Alliance for Nonprofit Management › Annual Conference › C05 Conference Schedule › C05 Bios T to Z

C05 Bios T to Z

Presenter Biographies - T to Z

Barbara Taveras, Coalition for New Philanthropy

The Coalition for New Philanthropy: A Case Study in Sustainable Collaboration
Friday, July 15, 9:00am - 10:30am

Barbara Taveras is the Project Director of the Coalition for New Philanthropy. From 1993 to recently, she was the President of the Edward W. Hazen Foundation in New York, a national private foundation with assets of over $30 million. Other professional experience include: policy analyst in the areas of Multicultural Education and Special Education for the NYC Office of the Mayor, training specialist for the YWCA of the USA, and regional coordinator of Codel’s Community development grantmaking portfolio in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Terrie Temkin, NonProfit Management Solutions, Inc.

Independent Consulting: Establishing a Viable Practice
Friday, July 15, 11:00am - 12:30pm

Terrie Temkin, Ph.D. is the president of Nonprofit Management Solutions, Inc., an international consulting firm specializing in governance and planning, and a principal in CoreStrategies for Nonprofits, Inc., a consortium of consultants transforming organizations to better impact their communities. In addition, she teaches governance as an adjunct faculty member for Florida Atlantic University’s Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Management. Among her clients are: the National Council for Voluntary Organizations (England), the Center for Innovative Programming – Azerbaijan NGO Project, the Alpha One Foundation (International), the National Epilepsy Foundation, the National Immune Deficiency Foundation, the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition, the National Wildlife Refuge Association, Pilot International, and National Business Volunteers for the Arts. An award-winning speaker and an engaging group facilitator, she brings more than 30 years of nonprofit management and adult education experience to her work. She’s a frequent contributor to the major nonprofit publications, her latest articles being on the subject of building strategic thinking boards. For five years Terrie authored the biweekly “On Nonprofits” column in the Miami Herald. She has three books, has chapters in three others, and has presented numerous papers, most recently as a featured presenter at the International Nonprofit Conference and Exhibit in Australia.

Makani Themba-Nixon, The Praxis Project

Dialogue on Cultural Competency Relating to Race/Class/Power
Friday, July 15, 11:00am - 12:30pm

Makani Themba-Nixon is Executive Director of The Praxis Project, a nonprofit organization helping communities use media and policy advocacy to advance health equity and justice. Current projects include Policy Advocacy on Tobacco and Health (PATH)— a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative to build tobacco control policy advocacy in communities of color; as well as numerous tools and resources that help people translate local problems into progressive, effective policy initiatives. Makani was previously director of the Transnational Racial Justice Initiative (TRJI), an international project to build capacity among advocates to more effectively address structural racism and leverage tools and best practices from around the world. While at TRJI, she co-authored and edited a "shadow report" on institutional racism. Prior to that she directed the Grass Roots Innovative Policy Program (GRIPP) a national project to build capacity among local organizing groups to more effectively engage in media and policy advocacy to address institutional racism in welfare and public education. She was a staffer for the California State Legislature, served as media director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference/Los Angeles, and worked five years for the Marin Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems, including three years as director of its Center for Media and Policy Analysis. Makani has published numerous articles and case studies on race, media, policy advocacy and public health. She is co-author of “Media Advocacy and Public Health: Power for Prevention,” a contributor to the volumes “We the Media, State of the Race: Creating Our 21st Century,” along with many other edited book projects. Her latest book is “Making Policy, Making Change,” which examines media and policy advocacy for public health through case studies and practical information. The book is available from Jossey-Bass publishers.

Keith Timko, Leader to Leader Institute

Excellence in Performance: An Introduction to Using the Drucker Foundation Self-Assessment Tool
Thursday, July 14, 9:00am - 12:00pm

Keith Timko is the President of the Leader to Leader Institute, an organization that focuses on informing and inspiring leaders from all three sectors to change lives. Prior to becoming President, Keith was the Chief Marketing Officer with the Institute where he oversaw marketing and development efforts and managed the Institute’s “Self-Assessment” and “Cross-Sector Collaboration” workshops and publications. Keith studied Russian and History at Rutgers University and later received an MBA in Social Enterprise from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business.

