Board and Staff

In mid 2010 the leadership of Funders Together incorporated as a 501c3. Its board includes representatives of the nation’s leading funders for effective grantmaking in ending homelessness. Board members serve as ambassadors, spokespersons, and thought leaders for philanthropy’s efforts in this area.

Current members and the organizations they represent:

  • Bob Hohler (Chair), Executive Director, Melville Charitable Trust
  • Nancy Barrand, Senior Program Officer, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
  • Sonya Campion, Co-Founder, Campion Foundation
  • Deborah Fung, (Treasurer), Executive Director, The Paul and Phyllis Fireman Foundation
  • Terri Donlin Huesman, Director of Programs, Osteopathic Heritage Foundations
  • Tom Nurmi, (Clerk), Trustee, The William S. Abell Foundation
  • Bill Pitkin, Director, Domestic Programs, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
  • Leslie Strnisha, Director of Program and Evaluation & Program Officer, Housing, Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland
  • Debbie Reznick, Senior Program Officer, Polk Bros. Foundation
  • Martha Toll, Executive Director, Butler Family Fund
  • Joseph Weisbord, Director of Homelessness Initiatives, Fannie Mae
  • David Wertheimer, (Vice-Chair), Deputy Director, Pacific Northwest Initiative, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Staff:

See complete bios, below.

Bob Hohler Executive Director, Melville Charitable Trust (chairman) (Boston, MA)

Bob Hohler is the Executive Director of the Melville Charitable Trust, a foundation dedicated to finding and supporting solutions to end homelessness. For almost two decades, he has helped develop pioneering funding initiatives and mission-related investments in supportive and affordable housing and community development.

In 2009, the Council on Foundations presented him with the Distinguished Grantmaker Award, their highest honor. The award recognizes his leadership in garnering national attention to homelessness and innovative approaches to end it.

He chairs the Executive Committee of Funders Together, philanthropy’s response to homelessness and one of the fastest growing affinity groups in the country. He also chairs the Board of the Partnership for Strong Communities, the CT-based education and advocacy program of the Trust and serves on the board of the Connecticut News Project.

For many years he served as board chair and president of the Civil Rights Project, Inc. (CRPI): the nonprofit affiliate of Blackside, Inc., producers of the much honored television series “Eyes On the Prize” and many other distinguished documentaries. He now serves on the National Film and Media Archive advisory board and on the Libraries National Council at Washington University in St. Louis.

email Bob Hohler

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Nancy Barrand Senior Program Officer, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Princeton, NJ)

Since joining the Foundation in September 1986, Nancy Barrand, M.P.A., has been involved in the development and management of programs focusing on public and private coverage, health policy research, long term care, housing, and rural issues. Prior to coming to RWJF, she worked as legislative staff in the U.S. Senate and in the California State Assembly. Barrand received an M.P.A. from Harvard University and completed her undergraduate work at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

email Nancy Barrand

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Sonya Campion Co-Founder, Campion Foundation (Seattle)

Sonya Campion brings a successful career in fundraising to the field of philanthropy, with 25 years development experience working with over 125 organizations and successfully completing over 25 major capital campaigns through her work as principal of The Collins Group, a regional fundraising consulting firm. She is a strong believer in the power of philanthropy and is an international fundraising speaker and trainer having recently taught at the International Fundraising Congress in the Netherlands as well as co-chairing with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation the launch of the Northwest affiliate of Funders Together, a national network of foundations supporting strategic and effective grantmaking to end homelessness.

