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2014 American Express NGen Fellows

Independent Sector is delighted to announce the selection of the 2014 cohort of American Express NGen Fellows. These accomplished and innovative leaders collaborate with other talented leaders age 40 and under, interact with established mentors, and contribute to Independent Sector's work on nonprofit impact and leadership.

Through their collaborative project, the 2014 Fellows explored how the social sector might mitigate barriers and encourage stronger, more sustainable innovation. Learn more.

The 2014 American Express NGen Fellows are:

• Kristen Cambell, Executive Director, Philanthropy for Active Citizen Engagement (PACE)
  
• Monica Iglecia, Assistant Director, Shorebird Habitats Project, Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences
• Clayton Lord, Vice President of Local Arts Advancement, Americans for the Arts
• Polina Makievsky, Senior Vice President, Knowledge, Leadership and Innovation, Alliance for Strong Families and Communities
• Julio Marcial, Program Director, The California Wellness Foundation
  
• Dwayne Marshall, Director of Programs & Partnerships, Southeastern Council of Foundations
• Sean Daniel Murphy, Interim CEO, Inner City Advisors
  
• Sunil Oommen, Managing Director of Major Gifts, Amnesty International USA
• Jason Reed, Director of Strategy and New Ventures, Second Harvest Heartland
  
• Amy Sample Ward, CEO, NTEN
• Laura Toscano, Director, The Campus Kitchens Project
• Emily Yu, VP, Marketing & Partnerships, The Case Foundation
  