Janine Vanderburg, JVA Consulting, LLC

Building Your Consulting Practice for Positive Impact in the Community
Friday, July 15, 2:15pm - 5:30pm

Janine Vanderburg is the founder and President of JVA Consulting, LLC. In the last 17 years, Janine has grown JVA from a solo practice to a firm of 27 associates providing consulting, training, grantwriting, evaluation and planning services to nonprofit organizations, foundations, school districts and government agencies across the country. Throughout her career, Janine has deployed her skills as a lawyer and community activist in the nonprofit sector. Janine has extensive experience in starting nonprofits, developing policy and programs, coaching nonprofit leaders, and assisting government agencies and foundations in their work. Because of her understanding of both large institutions and grassroots groups, Janine is often called upon to serve as a bridge in bringing these groups together on large projects. She has facilitated many large-scale community collaboratives, and has brought her clients together on projects for greater community impact. To increase the impact of her firm’s work in her community of Denver, Janine has: Helped to found the Colorado Nonprofit Development Center, an incubator for social entrepreneurs; Managed and consulted on local candidate and issue campaigns; Trained and mentored young nonprofit leaders; and, Founded Northwest Parents for Excellent Schools, a grassroots parent group advocating for school reform and closing the achievement gap.

Mauricio Vivero, The Vivero Group

Building Advocacy Campaigns: Beyond the Usual Strategies
Friday, July 15, 4:15pm - 5:30pm

Mauricio Vivero is Executive Director of Ayuda, a Latino community-based organization, focusing on advocating for and defending the legal and human rights of low-income Latino and other immigrant communities in the Washington, D.C. area. Prior to joining Ayuda, Mr. Vivero was director of government relations at Independent Sector. His duties included formulating and implementing Independent Sector's grassroots and lobbying strategies on public policy issues. Mauricio has extensive experience in government relations, public affairs, and community organizing. Most recently, he served as the vice president and director of government relations and public affairs at the Legal Services Corporation. He has also been the director of grassroots lobbying for the American Bar Association and director of leadership development for the National Council of La Raza. Mauricio holds a law degree from Creighton University and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Florida International University.

John Vogelsang, Support Center for Nonprofit Management (NY)

The Coalition for New Philanthropy: A Case Study in Sustainable Collaboration
Friday, July 15, 9:00am - 10:30am

John D. Vogelsang, Ph.D. has been working with nonprofit organizations for over twenty-seven years and is currently the Associate Director of the Support Center for Nonprofit Management. He has had extensive experience conducting organizational assessments, action research projects, management and board retreats, strategic planning processes, participatory evaluations, and support groups for executive directors. Dr. Vogelsang has published many articles and monographs on organization development and leadership issues. He currently serves on the editorial board of the OD Practitioner and is the editor of the Journal for Nonprofit Management.

Marnie Webb, CompuMentor

Building Successful Cohorts to Create Optimal Community Impact
Friday, July 15, 9:00am - 10:30am

As the Director of Consulting Services, Marnie Webb oversees the direct-service delivery at CompuMentor (www.compumentor.org), one of the nation's oldest and most comprehensive nonprofit technology assistance organizations. She manages a team of 20 technology activists delivering ten hands-on consulting programs for Bay Area nonprofits. Ms. Webb has worked on many cohort projects, ranging from county-wide, state mandated initiatives to collaborative that provided technical support for all state funded Domestic Violence organizations in California. In addition, she was one the architects for the CompuMentor model that allows the organization to assess prospective partnerships. Ms. Webb is also a frequent speaker on topics involving nonprofits and technology.

Carol White, Carol B. White & Associates, Inc.

Association of Consultants to Nonprofits: Collaboration Among Capacity Builders, Funders and Nonprofits
Thursday, July 14, 9:00am - 12:00pm

Carol B. White & Associates focuses on developing high-impact marketing strategies which are grounded in a solid understanding of an organization's market. The firm works with clients to identify opportunities and solve problems using input from constituents (current/prospective users of services, staff, donors, volunteers, etc.). The process involves defining goals, identifying issues, broadening the view of possibilities, designing and implementing market research, and analyzing results to make decisions. For more than fifteen years, Carol B. White consulted to Fortune 500 corporations, learning the best marketing practices across a variety of industries. Her marketing expertise has been successfully translated and applied to many nonprofit organizations. Carol holds a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA in Marketing from the University of Chicago.

Denice Williams, Community Resource Exchang

Two Stories of MSO Evolution
Friday, July 15, 11:00am - 12:30pm

Denice Williams is Deputy Director for Programs at Community Resource Exchange. CRE strives to ensure that the poorest New Yorkers have access to quality services by strengthening local nonprofits as well as catalyzing the development of new services where appropriate. CRE works with over 300 organizations each year served by over 40 staff as diverse as the communities they serve. Now in her 15th year with CRE, Denice carries a healthy client load and is in charge of identifying and developing new initiatives, developing strategies in support of CRE’s advocacy work with communities and all non-consulting programmatic activities. She is co-author of CRE publications From Vision to Reality: a Guide to Forming and Sustaining Community-Based Efforts and Mastering Your First Government Contract.

