Nonprofits
Judge James Payne, who was the president-elect of the Reno, Nev.-based National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), will pass on the post after accepting a job with new Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R). The former Marion County judge, who landed in the public spotlight when he was accused of expediting the 2000 incarceration in a treatment program of State Rep. Robert Behning’s then 12-year-old daughter at Behning’s request, will lead Daniels’ newly formed Department of Child Services. Daniels created the agency out of the existing child protection and support programs in the Family and Social Services Administration. Its conception follows two recent deaths of children under state care, in both cases because a state worker failed to take appropriate action.
Instead of Payne, Tucson, Ariz., Judge Steve Rubin will replace current NCJFCJ President (and Utah Judge) Sharon McCully in July. Taking Rubin’s spot as secretary is El Paso, Texas, Judge Patricia Macias.
Payne’s decision is not the only change in plans for the council. NCJFCJ Dean Jim Toner, who has been with the council for 33 years, retired at the end of January. The council will send him off with a ceremony at its 32nd annual conference in Orlando, Fla., in March.
NCJFCJ members also mourned the loss of two former presidents (see “Passages,” next page). Contact: (775) 784-6012, http://www.ncjfcj.org/.
The Baltimore-based International Youth Foundation named William Reese to be its second CEO in as many years. Reese replaces the outgoing David Hornbeck, who is leaving to start his own national youth-serving grassroots organization. Contact: (410) 951-1500, http://www.iyfnet.org/.
Founder Judy Samelson stepped down as executive director of her 4-year-old, D.C.-based Afterschool Alliance in January. While the board searches for her replacement, Associate Director Jen Rinehart will lead the organization, which has focused its future on securing universal after-school programming by 2010. Contact: (202) 296-9378, http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation appointed David Williams to serve as CEO. Williams goes to the Phoenix-based nonprofit after about 10 years with Habitat for Humanity International, where he served as chief operating officer. The foundation’s 74 chapters spent $22.6 million in 2003 granting the wishes of youths with life-threatening illnesses. Contact: (800) 722-9474, http://www.wish.org/.
The Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network (N-TEN), based in San Francisco, hired Joe Baker to replace Executive Director Ed Batista, who resigned in January. N-TEN provides support to individuals and organizations that help nonprofits use technology to meet community needs. Baker comes to N-TEN from Amnesty International USA, where he headed the Internet communications division. Contact: (415) 397-9000, http://www.nten.org/.
Susan Alevy is in as the executive director of the National Independent Living Association (NILA) in Jacksonville, Fla. NILA represents about 200 member agencies, mostly working with youth transitioning from foster care to adulthood. Alevy spent the past six years as a grant writer and project coordinator for Daniel Memorial (also based in Jacksonville), an agency that provides mental health and social services to homeless and foster youth.
Alevy says NILA’s major undertaking is the development of a new resource-rich website, which she calls the future “cornerstone of the organizations.” Contact: (904) 296-1038, http://www.nilausa.org/, (904) 278-8581.
The Alliance for Children and Families, a national association of 350 child- and family-serving agencies, bade farewell this month to Vice President Tom Harvey, who departs to direct a new initiative for nonprofit management at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. Harvey is president emeritus of Catholic Charities USA, where he served as executive director for 10 years before joining the alliance. Contact: (414) 359-1040, http://www.alliance1.org/.
Mary Lee Hoffman was hired as senior vice president of funding for the Girl Scouts of the USA in New York City. Hoffman has been with scouting organizations for 15 years, most recently as CEO of the St. Croix Valley Council in St. Paul, Minn. The Girl Scouts are gearing up for their fifth annual National Latina Conference, scheduled for July on Long Island. Contact: (212) 852-8000, http://www.girlscouts.org/.
Randolph McLaughlin was hired to be the second executive director in the post-scandal era for the historic Hale House, a temporary home in New York City for children of drug-addicted and HIV-positive mothers. McLaughlin, who has served as the board’s legal counsel, stepped in as interim director when Lawrence Davenport resigned in April. Hale House has steadily built its name and reputation back up since former boss Lorraine Hale was discovered to have defrauded the organization of about $1 million in 2002. (“Hale to the Thief,” April 2002.)
McLaughlin says the group has “certainly turned the corner,” inking its first new contract with the city in 10 years and beginning a strategic planning mission for its considerable amount of property. Contact: (212) 663-0700, http://www.halehouse.org/.
Robert Riddle is in as president of the National Council of Child Support Directors (NCCSD), a forum of state directors that meets twice a year. Riddle, who has directed the Georgia Office of Child Support Enforcement since 2000, will oversee the council’s implementation of its fiscal 2005 through 2009 plan. The major agenda item is to help state systems incorporate changes necessitated by the long-awaited reauthorization of Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF). Two items that may have significant impact on child support enforcement: the healthy marriage initiatives and a pass-through of child support payments to TANF recipients. Contact: http://kids.law.yale.edu/nccsd.
The Oakland, Calif.-based National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) elected social policy expert Peter Edelman to be its board president. Edelman, who has served as a board member since 1997, has been a member of the Georgetown University Law Center faculty for 23 years (he’s the associate dean) and served as President Bill Clinton’s assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services. NCYL settled a lawsuit against the state of Washington’s child welfare system last summer. The state agreed to undertake massive reforms in order to avoid being placed under court supervision. Contact: (510) 835-8098, http://www.youthlaw.org/.
Independent Sector elected former Reading is Fundamental President William Trueheart as the chairman of its board of directors. Trueheart is CEO of the Pittsburgh Foundation. Among others elected to the board: Janet Murguia, new CEO of the National Council of La Raza; Surdna Foundation Executive Director Edward Skloot; and Charles Stewart Mott Foundation CEO William White. Contact: (202) 467-6134, http://www.independentsector.org/.
