Impactful Philanthropy in Rural Recovery
With Anne Kubisch, The Ford Family Foundation; Shelly O’Quinn, Innovia Foundation; Max Williams, Oregon Community Foundation; and moderated by Amy Tracewell, Pacific University
In this session, you will learn from funders how giving is different in rural communities, and how they see philanthropy playing a role in helping small towns recover from the pandemic and becoming more resilient.
Anne Kubisch
President, The Ford Family Foundation
Anne Kubisch joined The Ford Family Foundation in 2013 as its second president. She came to the Foundation after 19 years at The Aspen Institute (New York), an international non-profit leadership development and policy studies organization. She founded and served as director of the Aspen Roundtable on Community Change, a national resource center that advises policymakers, funders and practitioners on strategies for improving outcomes for low-income children, families and communities. From 1977 to 1993, Anne worked in the international development field on poverty, health and economic vitality programs in Latin America and Africa. Anne holds a master’s degree in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University and a bachelor of arts degree in English from Tufts University. She is the Chair of the Board of Foundations for a Better Oregon, and serves on the Portland Branch Board of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank and the Governor of Oregon’s Early Learning Council. She is married to Mark Montgomery, professor of economics at Stony Brook University, NY, and senior research associate at The Population Council, NY. They have two children, Marina and Nicholas.
Shelly O’Quinn
Chief Executive Officer, Innovia Foundation
A local leader in government and community development, Shelly joined Innovia Foundation as CEO in 2017. As a former Spokane County Commissioner, Shelly earned a reputation as a team builder and agent of change, representing Spokane County interests on 20 regional and statewide boards and commissions. In her role as Innovia’s CEO, she has energized the board, staff, volunteers and community partners to work together to make our part of the world better and to find innovative solutions to our region’s biggest issues. Prior to serving in government, Shelly was the Director of Education and Workforce Development for Greater Spokane Incorporated. Her experience in the nonprofit sector includes work for the George Nethercutt Foundation and Habitat for Humanity. She has come full circle with Innovia Foundation, having served as a senior program officer here from 2007 to 2008. Shelly is a Whitworth University graduate with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and business administration. She completed her MBA at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in California. A Spokane native, Shelly enjoys the wide array of year-round activities the Inland Northwest has to offer. Most importantly, she enjoys quality time with her sons, Ryland and Iain.
Max Williams
President and CEO,
Oregon Community Foundation
For the better part of the last 25 years, Max Williams’ professional and volunteer experiences have been directed towards both preserving and improving the state that he loves. As a proven change agent, motivated by a vision for a better way to support critical needs of Oregonians, Williams joined the Oregon Community Foundation in early 2012 as its new President and CEO. Since that time, Williams has doubled the foundation’s endowment with the support of civically-minded and generous individuals, families and businesses, transforming individual philanthropy into sustained, community-driven impact. Partnering with thousands of nonprofit organizations and other philanthropic funders on initiatives and projects to invest in innovation, convene stakeholders and catalyze positive change, OCF has become not only the state’s largest public charity, but an integral part of Oregon’s ecosystem for good. Philanthropy’s unique ability to deliver “innovation capital” into public and private partner investments recognizes that these sectors often lack the resources, flexibility, independence, or innovation to do these projects on their own. Williams commitment to research and data-driven solutions has resulted in the creation of one of the largest research and evaluation teams of any community foundation in the country, and the second largest research function (next to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) in the Pacific Northwest. This commitment to research and evaluation is helping the foundation and its donors focus finite philanthropic resources to programs and interventions that demonstrate measurable impact. As the Foundation moves toward its 50th anniversary, Williams is directing an unprecedented level of growth and resources to closing what OCF calls ‘the Opportunity Gap’ – recognizing that too many of Oregon’s children do not have a pathway or likely prospect of escaping the poverty to which they were born.
Amy Tracewell
Corporate and Foundation Relations Major Gift Officer, Pacific University
Amy Callahan Tracewell is currently a Corporate and Foundation Relations Major Gift Officer at Pacific University, Washington County’s only four-year university. Amy has built a career around connecting people, ideas, and resources through strategic collaboration. In her early career, she worked in the publishing industry—in books and journal promotions, newspaper promotions and sales, and publisher of the Cottage Grove Sentinel, a small weekly newspaper. Through this work she was able to meet with hundreds of businesses, here in Oregon and across the nation, as a national sales trainer. She also served as Director of Cottage Grove Community Hospital Foundation where she created a collaborative, community-led initiative around community health. During her time in Cottage Grove, she also was recognized for her community work with several awards; she received a three-year Community Fellow designation through The Ford Family Foundation and was chosen as a recipient of Lane County’s 40 under 40 leadership award. Amy has served on the Cottage Grove Chamber of Commerce board, sat on budget committees, ran for Mayor (and lost), and involved herself in helping to create vitality wherever life takes her. Amy is currently the incoming chair of Pacific University’s Staff Senate and she is also serving as a Commissioner on the Forest Grove Public Arts Commission. Amy believes in the strength of individuals, the grit of small communities, and the power of collaboration. Amy lives on the edge of town in Forest Grove, a quarter mile from the rolling foothills of the coast range. Amy has three stepchildren, two small dogs, one fat cat and enjoys creating art in her spare time, even though she still hears her dad’s voice saying “don’t quit your day job!”
