Meet the 2022 PLACES Fellows!

BY Dion Cartwright, TFN Director of Equitable Initiatives and
Leadership Development

TFN’s vision is to create generations of courageous philanthropic leaders who are engaged, emboldened and equipped to bring about a just society.

That’s why we are so proud to announce the 2022 PLACES Fellows — 16 exemplary grantmakers who will embark on a year-long curriculum focusing on racial equity and justice.

They will work together to not only deepen their understanding of structural racism and its malign impacts, but to acquire the tools and resources needed to challenge and change systemic inequities through their grantmaking.

Because of the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, we had to hit pause on our PLACES Fellowship program last year.

Before we celebrate the 2022 PLACES Cohort, I want to acknowledge our 2020 PLACES Fellows, who accepted their fellowships just a few weeks before COVID hit the headlines, causing us to quickly pivot our learning agenda into an all-virtual format. These 2020 PLACES Fellows adapted with grace and goodwill – and bore witness in real-time to the disproportionate health, economic and social impacts this pandemic wrought on Black, Indigenous and other communities of color.

In fact, throughout this ongoing pandemic, I’ve drawn tremendous inspiration and motivation from our PLACES Alumni Network, who have stepped up to offer each other support, resources and compassion over these past two years.

Over the years, PLACES cohorts have addressed issues impacting disenfranchised communities, including structural racism, gender justice, health equity, environmental sustainability, economic development and community engagement — asking difficult questions, exploring uncomfortable truths and confronting their own biases along the way.

As our society continues to wrestle with a long-overdue reckoning on racial justice, it’s essential that our philanthropic institutions work to remedy systemic inequities, including those within their organizational cultures.

I look forward to learning and sharing alongside these 16 new PLACES Fellows as we embark on this year-long journey. They represent a wealth of expertise and lived experiences, and hail from diverse geographies and backgrounds.

On behalf of the selection committee (comprised entirely of PLACES alums) and TFN’s PLACES team, including Equity Programs Manager Talissa Lahaliyed and the PLACES Advisory Board, join me in congratulating these outstanding 2022 PLACES Fellows!

 

Meet the 2022 PLACES Fellows!

 

 

 

 

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LAKSHMI (SASHA) PONAPPA
CSD Unites Community Foundation  

 

SALLY RAY
Center for Disaster Philanthropy

 

NELL TESSMAN
Gray Family Foundation

 

MARK TRAN
The California Endowment

 

PETER WHITT
St. Luke’s Foundation

 

Learn more about PLACES

PLACES X: Stories of Impact
For the 10th anniversary of TFN’s PLACES Fellowship, we worked with two award-winning journalists to help capture the stories shared and the lessons learned through the PLACES Fellowship. The result is our PLACES Impact Stories project, which includes profiles written by WLRN social justice reporter Nadege Green and videos created by documentary filmmaker Oscar Corral.

Going PLACES Blog Series
After each PLACES site visit, we ask the fellows to reflect on their experiences in our blog series Going PLACES. Check out some recent highlights from our PLACES alumni.

Questions?
If you would like to know more about PLACES, including ways your organization can invest in our equit-focused PLACES Fellowship and Alumni Network, email Dion Cartwright at dion@fundersnetwork.org.