Meyer Foundation Elects Two New Board Members

Washington, DC – The Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, a private foundation in Washington, DC, announces that it has elected new members Deborah Ratner Salzberg, president of Forest City Washington, Inc., and Jim Sandman, senior partner in Arnold & Porter’s toxic tort and product liability practice, to its Board of Directors.

Deborah Ratner Salzberg is president of Forest City Washington, Inc., and a member of the board of directors of Forest City Enterprises, Inc. Forest City is the chief private investor in The Yards development, planned for DC’s Anacostia waterfront. Based in Forest City’s Washington, DC office, Ratner Salzberg is responsible for both commercial and residential development in the area and also has worked in retail leasing, development, financing and construction. Her current responsibilities also include asset management of commercial and residential properties. In addition to her duties at Forest City, Ratner Salzberg is president of RMS Investment Corporation. From 1980 to 1985, she was a trial attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. She holds leadership positions with many community organizations including serving as officer and board member of The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, an advisory board member of the Washington Ballet and board member of Arts for the Aging. She holds a bachelor’s degree from The George Washington University and a juris doctor from the University of San Francisco.

Jim Sandman is a senior partner in Arnold and Porter’s toxic tort and product liability practice. His practice has involved cases in state and federal courts throughout the United States. Sandman served as managing partner of Arnold and Porter from 1995 to 2005. He is President of the District of Columbia Bar and has been a member of the Bar’s Board of Governors since 2003. He is also a member of the Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the Board of Trustees of the NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education. Sandman has served on the boards of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, Inc., Wilkes University and the Washington Performing Arts Society. He is a member of the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and is a summa cum laude graduate of Boston College.

“We are delighted to have Deborah and Jim on the Meyer board,” says Julie L. Rogers, president of the Meyer Foundation. “Both of them are highly intelligent, thoughtful business leaders who are deeply engaged in nonprofits in our community.”

Established in 1944 by Eugene Meyer, an owner and publisher of The Washington Post, and his wife Agnes E. Meyer, the Meyer Foundation is one of the Washington area’s oldest and most experienced private grantmaking foundations. The Meyer Foundation works to develop Greater Washington as a community by supporting capable, community-based nonprofit organizations that foster the well-being of all people in the region. The Foundation is especially concerned about low-income people and creating healthy neighborhoods, and seeks to promote the region’s diversity.