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Meyer Foundation staff and board updates
February 24, 2021
We’re excited to share news about recent staff promotions at the Meyer Foundation. These team members have exhibited leadership and agility in a very challenging time. Please join us in congratulating them on their new roles.
Ciara Myers has been promoted to the position of Director for Strategic Communications, effective November 1, 2020. In her more than four years at the Meyer Foundation, Ciara has helped communicate our mission, vision, and priorities through transitions and complexities with grace, clarity, and power. Of Ciara’s many accomplishments, Ciara led our organization through a rebrand that beautifully captures our intentions for the Meyer Foundation and our region. She has also assumed a key role in Resourcing Radical Justice, a funder’s collective that centers Black liberation as the pathway to a thriving Greater Washington. In her new role, Ciara will create and manage communications strategies that advance our grantmaking, systems change, and movement support work.
Alexis Martinez has been promoted to Partnerships Associate, effective November 1, 2020. Alexis brings attention to detail and follow-through to everything she does. Among many notable ways Alexis has helped Meyer become a better partner and grantmaker, Alexis managed Meyer’s digital organizing program in 2020, which included coordinating more than thirty $7,500 mini-grants and troubleshooting with consultants and grantee partners in the ever-evolving world of COVID-19. In her new role, Alexis will lead capacity-building projects and take an increased role in the management of our grantmaking process.
Jenny Burke has been promoted to Operations Director, effective November 1, 2020. In her tenure, Jenny has used her project management skills to seamlessly and successfully lead many of our technology projects. She led the Foundation’s transition to Timesheets.com, Box, and Bill.com, and is currently working on migrating the Foundation to a new phone system, coordinating a digitization project, and managing the move of the Meyer Foundation’s offices to a new location. Jenny has drastically improved our human resources functions and has been active in ensuring our values are reflected in our HR, contracting, and procurement processes. In her new role, Jenny will continue to expand this work.
We’re proud to announce the appointment of Faith P. Leach and Diego Uriburu to our board of directors. Both Diego and Faith bring years of expertise grounded in a love of community and justice.
Faith P. Leach has spent the past decade working to address key drivers of economic inequality experienced by vulnerable populations in cities across the country through work in both the public and private sector. She currently serves as the Chief of Staff at the JPMorgan Chase & Co. Foundation, a global leader dedicated to driving inclusive economic growth in communities worldwide. The JPMorgan Chase & Co. Foundation made a commitment to invest $2B over the next five years to strengthen workforce systems, revitalize neighborhoods, grow small businesses, and improve the financial health of individuals, in addition to a $30B firm-wide commitment to advance racial equity for Black and Latinx individuals and families. Prior to joining JPMorgan Chase & Co Foundation, Faith worked in local governments for more than 10 years, including serving as Chief of Staff in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Greater Economic Opportunity in the District of Columbia.
Faith’s personal passion for eradicating economic inequality stems from her experience growing up with two incarcerated parents. Faith leverages her experience and personal passion to advocate for formerly incarcerated women and children with incarcerated parents. She serves on the board of the Ladies of Hope, is a member of the United Justice Coalition, and serves as an Ambassador with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. In 2019, she was honored with a 40 for 40 award by the NC State Black Alumni Society.
Diego Uriburu is originally from Argentina and has promoted the rights of Latinx, immigrant, and LGBT communities in the Washington, DC area since immigrating to the U.S. In 1998, he co-founded Identity, Inc., a community-based organization in Montgomery County, Maryland, and serves as its Executive Director. Through his leadership, advocacy efforts, and coalitions established with the local government, school system, and businesses, Diego has worked determinedly to improve access to educational and employment opportunities for underserved immigrant youth. His dedication to excellence has helped establish Identity as an influential and trusted community resource, whose priorities are guided by research-based programs and advocacy that respond to the specific needs of the community Identity serves. Previously, Diego worked as a psychotherapist at various community-based organizations in the Washington, DC area that work with the Latinx population.
Diego participates in and leads several Montgomery County task forces and working groups: he is a founding co-leader, along with the NAACP Parents’ Council, of the Black and Brown Coalition for Educational Equity and Excellence; a co-chair of the Montgomery County Latino Advocacy Coalition; and a member of the Latino Health Steering Committee, the Latino Public Safety Workgroup, and Montgomery Moving Forward.