The National Human Services Assembly added three significant organizations to its membership in December. The Kansas City-based American Humanics, led by Kala Stroup, is a national alliance of colleges and nonprofit organizations that certify professionals to strengthen and lead nonprofit organizations. The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network in New York, a group of local clubs working to improve school and social life for gay youth, is headed by Kevin Jennings. Community Partnerships with Youth in Indianapolis, co-directed by “Journey Leaders” Janet Wakefield and Tom Plake, promotes youth involvement in community organizations. Contact: NA (202) 347-2080, http://www.nassembly.org/.
In late 2003, child pornography watchdog Enough is Enough managed to get Donna Rice Hughes to serve as its volunteer president. Hughes is best known as the model photographed on a yacht (appropriately named “Monkey Business”) cavorting with presidential hopeful Gary Hart in 1987 after he dared the media to catch him in a scandalous act.
Now advertising herself as an Internet safety expert, Hughes has already brought the 10-year-old, Great Falls, Va.-based organization from a measly online existence, with expenses of $24,280 in 2003, into the big money. The U.S. Justice Department appropriation for fiscal 2005 includes a $500,000 earmark for the group.
According to Guidestar, Enough’s board includes Hughes’ husband, Jack Hughes, and National Law Center for Children and Families President Bruce Taylor, whose former senior counsel was J. Robert Flores, the current director of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Hughes herself chairs the board. Contact: www.enough.org. Following a major marketing campaign, the National Association on Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting and Prevention (NOAPPP), led by CEO Pat Paluzzi, has changed its name to the Healthy Teen Network. The national umbrella organization, which was formed in 1979, counts 600 member organizations on its rolls. Contact: (202) 547-8814, http://www.healthyteennetwork.org/.
Foundations
This year will mark the final go-round for W.K. Kellogg Foundation CEO William Richardson, who announced he will retire at the end of the year. Richardson, former president of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, has run the Battle Creek, Mich.-based grant maker since 1995. The board wants to identify a successor by this summer. Kellogg’s total assets increased 19 percent in the last fiscal year, to $6.8 billion. Contact: (269) 968-0413, http://www.wkkf.org/.
Council on Foundations CEO Dorothy Ridings announced her retirement in late 2004. She came to the council in 1996 after an eight-year stint as publisher and president of Florida’s Bradenton Herald. Ridings says she will remain on the job until a replacement is found. Contact: (202) 466-6512, http://www.cof.org/.
Feds
The Corporation for National and Community Service finally had its nine board members confirmed by the Senate, just before its winter recess. (Most had expected to be confirmed in August.) Among the nine are three new members: Jacob Lew, vice president of New York University; Mimi Mager, who was tenacious in almost single-handedly keeping the 23-year-old Friends ofVista program alive; and the corporation’s first youth representative, Leona White Hat.
White Hat, a member of the Sicangu Lakota tribe in South Dakota, is a master’s student at Black Hills State University and also works for the university in its effort to recruit and retain Native American students. Contact: (202) 606-5000, http://www.cns.gov/.
Deborah Daniels, who headed the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs through President George W. Bush’s first term, resigned in late January. Daniels, sister of new Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, coordinated the administration’s effort to widen the network of state Amber Alert systems. The number of states operating in the system has risen to 49, from four in 2001. Contact: (202) 514-2000, http://www.usdoj.gov/.
States
Geno Natalucci-Perischetti, who served as Ohio’s director of youth services for the past 18 years, was forced to resign by Gov. Bob Taft in November. In the face of political outcry about tough penalties for youth, Natalucci-Perischetti was credited with sticking to drug treatment and alternative rehabilitation for nonviolent offenders. After his resignation, five guards at the state’s Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility were arrested for crimes including sexual battery and felonious assault.
Natalucci-Perischetti took a job in December with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. He will serve as a senior policy analyst.
Bay Area native Donna Brorby is best known for her relentless efforts to force Texas to improve its notorious prison system. Her work was not lost on California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration, which has tapped her to lead the massive overhaul of the California Youth Authority (CYA). Once seen as a model facility, CYA is now an overpopulated disaster, home to 4,000 young offenders. While none doubt the sagacity of her hiring, some California advocates wonder whether the state’s agreement with the plaintiffs that Brorby was hired to enforce packs enough punch to fundamentally change CYA while keeping its physical facilities intact.
After 16 years as head of Missouri’s Division of Youth Services, Mark Steward is stepping down. The state has become the model for youth reform efforts under his leadership, posting some of the lowest re-offender rates in the nation. Steward says he will form a national institute in Missouri to help other states implement the system he helped to develop.
Crime
Charles Long, director of the Buffalo Soldiers Re-enactors Association, was convicted of manslaughter in the death of a participant in the Phoenix, Ariz., boot camp. The camp was shut down after the death of 14-year-old Anthony Haynes last year.
Last fall, President Bush went to Ohio to sign a tax-cut bill. To put a face on the bill’s impact, he introduced youth pastor Mike Hintz and his wife, Sharla, of Clive, Ohio. Hintz, who said the bill saved him about $2,800 in taxes, was arrested in December for sexual exploitation of a 17-year-old girl who was a member of his youth group.
Passages
Orman Ketcham, 86, former president of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. Ketcham served as Washington, D.C.’s sole juvenile court judge from 1957 to 1962, and ran the National Council on Crime and Delinquency from 1959 to 1983.
James Farris, 72, former president of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. The self-described “short, fat judge from Texas” who “graduated in the half of the class that made the top half possible,” Farris was best known for his oratorical skills. “If he had it his way, Jim Farris would have spoken at his own funeral,” writes Jim Toner, a long-time leader at the council.