In 2009, Sonya was awarded the Northwest Development Officers Association Professional Achievement Award for her fundraising professional leadership. Along with her husband, she is co-founder and trustee of the Campion Foundation, which focuses on permanently preserving wilderness, ending homelessness through advocacy and systemic change and strengthening the capacity of the non-profit sector. Ms. Campion serves on the Board of Trustees for Planned Parenthood of The Great Northwest, Seattle-King-Snohomish County YWCA, Whitman College Board of Overseers, and the WA State Association of Fundraising Professionals. In addition, she is serving as co-chair for the Methow Land Conservancy’s Capital Campaign. She holds a BA in Psychology with a minor in Political Science from Whitman College, and can often be found in wild places, from the Methow Valley to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

email Sonya Campion

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Deborah Fung Acting Executive Director, The Paul and Phyllis Fireman Foundation (Boston)

Deborah Fung is the Executive Director for The Paul and Phyllis Fireman Foundation, a family foundation based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Fireman Foundation dedicates a major share of its funding resources to ending family homelessness in the Commonwealth and beyond. The Foundation also supports a range of other causes.

email Deborah Fung

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Terri Donlin Huesman Director of Programs, Osteopathic Heritage Foundations (Columbus, OH)

Since 1997, Terri Donlin Huesman has served as Director of Programs for the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations. In this role, Ms. Donlin Huesman leads the Foundations community health and quality of life strategic grantmaking initiatives in central and southeastern Ohio. Strategic grantmaking initiatives include Oral Health, Obesity and Homelessness. In addition, Ms. Donlin Huesman has co-led a number of funding partnerships including the Community Health Funders’ Collaborative, Oral Health Capacity Building Initiative, and the Athens County Funding Collaborative.

Terri is involved with a number organizations including: Appalachian Ohio Giving, Community Shelter Board’s Rebuilding Lives Funders Collaborative, Funders Together – Homelessness Ends Here, and AccessHealth Columbus - Employed Latino Health Initiative.

Prior to her work with the Foundations, Terri led youth and older adult programming for the City of Cincinnati, Kettering and Grandview Heights. Terri holds a master’s in business administration from Franklin University and a bachelor’s from Bowling Green State University. She is a graduate of Leadership Columbus and Leadership Ohio.

email Terri Donlin Huesman

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Tom Nurmi Trustee, The William S. Abell Foundation (Washington, DC)

Tom is an ex officio member of the Board of Trustees of the William S. Abell Foundation and Chairman of its Homelessness Committee. The Committee has been charged by the Board with the responsibility of strategically investing from $5 to $10M over a five year period (ending in 2010) to help end homelessness in the nation’s capital. He is also on the Board and serves as President of the Nurmi Family Foundation. He is a semi-retired lawyer who was a partner at the Washington DC law firm of Arnold & Porter, Associate General Counsel of United Technologies Corporation and has had his own private law practice in Washington, DC since 1988.

email Tom Nurmi

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Bill Pitkin Senior Program Officer, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation (Los Angeles, CA)

Bill Pitkin oversees domestic strategic initiatives in areas including homelessness, substance abuse, and children. He led the development of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s strategic plan for addressing chronic homeless in Los Angeles. Prior to joining the Foundation, Pitkin was director of research and planning at United Way of Greater Los Angeles, where he oversaw the publication of research reports and led a strategic planning process resulting in that organization’s 10-year action plan to fight poverty in Los Angeles. Other past positions Pitkin has held include executive director at the Los Angeles United Methodist Urban Foundation and research director at the Advanced Policy Institute in the University of California, Los Angeles School of Public Affairs. Pitkin has published research articles and reports on topics including community and nonprofit technology, middle school education, homelessness, housing affordability, mortgage lending discrimination, participatory planning in Latin America, and urban planning history. He has taught in the UCLA Urban Planning Department and the Urban Studies and Planning Program at California State University, Northridge. He received his doctorate and master’s degree in urban planning from UCLA.

email Bill Pitkin

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Leslie Strnisha Director of Program and Evaluation & Program Officer, Housing, Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland

Leslie Strnisha leads the Foundation's program team to develop targeted, outcomes-based approaches for its grantmaking and non-grantmaking activities. She is an adjunct instructor at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2006, Ms. Strnisha served in various capacities for the Cleveland office of the Enterprise Foundation until 2003. She provided training and technical assistance to community-based organizations in the areas of community planning and program development.

