About Beth Darmstadter, MPH

Beth Darmstadter has been Executive Director at Family Connections since 2022. She has 20+ years of experience in Cleveland’s nonprofit sector,  previously serving as Chief Philanthropy Officer at the YMCA of Greater Cleveland and holding leadership roles at the MetroHealth System, The Gathering Place, and the Cleveland Foundation. Beth holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Michigan and a Master of Public Health degree from San Diego State University. She is an alum of Cleveland Bridge Builders, Board Secretary of SnakeBite Racing, former Board Chair of the AIDS Funding Collaborative of Cleveland and former Board member of Association of Fundraising Professionals, Beth lives in Berea and is a triathlete.

About Richaun Bunton

Richaun Bunton, currently serving as the Executive Director of University Settlement, a long-standing social service organization in Cuyahoga County, is deeply committed to fostering community partnerships. Her passion for supporting families and individuals impacted by trauma is evident in her work. Richaun has curated and implemented several programs addressing family sustainability, upskilling, resiliency, and trauma-informed care, understanding that, “Together, we are stronger, when we work in collaboration.”

Richaun's extensive background in community engagement, education, and therapeutic practices has shaped her life purpose of enhancing family and community wellness. A shared part of her life's purpose is evident in her role as a wife, mother, caregiver, and leader in her spiritual community. She strives daily to display "nfr-bit" (Good character) in her speech, interactions, and all personal aims. Her mission is to help ensure that whatever community she is a part of is strengthened, nurtured, and sustainable for the future of humanity to thrive.

Richaun has a BA and Masters of Social Work from Cleveland State University.

About Emily Campbell

Emily Campbell serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer for The Center for Community Solutions, overseeing research, policy, and administration-related activities. Campbell previously worked for a U.S. Congressman, and she has consulted with numerous nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies to provide data and public policy decision support. Her work on poverty has appeared in every major newspaper in Ohio and she has been interviewed by a wide variety of media outlets including The Economist, The New York Times, ESPN.com, MSNBC, and NPR. She is the immediate past Chair of the Board of Directors of The Literacy Cooperative and was named one of Cleveland’s “Forty Under 40” by Crain’s Cleveland Business. Campbell holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Master of Arts in Political Science from Case Western Reserve University.

About Jeanine Gergel

Jeanine Gergel is a consultant with Foundation Management Services (FMS), where she provides advisory support to five private foundations in Northeast Ohio – the Abington, Bruening, HealthComp, Thomas White and Woodruff foundations.  Grantmaking interests of the foundations supported by FMS include health equity, early childhood development, physical and behavioral health, K-12 education, adult learning and workforce development.  Jeanine is the lead FMS consultant for the HealthComp Foundation, which was established in 2016 utilizing funding from a prior business venture of The Center for Health Affairs’ for-profit affiliate, HealthComp, Inc. The HealthComp Foundation has a proactive grantmaking focus on supporting efforts to promote the community’s ability to understand and assess priority health needs and to convene resources to address them.  Ms. Gergel also leads the Bruening Foundation’s Strong Start grantmaking strategy, which aims to ameliorate the impact of poverty on families with young children and ensure that every child gets a strong start in life.

Ms. Gergel is co-chair of the Funders Collaborative on Covid Recovery (FCCR) Policy & Advocacy Committee and leads the FCCR’s NEO Philanthropy Policy Lab. Prior to the formation of the FCCR, she was a member of the grants review team for the Greater Cleveland COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund. She serves on Cuyahoga County’s 2Gen Steering Committee, the Safe Babies Court Team Leadership Team and the MetroHealth Nurse Family Partnership Community Advisory Board.

Prior to Ms. Gergel’s work in philanthropy, she had strong nonprofit program, management, communications and fund development experience.  She served as assistant executive director and development director for North Coast Health, a community health clinic now part of federally qualified health center Neighborhood Family Practice.  She was also director of fund development at Girl Scouts of Northeast Ohio.  Prior to these posts, Jeanine worked for management consulting firms in Chicago and as the director of Strategic Consulting Services for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

Ms. Gergel is a founding board member and past board president of the Healthy Lakewood Foundation and previously served as a mayor-appointed member of the City of Lakewood’s Wellness Foundation Planning Task Force.  She is board chair of Lakewood Senior Citizens Inc., which encompasses the Barton Communities Activity Center, the Barton Memorial Foundation and the Westerly apartments, a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) affordable housing complex for older adults.  She also serves on the boards of LSC Corporation and GardenWalk Lakewood.

Jeanine received a BA from Miami University and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University.  She was also a Robert Wood John Foundation Ladder to Leadership Fellow.

About Kathleen Hallissey

Kathleen Hallissey joined The Cleveland Foundation in August 2005 as a program officer, focusing on education and health, human services grants, and strengthening nonprofit organizations across Greater Cleveland. She was promoted to Director of Community Responsive Grantmaking where she worked with a team of program officers to align grantmaking with the needs of the community and the foundation’s priorities.

Previously, Kathy served as a management consultant to the Head Start community working on special projects such as the grantee monitoring system, data analysis and the development of training and technical assistance materials. She served as a program analyst in the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, DC, focusing on programs and policies impacting children, youth and families specifically Head Start and Early Head Start. She began her career in the federal government as a Presidential Management Fellow. This two-year program was designed to build excellence in the public sector. During her fellowship she completed key projects in legislative affairs, planning and evaluation, and program implementation.

Kathy earned a Master of Public Administration from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Bachelor of Arts cum laude from Drew University in New Jersey. She is a 2013 Leadership Cleveland graduate and a graduate of the YWCA Women’s Momentum program.