Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees - GCIR

Laura Hogan, Co-Chair
Philanthropic Consultant
Davis, CA

Laura Hogan, co-chair and member of the executive committee, is a philanthropic consultant currently working with the Tides Foundation and the Family Violence Prevention Fund. Laura previously served as vice president of Programs for The California Endowment, where she oversaw all activities of The Endowment's grantmaking programs and initiatives, which totalled approximately $160 million per year in funding to organizations and public institutions working to improve access to affordable, quality health care; increase the cultural competence of California's health system; and improve community health for California's underserved communities. Prior to her promotion, Laura was program director overseeing all grantmaking under The Endowment's Access program. Under her leadership the program launched several initiatives to expand access to health care and coverage to the state's underserved communities. Prior to joining The Endowment in 1999 as a program officer, Laura served as executive director at CommuniCare Health Centers in Davis, California, where she worked since 1980. As executive director, Laura oversaw a staff of 140 and a $5 million annual budget. Laura holds a master's degree in Public Administration with a Health Services emphasis from the University of San Francisco and a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
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Victor Quintana, Co-Chair
Senior Program Officer
Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock
Manhasset, NY

Victor Quintana, co-chair and member of the executive committee, is senior program officer at the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program, where he has worked for nine years. He is a member of the board of the Neighborhood Funding Group. Prior to joining the Veatch Program, Victor was the director of Community Collaboration, an economic development and entrepreneurship training program at the Graduate School of Business of Columbia University. He also served as the first director of a startup health project to provide a continuum of social and health services to persons who have AIDS or are HIV-positive and travel between New York City and Puerto Rico. He also served in New York City government for eight years in a number of senior positions, including three years as the chief of staff for the commissioner of New York City's Department of Environmental Protection. From 1984-85, Victor studied at Columbia University as a Revson Program fellow. Victor holds a BA from Herbert H. Lehman College.
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Henry Allen, Treasurer
Executive Director
Discount Foundation
Boston, MA

Henry Allen, treasurer and member of the executive committee, is the executive director of the Discount Foundation. The foundation focuses on alleviating poverty by supporting community organizing as well as community and union partnerships that promote jobs and living wages for the poor. Previously, Henry was the senior program officer at the Hyams Foundation in Boston for 16 years. In that capacity, he provided leadership in the area of civic participation, which included community organizing, leadership development, and public policy advocacy in the areas of affordable housing, workforce development, public education reform, community safety and neighborhood revitalization. Active in national philanthropic organizations, Henry served for two years as the co-chair of the Neighborhood Funders Group, chaired its program and annual conference committees, and co-founded its Working Group on Labor and Community Partnerships. Henry also has an extensive background in education. He taught at the high school and college levels, served as a dean at a community college, and directed a popular education school for people involved in workplace and community organizing in Boston.
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Sue Lin Chong, Secretary
Public Affairs Manager
Annie E. Casey Foundation
Baltimore, MD

Sue Lin Chong, secretary and member of the membership committee, is the public affairs manager at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Prior to joining the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Sue Lin supervised the health care and broadcast groups at Devillier Communications, a Washington, D.C.-based public relations and marketing firm, where she managed the public relations campaigns of several clients, including the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her prior experience also includes serving as the director of public relations at the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center; senior manager of program information for PBS; and communications manager for MDLinx, Inc., an Internet-based knowledge service for health care professionals. Sue Lin was also an associate at the law firm Carlsmith Ball in Honolulu, Hawaii, where she practiced commercial litigation. She has a BA in art history from the University of Pennsylvania and a JD from the William S. Richardson School of Hawaii at the University of Hawaii.
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Jocelyn Ancheta, Member
Program Officer
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation
Eagan, MN

Jocelyn Ancheta, member at large and member of the program committee, joined the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation as program officer in October 2005. In that capacity, she manages Healthy Together: Creating Community with New Americans. Prior to that, Jocelyn was a program officer in Children and Families at The McKnight Foundation for almost 11 years, where she managed Community Support and Connections, among other programs. She has worked as a safety program coordinator at the Minnesota Department of Traffic Safety; community worker with Catholic Charities; legal advocate with the Domestic Abuse Project; and project manager for Metro Deaf Senior Citizens. Her board involvement includes Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, Filipino American Women's Network, MN, and Philippine Center of Minnesota. She holds an M.A. in Public Affairs and a B.A. in Education/Park and Recreation Administration. Jocelyn emigrated from the Philippines to Minnesota with her family in 1966. She previously served on the GCIR board in 2003-04.
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Cory Anderson, Member
Senior Program Associate
Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation
Little Rock, AR