email Leslie Strnisha

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Debbie Reznick Senior Program Officer, Polk Bros. Foundation

Debbie Reznick is a Senior Program Officer for the Polk Bros. Foundation in Chicago. Debbie was on the board of the Chicago Continuum of Care, which initiated and created the city’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness. She currently serves on the board of the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness and on the Chicago Planning Council on Homelessness, which is a 23-member body that establishes policies, principles and priorities related to HUD’s SuperNOFA process each year. Debbie also co-convenes a regional group of foundations that meets regularly to discuss homelessness strategies and solutions for the city.

email Debbie Reznick

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Martha Toll Executive Director, Butler Family Fund (Washington, DC)

Martha Toll is the Executive Director of the Butler Family Fund. Before joining the Butler Family Fund, Ms. Toll was a consultant to foundations and nonprofits on program/policy development and project management and practiced law for 8 years. Ms. Toll is the author of Operating Basics for Small Foundations, published by the Council on Foundations. Ms. Toll currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Neighborhood Funders Group, and has recently completed her term as Co-Chair of the Juvenile Justice Working Group of the Youth Transition Funders. Ms. Toll is also active in the Funders for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. She is a graduate of Yale College and Boston University School of Law.

email Martha Toll

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Joseph Weisbord Director of Homelessness Initiatives, Fannie Mae (New York, NY)

Joseph Weisbord is Director of Homelessness Initiatives at Fannie Mae, where he directs an initiative to create supportive housing and end chronic homelessness. Joe has over 20 years of professional experience in community development, residential real estate development and public policy. Joe worked with community based development organizations for 7 years as a member of the PICCED staff. He also has extensive experience in nonprofit management having spent 5 years as vice president for management and planning at Corporation for Supportive Housing. Prior to Fannie Mae, he was staff director for Housing First!, a coalition of community, business, labor, civic and religious organizations committed to educating the public and promoting solutions to New York City's affordable housing crisis. Housing First! played a key role in facilitating and shaping Mayor Michael Bloomberg's "New Marketplace" housing initiative.

email Joseph Weisbord

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David Wertheimer Deputy Director, Pacific Northwest Initiative, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Seattle, WA)

David M. Wertheimer, has worked in a variety of capacities in the non-profit, government and philanthropic sectors for almost three decades. He currently serves as the Deputy Director for the Pacific Northwest Initiative at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle. He carries lead responsibilities for oversight of the foundation’s programs addressing housing and family homelessness.

Prior to assuming these responsibilities, Mr. Wertheimer served as Principal at Kelly Point Partners (KP2), an independent consulting firm he established in 2000 to promote integration of human service systems targeting persons struggling with homelessness, mental illness, addictions, criminal justice system involvement and HIV/AIDS. Between 1990 and 2000, Mr. Wertheimer served in King County (Washington) government developing, mobilizing and managing programs and services for persons with chronic and severe mental illnesses and co-occurring substance use disorders.

A native of New York City, Mr. Wertheimer worked in the non-profit sector as Executive Director of the NYC Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project and served as a New York City Human Rights Commissioner.

Mr. Wertheimer is a graduate of Haverford College, Yale University Divinity School and the University of Connecticut School of Social Work.

email David Wertheimer

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Staff

Alexis Breiteneicher Program Manager

Alexis Breiteneicher is the program manager for Funders Together.

Alexis previously has worked as a consultant for AIDS Housing Washington, where she provided research support. She was also the coordinator for the United Disability Housing Partnership, a cross disability coalition of housing and service providers. Alexis has worked for the AIDS Housing Corporation, the technical assistance provider for HIV/AIDS programs in New England where she co-authored the first needs assessment of HIV housing in Massachusetts and with the Housing Authority of Thurston County as a case manager.

Alexis has a Masters in Public Administration from The Evergreen State College.

email Alexis

email: funderstogether@gmail.com phone: 617.236.2244 address: 240 Newbury St.2nd FloorBoston, MA 02116