Meet Our Board

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Gary R. Levante is the Chief Marketing Officer at Beacon Financial Corporation and Beacon Bank, where he is responsible for overseeing branding, marketing, communications, and public affairs. Mr. Levante joined the company in 2025 following the transformative merger of equals between Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. and Brookline Bancorp, Inc. to create Beacon Financial Corporation. From 2010 through 2025, Mr. Levante held a variety of leadership roles with Berkshire Bank, most recently serving as its Chief Communication & Sustainability Officer.

Mr. Levante is active in the community where he serves in leadership positions on the boards of several nonprofit and governmental organizations. He holds a B.A. from St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont.

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Marly Leighton-Colburn leads Corporate Cause Marketing Partnerships at the Human Rights Campaign.

Marly brings expertise in creating and nourishing impactful partnerships with major brands. In her roles as Director, Partner Impact at Discovery Education, and Chief of Staff at DoSomething.org, she secured and managed cause marketing partnerships with CVS, 3M, PwC, Taco Bell, General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, General Mills, Garnier, and other top brands. She was also a key member of DoSomething.org’s Get Out the Vote task force in advance of the 2020 Election, which garnered 250,000 voter registrations. 

Prior to her roles in the impact partnerships space, Marly served as a publicist at Polk & Co. representing a portfolio of Broadway productions and performing arts projects including Wicked, If/Then, and The Color Purple. 

Marly champions a culture of giving and has volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters NYC, Bike New York, Crisis Text Line, and New York Cares. 

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Ijeoma is an assurance senior manager with BDO’s assurance practice with extensive experience in several industries including nonprofit, government, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and construction. Ijeoma joined BDO in May 2020 after serving 16 years at Big Four firms in various capacities. Her experience includes:

• Planning, performing, and supervising a wide variety of financial statement and pension plan audits;
• Analyzing internal controls and policies and writing accounting policies and procedure manuals;
• Presenting regularly to audit committees and providing technical support on auditing and accounting issues for those clients;
• Experience in working with organizations with multiple national and International nonprofit andfor-profit entities;
• Knowledge in compliance auditing of organizations receiving federal financial funding inaccordance with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Uniform Guidance;
• Performing federal audits of U.S. government agencies and advising on U.S. governmentappropriations and related accounting for federal requirements;
• Performing donor audits for federal and private grantors based on agreed upon procedures.Some of the organizations that Ij serves include the Society of Human Resources, American Psychological Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Catholic Charities USA, Fisher House Foundation, American Physical Society and the Government of the District of Columbia. 

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Rebecca is a human resources professional with more than 25 years of experience in consulting to private and nonprofit organizations. She is the President and CEO of SmithPilot, a consulting firm focused on nonprofit compensation. In addition to leading the firm, she directs a variety of client engagements involving nonprofit compensation and benefits issues.

Prior to joining SmithPilot, Ms. Pilot served as human resources director for a variety of nonprofit organizations, leading the human resources functions for these nonprofits as well as designing and implementing new programs as necessary. Ms. Pilot’s experience also includes advising executives at Accenture on a wide variety of HR issues including staffing, leadership development, compensation planning, performance management, succession planning, and diversity. 

Prior to her tenure with Accenture, she managed graduate student and alumni programs in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

Rebecca received her undergraduate degree from Lafayette College and earned a Master of Arts in Communication, Culture, and Technology from Georgetown University. Active in school and community affairs, she and her husband and their three children live in the Greater Washington DC area.

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Cody Chandler is the Senior Director Cloud Engineering and Operations for Blackline.

For over 20 years, Cody has worked in every aspect of technology from Internet Service Providers to Commercial Space Travel. Specializing in the conversion of startup idea to scalable business and transitioning enterprise methodologies to modern DevOps practices; he evangelizes techniques that shift companies left; allowing for faster conception to production iterations.

Cody holds patents in technology pertaining to medical devices for seizure monitoring and triage alerting systems. He is passionate about leveraging technology to assist families with Cerebral Palsy and Autism. His love for animals introduced him to his wife Dr. Diana DVM and together with their two children, they have rescued numerous dogs with medical conditions that require special attention.

