For IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ratasha Smith
Communications Officer
rsmith@cfgnh.org (email for mobile)
Foundation Board Welcomes Valarie Shultz Wilson and Announces New Officers
New Haven, Conn. (January 11, 2021) The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the region’s largest grantmaker, announces that Valarie Shultz Wilson of New Haven, Conn. has been appointed to the Board of Directors for a seven-year term. Shultz Wilson will fill the Board seat of Kellyann Day, effective January 1, 2021, as an appointee of Judge Clifton E. Graves, Jr. of the Probate Court for the District of New Haven, Conn. In addition to Shultz Wilson’s appointment, The Board has voted Flemming "Nick" Norcott Jr. as chair and Dr. Marcella Nuñez-Smith as vice chair. Mr. Norcott is a retired Connecticut Supreme Court justice and joined The Board in 2016. Dr. Nuñez-Smith is Associate Professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Management and Founding Director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center (ERIC) at Yale University. She joined the Board in 2018 and was asked to co-chair President-elect Biden’s COVID-19 Transition Advisory Board and will lead a new White House task force dedicated to health equity. The Community Foundation's Board consists of eleven members, appointed either by The Foundation's Board of Directors or by external appointing authorities.
“Valarie is an extraordinary nonprofit leader answering the call to serve during an extraordinary time,” says Foundation President and CEO Will Ginsberg. “As the longtime chief executive officer of the Urban League of Southern Connecticut, we welcome her insight from her past experiences and thank her for her future contributions as The Foundation steps forward.”
As the former CEO of two local organizations, Connecticut Food Bank and Urban League of Southern Connecticut, and her continued service on various advisory boards, Shultz Wilson has 25 years of nonprofit management experience. Under her 14 years of leadership, the Urban League of Southern Connecticut expanded, rebranded and narrowed a six-figure budget deficit. Shultz Wilson’s tenure led to increased contributions as well as successful events that centered education, diversity & inclusion, women's empowerment and other pressing community needs and challenges.
Shultz Wilson has also served on the boards of local organizations including Booker T. Washington Academy, Greater New Haven NAACP, The Prosperity Foundation and others. Former Governor Dannel Malloy also appointed her to serve on the Commission on Women, Seniors and Children and the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women. Shultz Wilson holds bachelor’s degrees in marketing and public relations from the University of Louisville.
The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven is a philanthropic institution that was established in 1928 as the community's permanent charitable endowment. For more than three generations, thousands of donors have built our community endowment by establishing permanent funds or making gifts to existing funds that distribute grants to a broad variety of issues and organizations. These donors, past and present, make their gifts to ensure that programs and causes that matter most to them will be supported today and forever. The Community Foundation is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the United States and remains the largest grantmaker in a twenty-town region located in the heart of central Connecticut. The Community Foundation is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)3 organization.
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