Kennard Wing, Kennard T. Wing & Company

Capacity-Building Strategies for Greater Community Impact
Friday, July 15, 9:00am - 10:30am

Ethical Standards in Capacity Building: Dialogue Session
Friday, July 15 4:15pm - 5:30pm

Mr. Wing is an independent consultant providing planning, research and evaluation services aimed at strengthening the effectiveness of the nonprofit sector and individual organizations within it. He has over 25 years’ experience in management and consulting for improved organizational effectiveness. His qualitative and quantitative research skills were honed in market research for Fortune 500 firms, but are now applied to program evaluation and basic research into broader issues within the nonprofit sector. He also has deep experience in the design and facilitation of participative, change-oriented planning processes. A prolific writer, Mr. Wing has published dozens of articles and won an Excel Award from the Society of National Association Publications. Mr. Wing has taught management at the graduate level at the University of Pennsylvania and Immaculata College and presented at numerous national conferences. He holds a Master’s degree from the Wharton School, a Bachelor’s degree from Brown University, and is a Certified Management Accountant.

Peter York, TCC Group

Place-Based Capacity Building Mini-Conference: How Funders, Capacity Builders and Nonprofits Connect for Long-Term Community Change
Thursday, July 14, 9:00am - 4:00pm

Measuring Impact: The Story of an MSO’s System for Evaluative Learning
Friday, July 15, 2:15pm - 4:15pm

Peter York, Senior Consultant and Director of Evaluation at TCC Group, specializes in designing and conducting “stakeholder-led” and “learning-based” evaluations and designing evaluation systems for nonprofit organizations, foundations and corporations. York also specializes in evaluating capacity building initiatives, and has written a number of articles and papers, presented at national and regional conferences, and held trainings/workshops on the topic. Recent capacity building evaluation work includes leading, designing and implementing the evaluation of: the Flint Funders Collaborative in Flint, Michigan; the IT Resource Center in Chicago, Illinois; the Pfizer Foundation’s capacity building support of AIDS Service Organizations throughout the South; the William Penn Foundation’s support of capacity building in the Delaware Valley region; the David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s Organizational Effectiveness Program; a jointly funded initiative to improve nonprofit organizations’ use of strategic restructuring/partnering as a capacity building tool; Eureka Communities; and the Microsoft NPower initiative.

Vance Yoshida, La Piana Associates, Inc.

Building Capacity Through Effective Strategy Formation — Beyond Strategic Planning
Friday, July 15, 2:15pm - 5:30pm

Vance Yoshida, MBA has extensive experience in the nonprofit sector. Most recently, Vance was the Director of External Relations and Development at the Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, where he developed and implemented strategies for fund raising, development, communications, marketing and outreach for this startup global HIV/AIDS organization. Prior to this, he served as Director of Operations with the Tides Center in San Francisco from 1996 through 2002 where he managed all aspects of this organization, providing financial, HR (including payroll and benefits administration), insurance, program guidance, contract compliance and management coaching services to over 350 non profit projects and organizations in 43 states generating $62 million in annual revenues. While at Tides, Vance also served as the Program Director, Director of External Relations and New Regional Office Development, and Acting Executive Director. Prior to this experience, Vance was CEO of a large horticultural business with 800 employees and operations in several countries. Over the past 10 years, Vance also developed a successful nonprofit consulting practice specializing on building strong boards of directors with governance structures that focused on the organization’s mission and vision. He has served over 75 organizations ranging from small community based grassroots to large mainstream organizations. His clients included AARP, the San Francisco Ballet, the National 4-H Council, Northern California Grantmakers, and the Japanese Community and Cultural Center. Vance has served on the boards of many nonprofit organizations, including the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, where he served as President from 1991 – 1995. Currently, he serves on the boards of Asian Health Services, the Every Child Can Learn Foundation, and the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development where he is Vice Chair. Vance has an MBA with a focus in finance and marketing from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Michael Zwell, Exxceed, Inc.

Capacity Building at United Way Metropolitan Chicago: Utilizing New Technologies and Processes to Ensure Staff Capability and Accountability
Friday, July 15, 2:15pm - 4:15pm

Drawing upon 12 years of academia and consulting experience, Michael Zwell founded Zwell International, Inc., in 1982. Zwell International quickly became one of the premier executive search firms. In 1998, Michael launched Exxceed, Inc. and developed CompetencySuite, which provides Internet software to help organizations hire, appraise, direct, and deploy their people optimally to achieve their missions and objectives. Michael still remains active in both companies, serving as chairman and assisting with business development. In 1997, the MacArthur Foundation and the Annenberg Foundation funded Zwell International to develop a competency-based selection process for use by the Chicago Public School System and the Local School Councils to hire principals. It is a key piece of the largest and most visible school reform movement in the country. The project has been successful and continues to be expanded through the school system. Since then, the MacArthur Foundation and others have funded Exxceed to develop and help implement a new competency-based evaluation and performance management system for principals, Local School Councils, and the Chicago Public School System.