Cory S. Anderson, board member at large and member of the membership committee, is senior program associate, Community & Economic Development, at the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, Cory served as program associate for the Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT Initiative for nearly seven years. In that capacity, he managed and funded a nationwide network of state-level KIDS COUNT projects that provide a more detailed, community-by-community picture of the condition of children. Before that, he was manager of Partner Development at the Forum for Youth Investment, engaging national organizations in partnerships designed to strengthen youth work. As a reporter with the Arkansas Gazette, he researched and reported on issues related to school, children and higher education. He has also served as a juvenile probation officer, a program coordinator for a direct service program that provided an array of services to families and children, and a state program specialist with the Corporation for National Service. As an intervention specialist and later a program specialist with New Futures for Youth, he assisted in the development of a model gang intervention program and then worked on youth employability issues.
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Lina Avidan, Membership Committee Chair
Program Executive
Zellerbach Family Foundation
San Francisco, CA

Lina Avidan, board member at large and chair of the membership committee, is program executive at the Zellerbach Family Foundation, where she manages all aspects of grantmaking for the Immigrants & Refugees and Strengthening Communities grantmaking programs for the past five years. She has 24 years of experience advocating on behalf of underserved communities in the areas of immigration policy, income rights, and civil rights. She worked for eight years as the director of public policy at the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant Rights, and later served as the founding director of the Northern California Citizenship Project, a regional multi-agency consortium dedicated to expanding civic and political participation among newly naturalized citizens and immigrants in Northern California. Lina has an MPA and a BA in international relations from San Francisco State University.
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Bob Glaves, Member
Executive Director
The Chicago Bar Foundation
Chicago, IL

Bob Glaves, board member at large and member of the program committee, has served as executive director of The Chicago Bar Foundation since 1999, after a successful nine-year career as a civil litigator at the Chicago law firm then known as Menges, Mikus & Molzahn. He has received a number of commendations over the course of his career, highlighted by the Maurice Weigle Outstanding Young Lawyer Award in 1998, the Chicago Legal Clinic's Cardinal Bernadin Award for action on behalf of social justice in 2000, the Atticus Finch Award from Chicago Volunteer Legal Services in 2002, the Human Rights Practitioner of the Year Award at the Midwest Light of Human Rights Awards Luncheon in 2003, and a Distinguished Service Award from the John Marshall Law School Alumni Association in 2004. Bob also was selected in 2002 as one of the "40 Illinois Attorneys Under 40 to Watch" by Law Bulletin Publishing Company. He is a 1991 magna cum laude graduate of The John Marshall Law School and received a BA in Political Science and Journalism from the University of Wisconsin in 1987.
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Geri Mannion, Member
Director, U.S. Democracy Program and the Special Opportunities Fund
Carnegie Corporation of New York
New York, NY

Geri Mannion, member at large and member of the membership committee, is director of the U.S. Democracy Program and of the Special Opportunities Fund at Carnegie Corporation of New York. The U.S. Democracy Program, which Geri has directed since 1998, focuses on immigrant civic integration, youth civic education, and election administration. The Fund allows the Corporation to respond to proposals that are important but not directly related to the foundation's primary foci. Prior to this current role, Geri staffed the Corporation's program of Special Projects for almost ten years. Prior to joining the Corporation, she spent 13 years in a variety of positions, including program associate for International Relations, at the Rockefeller Foundation and also served as a consultant with the Ford Foundation on its international affairs program. Geri co-chaired the Funders' Committee for Citizen Participation from 1993 to 1995 and is concluding another term as co-chair; she has also been active in the Social Justice Infrastructure Funders Group. Geri holds an M.A. in Political Science and a B.A. in English, both from Fordham University.
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Sandra J. Martínez, Member
Program Director
The California Wellness Foundation
Woodland Hills, CA

