GIA Board
New members include Karren "Sparky" Turner of the Daniels Fund
Wednesday, March 09, 2011DAYTON, Ohio—Mary Ellen Kullman, vice-president of the Archstone Foundation (Long Beach, Calif.), has been elected chair of Grantmakers In Aging, a national membership organization of foundations funding in aging. In addition, Mary O’Donnell, program officer of The Retirement Research Foundation (Chicago, Ill.), and Karren “Sparky” Turner, program officer of the Daniels Fund (Denver, Colo.), joined the Board. Both were elected for three-year terms.
Kullman has served on the Board for five years, and has been an active member of GIA for 15 years.
“Mary Ellen brings a wealth of experience in the national arena of aging,” Carol A. Farquhar, executive director, said. “Her educational background and leadership style will contribute significantly to GIA’s reputation as an organization that seeks out collaborators and partners to fulfill our mission.”
In her role at Archstone, an independent grantmaking foundation focused on aging and elder care, Kullman oversees foundation operations and its grant programs. In addition, she also serves as Archstone’s corporate secretary and chief financial officer.
Prior to joining Archstone in 1995, she was the manager of Preventive Health for the Southern California Edison Company. She also worked as the vice president for Medical and Educational Programs for the Southern California Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation. She holds a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in public health, both from the UCLA School of Public Health.
O’Donnell is a newly elected member of the Board and previously has served as a member of GIA’s annual conference program committee. In her capacity at The Retirement Research Foundation, a private foundation that funds efforts to improve the quality of life for older adults, she is involved in all program areas with a focus on the foundation’s Organizational Capacity Building program.
She previously worked with nonprofits in Chicago and Boston, including the Donors Forum, the Council for Jewish Elderly (now CJE Senior Life), and Experience Corps. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration, and a bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology from Indiana University.
Turner, the primary program officer for the Daniels Fund’s Aging programs, oversees all Aging grantmaking in the Metro Denver, Colorado area and manages all grantmaking in Wyoming. She has been with the Fund, a private foundation established by cable television pioneer Bill Daniels, for eight years.
She has also worked as a state field representative and assistant state director for U.S. Congressman and later U.S. Senator Hank Brown of Colorado for 14 years. In addition, she owned and operated an accounting and bookkeeping business and was the owner and publisher of The Fowler Tribune, a weekly newspaper. She attended the University of Southern Colorado majoring in accounting.
Other officers and board members include:
• Carol A. Kratz (vice chair), program director of the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust (Phoenix, Ariz.);
• Julio A. Urbina (secretary), director, Healthy Aging Program, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation (New York, N.Y.);
• R. Robertson Hilton (treasurer), president and CEO, The McGregor Foundation (East Cleveland, Ohio);
• Pauline Daniels, community benefit manager, Kaiser Permanente Foundation (Pasadena, Calif.);
• Therese Ellery, senior program officer, Rose Community Foundation (Denver, Colo.);
• Gregory G. Hall, program manager, The California Endowment (San Diego, Calif.);
• Christopher Langston, program director, The John A. Hartford Foundation (New York, N.Y.);
• John M. Parrish, executive director, The Erickson Living Foundation (Catonsville, Md.); and
• Peter N. Wood, vice president of programs, Health Foundation of South Florida (Miami).
GIA is the only professional organization of grantmakers active in the field of aging, and is dedicated to promoting and strengthening grantmaking for an aging society. Its membership includes professional staff and trustees of private, family, community, public, operating and corporate foundations that are involved directly or indirectly with philanthropy and aging.
