Campbell Soup’s new diversity officer and 8 more Power Moves
November 17, 2017 Category: Featured, Long, PeoplePower Moves is a semi-regular column chronicling leadership movements within Philly’s social impact community. Send announcements to philly@generocity.org.
1. Campbell Soup Co. appointed its first chief diversity and inclusion officer.
Monica Diaz comes to the Camden-based corporation from five years as ESPN’s VP of diversity, inclusion and wellness. In the newly created role, starting Nov. 20, she is charged with creating Campbell’s D&I strategy “to foster an inclusive culture and diverse workforce that mirrors Campbell’s consumer base.”
Campbell CEO Denise Morrison also recently committed to the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion, a pledge signed by executives around the county signifying their commitment to D&I efforts.
2. Campus Philly has three new board members and one new hire.
The economic development nonprofit that encourages Philly college students to explore their city just hired a program manager and gained three new board members.
Michelle Ahn joins the team as program manager after recently graduating from Villanova University.
Valerie Smith, president of Swarthmore College, and Thomas Hushen, associate director of communications for Campbell Soup, are joining Campus Philly’s board of directors. John Clayton Jr., director of diversity, inclusion and workforce initiatives for Independence Blue Cross, will serve as co-chair of its corporate advisory council.
3. Emerge Pennsylvania has eight new board members.
The political accelerator for Democratic women picked up some new reps for its board last month:
- Jasmeet Ahuja (Delaware County)
- Keyva Clark (Allegheny County)
- Marita Garrett (Allegheny County)
- Caitlin Handerhan (Erie County)
- Blayre Holmes (Allegheny County)
- Salomé Johnson (York County)
- Nikki Lu (Allegheny County)
- Aubrey Montgomery (Philadelphia County)
Philly’s Montgomery is a principal at strategic fundraising firm Rittenhouse Political Partners.
Emerge saw six out of six alumnae running for office (plus two board members, Garrett and Eileen Albillar of Bucks County) win their elections last week.
4. Bread & Roses Community Fund just honored four activist leaders.
The community fund celebrated its 40th anniversary this week with its Tribute to Change event, which honored four Philly activists with the Legacy of Leadership Award: Juntos‘ Erika Almíron, Reconstruction Inc.’s Abdul-Hakim ‘Ali, U.S. Labor Against the War’s John Braxton and Disabled in Action’s Nancy Salandra.
Check out a video made by BlackStar Film Festival founder Maori Karmael Holmes highlighting the honorees below:
5. The Kolbe Fund has a new program director and four new board members.
The Exton-based nonprofit that supports families caring for a sick child found its new program manager in Havertown public health pro Leah Roman, and a handful of new board members in the following:
- Jennifer Breton, founder of Jennifer Breton Law (West Chester)
- Jamie Lynn Curley, founder of The Tailor-Made Life (Downingtown)
- Patrick Doyle, COO of Forerunner Holdings Corporation (Jeffersonville)
- Megan Kolter, medical director at Executive Health Resources (Chester Springs)
6. Rebecca Rhynhart’s transition team is stacked with tech and impact folks.
The city’s first female controller-elect has said a lot about her intention to bring technology to the office.
She gave heft to that stance this week by announcing a transition team that includes two tech-adjacent folks in addition to some usual political suspects:
- Brigitte Daniel, executive VP of Wilco Electronics Systems and founder of Mogulette
- Richard Vague, managing partner of Gabriel Investments
- Kellan White, Rhynhart’s former campaign manager and director of Philly’s New Leaders Council
- Heather Steinmiller, senior VP and general counsel for consulting firm Conner Strong & Buckelew
7. Mazzoni Center’s leadership continues to shift.
The recently unionized LGBTQ health center announced a few new appointments to its executive board following several months of institutional shakeups, including that Wells Fargo branch manager Christopher Pope is its new president and Wharton professor Louis Thomas is its new VP and acting secretary.
Mazzoni is also in the midst of a CEO search and last month hired Dr. Nancy Brisbon as its medical director.
8. Philadelphia Bar Foundation made two new hires.
The city’s civil legal aid foundation recently hired Laura Powers as its director of marketing and development and Paul Kirk as its director of operations.
Powers was previously chief marketing officer of Furia Rubel Communications; Kirk was previously a paralegal with the Philadelphia Bar Association and a representative of the Judicial Selection Committee.
9. PHL Design Lab picked its first fellows.
This Monday, the city officially launched its Knight Cities Challenge-winning PHL Design Lab to help the Office of Homeless Services and the Department of Revenue improve their interactions with the public.
With that launch came the hiring of two project-specific fellows: service designer Devika Menon, who had a previous stint at Maryland’s MICA Center for Social Design, and social scientist Nathaniel Olin, previously with D.C.’s Analyst Institute.
PHL Design Lab will be led by Liana Dragoman, service design practice lead and deputy director of the Office of Open Data and Digital Transformation, and Anjali Chainani, director of policy in the Mayor’s Office of Policy, Legislation and Intergovernmental Affairs.