Moderator: Susan Taylor Batten, Association of Black Foundation Executives
Panelists:
Robert Thornton, The Skillman Foundation
Carmen A. Anderson, The Heinz Endowments
Raymond A. Colmenar, The California Endowment
Melanie Hartzog, NYC Young Men's Initiative
Maisha Simmons, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Bio
Carmen Anderson
Carmen Anderson is a senior ofcer with the Endowments’ Children, Youth & Families Program. Her focus is advancing the program’s primary emphases: targeting the critical needs of children in the first eight years of life, addressing the special needs of adolescent youth and strengthening families as a means to promoting healthy development among children. Carmen’s work includes identifying innovative programs to strengthen parents’ skills in child rearing and supporting their children’s health. She examines ways to provide financial education for parents and adolescents. Carmen also assists in the Endowments’ development of strategies to make inclusion and diversity a defining element of the region.
Prior to joining the Endowments in 2000, Carmen was the executive director of Healthy Start, Inc., a federal public health initiative to reduce infant mortality in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. Her leadership and commitment to the mission helped Healthy Start meet its primary goal of reducing the infant mortality rate--one of the historically highest in the country--by 50 percent in the six areas served by the program.
Carmen’s professional work has focused primarily on women and children’s issues, particularly family violence and child maltreatment. In addition to many years of administrative and management work in the community, she has lectured and conducted workshops on a variety of topics pertinent to women, children
and families. She has been active in promoting healthy families through community organizing and public awareness, including co-hosting a 15-part television series on the issue.
Carmen has a master’s degree in mental health, a bachelor’s degree in mass and inter-personal communications, and certificates in nonprofit management, business administration and victim services. She has received the U.S. Department of Human Services Commissioners Award for outstanding service in the field.
Susan Taylor Batten
Susan Taylor Batten joined ABFE as President and CEO in January 2009. Prior to joining ABFE Ms. Batten was Senior Associate with the Annie E. Casey
Foundation.
Ms. Batten has more than twenty years of experience in directing, evaluating and advising both public and foundation-related eforts to improve outcomes for children, youth and families. At Casey, Ms. Batten served as staf in the Community Change Initiatives Unit which provides communities and other partners with information, resources and supports to help transform neighborhoods into family supportive environments. She also coordinated a portfolio on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. In that role, she worked across the Foundation
to strengthen its focus on addressing racial disparities in its grantmaking. Her duties also included assisting Casey in its eforts to build and employ equitable and inclusive management and administrative practices (workforce diversity, grantee diversity, vendor practices, etc.).
Prior to Casey, Ms. Batten served as Vice President at The Center for Assessment and Policy Development where she directed projects for national foundations in the areas of leadership development and supports for young parents and their children. While working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, she oversaw national evaluations of federal child nutrition programs and helped to increase access to food programs for the homeless population. Prior to USDA, Ms. Batten worked for several years for the Government of the District of Columbia on comprehensive children’s initiatives and, in particular, efforts to coordinate early childhood programs and policies across the city.
Ms. Batten is also a member of the inaugural Class (2005-2006) of ABFE Connecting Leaders Fellows, a program designed to foster the career development of emerging leaders
in the field of philanthropy. She is a member of Hispanics in Philanthropy, serves as an Advisory Board Member to the Diversity in Philanthropy Project, and Co-Chair’s the Steering Committee for The Partnership for Prince George’s County, Maryland. Ms. Batten is a proud graduate of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Political Science from Fisk University, and her Masters of Social Work degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Raymond Colmenar
Colmenar joined The Endowment in November
2005 with more than 15 years of service in the public and nonprofit sectors in the areas of philanthropy, public policy research, advocacy and community building. As senior program manager for Health Happens in Neighborhoods under The Endowment’s 10-year strategic program Building Healthy Communities, Colmenar is responsible for shaping and implementing The Endowment’s programmatic strategy to improve the built environment in neighborhoods and neighborhood food environments so that they promote health rather than disease.
Prior to his current appointment, Colmenar was program manager for the Health and Human Services Team where he focused his grant making and activities on the successful implementation of the Afordable Care Act.
Colmenar was also a senior program ofcer responsible for overseeing the administrative and grant-making functions of the foundation’s Greater Bay Area Regional ofce. He was also charged with fostering relationships with the region’s key community leaders and organizations to advance The Endowment’s health-focused mission.
