cohen

Recognized nationally as an authority in the public health management arena, Richard J. Cohen has served Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) since 1980, first as its executive director and for the past 18 years as president and chief executive officer. Cohen leads close to 1400 employees, over 250 public health programs and ten subsidiary organizations. Under his watch, the organization has expanded 75-fold and continues to grow.

Cohen’s more than thirty publications and conference presentations get to the heart of public health dilemmas, with insight into the marketing of human services, developing leadership, establishing public/private partnerships, assessing long- versus short-term costs, understanding hospital utilization patterns, and many other critical topics.

Cohen is a member of many distinguished health organizations that include American Public Health Association (Treasurer), Alliance of Children and Families (Vice Chair, Chair Elect and Board member of its parent organization Families International), National Council on Crime and Delinquency (past Board Chair), Pennsylvania Public Health Association (Past President), College of Physicians of Philadelphia and American College of Healthcare Executives (Past Regent). He has received numerous awards from groups as wide-ranging as local community alliances and national institutions.

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Donna Frisby-Greenwood

Donna Frisby-Greenwood joined Knight Foundation as program director for Philadelphia in 2010. Previously, Frisby-Greenwood launched and led the Philadelphia school district’s Office of College and Career Awareness. Prior to that, she helped to create the country's first online voter registration drive as executive director of Rock the Vote. She also served as executive director of Inner-City Games Philadelphia and founder and executive director of Children First, Inc.

Frisby-Greenwood is on the board of directors of the Afro-One Dance Company and a member of Philadelphia Council for College and Career Success. An Eisenhower and National Urban Fellow, she received the Distinguished Leadership Award from the Community College of Philadelphia, the Forum Award from the Forum of Executive Women and has been named by Essence Magazine as one of Fifty Women to Watch. Frisby-Greenwood has a bachelor’s in English from the University of Virginia and a master’s in public administration from Baruch College.

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Susan Hansen

Improving the health status of northwest Philadelphia and eastern Montgomery County residents, Susan Hansen serves as executive director of Green Tree Community Health Foundation. She oversees the foundation’s investments and manages its fund to make the most of grant-making opportunities in the region.

Hansen has spent most of her career as a health care advocate, administrator, consultant and teacher, working for organizations in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Chicago. Her areas of expertise include health care management, employment law, epidemiology and insurance and risk. The founder of National Health Strategies, she served as advisor to National Women’s Health Foundation and the Mayor’s Commission on Battered Women, Washington D.C.

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John R. Kimberly

Health care expert, professor and prolific author John R. Kimberly serves as the Henry Bower Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. Kimberly teaches management, health care management and sociology. He is the executive director the Wharton/INSEAD Alliance, which provides business management education on four continents.

Known internationally for his expertise, Kimberly has been hailed for his research in managerial innovation, health care organizations in local markets, organizational identity, structure and mobility of managerial elites, competition and change in business education and the business of addiction treatment.

Kimberly also serves as a consultant for a number of public and private organizations including the Directorate for Science, Technology, and Industry; Directorate for Scientific Affairs; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; Office of Technology Assessment; Association of American Medical Colleges, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; and Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Science.

In addition, he serves on the editorial boards of British Journal of Management, American Journal of Medical Quality and International Journal of Organizational Analysis.

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Joe Pyle

As president of Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation, a Quaker-based organization dedicated to improving behavior health care, Joe Pyle oversees grants awarded to a variety of organizations in the Philadelphia region dedicated to improving mental health. They include: WHYY, University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and Family Planning Council with grants dedicated to increasing the understanding of mental health issues, improved research and treatment.

Pyle previously served as CEO of Friends Hospital, where he initiated a series of changes throughout the organization significantly improving patient care and oversaw its joint venture with Horizon Health Systems.

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Ann Schmieg

Ann Schmieg serves as Associate Vice President at United Way of Southeastern PA where she oversees investments in children and youth, civic engagement and capacity building plays a lead role in supporting United Way's corporate partners' engagement in key social issues in the community. Prior to joining United Way she spent 15 years with La Salle's Nonprofit Center in a variety of roles. She consulted with many of the region's nonprofits in the areas of board development and strategic planning and served as the founding editor of Opportunity NOCs, the region's first nonprofit jobs newsletter which launched in 1993. She is on the Advisory Committee of the Nonprofit Executive Leadership Institute (NELI) at Bryn Mawr College's Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research where she also teaches the NELI session on board governance. She also serves ad adjunct faculty at St. Joseph's University Haub School of Business where she teaches Stakeholder Theory and Social Responsibility to undergraduates and MBA students. She has an MBA from La Salle University and a MSS, MLSP from the Bryn Mawr College's Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. She has served in a variety of volunteer leadership roles in local nonprofits most recently at the Commonwealth Youthchoirs where she serves as Past President of the Board.

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Jan Shaeffer

A leader in organizational development, client relations and marketing, Jan Shaeffer serves as executive director of St. Christopher’s Foundation for Children, which is dedicated to supporting the health and well being of children through St. Christopher’s Hospital.

Shaeffer brings a wealth of experience to the post, which she came to from the corporate sector. Her contributions include work in investment management and client services for Morgan Stanley, CMS Companies, and City of London Investment Group PLC. She is board chair of The 21st Century Society of the Philadelphia Orchestra, a Fellow of the Non Profit Executive Leadership Institute at Bryn Mawr College and a graduate of the Leadership Philadelphia program.

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Susan Sherman

President and CEO of Independence Foundation, Susan Sherman helps ensure that residents of Philadelphia and surrounding counties have access to a broad array of programs and services. Through her leadership, Independence Foundation funds initiatives under an umbrella of services that include: culture and arts; health and human services; nurse-managed primary health care and public interest legal aid.

In recognition of her contributions, Sherman has received numerous awards including: Public Health Management Corporation’s Carl Moore Leadership Award, Community College of Philadelphia’s Keystone Foundation Award and 40 Leaders Award, MANNA’s Outstanding Community Leadership Award, Womens Way of Philadelphia: Moving Women Forward Award, and The Pennsylvania Legal Services Excellence Award.

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Kenwyn Smith

Kenwyn Smith is professor of organizational behavior and director of the master program in nonprofit/NGO leadership at University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches leadership, group and intergroup dynamics, organizational politics and change management. His research includes studies of prisons and schools, businesses and health care institutions, and state enterprise and social entrepreneurial activities, spanning the globe from South Africa to India, Belgium and America.

An internationally recognized organizational behavior expert and noted author, Smith has published several books. Recent titles include: MANNA in the Wilderness of AIDS: Ten Lessons in Abundance, Yearning for Home in Troubled Times and Freed to be Fathers: Lessons from Men Doing Time.

Smith has also founded several volunteer-based nonprofit organizations and is preparing to launch several research initiatives that will serve as the core work of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center on Nonprofit Leadership.

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R. Andrew Swinney

Nationally noted for his leadership, R. Andrew Swinney serves Southeastern Pennsylvania as president of The Philadelphia Foundation and chairman of Goodwill Industries of Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia. Under his direction, The Philadelphia Foundation awards $20 million in grants annually, building community resources in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties. Goodwill Industries has expanded its programs under Swinney’s leadership, aiding the region’s most vulnerable residents.

Swinney's innovations have garnered numerous awards, including the 2007 Carl Moore Leadership Award from Philadelphia Health Management Corporation, the 2006 “Men Making a Difference” Humanitarian Award, the Greater Philadelphia Cares 2005 Leadership STAR Award and the 2004 Good Citizen’s Award from the Potter’s House Mission.

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