Fulfillment Fund Announces Key Promotion, and New Board Chair
The change enhances the Leadership Team.
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Fulfillment Fund, a college access and college success non-profit with a 41-year history of providing pathways of opportunity to young people from under-resourced communities in Los Angeles.
Joanne Reyes, a senior non-profit professional with more than 17 years of experience and most recently serving as Chief Development Officer for the past year at Fulfillment Fund, was promoted to President.
Before joining the Fulfillment Fund, Reyes was Associate Vice President, Development at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and focused on funding opportunities for the Children's Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases. She raised more than $70 million during her tenure at Children's Hospital, including the successful solicitation of two of the hospital's largest corporate gifts in its 117-year history.
As a first-generation college graduate in her family, Reyes is particularly impassioned to champion the cause of building pathways to college for the students from under-served and under-resourced communities. Reyes holds a Master of Arts from Stanford University, Cum Laude and a Bachelor of Arts, Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a native Angeleno, who attended Los Angeles Unified School District schools from K-12.
Wendy Spinner has been elected to succeed founder Gary Gitnick, M.D., F.A.C.G., as Chair of the Board. Dr. Gitnick, who founded the Fulfillment Fund with his wife Cherna, has served as Board Chair for the last 41 years and will now assume the role of Chair Emeritus. "The board is confident in Joanne Reyes' visionary leadership. With Joanne at the helm, we look forward to building on our rich history, increasing our reach, and assisting in providing more opportunities for deserving students of greater Los Angeles." said Spinner. "Joanne has acted in a leadership capacity for some time, and she has formed dynamic relationships with both the leadership and the staff of the organization."
Reyes sees their biggest opportunity in supporting students in college success. She notes that Fulfillment Fund has made tremendous strides in supporting students, who are 84% first-generation students, to access college but that college success – achievement of a post-secondary degree or certification – still lags behind, nationally. Only 11% of students from low-income households across the U.S. obtain their bachelor's degrees according to a Pell Institute study, though 77% of Fulfillment Fund scholars succeed in getting their bachelor's degrees. Her personal goal is to challenge that statistic by encouraging students to 'dream and to dream BIG' and by aligning the organization's services to better support students to and through college.
About Fulfillment Fund:
The Fulfillment Fund works to make college a reality for first-generation and lower-income Los Angeles youth. Through a time-tested array of programs that begin in high school and continue past graduation, students gain the resources they need to earn their diploma and successfully navigate their college-to-career journey. To learn more, visit www.fulfillment.org
Media Contact:
Rachel Lichtman
Director of Communications
323-900-8713
[email protected]
Source: http://www.fulfillment.org
SOURCE Fulfillment Fund
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