PACE Board of Directors

Board Chair: Jonathan Gruber, Einhorn Collaborative

Jon Gruber is a strategy lead at Einhorn Collaborative, a foundation advancing the science and practice of empathy, mutual understanding, and relationship building — so we can rediscover our common humanity and solve our nation’s greatest challenges together. Jon leads Einhorn Collaborative’s Building strategy, focused on supporting, amplifying, and connecting the efforts of practitioners, storytellers, researchers, and peer funders who are helping to shift American culture in order to realize the promise of a truly pluralistic America. Jon joined Einhorn Collaborative in 2014. Previously, he worked as a management consultant advising clients across sectors on strategy, organizational change, and culture, as director of education for a nonprofit that supports Holocaust rescuers and preserves their legacy, and as a teacher at a school in the English countryside.

Vice Chair: Rodney McKenzie, Jr., Mdiv, Fetzer Institute

Rodney is an openly gay person of faith, a community organizer, and a reverend. He currently serves as the Vice President of Ally Development at the Fetzer Institute, a foundation who’s work is focused on building the spiritual foundation for a loving world. He came to Fetzer from Demos, a “’think-and-do’ tank that powers the movement for a just, inclusive, multiracial democracy” where he served in many roles, most recently as Executive Vice President. Prior to Demos, Rodney worked at the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. Earlier in his career, Rodney co-founded Expansion Church and also served as the executive director of Resource Generation, an organization comprised of 18-35 year olds with access to wealth who are among the richest top 10% of individuals or families in the United States. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Texas, and a master’s degree in divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

Secretary: Kara Carlisle, McKnight Foundation

Kara Carlisle joined the McKnight Foundation in 2017 as vice president of programs. Since joining the Foundation, Carlisle has been supporting cross-program strategy and development, in particular exploring intersections across diversity, equity, and inclusion and community engagement as leverage points to drive greater impact across geographic and issue-specific areas. Previously, Carlisle spent eight years at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, MI, most recently as director of New Mexico Programs. She also served on Kellogg’s Civic and Philanthropic Engagement team, developing the first manual to inform the organization’s approach to place-based grantmaking. Carlisle holds an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, and an MDiv in urban studies and education from Claremont School of Theology.

Treasurer: Janet Tran, Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute

Janet Tran serves as the Director of Learning and Leadership at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute where she is charged with designing the Foundation’s nonpartisan portfolio of civic learning experiences for students. She joined the foundation in 2010 to help craft and design its nonpartisan civic learning portfolio. In 2015, she helped establish the Reagan Institute offices in Washington, D.C. with the launch of Leadership and the American Presidency (LTAP), an experiential leadership program for university students through the lens of the American Presidency. Janet’s civic mission began prior to her work at the Reagan Foundation, serving as a Social Studies and English teacher in South Central Los Angeles.

Jen Algire, Greater Clark Foundation

Jen Algire is the President and CEO of The Greater Clark Foundation, a place-based foundation in central Kentucky.  GCF invests its resources where it can have a fundamental impact on civic and economic vitality; education; and health, well-being and quality of life.  Prior to joining the Foundation, she was Chief of Staff for Premier healthcare alliance (NASDAQ: PINC), the nation’s leading alliance of hospitals, health systems and providers dedicated to improving healthcare performance.  Jen received her undergraduate degree in politics and women’s studies from Wake Forest University and completed graduate studies in social work, public health and business at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Queens University.  She is an alumna of the German Marshall Fund’s Marshall Memorial Fellowship.  In other prior roles, Jen served as the chief executive of private not-for-profit organizations, including North Carolina’s oldest privately funded community health center, as well as in senior leadership within local government.  Her professional interests include community governance and civic participation, as well as the role of transparency in social capital markets.

Stuart Comstock-Gay, Delaware Community Foundation

Brad Rourke, Kettering Foundation

Brad Rourke is the Kettering Foundation’s director of external affairs and DC operations. He leads the foundation’s Washington, DC, office and also heads efforts to increase the foundation’s impact and reputation across key audiences, developing strategic partnerships and conferences, and promoting awareness and understanding of the foundation’s mission. For more than a decade at the foundation, Rourke served as executive editor of issue guides, creating more than 40 such publications enabling groups of people to come together to discuss fraught public issues across lines of difference. Prior to joining the foundation, Rourke was president of a public issues firm serving the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors, founder and publisher of local online news source Rockville Central, director of external initiatives at The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, and vice president for public policy at the Institute for Global Ethics. He has served on the staffs of then-controller of California Gray Davis and then-US representative Jane Harman. He received a BA in comparative literature from UC Berkeley and an MPA from American University.

Vanessa Tucker, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Vanessa Tucker is a Program Officer for U.S. Democracy at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. She leads the foundation’s grantmaking to support trustworthy elections and counter digital disinformation. Prior to joining the foundation, Vanessa served as vice president for research and analysis at Freedom House. In that role, her work included in-depth democracy research, exploring distinct threats to democracy posed by disinformation, and collaborating with a network of ideologically diverse organizations and experts. She previously held positions at the Belfer Center and the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. Vanessa’s family roots are in Oklahoma, where she is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She grew up in Texas and the United Arab Emirates. She earned her bachelor’s degree in international development at McGill University and holds a master’s degree in international relations from Yale University.

Lauren Woods, Chicago Community Trust

Lauren M. Woods is a program manager for the Building Collective Power strategy at The Chicago Community Trust. In this role, she is responsible for leading grant making initiatives that support local journalism, media, and civic storytelling in the Chicago region. Lauren is an experienced civic practitioner whose work has focused on creating the conditions to deepen engagement and build capacity for citizens to be active participants of our democracy. Prior to joining the Trust, Lauren managed the district-wide Service-Learning Initiative at Chicago Public Schools and directed the Midwest educational partnership strategy for an international nonprofit, WE. As an artist and fourth generation Chicagoan, Lauren believes in the transformational power of narrative and storytelling to activate community and spark systems change.

PACE CEO: Kristen Cambell

Kristen Cambell is CEO of PACE, a philanthropic laboratory for funders seeking to maximize their impact on democracy and civic life in America. Previously, Kristen ran her own consulting practice focused on civic engagement, education, and leadership. She served the National Conference on Citizenship as its Chief Program Officer, and has held philanthropic roles at the Case Foundation and Points of Light. Kristen is an AmeriCorps Alum and serves on the board of United Philanthropy Forum and Citizen University, as well as the advisory groups of several national groups, including the working group of the Philanthropy Initiative at the Smithsonian Institution.