Kristen Cambell is a nonprofit consultant, using her decade of sector experience to support organizations with program design, strategic planning, and partnership expansions. She specializes in civic engagement, and serves as Chief Program Officer to the National Conference on Citizenship. Kristen also consults the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute on its nonpartisan civic education portfolio. Previously, Kristen was a member of the social investment team at the Case Foundation. She originally launched her career in the nonprofit sector with a year of national service as an AmeriCorps*VISTA at the Points of Light Foundation. Kristen serves on the Alumni Council of The Fund for American Studies, and is the former chair of the Independent Sector NGen Advisory Committee. Kristen is a graduate of East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma. She currently resides in the Washington, DC area.
Monica Iglecia, a lifelong bird enthusiast, received an M.S. in Zoology from North Carolina State University and a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Monica has extensive experience collaborating with a variety of stakeholders on bird conservation research and projects. Monica serves as the assistant director of Shorebird Habitat Projects within the Shorebird Recovery Program at the Manomet Center for Conservation Science. She most recently served as a conservation project director with Audubon California, where she led their Bird Friendly Farming Initiative. She has worked with farmers, industry, public agencies, and other conservation partners to enhance the value of agricultural lands and managed wetlands to achieve large-scale conservation impact for shorebirds and other waterbirds in California's Central Valley along the Pacific Flyway. She also led a diverse array of bird conservation and education projects, including California condor conservation, wetland management and restoration, and international tour-guide.
Clayton Lord is the vice president of local arts advancement for Americans for the Arts, where he oversees advocacy, capacity development and cohort building for local arts administrators and advocates in 5,000 communities across the United States. Prior to joining Americans for the Arts, Lord served for five years as the director of communications and audience development for Theatre Bay Area. Lord is a prolific writer and thinker about the public value of the arts, and has written for Theatre Bay Area magazine, Stage Directions, InDance, The Voice, ArtsJournal, ArtsMarketing.org and others in addition to maintaining his own nationally-recognized blog, New Beans. He holds a B.A. in English and Psychology from Georgetown University, and lives with his husband and daughter in Maryland.
Polina Makievsky is the senior vice president of knowledge, leadership, and innovation for the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities. In her current role at the Alliance, Polina manages the organization’s portfolio of leadership development, knowledge management, program replication and evaluation services designed to help member organizations strengthen their capacity in achieving their missions. Polina’s career in the nonprofit sector has spanned program development and leadership in international development in the former Soviet republics; direct service and leadership level work in grassroots community-based institutions; and policy and program replication work with national organizations including the National Human Services Assembly and the Points of Light Foundation.  She earned a master’s degree in public policy from Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies in Baltimore. Polina is a native New Yorker who now proudly considers herself a Midwesterner, residing in Milwaukee, Wis. with her husband, son, daughter and terrier.
Julio Marcial is a program director at The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF), overseeing the Foundation’s grantmaking related to violence prevention. His responsibilities include reviewing letters of interest and grant proposals, making funding recommendations, and speaking about TCWF’s 22-year history supporting violence prevention programs at regional, state, national and international conferences. Marcial is an appointed member of the Juvenile Justice Standing Committee of the California Board of State and Community Corrections, a member of the World Health Organization’s Violence Prevention Alliance Advisory Committee and a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth (UNITY) initiative. Active in the philanthropic community, Marcial has also served as a board member for the Communications Network, Hispanics in Philanthropy, and the All For One Youth Mentoring Program in Central California.
Dwayne Marshall serves as the Director of Programs and Partnerships for the Southeastern Council of Foundations. In this role, he designs educational programs for the over 300 member foundations within its eleven state regional network. In addition, Dwayne fosters alliances with philanthropic and private sector organizations to provide value-added services for SECF members. Prior to this role, Marshall was the founder of The Hope Institute where developed leadership development programs and services for high school youth in the metro Atlanta, Georgia community. Dwayne has served as an Organizer in Residence at the Southern Partners Fund and participated in the Atlanta Black-Jewish Coalition which brings together young servant leaders committed to fostering social justice. Dwayne has been featured in several publications including TIME Magazine and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Dwayne received his BBA degree from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. He resides in Atlanta, Georgia.
Sean Daniel Murphy, president & managing director of Fund Good Jobs, is leading the charge for positive disruption in small business funding. His vision is to “bet on people who build people,” creating an innovative model that will ultimately create a world in which everyone has a good job. Sean believes that people with good jobs are the catalyst for increased economic activity, safer neighborhoods, improved health, and better education. Prior to Fund Good Jobs, Sean was the COO at Inner City Advisors (ICA). Sean joined the ICA Staff in 2009 as Portfolio Manager and created a sustainable model for the organization to effectively scale its programs impact through best practices in mission-ROI due diligence processes, impact tracking, and capital readiness. Sean earned his bachelor’s degree in Sociology and minor in Education from UCLA, and has also completed the entrepreneurship curriculum at Stanford University.
Sunil Oommen is the managing director of major gifts at Amnesty International USA.  Most recently Sunil served as the Director of Development at A Better Chance, the U.S.’s largest educational access organization for secondary school students of color. Prior to joining A Better Chance, Sunil developed his fundraising skills at South Asian Youth Action, GLAAD and the New York Blood Center.  Sunil entered the fundraising field after a tenure in public relations and marketing. At Fleishman-Hillard, an internationally respected public relations firm, he helped execute communications strategies and media relations for top-tier clients, including KPMG, Heidrick & Struggles, Cendant Corporation, Schering Plough and the New Jersey State Government. A New York City resident, Sunil earned a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a BA from American University. Sunil serves as Chair of the Board of Directors for South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT).
Jason Reed is the director of strategy and partnerships for Hunger-Free Minnesota, a CEO-led statewide initiative, where he builds and scales data-driven solutions to add 60 million meals to Minnesota’s hunger-relief system. Since joining the organization in 2010, Mr. Reed has guided several major ventures, including a statewide Farm-to-Food Pantry program that has added more than 5 million new meals for hungry Minnesotans, and the creation of a micro-targeting data tool called Community Close-Up with partner Boston Consulting Group.  Mr. Reed was previously a consultant in the New York City offices of McCann Erickson and Ogilvy & Mather, where he advised Fortune 500 companies on marketing strategy, communications campaigns, and brand storytelling.  He serves on the board of directors of the Urban Ventures Leadership Foundation in Minneapolis.  Mr. Reed holds a master’s degree from Harvard University and an undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
Amy Sample Ward is CEO of NTEN. Whether by connecting individuals, organizations, campaigns, or possibilities, Amy hopes to facilitate the nonprofit technology sector transitioning into a movement-based force for positive change. She is also a blogger, facilitator and trainer having worked with groups and spoken at events in the US, UK and around the world. In 2013, she co-authored Social Change Anytime Everywhere: How to implement online multichannel strategies to spark advocacy, raise money, and engage your community with Allyson Kapin. She previously co-authored Social by Social, a handbook in using social technologies for social impact, and has contributed to various other publications about social change and technology. She is a conversation-starter and thought-leader, writing about strategic uses of new technologies for communities and organizations on her blog and the Stanford Social Innovation Review.
Laura Toscano serves as the Director of The Campus Kitchens Project, a national nonprofit that empowers students to prevent food waste and fight hunger. The Campus Kitchens Project is an independent nonprofit that was founded in 2001 as the national outreach and replication effort of DC Central Kitchen, so in her current role Laura is also a member of the DC Central Kitchen leadership. Her work is focused on building support for this promising solution to our national food insecurity crisis, and expanding The Campus Kitchens Project to more educational institutions across the country. Prior to this position, Laura has worked at Ashoka, KaBOOM!, and the DC chapter of the Hands On Network, where throughout her career she has focused on nonprofit collaboration, asset based community development, pro bono volunteer engagement and scaling strategy for nonprofit organizations. Laura holds a B.A. from Yale University. In fall 2013, she was selected as one of three area nonprofit leaders featured in the “Future of Philanthropy” issue of DC Magazine. She resides in Washington, DC and outside of work can be found volunteering for local farms and food hubs, teaching pottery and launching the DC Chapter of the Yale Alumni Nonprofit Alliance.
Emily Yu is one of the Case Foundation’s leading advocates for identifying innovative and scalable approaches that address many of today’s social challenges. Emily creates and facilitates opportunities for social change through foundation initiatives including the development and implementation of key programs, campaigns and partnerships. Her current focus at the foundation includes understanding how to better engage individuals who are looking to create change using new technology, social media and cross-sector collaborations. She also leads the foundation's next gen initiative, which explores how the rising generation of young adults will influence change across sectors over the coming decade. Emily holds a B.S. from Georgetown University.

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