Sandra J. Martínez, board member at large, is program director overseeing grantmaking in special projects at The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF). Before her work with special projects, Sandra was a program director for violence prevention at TCWF and directed the Progressive Los Angeles Network and other community organizing efforts at the Community Coalition. She has also conducted extensive research on health-related issues, including co-authoring "The Los Angeles County Adolescent HIV Strategic Plan." Sandra is a commissioner for the City of Los Angeles Commission for Children Youth and Their Families and serves on the board of the Echo Park Film Center. She previously served as a community funding board member for the Liberty Hill Seed Fund, a board member for Woman and Youth Supporting Each Other (WYSE) and the California Child, Youth and Family Coalition. Sandra received her M.P.H. from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.
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Rebecca Rittgers, Member
U.S. Programme Executive
The Atlantic Philanthropies
New York, NY

Rebecca Rittgers, member at large and member of the program committee, has served as the U.S. programme executive for The Atlantic Philanthropies Global Reconciliation & Human Rights Programme since 2003. Under her direction and management, Atlantic has engaged in a select number of human rights initiatives in America impacting immigrants, the criminal justice system, and the protection of civil and human rights. Rebecca first joined Atlantic in 2001 and served for two years as the program officer of record for Atlantic's investments in Vietnam and Australia. Prior to coming to Atlantic, Rebecca worked closely with a small group of donors to create The Second Chance Foundation. In addition to helping set up its legal, granting, and operating functions, she served as its Chief Operating Officer. Her experiences in philanthropy also include ten years working at The Rockefeller Foundation, where she most recently was a research associate for its International Security program. Rebecca also serves on the Steering Committee of the International Human Rights Funders Group. She holds an M.A.in Economic Policy and a B.A. in Economics.
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Maria Teresa Rojas, Member
Deputy Director for Grantmaking Strategies
Open Society Institute
New York, NY

Maria Teresa Rojas, member at large, is deputy director for grantmaking strategies at the Open Society Institute, which she joined in 2000 initially as associate director in the communications department and then in the grantmaking and program development department. Maria Teresa brings more than 25 years of combined management and communications experience in the public, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors, as well as expertise in strategic communications, project management, and television production. Prior to joining OSI, Maria Teresa served as director of communications & external relations at the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers from 1997 to 2000. Her other work experience includes program manager at Bellevue Hospital; general manager at Crosswalks Television Network, City of New York; executive director of the NYC Commission on Public Information and Communications; special assistant to the president at Community Service Society of New York; and regional director of the Caribbean Development Program, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Maria Teresa holds an MPA from Bernard M. Baruch College of The City University of New York and a BA in communications from Rutgers University.
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Manuel Santamaria, Member
Grantmaking Director
Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Mountain View, CA

Manuel Santamaria, member at large and member of the program committee, is grantmaking director at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, where he leads the Immigrant Integration grantmaking strategy and has the primary responsibility of linking donor engagement staff to community organizations, regional needs, and grantmaking best practices. He joined Peninsula Community Foundation in 1999 and managed the nine community collaborative sites of the Peninsula Partnership for Children, Youth and Families^TM, which brought together city-, school- and community-based organizations in San Mateo County. He also helped launch and manage community-wide initiatives that improved the health and well-being of children ages 0-8 years old. Prior to the foundation, Manuel developed and led initiatives for a network of family resource centers; helped develop education programs for children and adults; and has worked with local organizations that advocate for the protection of immigrant rights. Manuel is a bilingual and bicultural facilitator with extensive community-based teaching and organizing experience. He holds an M.A. in Public Administration and a B.A. in International Relations.
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Tony Tapia, Member
Senior Program Director
Western Union Foundation
Englewood, CO

Tony Tapia, board member at large, is the senior program director for the Western Union Foundation, the charitable arm of the Western Union Company, where he oversees the foundation's strategic global-giving programs and non-governmental organization (NGO) partnerships. Tony works with Western Union Agents worldwide to promote charitable giving. Previously, Tony was the director of grantmaking for the Denver-based Gill Foundation, where he oversaw funding to social justice and human service nonprofit organizations in the United States. Prior to his work at the Gill Foundation, Tony was the senior director of Cultural Participation Programs at the Association of Performing Arts Presenters in Washington, D.C. In that capacity, he directed a grantmaking program that supported artists' residencies, and engaged communities in the performing arts in the United States. Tony currently serves as a trustee of the Bright Mountain Foundation and is on the board of Metro Volunteers. He has served on numerous boards including Hispanics in Philanthropy, Latin American Research and Services Agency, and Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues.
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