The Council of Foundation Leaders is a standing advisory group of professional leaders, knowledgeable about the roles, responsibilities, and practices of effective governance for institutionally related foundations. They also have a deep understanding of the purpose of institutionally related foundations and the inherent dynamics of interrelatedness between foundations and the universities, systems, and colleges they serve. The Council meets quarterly.
George P. Watt
AGB Senior Consultant, Senior Fellow, and Membership Ambassador
Former Executive Vice President, Institutional Advancement
and Executive Director, College of Charleston Foundation
Former President, U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association and U.S. Naval Academy Foundation
Margaret Ann Bollmeier
Medical College of Virginia
Trishana Bowden
George Mason University
Gretchen Buhlig
Arizona State University Foundation
DeAnna Carlson Zink
University of North Dakota Foundation
Monica Delisa
University of Vermont Foundation
Kristen DeVries
Western Michigan University Foundation
Jay Dowd
The Citadel Foundation
Rod Grabowski
UCF Foundation (University of Central Florida)
Brian Hastings
University of Nebraska Foundation
Abby Kelso
Evergreen State College Foundation
Matthew Lambert
William & Mary Foundation
Karen McCauley
Clemson University Foundation
Rickey McCurry
University of Nevada-Las Vegas Foundation
Ian Mercier
Medical College of Georgia Foundation, Inc.
Augusta University
James H. Moore, Jr.
University of Illinois Foundation
Robert Nava
California State University San Bernardino Philanthropic Foundation
Guy Patton
University of Oklahoma Foundation
Leonard Raley
University of Maryland System Foundation
Cynthia Roth
West Virginia University Foundation
Katherine Sawyer
Oakton Community College Foundation
Amanda Sbriscia
Holyoke Community College Foundation
Tyson Voelkel
Texas A&M Foundation
Matt White
Utah State University Foundation
In two recent AGB blog posts, former public university presidents Carol Cartwright and Ellen-Earle Chaffee have teed up the challenges facing college and university boards, with a focus on the unprecedented challenges institutional presidents are facing (see Related Resources below), and the impact of those challenges not only on the role of the president, but also on higher education, writ large.
Governing boards are typically responsible for oversight and assessment of their chief executives’ performance. AGB’s Higher Education Governing Boards: An Introductory Guide for College, University, and System Boards (AGB, 2018) identifies presidential assessment as one of the essential responsibilities of governing boards. AGB senior fellow Terry MacTaggart has enumerated the potential benefits of a presidential assessment
In its May 10 meeting, AGB’s Council of Foundation Leaders met with Lisa Foss, PhD, the executive director of the Council on Higher Education as a Strategic Asset (HESA), a newly forged coalition of national leaders hailing from higher education, government, business, the nonprofit sector, and the military that will develop and propose recommendations for ensuring that higher education institutions can deliver the workforce and educated citizenry necessary to address the United States’s most critical national priorities.
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