2016 National Conference

Hilary Pennington is vice president of the Ford Foundation’s Education, Creativity and Free Expression program. She leads the foundation’s work on school reform in the United States and higher education around the world, next-generation media policy and journalism, and support for arts and culture. She also oversees the foundation’s regional programming in four offices based in Africa and the Middle East. Prior to joining Ford, Hilary held leadership positions at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Center for American Progress and Jobs for the Future. She also served on President Bill Clinton’s transition team and as co-chair of his administration’s presidential advisory committee on technology.

Fatima Angeles is vice president of programs at The California Wellness Foundation (Cal Wellness). She is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Grants Program Department, which includes oversight of the Foundation’s grantmaking. She was appointed to her current position in July 2014, after serving as interim vice president since August 2013. Angeles joined Cal Wellness as a program director in February 1998 where she managed a grantmaking initiative and grant portfolios focused on community health, environmental health and work and health. She became the director of evaluation and organizational learning for the Foundation in 2006. Before joining Cal Wellness, she was a program associate at the Hasbro Children’s Foundation in New York City and an advisory committee member for Cal Wellness’ Children and Youth Community Health Initiative. Angeles’ other philanthropic experience includes work with The Commonwealth Fund and the corporate philanthropy program of Pfizer Inc. She also served as a senior research assistant for a one-year evaluation of the National/Regional Minority Organization initiative of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Angeles has experience working with adolescents in San Francisco, where she served as director of the South of Market Teen Center and project coordinator for Asian American Communities Against AIDS.

Angeles served as vice chair of the board of Grantmakers In Health and as secretary of the board of Northern California Grantmakers. Previously, she was on the funding board of the Northern California Environmental Grassroots Fund, which works to support and build the capacity of small, grassroots environmental groups. She also served as chair of the board of the Asian and Pacific Islander Health Forum and as a board member of the Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center and of Funders Concerned About AIDS. She earned her master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and her bachelor’s degree in biology, with a minor in Asian American Studies, from the University of California, Berkeley.

Josh Kirschenbaum, Vice President for Strategic Direction, one of the original PolicyLink staff members, has led community-building and technology projects, and now brings a wealth of organizational knowledge to build diverse alliances and implement strategic initiatives. Prior to joining PolicyLink, Josh was the director of special projects at the University of California, Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development, where he managed a defense conversion research program and fostered partnerships between the university and the City of Oakland to strengthen and revitalize low-income neighborhoods. He holds a BA from Brown University and an MS in city and regional planning from the University of California, Berkeley.