After a successful exit of a startup in 2014: Cody spent 2 years working solely in corporate social responsibility, workspace giving and philanthropy. His work in CSR ultimately led to a partnership with America’s Charities. Cody hopes to use his technical experience and contacts to expand into microtransaction donations and corporate asset repurposing.

Cody is a huge fan and supporter of A Walk on Water – Surf Therapy, and Marley’s Mutts – Animal Rescue. 

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As the CEO for Action for Racial Equity Fellow, Jennifer has co-led the pilot Place-based fellowship platform while also leading a team in the planning and creation of the Place-based toolkit/ guide to facilitate the execution of community mappings, city-specific data analysis/research, facilitation of stakeholder and community listening sessions and focus groups. She has trained a team of 10, including leadership, on Equity Design principles including design systems thinking and the development of equity solutions based on targeted universalism and positive deviance concepts. She has advised fellowship leadership on lived experience and interests of Black Oaklanders as a member of the Oakland Place-based Community Advisory Council, researched on over 200+ Bay Area organizations to distill preliminary top 5 racial equity priorities, led a team of 5 in the development of root cause hypotheses based on Oakland/Alameda County-specific data to be tested, and is co-designing listening sessions for Oakland grass tops organizations, community members, and local government to test and refine root cause hypotheses. In addition, she was the Leader of the Racial Equity in ESG fellowship solution: “Racial equity is ESG: What gets measured gets done.” She interviewed a variety stakeholder partners from former SEC council members, Big 4 accounting firms, and influencers of federal and state public policy, and synthesized ESG-related information from a variety of sources including webinars, academic journals, SEC ESG subcommittee proposed and final recommendations, public company financial statements, proxy statements, Page 1 of 5 federal and state legislation on several ESG-related topics including human capital, business diversity, climate-related disclosures. Jennifer designed the solution implementation plan to be executed by the fellowship and stakeholder partners, including building out of the solution timeline and criteria of success for each phase. She authored the solution policy memo aggregating information, insights, benefits and tactics for risk mitigation, and she is the ESG fellowship subject matter expert providing guidance to fellows whose signatory companies are interested stronger engagement on ESG-related racial equity strategies Economic Empowerment Leader in the fellowship SWAT Team. Jennifer analyzed agendas of over 10 national government entities and NGOs, identified economic empowerment trends to guide the strategic decisions on the fellowship solution portfolio Founder of the fellowship Black Community Council, and increased the fellowship’s practice of human-centered design principles in the successful advocacy for a fellowship Black Community Council (BCC) to represent the interests of our “customer”, the Black community. She provided successful nominations of BCC member, CEO of The Greenlining Institute Creator of the fellowship signatory racial equity initiative sentiment survey, and she coordinated with the fellowship Communications team in the creation of a sentiment survey to be completed by 100+ fellows across 100+ organizations.

Prior to her work with Action for Racial Equity Fellow, Jennifer had experiences with PwC’s Assurance Manager, Southwest Market Black Inclusion Network’s Co-Leader, and she worked on the Justice Project for PwC Impact Space – Northeastern University Civil Rights and Restorative, among many other experiences.

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Grace Chung Rhee is the Senior Director of Social Impact Programs for Automation Anywhere, which is committed to reimagining the future of work for everyone, improving efficiency through process automation, and building AI for good.

Prior to joining Automation Anywhere, Grace has led and managed corporate social impact programs at companies such as Zillow Group, AECOM, and Yahoo. At Zillow, Grace created an impact strategy anchored on leveraging Zillow’s product, corporate giving, platform, and employee engagement on three focus areas: housing security, economic opportunity, and equitable industry. At AECOM, she built a global corporate responsibility platform from the ground up for its 90,000 employees. She also previously led strategic partnerships at Pledge, a startup modernizing giving technology, securing partnerships with companies such as Zoom, Box, and Cameo.

Grace graduated with a BA from American University and a Master in Public Policy (MPP) from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She also serves on the board of Access Ventures, a nonprofit committed to building more inclusive economies through mission-aligned investments.

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Patrick McCrummen is the Principal Partner and co-Founder of Social Positive. He was the former lead for global Community Impact, the social impact strategy at DuPont, a $14 billion integrated specialty products company with operations in 60 countries. Leveraging DuPont’s unique portfolio of products, innovation platforms, and intellectual capital, his work focuses on creating meaningful differences in the health and well-being of people and communities around the world.

