New Board Chairman, Board Member, and Program Officers Welcomed to The New York Community Trust
Charlynn Goins, New Distribution Committee Chairman
Charlynn Goins has become the chairman of The New York Community Trust’s Distribution Committee, the institution’s governing board. She has served on this committee since 2002, and succeeds Samuel S. Polk, who is stepping down after five years; he remains a member of the board. In 2004, Ms. Goins was appointed by Mayor Bloomberg to chair the board of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, the largest public hospital system in the country. She currently serves on the boards of Fannie Mae, AXA Financial, and the Brooklyn Museum. She began her career as a tax lawyer at Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn, was Chief Operating Officer at a subsidiary of Integrated Resources, Inc., and retired as Senior Vice President and Director of International Marketing for Prudential Securities. Ms. Goins received her BA from Barnard College and her JD from Columbia University School of Law.
Diana Taylor, New Member of the Distribution Committee
Diana Taylor is the newest member of The Trust’s Distribution Committee. She is currently a Managing Director at Wolfensohn & Co., and served as the State Superintendent of Banks under Governor Pataki. She has also served as Chief Financial Officer of the Long Island Power Authority and Deputy Secretary to the Governor for Housing and Finance. She serves on several nonprofit boards, including the New York Women’s Foundation, the International Women’s Health Coalition, ACCION International, amFAR: the Foundation for AIDS Research, Columbia School of Business, Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, and Dartmouth College. Ms. Taylor chairs a commission for the FDIC on financially underserved communities, and is a member of the UN Advisors Group for Inclusive Financial Sectors and of the Council on Foreign Relations. Ms. Taylor received a BA from Dartmouth College, an MBA from Columbia Business School, and an MPH from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
Kavitha Mediratta, New Program Officer, Education
Before joining The Trust, Ms. Mediratta was responsible for the youth organizing and community organizing research projects at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform of Brown University. She was principal investigator of a six-year study of community organizing for school reform, and is the lead author of Community Organizing for Stronger Schools: Strategies and Successes, to be released in the fall of 2009. Ms. Mediratta’s work in community organizing began in 1995, when she joined the staff of the Institute for Education and Social Policy at New York University, where she helped develop its Community Involvement Program. Previously, she served as a Warren Weaver Fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation. She also worked with public school teachers as a staff developer with the Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. She has taught in elementary and middle schools in southern India, Chicago, and New Jersey. Kavitha received a BA from Amherst College, a Masters of Education from Columbia University’s Teachers College, and is currently working towards a PhD in education from NYU.
Kerry McCarthy, New Program Officer, Arts and Historic Preservation
Before coming to The Trust, Ms. McCarthy ran her own consulting company, assisting nonprofit arts groups, such as New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Artist Workspace Consortium, and Cultural Institutions Group, with research, planning, and communications services. With nearly 20 years experience in museum and performing arts administration, Ms. McCarthy served as Director of Development for the Queens Museum of Art and is a current board member and past Director of Development and Exhibitions for Meredith Monk’s company, the House Foundation for the Arts. She has also curated exhibitions on folk and contemporary performing arts for the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the Center for Puppetry Arts. She received her BA from Sewanee: The University of the South and her MA in Folk Art Studies from NYU.
About The New York Community Trust
New Yorkers and their professional advisors have relied on The Trust for 85 years to help them turn their charitable passions into meaningful and effective philanthropy. Since 1924, The New York Community Trust has been the community foundation of the New York metropolitan area and is the largest private funder of City nonprofits. The Trust is an aggregate of 2,000 funds created by charitable individuals, families, and corporations to improve the quality of life for all the area’s residents. Grants made from these funds meet the changing needs of children, youth, and families; aid in community development; improve the environment; promote health; assist people with special needs; and support education, arts, and human rights. In 2008, The Trust made grants of $168 million from assets of $1.5 billion.