Foundation Center

Barbara Kibbe is Monitor Institute's vice president of client services, based in San Francisco, and a partner at Monitor. She has over twenty-five years of experience in social change and philanthropy as an executive, consultant, grantmaker, and foundation program director, and Barbara was twice selected by the Nonprofit Times for its annual list of the fifty most powerful and influential people in the nonprofit sector. Prior to joining Monitor, Barbara served as vice president for program and effectiveness at the Skoll Foundation and, prior to that, as the director of the Organizational Effectiveness and Philanthropy Program at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, where she directed a total of $100 million in grants aimed at enhancing the capacity of foundation grantees and promoting greater effectiveness in the field of philanthropy. She also founded Harder+Kibbe Research and Consulting, a leading advisory services firm that worked with community, family, and corporate foundations, as well as a wide range of health, human service, and cultural organizations. Barbara is the coauthor of two books Succeeding with Consultants and Grantmaking Basics and her essay "Reflections on the Journey" is included in the 2004 collection Funding Effectiveness: Lessons in Building Nonprofit Capacity. She is a founder of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO), a group of more than 700 funders dedicated to building knowledge, promoting learning, and encouraging dialogue on nonprofit and grantmaker effectiveness. Barbara recently concluded terms on the boards of GEO, the Center for Effective Philanthropy, and Fieldstone Alliance.

Brian McCorkle was born and raised in Michigan and spent his childhood touring the country and the world with the Battle Creek Boychoir. At the University of Michigan he began making bizarre and noisy electronic rock music and playing in a metal band Cojum Dip. He also went to India to study sitar with Anand Mishra and Santa Cruz to study algorithmic music with David Cope. At Michigan he studied poetry with Thylias Moss, and jazz piano with Geri Allen. He has most recently played with the Wicked Hemlocks while recording various other projects, including What Color Is Your Machine Gun?. Currently he works at the Foundation Center in New York City while playing in gypsy jazz band Djangos and Tangos, art rock band MAN BIRD LION, doing occasional gigs around New York City with Joseph Keckler and composing music for theater and art installations.

Gene Takagi is a San Francisco-based attorney with a reputation for excellent work and client service. Prior to opening his independent office, Gene practiced in the corporate group of the AmLaw 100 firm Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, during which time he was awarded Outstanding Barrister of the Year by the Bar Association of San Francisco. With over 15 years of management experience, Gene understands businesses and nonprofits from a management perspective. In the for-profit sector, he served as operations manager for a privately-held business with an annual budget exceeding $50 million. In the nonprofit sector, Gene served as director of the medical and animal behavior divisions of the San Francisco SPCA and was responsible for their move into the organization's state-of-the-art facilities. In addition, Gene has served on a number of nonprofit governing and advisory boards, including the boards of Net Impact, the Barristers Club, the Legal Services for Entrepreneurs Program (Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights), and the Japanese Community Youth Council. Gene is the author of the Nonprofit Law Blog and speaks regularly on legal issues to the Bar Association and several other organizations, including the California Association of Nonprofits, CompassPoint, the Foundation Center, the CBO Center, Law.com, the New Progressive Coalition, and Lorman Education Services. His pro bono work and advocacy has led to recognition by the Bar Association of San Francisco, the Volunteer Legal Services Program, the Mayor of Newark, and Equal Justice Magazine. Gene holds a law degree from UCLA and a graduate degree in nonprofit administration from USF.

Before founding Miller\Rollins in 1993, Michael Page Miller was Vice President with the Oram Group, a national fundraising firm based in New York City, Director of Development for ACLU of Northern California, Director of Planning and Development NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Director of International Fundraising for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Michael is a lead faculty member with The Fundraising School at the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, a regular presenter for The Foundation Center, and an award winning direct mail writer. He serves on the Women's Philanthropy Institute Board of Advisors. Michael began his career as a newspaper photographer and reporter and worked with community based organizations involved in neighborhood revitalization and economic empowerment.

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Dorothy S. Ridings is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Council on Foundations. The Council is a national association of some 2,000 foundations and corporations that will make charitable grants of about $18 billion this year. From 1988 until joining the Council in March 1996, Ridings served as publisher and president of Knight-Ridder's Bradenton Herald in Bradenton, Florida. She also served as a Knight-Ridder general executive while based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and held editorial and reporting positions at The Kentucky Business Ledger, The Washington Post and The Charlotte Observer. Ridings served the League of Women Voters of the United States as president from 1982 to 1986 and as a member of its board of directors from 1976 to 1986. She has been a trustee of the Ford Foundation and a director of the Benton Foundation and Independent Sector. She currently serves as board chair of the National Civic League and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, is a member of the boards of the Foundation Center and the Commission on Presidential Debates and is a member of the councils that accredit journalism schools and law schools. Internationally, she has made speaking tours for the U.S. Department of State and led two fact-finding delegations sponsored by NATO. Ridings taught journalism at the University of Louisville and the University of North Carolina. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a Master's degree from the University of North Carolina. She was awarded honorary degrees from Spalding University, the University of Louisville and the University of Charleston.