2012 National Conference

VP and Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer

Laura Efurd is vice president and chief strategy and innovation officer at ZeroDivide. She is responsible for all of the foundation’s programmatic work including grants, initiatives and policy development and implementation. Efurd has over 15 years of legislative and public policy experience. In the Clinton Administration she served as deputy assistant to the President and deputy director of the White House Office of Public Liaison. She coordinated the Administration's legislative activities around employment and training issues as associate director of legislative affairs for the U.S. Department of Labor. Efurd was also legislative director to the late Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink of Hawaii. She is a recipient of the Women's Information Network Young Women of Achievement Awards and a 2002 Asian Pacific American Women's Leadership Institute Fellow. She serves on the Board of Trustees for the Patsy Takemoto Mink Foundation for Low-Income Women & Children.

Director, Global Citizenship and Public Affairs

Jane Meseck is responsible for development of strategy and implementation of Microsoft's global community investment programs. This includes the Nonprofit Technology initiative and Microsoft’s commitment to provide nonprofits worldwide with access to IT products, services and locally-relevant resources so they can use technology to create social change. During Meseck's fourteen years with Microsoft she has led the development and implementation of such signature partnerships and initiatives as NPowerNW, telecentre.org, the Nonprofit Technology Network and TechSoup’s U.S. and global expansion efforts.

Prior to joining Microsoft in 1997, Meseck was program manager at University of Washington’s Institute for Public Policy and Management. She also lectured at University of Washington's Daniel J. Evan’s School of Public Affairs. Meseck previously worked as a management consultant, designing technology solutions for Fortune 500 companies. She has a master’s in public administration from University of Washington and bachelor’s degrees in finance and marketing from Texas A&M University.

Executive Director

Sidney Hargro is the executive director of the Community Foundation of South Jersey, one of the newest community foundations in the United States and the first one to serve the southern eight counties of New Jersey. In less than two years, the foundation grew from $473,000 to over $6.5 million in assets. Hargro moved to the foundation in 2009 from The Columbus Foundation, one of the nation’s leading community foundations. He also previously served as a philanthropic adviser to the Siemer Family Foundation, Paul G. Duke Foundation and Central Benefits Healthcare Foundation.

Hargro serves on the governing boards and advisory committees of numerous organizations, including Creating the Future, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations and the Council on Foundations’ Community Foundation Leadership Team. He is co-chair of the Camden Funders Affinity Group and a member of the Public Policy Committee of the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers.