Board of Directors

Denise Shannon, Chair
Executive Director, Funders Network on Population, Reproductive Health and Rights

Denise leads the Funders Network on Population, Reproductive Health and Rights, a network of grantmakers who share a common goal to ensure people’s access to information and services to manage fertility and protect and promote their sexual and reproductive health. She has provided independent consulting and a range of communications services for clients, including the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. Denise has served as Director of Education and Communications and as Executive Vice President for Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC). Her articles have appeared in the New York Times and other major newspapers.

Tomer J. Inbar, Secretary
Partner, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

Tomer J. Inbar is a partner in the tax practice at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, LLP. Mr. Inbar's practice focuses primarily on representing tax-exempt organizations in a variety of matters, including exemption applications, audits, unrelated business income tax issues, general corporate transactions, corporate governance matters and charitable giving. In addition, Mr. Inbar has extensive experience in the areas of low-income housing and economic development, lobbying and political activity, intermediate sanctions, charter schools and program-related investments of private foundations.
Mr. Inbar regularly speaks at conferences for tax-exempt organizations. Recent topics have included lobbying by charitable organizations, presented at the "Representing and Managing Tax-Exempt Organizations" conference sponsored by the Georgetown University Law Center, legal aspects of program-related investments presented at the Counsel on Foundation's annual conference, and board governance considerations and liability concerns presented at the Greater Washington Society of CPA's 10th annual Not-for-Profit Symposium. Mr. Inbar is proficient in both Japanese and Hebrew.
Mr. Inbar is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and New York.

W. Roger Curry, Treasurer
President & CEO, Consolidated Freightways (retired)

As president of Consolidated Freightways, Roger was responsible for the operations of a $2.4 billion transportation company with over 25,000 personnel throughout North America. He also supervised the operations of Redwood Systems, CF/Alfri-Loder, Canadian Freightways, Ltd. and Milne and Craighead, a customs brokerage firm serving the United States and Canada. He was appointed president and CEO in 1994, and his retirement in 2000 came after thirty-one years in the transportation industry, including positions as a director of terminal properties, president of CF Airfreight, senior vice-president of marketing, and president and chief executive officer of Emery Worldwide, where he oversaw the dramatic financial turnaround of that company. In addition to his service on the Innovation Center’s Board of Directors, Roger serves on the board of the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Saratoga, CA, the Challenge Learning Center in Mountain View, CA and Morningside College in Sioux City, IA

Carolyn Edlebeck
Arlington Academy of Hope, Uganda

For more than 7 years, Carolyn has been a partner of the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development based in Waupaca, WI. In addition to her work on the Waupaca Healthy Community / Healthy Youth Team, Carolyn is a lead trainer in the Innovation Center’s national cadre of trainers. Her voice and story were featured in the Innovation Center Publication: Creating Change: How Organizations Connect with Youth, Build Communities and Strengthen Themselves and she is the co-author of the article, “Leading, Learning, and Unleashing Potential: Youth Leadership and Civic Engagement”, published in the journal New Directions for Youth Development. Carolyn is an avid community volunteer with experience in Mexico and Finland as well as in Waupaca.  A 2009 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Carolyn currently works at a school and clinic in rural Uganda.

Vance Yoshida
Senior Consultant, La Piana Consulting

Vance is a senior consultant with La Piana Associates, Inc., a management consulting firm dedicated to improving the capacity of the nonprofit sector, and specifically to helping nonprofit organizations become stronger, more effective, and sustainable for the long-term. Most recently, Vance was the Development Director at the Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, where he developed and implemented strategies for fund raising, development, communications, marketing and outreach for this startup global HIV/AIDS organization. Prior to this, he served as a senior Director of the Tides Center in San Francisco managing all aspects of this organization, providing financial, HR (including payroll and benefits administration), insurance, program guidance, contract compliance and management coaching services to over 350 non profit projects and organizations. Vance currently serves on the boards of the Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center, Asian Health Services, and the Every Child Can Learn Foundation.

Dr. Teresa R. Behrens
Editor in Chief, Journal of Philanthropy

Dr. Teresa Behrens is the editor in chief of the Journal of Philanthropy housed at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership.  Prior to this post, Dr. Behrens served as the Director of Evaluation at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation where she was responsible for providing leadership for the Foundation’s overall evaluation program.  There she developed evaluation tools that programming staff used with Foundation grantees.  She also built relationships with external contractors to expand the diffusion and dissemination aspects of the Foundation’s evaluation work.  Dr. Behrens resume includes years of work as a private consulting in program planning and evaluation with a broad range of nonprofit and government agencies, as well a stint as a program officer for the Michigan Strategic Fund of the Michigan Department of Commerce.  Dr. Behrens holds both a PhD and MS in Psychology from North Carolina State University; she received her BA in English and Psychology from Case Western Reserve University.

Wendy Wheeler, President
Chief Executive Officer, Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development

As a president and a founder of the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development, Wendy seeks out, nurtures, and brings to scale exceptional strategies to support young people, strengthen communities, and promote social justice. An expert in training and organizational, youth, community, and leadership development, Wendy consults for organizations, universities, and philanthropic institutions to increase youth engagement in communities and adult partnerships with youth.  Prior to founding the Innovation Center, she held leadership posts at the YMCA, YWCA, Girl Scouts of the USA, and was a Senior Vice President at National 4-H Council.  She serves on advisory boards for the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University, the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE), and the Encyclopedia of Youth Activism.  She has written numerous articles for both practitioners and academics.  Wendy also is the Howland Endowed Chair in Youth Leadership at the University of Minnesota.