Prior to joining The Endowment, Colmenar was the associate director of PolicyLink, a national nonprofit research, communications, capacity building and advocacy organization. While there, he conducted policy research, analysis, coalition building, communications and advocacy on a range of issues, including community health. Colmenar has also served as a senior research associate with The Rockefeller Foundation, executive director for the South of Market Problem Solving Council, policy analyst for the San Francisco Department of Human Services, and as an analyst in Social Legislation for the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Colmenar’s commitment to civil rights is exemplified by his work on behalf of Filipinos for Afrmative Action, a Bay Area civil rights organization for which he serves as a member of the Board of Directors. He is also the vice chair of the Board of ZeroDivide, a community foundation dedicated to supporting the use of information technology to benefit low-income and other disadvantaged communities. He received his bachelor’s in Management Science from the University of California, San Diego; master’s in Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also a Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Fellow.
A resident of Albany, California, Colmenar lives with his wife Fatima Angeles, daughter Isabela and son Alessandro.
Melanie Hartzog
Melanie Hartzog was appointed Family Services Coordinator in the New York City Office of The Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services in August 2011. In this role she oversees several city agencies responsible for the delivery of social services and justice programs. Melanie is also the Project Director for the Young Men’s Initiative, a bold and innovative public/private partnership aimed at reducing disparities between the economic and social outcomes of young men of color and other demographic groups in New York City.
Prior to joining the Mayor’s Office, Melanie served as the Deputy Commissioner for early childhood services at New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services. In this capacity, she designed and implemented initiatives to maximize utilization of child care resources and to increase efficiency and access to quality subsidized child care, culminating in the release of the City’s EarlyLearn NYC procurement in 2011.
Previously, Melanie led a social services unit in the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, and she was Director of Policy and Advocacy for the Human Services Council of New York City, Inc. Melanie has a Master of Science degree from The New School’s Robert J. Milano School of Management and Urban Policy and a Bachelor of Arts from Eckerd College.
Maisha Simmons
Maisha Simmons, MPA, joined the Foundation in 2008 as a program associate working in the area of childhood obesity. In this role, she focuses on advocacy with communities most afected by childhood obesity. As she describes it, she "keeps communities in the picture" by helping them to promote relevant and grassroots solutions to the problem of childhood obesity and assisting community leaders in monitoring and enforcing effective policies in their communities. Her work, which enables her "to see change on a wide scale and be part of the Foundation’s enormous and exciting mission," includes project research, assisting grantees and applicants on strategies and action plans, helping design new initiatives, evaluating proposals, and monitoring programs and grants. Previously, Simmons was a grant writer and manager with United Way of Essex and West Hudson in Newark, N.J. In addition to managing existing grants, she developed new grant prospects and secured funding for community impact initiatives. She was a National Urban Fellow with the Community Development Law Center (CDLC) and the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center (INRC), Indianapolis, Ind. She also served in various positions at Cathedral Community Development Corporation, Perth Amboy, N.J., including director of Community Development, director of Human Services, and development coordinator. In addition, to what she calls her first experience in public health, she served as an inspector with the Union County Division of Public Works, Bureau of Mosquito Control, during an outbreak of West Nile virus.
Simmons holds an MPA from CUNY/Baruch College, School of Public Afairs, and master certificate in public administration from Kean University, and a B.A. from Douglass College, Rutgers University. Born in Orange, N.J., she resides in Asbury Park with her husband. She enjoys movies, reading fiction, and participating in the activities of her church.
Robert Thornton
Robert Thornton is a Program Officer at The Skillman Foundation and is responsible for oversight of the Foundation's Good Neighborhoods work in the Brightmoor and Cody Rouge communities. Thornton coordinates the Foundation's Fatherhood and faith-based work, and leads the Foundation's emerging work around Black and Brown Boys. Prior to joining the Foundation, Thornton spent 13 years at New Detroit, Inc., in various positions focusing on consensus building, race relations and diversity issues. He received his bachelor's from Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., and his master's in Educational Leadership from Wayne State University. Thornton is a life-long resident of Detroit, the father of two adult sons and serves as a Deacon at Hartford Memorial
