Power Moves is a semi-regular column chronicling leadership movements within Philly’s social impact community. Send announcements to philly@generocity.org.

1. Nasha Taylor joined PhillyCAM has its first community engagement director.

The media access nonprofit’s newest hire started last Monday. In the newly created position, Taylor is charged with communicating PhillyCAM’s mission and programs with the public, growing its membership and deepening its partnerships within Greater Philadelphia.

The Temple University graduate worked previously as a program manager for youth nonprofit Year Up and manager for the Center of Digital Inclusion & Technology at People’s Emergency Center. While at the latter, she worked with PhillyCAM to found the Philly Youth Media Collaborative and Technology Learning Collaborative while managing over 20 KEYSPOT computer locations throughout West and North Philadelphia.

“I believe that the quality of our lives depends on the quality of our relationships — with each other, to environment and with ourselves,” Taylor wrote in an email. “A community media center is a great way to build and cultivate the power base of an informed, engaged, community-driven society. I couldn’t be happier to be here.”

PhillyCAM’s membership and outreach director, Antoine Haywood, left the org in August for academia.

2. United Way of Chester County’s president and CEO is retiring.

(Courtesy photo)

Claudia Hellebush announced her end-of-year departure from the funding org last week. She has been its head for 15 years but worked as the organization’s VP of operations for a previous eight years. The West Chester University grad was also the ED of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Chester County (now a part of Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence Region) from 1981 to 1995.

Hellebush was inducted into the Chester County Economic Development Council’s Business Hall of Fame this past April. This chapter of the United Way is now undergoing a national search for a new director.

3. Philly’s new Board of Education appointed two students to serve.

Nine Philadelphians were appointed to the inaugural post-School Reform Commission school board this last spring, but two new members were added in mid-September: Alfredo Praticò, a senior at Masterman School and a Philadelphia Youth Commission member, and Julia Franks, a senior at Northeast High School.

The high schoolers are non-voting members but will advise the board on issues important to local students.

“We are certain that Julia and Alfredo will work hard to ensure that the voices of their fellow students are heard,” said Ricardo Calderón, the director for the city’s Office of Youth Engagement. “The younger generation has always been instrumental in building and changing our society, and we look forward to continuing to support the work of our young people to make meaningful change in our city.”

For the first time in nearly two decades, students have representation on the board governing @PHLSchools. Congratulations to Alfredo Praticò and Julia Franks for taking on this important task and serving your fellow students as representatives on the new @PHLSchoolBoard! #PHLed pic.twitter.com/ovF32HAl7e

— Mayor Jim Kenney (@PhillyMayor) September 20, 2018

4. Wendy-Anne Roberts-Johnson will become Need in Deed’s ED on Oct. 8.

(Courtesy photo)

The service learning nonprofit hired the nonprofit pro from her role as executive director of workforce development org The Workforce Institute, a Public Health Management Corporation affiliate.

The Temple grad previously led PHMC community-based programming funded by the City of Philadelphia Department of Human Services, including the Out of School Time Project, the Parenting Collaborative and the Emergency Fund.

Outgoing ED Kimberly Kirn, who held the position for six years after spending the previous seven as program director of Need in Deed’s teacher network, announced in June that she planned to step down by the end of the calendar year.

Kirn declined to share her next steps with Generocity. At the time of her departure announcement, she wrote in a letter to newsletter subscribers: “With a healthy program model in place and a solid foundation to carry Need in Deed into the future, the time has come for me to step aside and make way for new leadership.”

5. Pathways to Housing PA has five new board members and a new director of institutional advancement.

Former Council for Relationships fundraiser and beloved Generocity columnist Valerie Johnson joined the homelessness nonprofit earlier this fall. The Drexel University grad also previously worked in development for Valley Youth House and the American Association for Cancer Research.

Five professionals also joined the organization’s board, effective Sept. 1:

• Anthony Piantieri — VP of finance, Access Matters
• Joanne Perfidio — Division director of targeted case management at PeerNet Homeless Specialty and Outreach Services, Mental Health Partnerships
• Elisa Foster — Associate director, Penn’s Women’s Center at the University of Pennsylvania
• Marion Campbell — Executive director, Eddie’s House
• Dwayne Spikes — Learning and development specialist, Mental Health Partnerships

6. Longtime local gov staffer Michael DiBerardinis is heading to Fels.

Michael DiBerardinis. (Courtesy photo)

The City of Philadelphia managing director is stepping down from the role he’s held since Jan. 2016 to become a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government at the top of the new year.

The Department of Parks and Recreation’s former deputy mayor for environmental and community resources currently oversees the implementation of policy priorities across most departments of government, including the cabinets of Community and Culture, Community Services, Health and Human Services, Public Safety, and Transportation and Infrastructure.

Replacing the civic leader is Brian Abernathy, who currently works as the city’s deputy managing director and has overseen Philadelphia’s Rebuild initiative, among other major projects.

7. Patricia Blakely left the Merchants Fund last month.

The 164-year-old nonprofit that gives capital grants to small businesses lost its executive director of 11 years on Sept. 19, according to Philly.com.

The Bryn Mawr College and Penn grad previously worked as a dean’s assistant at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and program director at White-Williams Scholars, which is now part of college prep nonprofit Philadelphia Futures. Blakely said she wasn’t sure of her next steps as of mid-September.