He served for 8 years at Johnson & Johnson, building the company’s first cross-enterprise corporate responsibility platform. He also led the communication and advocacy strategy for J&J’s global community impact work focused on the empowerment of women and girls, strengthening the healthcare workforce, and improving access and health outcomes in maternal and child health.

Prior to J&J, he served as Vice President of Communication and Marketing and other roles for the American Red Cross headquarters in Washington, DC leading disaster public affairs, national preparedness communications, and as the head of communication and marketing across five business lines. He served as a strategy leader and policy advisor in cross-agency public affairs partnerships with FEMA, Dept. of Homeland Security, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including responses to the September 11th attacks, Hurricane Katrina, the H1N1 flu pandemic, and several international disasters.

He currently serves on the advisory board of the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Corporate Citizenship Center.

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Zach Skow is the founder of Marley’s Mutts Dog Rescue, an organization born from his personal journey of struggle, redemption, and the healing power of dogs.

Zach’s story is one of resilience and transformation. Battling severe addiction and alcoholism, Zach faced a dire prognosis in 2008 with only 90 days to live without a liver transplant— or change everything about his lifestyle. During his darkest times, it was the unconditional love and companionship of his rescue dogs that provided the support and motivation he needed to turn his life around. Advocating for the dogs and a life of service restored him entirely and placed him on this current trajectory with 16 years of sobriety.

In 2009, Zach founded Marley’s Mutts Dog Rescue in Tehachapi, California, as a testament to the life-saving bond between humans and dogs. Named after his beloved Rottweiler-pit bull mix, Marley, the rescue focuses on rehabilitating and rehoming high-risk dogs from Kern County’s high-kill shelters. Through Marley’s Mutts, Zach has saved nearly 10,000 dogs, giving them a second chance at life and love.

One of Zach’s most significant achievements is the creation of the Pawsitive Change Program. This innovative initiative pairs rescue dogs with inmates in California state prisons. The program not only provides a path to rehabilitation for the dogs but also offers inmates a chance to develop empathy, responsibility, and vocational skills. Pawsitive Change has seen remarkable success, with more than 1000 student inmates graduating from the program and significantly reducing their recidivism rates. The program has transformed lives, showcasing the profound impact of human-animal connections.

Zach’s work has earned him national recognition, and Marley’s Mutts has grown into a powerhouse in the animal rescue community, advocating for animal welfare and the benefits of second chances for both dogs and people. Beyond the confines of the rescue, Zach is a passionate advocate for the broader mission of America’s Charities. He is excited to contribute his experience, energy, and vision to help grow and nurture their mission, furthering the cause of charitable giving and community support.

With his compelling personal story and unwavering dedication to making a difference, Zach Skow continues to inspire and drive positive change, proving that with love and support, redemption and new beginnings are always possible.

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The consistent theme in Andrea’s career – across corporate philanthropy, audience research, nonprofit consulting and beyond – is a deep curiosity about people and the desire to connect. Corporate philanthropy has provided an incredible opportunity to build relationships and knowledge that allow for creating meaningful social impact.

Andrea currently serves as a Corporate Foundation Leader for PwC Charitable Foundation. Prior to joining PwC, she spent time self-employed as a Strategy & Research Consultant. Upon launching ProvParents, she served as an advocate for families demanding excellence from the public education institutions that serve our young people from birth to careers, created forums for families to connect and learn about the school system and advocated for local and state policy that will benefit all Providence children. She published regular newsletters with updates, opportunities to engage and education-related events; brought parent priorities to conversations with the community, legislators, education department administrators, elected officials and aligned community groups to advance these goals.

Before becoming an entrepreneur, she was a Managing Partner for THREE, wherein she worked closely with people to encourage them to open up as she listened carefully to what they have to say in order to understanding clients’ needs, unearth consumers’ perspectives, and ensure her team’s focus on creative endeavors, starting with the human connection.

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Fernando is a strategic social impact professional, grounded in community partnership best practices. He provides leadership experience in corporate philanthropy, employee engagement, college and career readiness, equity in educational access, job skills and career opportunities for military service veterans.

