Our Team

Year I established IP: 2010

What I bring to IP: I am an authentic and vulnerable leader using creativity and strategic thinking to catalyze connections and generate new ideas. Having worked in business consulting, nonprofit leadership, and grass-roots community and ministry, I approach my work with both pragmatism and visionary aspirations. I appreciate the legal, tax, and grantmaking responsibilities of private foundations as well as the creativity that can be brought to bear on community impact. I am a facilitator of dialogue, idea generator, a convener, and a bridge builder weaving together the said and the unsaid, the seen and the hoped for, to communicate meaning that inspires hope, depth and courageous action.  

Prior to founding Intentional Philanthropy, I served as Managing Director for Family Philanthropy, leading a client service team providing strategic planning, foundation management, family engagement and "beyond dollars" grantmaking strategies to individual donors and family foundations. From 2001 to 2008, I served on the senior leadership team of Exponent Philanthropy (then the Association of Small Foundations), facilitating hundreds of foundation workshops, overseeing the completion of ASF’s Trustee Leadership Seminar and launching the association’s first Next Generation Seminar for multi-generational family foundations. I also spent five years in full-time ministry with a local congregation supporting young adult women and three years in international trade. I hold a B.A. with honors from the College of William & Mary, completed graduate work in International Economics at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, and studied Family Systems Theory at the Bowen Center for the Family at Georgetown University.

What I love most about my work: I love helping individuals and groups clarify their goals and achieve their vision. I enjoy being in the community and serving as an interpreter, translating the concerns of nonprofits to donors and the goals and vision of donors to the organizations they are funding. I recognize that individuals are often working towards the same goals but that they bring different perspectives, values and experiences to their work. There is a need to deeply listen to one another and to seek understanding in order to carve out a partnership that will last. I also love people and enjoy seeing them thrive. I have a deep concern for the relational success of the foundation directors with one another, across generations and in their chosen community.

What I am most excited about learning right now: I have spent the last few years thinking about how important it is for philanthropy to help bring people together across differences in order to create sustainable, high-impact solutions. I have been studying the work of Braver Angels, Greater Good Science Center, including their Bridging Differences Playbook, One America Movement, BridgeUSA, New Pluralists, Essential Partners, the Einhorn Collaborative, Unify America, and more! Our country’s current environment makes these dialogues scary but imperative. I desperately want to be a part of the solution, so I need the tools that these organizations have developed. At IP, we work with many thoughtful donors representing different perspectives, working to make our country and world better. Their efforts give me hope that we can build together.

What I do in a typical week: I meet with community and nonprofit leaders to understand the landscape and how funding can move an issue, partnership, or initiative forward; I develop tools and conversations for boards to make effective decisions on everything from strategy to succession; and I coach next-generation family members on how to link their talents and values to the work of their foundation and to find their voice at the table. I also spend time with IP team members brainstorming new ideas for both their professional development and our clients’ continued learning.

What I do when I’m not working: Currently, I am spending a lot of time watching my high school freshman daughter play field hockey and jump her Hanoverian, Andy! She is so bold and courageous. To decompress, I walk, hike, garden, and entertain as much as possible outside. During the winter, I travel to places where I can also walk, hike and garden!