Jeffrey Cain recently joined the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation as president and executive director. In his new role, he hopes to help the foundation achieve greater strategic impact while creating structures that will protect the charitable intent of its founder, Arthur N. Rupe, who continues to serve as the foundation’s chairman.
Rupe began his career in the entertainment industry, producing records for some of America’s most well-known musicians under the Specialty Records label. His success enabled him to invest in the oil and gas industry, which further created the wealth out of which the foundation was established.
One of Cain’s primary goals will be to preserve and, if possible, grow the foundation’s existing corpus. Another focus, Cain says, will be seeking out truly effective programs for the foundation to support. “Mr. Rupe wants us to challenge ourselves in trying to identify and establish programs that shine the light of truth on critical and controversial issues,” says Cain.
So we’ll be asking ourselves, ‘Where will the foundation’s dollars make the biggest difference? Are there approaches or programs that are worthy and don’t have enough funding: diamonds in the rough?’” Cain notes that civic debate, independent collegiate journalism, and education and labor reform are specific areas of interest.
Cain is a trustee of the Lillian S. Wells Foundation. He formerly served as executive vice president of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) and previously taught English literature at Washington State University. He holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in English literature from Washington State University.
John J. Miller recently joined the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation as program officer. The growing foundation intends to focus on a variety of issues, including labor unions, K-12 education reform, higher education reform, and campus journalism, while continuing to engage in creative philanthropy geared toward solving social problems.
We’re trying to put together a philanthropic program that allows the foundation to carry out the mission Arthur N. Rupe has set forth,“ says Miller, who also serves on the board.
Miller will collaborate with Rupe and others to advance the foundation’s goals. Developing projects that carry out the mission of the Rupe Foundation will be central to Miller’s work, and he says he looks forward to being proactive in this pursuit. ”We don’t want to be reacting to what comes through the door,“ he says. ”We want to go out, be entrepreneurial, and create opportunities.“
Miller says he will be vigilant in ensuring that the foundation involves itself with thoughtful organizations and programs. ”It’s easy to give money away poorly,“ he says. ”It’s hard to give it away well.“ Noting that the economic downturn has made philanthropic giving more challenging, Miller says it provides the Rupe Foundation with a chance to drive the foundation’s agenda.
Before joining the Rupe Foundation, Miller served as program officer at the Searle Freedom Trust. He is on the staff of National Review, and his articles have appeared in many national publications. He is also author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America as well as The Philanthropy Roundtable monograph How Two Foundations Reshaped America.
Miller graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in English.
On July 1, 2009, Robert Gallucci will become the fourth president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He will replace Jonathan Fanton, who is nearing the end of his second five-year term as president of MacArthur. The foundation sets term limits for its presidents, trustees, and program officers.
[Gallucci] is committed to the foundation’s core values,“ says Fanton. ”I know MacArthur’s staff and grantees will benefit from his experience and leadership.“
Gallucci is also excited to be joining the foundation’s work. ”I am thrilled to join the MacArthur Foundation and to work closely with its impressive board, dedicated staff, and innovative, effective grantees to address some of the most critical and fascinating challenges facing our nation and our world,“ he says. ”I share the foundation’s commitment to peace and justice and deeply admire its reputation for creativity, quality, and integrity.“
Gallucci currently serves as dean of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He has also served as Ambassador-at-Large and Special Envoy for the U.S. State Department, where he worked to minimize the threat posed by ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction. From 1992 to 1993, he was Assistant Secretary of State for Political and Military Affairs, and has also worked as senior coordinator for nonproliferation and nuclear safety initiatives in the former Soviet Union.
Bob Gallucci shares MacArthur’s commitment to building a more just and peaceful world,“ says Robert Denham, chairman of the MacArthur Foundation’s board and an attorney with the Los Angeles-based law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP. ”He has more than two decades of experience representing the United States around the world on the most difficult issues of peace and security, which have been central to MacArthur’s work for its 31-year history. And he has a keen interest in all areas of the foundation’s grantmaking. The board was impressed by his broad international experience, his intellect, and his sound judgment.“
Gallucci is author and co-author of several publications, including Neither Peace Nor War: The Politics of American Military Policy in Vietnam and Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis. In addition to his tenure at Georgetown, he has taught at Swarthmore College, Johns Hopkins University, and the National War College.
Gallucci earned a bachelor’s degree at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He received his master’s and doctoral degrees from Brandeis University.
In January 2009, Rebecca Stewart became director of K-12 education programs at The Philanthropy Roundtable. The K-12 education program is the Roundtable’s largest breakthrough group, convening nearly 500 donors every year to explore how philanthropists can achieve dramatic improvements in K-12 education, especially for low-income and minority children.
Now, more than ever, we have to get K-12 education right in America,“ says Stewart. ”Philanthropists are an essential part of the solution, and I look forward to supporting entrepreneurial donors in their work.“
Stewart says she is excited to continue working with visionary and committed donors at the leading edge of education reform. ”Philanthropy has played a transformative role in demonstrating what is possible in the education of underserved children, and in establishing proof points of excellence across the country,“ she says. ”And we need to continue to create those points and push ourselves to bring that excellence to scale if we really want to achieve an excellent education for every child.“
Among her goals for the program in the near future, Stewart hopes to continue hosting provocative meetings with the best minds in the field. She will also oversee the release of several new guidebooks for donors, including a thoroughly updated guide for investing in charter schools and a guide to saving America’s urban Catholic schools.
She is also looking forward to hosting a particular regional K-12 education meeting focused on an emerging field—“Technology and the Future of Learning”—which will be held in the Silicon Valley this upcoming fall.
Stewart previously served as deputy director of K-12 education programs at the Roundtable. Prior to that, she was a Teach For America corps member in Roma, Texas, where she taught eighth grade U.S. History.
Stewart has also studied documentary photography at the Salt Institute in Portland, Maine, where she collaborated with a community of Sudanese refugees to document their experiences in the United States.
She received her bachelor’s degree in international development at Davidson College in North Carolina, where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.