With 15 plus years in volunteer engagement across the public sector, non-profit political advocacy and corporate volunteerism, he has led volunteer programming, non-profit partnership management and skill building for MSO and VSO networks.

Fernando is experienced in grants management, non-profit partnerships, community relations, scaling service programs, supporting communications and program development.

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Latisha M. Franklin is a highly experienced professional with a strong background in non-profit organizations and youth development.

Latisha is the Assistant Director of Philanthropy Programs at Northwestern Mutual’s Foundation, with an emphasis on place-based initiatives in three underserved Milwaukee neighborhoods.

Formerly a nonprofit executive, Latisha holds a B.S. in Community Education & Engagement from UWM and an M.S. in Organizational Change Leadership from UWPlatt. She has leveraged her education and decades of community experience to enhance operations and programming within youth-serving nonprofits in Milwaukee, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, MD.

Outside of work, Latisha serves as a nonprofit consultant and life coach through her business Frankly Life LLC.

Latisha’s aspirations include continuing to make a positive impact in the community through program development, leadership development, community initiatives, and driving an impactful organizational culture that fosters diversity, equity, and inclusion internally and externally.

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James Bond is The Nature Conservancy’s Chief Finance Officer (CFO). A key member of TNC’s Executive Leadership Team, he manages and directs the central finance function while serving as the primary fiduciary officer to ensure financial alignment with TNC’s mission and goals. He oversees all audit, tax, regulatory, and legal financial filings, as well as the debt management and public grants management functions at TNC. He also oversees TNC’s insurance program and procurement function, driving vendor sustainability, diversity and optimization of vendor usage and purchasing across TNC. He leads the annual budget and multi-year financial planning processes and is the executive liaison to the Finance Committee of the TNC Board.

James is an accomplished senior finance executive with extensive experience in all facets of financial management and leadership at both global mission-driven organizations as well as global media businesses.

Prior to joining TNC, James was the Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), a large international humanitarian relief and development agency with operations in over 110 countries and more than $1.4 billion in annual operating revenue. He was responsible for all finance and accounting activities, treasury, global supply chain management and procurement functions, as well as internal audit. He also led investment management, enterprise risk management, and impact investing activities for this multi-sector international NGO with more than 8,000 employees. At CRS, he led a number of transformational finance initiatives, including the design and implementation of a global Enterprise Resource Planning system and a revamped budget and financial planning process to increase efficiency and transparency and to better align financial planning with long-term strategic planning objectives.

Prior to joining CRS, James was the Chief Financial Officer of WETA, the public television and radio organization serving the Washington, DC metro area and a major producing station for PBS. James was also the Chief Financial Officer for National Geographic Channels Worldwide and Chief Financial Officer for Fox International Channels, spending more than fifteen years in financial leadership at this global media organization. James began his career in media with Time Warner and later at Discovery Communications, in strategic planning and operations roles. His experience working at National Geographic deepened his appreciation and commitment to use the power of science and storytelling to protect the wonder of our world.

James received his MBA in Finance and Marketing from New York University’s Stern School of Business, an MS in Statistics from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a BS in Math from James Madison University.

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Jim Starr is president and CEO of America’s Charities, which inspires employees and organizations to support causes they care about. Jim has set the organization’s focus to raise $1 billion for worthy causes by 2026, as well as its strategic priorities enabling America’s Charities to reach that goal.  He has led the expansion and growth of America’s Charities through strategic partnerships and expanding its service offerings.  Jim is a frequent speaker and writer on topics covering Corporate Social Responsibility, employee giving and volunteering, and employee assistance funds.

An accomplished leader with more than 30 years of experience and a proven track record in the nonprofit and healthcare sectors, Jim has served in national and field executive leadership roles with multi-million dollar revenue and expense targets. He also brings a wealth of experience in strategic planning, business development, and partnerships.  Prior to joining America’s Charities, Jim served the mission of the American Red Cross in a variety of senior leadership roles that touched every aspect of Red Cross services. Preceding his work with the American Red Cross, Jim was a senior management consultant for a strategy consulting firm focused on the healthcare and government sectors.

Jim holds a Masters of Business Administration from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a Bachelors of Arts degree in Organizational Communications from George Mason University.