Careers

Cathy M. Lewis, who has played a leadership role with many Cleveland organizations, has been named to the George Gund Foundation’s Board of Trustees.

Lewis was a member of the Citizens’ Committee on AIDS/HIV that devised Cleveland’s strategy for AIDS prevention, education and service delivery and is chair of its successor organization, the AIDS Funding Collaborative. She also currently serves on the advisory committee for the Center for International Child Health at Case Western Reserve University and the board of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love.

She previously was chairperson of the Cleveland Foundation board of directors, president of Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital and vice chair of the Baldwin-Wallace College board of trustees. She also was for many years a minority owner of RESOURCE CAREERS, an international company specializing in spouse employment services for dual-career families.

Lewis, a Smith College graduate, has received the Creative Philanthropy Award from the Women’s Community Foundation, the YWCA’s Career Women of Achievement Award and the March of Dimes Franklin Delano Roosevelt Award for Community Service.

The George Gund Foundation, the largest private foundation in Ohio, was established in 1952 by George Gund, former chairman of the Cleveland Trust Company. The Foundation funds programs that enhance our understanding of the physical and social environment in which we live and increase our ability to cope with its changing requirements. Grants are made quarterly in the areas of education, human services, economic and community development, environment and arts. Foundation commitments to date have totaled more than $440 million.

Ann K. Mullin, program officer for education at The Cleveland Foundation, has been named a senior program officer at The George Gund Foundation where she will oversee education grantmaking.

Mullin, who has a bachelor of musical arts degree from the University of Michigan and a master of business administration from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, joined the Cleveland Foundation in 2000 as program associate for arts and culture and education. Prior to that, she worked as operations director of Montessori Development Partnerships and as a client assistant for the International Management Group and for National City Corporation’s Retirement Plan Services. She will begin her duties at the Gund Foundation February 14.

The George Gund Foundation was established in 1952 by George Gund, former chairman of the Cleveland Trust Company. In 2004, the Foundation gave more than $27 million to a wide variety of education, human services, environmental, arts and economic and community revitalization projects. Foundation grants to date have totaled more than $437 million and have focused on programs and organizations which enhance our understanding of the social and physical environment in which we live and increase our ability to cope with its changing requirements.

The Foundation is conducting a search for a senior program officer in education to replace Jeffrey Glebocki who has accepted a position at the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust in Arizona.

For more information about the search and a job description, click here.

CLEVELAND, OH — Jill Paulsen, a recent graduate of the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Case Western Reserve University, has been awarded the first George Gund Foundation Fellowship.

The George Gund Foundation Fellowship provides an opportunity for promising young professionals to work inside the foundation, an organization that plays an active role in supporting the civic life of Greater Cleveland and in various national policy deliberations that impact our community. Through this new initiative, the Foundation will award a fellowship each spring. Each fellow will work at the Foundation for two years. The Foundation received 142 applications from across the country for the inaugural fellowship.

Ms. Paulsen is the recipient of the 2004 Mandel Center Student of the Year Award and the Dean’s Academic Achievement Award. Prior to receiving her Masters of Nonprofit Organizations from the Mandel Center, Ms. Paulsen worked for the Cleveland-based Ohio College Access Network and the Minnesota AIDS Project in her hometown of Minneapolis. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Grinnell College with degrees in French and sociology.

For Further Information Contact:
Deena M. Epstein (216.241.3114)

CLEVELAND, OH — Geoffrey Gund, President of the Board of Trustees, announced today that The George Gund Foundation has chosen David Abbott to become the Executive Director of the Foundation. David Abbott will succeed David Bergholz, who will be leaving early in 2003 after fourteen years as the Foundation’s Executive Director. Mr. Gund noted, “The selection of David Abbott, currently President of University Circle Incorporated, followed an extensive and careful six-month search. The Board feels David Abbott will bring to this job wide knowledge of the City of Cleveland, good working relations with different sectors of the city and a vision to keep the Foundation relevant in a changing world. We look forward to many years of successful partnership with Mr. Abbott.”

For Further Information Contact:
Deena M. Epstein (216)241–3114