Winell Belfonte and Tori O’Neal-McElrath Join Meyer Foundation Board

Washington, DC—The board of directors of the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, a private foundation in Washington, DC, elected two new members at its June 1 board meeting: Winell Belfonte, CPA and partner at CohnReznick, and Tori O’Neal-McElrath, vice president of external affairs at Demos.

Winell Belfonte is a CPA and audit partner at CohnReznick, a national accounting and auditing firm, in the affordable housing and not-for-profit and education industry practices. Belfonte is the lead service provider and business advisor to her clients and has 29 years of wide-ranging experience across areas of auditing, accounting, and tax for not-for-profit and for-profit clients. She is a frequent speaker for not-for-profit and affordable housing audiences. Belfonte is a member of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing; the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants; the Greater Washington Society of Certified Public Accountants; and the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants. She serves as treasurer for the DC Chamber of Commerce; treasurer and board member of the Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers; and advisory board member of the New York National Housing Conference. Belfonte is a 2010 graduate of Leadership Greater Washington. She graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Bowie State University.

Tori O’Neal-McElrath is vice president of external affairs at Demos, a public policy organization focused on equity in our democracy and economy, where she oversees the communications and development teams. Previously, she served as the director of institutional advancement at the Center for Community Change, where she drove revenue generation, institutional branding and marketing, and special projects. She was the founding principal of O’Neal Consulting, a full-service organizational development practice, and has held senior positions with The San Diego Foundation, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, and the United Negro College Fund. O’Neal-McElrath has been an instructor and guest lecturer on major gifts fundraising, grantsmanship, annual fund campaigns, and nonprofit management as faculty of the University of California Los Angeles Extension, and at professional development conferences and presentations at American University. She authored Winning Grants: Step by Step, Fourth Edition, and co-authored Nonprofit 101: A Complete and Practical Guide for Leaders and Professionals and Winning Grants: Step by Step, Third Edition. O’Neal-McElrath holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from California State University-Long Beach, and a master’s degree in international business from the University of Redlands.

“We are thrilled and honored to have Winell and Tori join the Meyer board,” says Nicky Goren, president and CEO of the Meyer Foundation. “With Winell’s audit and finance experience combined with her knowledge of the affordable housing and the non-profit sector, along with Tori’s communications, community organizing, and racial equity expertise, they will bring important perspectives to our board as Meyer continues to live into our strategic plan.”

The board also elected James J. Sandman, president of the Legal Services Corporation, as vice chair, and re-elected William Dunbar, co-founder and managing director of Core Capital Partners, to a third three-year term.

Sandman has served on the board since 2007 and currently chairs the audit committee, and recently the ad hoc strategic planning committee. Dunbar has served on the board since 2011 and currently chairs the investment committee.

Established in 1944 by Eugene Meyer, an owner and publisher of The Washington Post, and his wife, the author and social activist Agnes E. Meyer, the Meyer Foundation is one of the Washington area’s oldest and largest locally-focused philanthropies. In December 2015, the Foundation adopted a new strategic plan and mission statement: to pursue and invest in solutions that build an equitable Greater Washington community in which economically vulnerable people thrive.

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