The Lumina Foundation
The Lumina Foundation for Education recently named Jamie P. Merisotis its new president and chief executive officer. He succeeds Martha D. Lamkin, who is retiring.
Merisotis is the founding president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, a global research and policy center concerned with higher education development. He served as executive director of the National Commission on Responsibilities for Financing Postsecondary Education and played an instrumental role in forming the Alliance for Equity in Higher Education. He also helped establish the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Merisotis is excited about taking the reins at the Lumina Foundation. “No philanthropic organization has ever made the kind of sustained commitment that the Lumina Foundation is making to the work of improving college access and success,” he says. “I think a critical theme for the foundation will be to take a different orientation to the work by striving for answers in the places where we haven’t done enough looking. We need to look to colleges and universities that already do a good job of serving low-income, educationally disadvantaged populations, to other countries’ experiences with higher education, and to other industries for models and ideas that will help us sustain our mission.”
The new president plans to measure Lumina’s impact in two ways. “The first is increasing degree attainment by providing greater access to high-quality, affordable higher education for all citizens with the motivation to succeed. And the second is significantly improving postsecondary opportunities for adults, single parents, minorities, and others who are looking for a chance to make it in our rapidly changing global economy.”
In addition to his position at the Lumina Foundation, Merisotis serves as the chairman of Scholarship America and is a trustee of his alma mater, Bates College.
The Philanthropy Roundtable
Christopher Levenick joined The Philanthropy Roundtable in September 2007 as editor-in-chief of Philanthropy magazine.
For the last three years, Levenick was the W. H. Brady Doctoral Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he worked closely with Michael Novak, AEI President Christopher DeMuth, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. He received his A.B. magna cum laude from Georgetown University, and is completing his Ph.D. in American religious history at the University of Chicago. He frequently writes and lectures on issues of religion and politics, and his work has appeared in numerous academic and popular journals, including the Wall Street Journal, National Review, The Weekly Standard, Claremont Review of Books, and Philanthropy.
The Philanthropy Roundtable
John Mecham joined The Philanthropy Roundtable in August 2007 as director of Helping People to Help Themselves programs.
Mecham attended Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, where he earned his MBA with an emphasis in entrepreneurship, consulting, and finance. While there he became involved with the nonprofit student group Babson Global Outreach through Entrepreneurship, where he directed a group of 13 student-consultants in their efforts to help Ugandan entrepreneurs develop high-performing, sustainable businesses. As a management consultant, Mecham helped strengthen the business model of a nonprofit book store that provided at-risk youth with transitional employment and a second home. He also directed “Mentor a Child, Change a Life” at the Bennion Center in Salt Lake City, where he mentored students and recruited volunteers.
Mecham graduated from the University of Utah with a B.S. in mechanical engineering and worked as a manufacturing engineer for three years.
The Philanthropy Roundtable
Lynn Gibson joined The Philanthropy Roundtable in September 2007 as director of community relations.
Gibson most recently served as special assistant, public liaison for Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao. Her professional experience has spanned the private, nonprofit, and public sectors. She spent nearly six years at the Heritage Foundation, where she directed the Young Leaders Program, a position from which she oversaw an internship program, job bank, leadership development activities, and the Heritage alumni network. Before that, she served on Capitol Hill and as director of alumni relations for her alma mater.
Gibson holds a B.S. in biology from Grove City College, as well as a master’s degree in student personnel from Slippery Rock University.