A Community of Social Investors

Steve Alley - Founding Board Member

Steve Alley has been President/CEO of the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona since June 4, 2001. Prior to that time, he was the Director of the Community Foundations Institute and Associate Director of Public Service at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University .

Mr. Alley also served as Vice President for Development/External relations at the Central Indiana Community Foundation. He previously worked as the first President/CEO of the Community Foundation of Howard County in Kokomo , Indiana , a position he held from September, 1992 through November, 1998.

Prior to his community foundation work, Mr. Alley was community relations officer at Kokomo-Center Township Consolidated School Corporation, also in Kokomo and a broadcast journalist at radio stations in Lafayette and Kokomo , Indiana .

A 1985 graduate of Ball State University, Alley has been involved in many activities including Chairman of the Indiana Community Foundation Committee of the Indiana Donors Alliance (1995-98) and a two-time member of the Community Foundations Leadership Team (formerly Committee on Community Foundations), Council of Foundations (1996-2001, 2003-present), and is the Chairperson for the 2006 Council on Foundations Fall Conference for Community Foundations. He is also currently a participant in the Transatlantic Community Foundation Network. Mr. Alley is currently Chair of the Southern Arizona Grantmakers.

Len Coris - Board Treasurer
LEN CORIS founded Watermill Financial Group, which provides personal financial planning and wealth management services, while he was a graduate student at MIT. He received his Master's Degree in Finance from the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management in 1970, and was one of the first to earn both an M.S. in Financial Services and a Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) designation from The American College. Mr. Coris is also a Qualified Financial Planner (QFP), an Accredited Estate Planner (AEP) and a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU).

Len currently is a member of both the Dean's Board at the University of Arizona College of Fine Arts and the Board of the Arizona Theater Company and is a member of the Financial Health Advisory Council of the Carondelet Foundation. He has served as treasurer of the Board of Wild Horse Ranch Estates Homeowner's Association, and has been a member of the Board and the Gift Policy Committee of the Jewish Community Foundation.

Annual awards are provided by the Coris Family Charitable Trust to Youth on Their Own for a graduating high school senior and to the University of Arizona College of Fine Arts for a deserving graduate student.

Len is listed in Who's Who in American Finance, is an active member of the Southern Arizona Estate Planning Council and has been involved with several national professional organizations.

Susan Dubow - Founding Board Member
Susan is First Vice President-Financial Consultant with RBC Wealth Management.

While a senior at the University of Arizona , she received the Henry Adams Award of Merit and graduated with distinction with a degree in Architecture. Building on her education, she entered the field of financial consulting in 1983 and applied her experience with client interaction and structured problem solving to help clients define and achieve their financial goals.

She has served as a director on the boards of the Primavera Foundation, Comstock Children's Foundation, Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, and Jewish Community Center. The Southern Arizona Women's Fund (now the Women's Foundation) where she has served as Chairperson for a year and a half has been a significant involvement for many years. Currently she is a member of the Arizona Opera League and its Bravo! Society.

Mark Fisher - Board Chair
Mark Fisher is a Senior Project Manager for Pulice Construction Inc, in Phoenix , AZ. Specializing in large public transportation/infrastructure projects thru out Arizona . Mr. Fisher also served as Vice President for Borderland Construction Company, Tucson , AZ from 2005 to 2008. Mark serves as a Lead Partner for Literacy Volunteers of Tucson.

He has received the Association of General Contractors Marvin M Black Award, the Arizona Department of Transportation Partnering Award, the award for Contractor Quality Control from the US Army Corp of Engineers, and the Arizona Quality Initiative Award.

Frank Grundstrom
Frank Grundstrom was born in Ipswich, MA, in 1936 and spent his childhood in the nearby small town of Rowley. After high school, he enlisted in the US Air Force, serving on bases in Korea, Wyoming and Florida from l954 through 1957. While in Florida, he wrote for the base newspaper.

Upon discharge, Frank entered Boston University, graduating in l961 with a BS in journalism and went on to work as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Brookline, MA, Torrington, CT and Quincy, MA before moving to The Boston Globe in l966. Grundstrom 's career at The Globe spanned 32 years, beginning as a copy editor. He became Assistant Managing Editor for News and then Managing Editor for Administration before moving to the business side of the paper as Vice President for Human Resources in 1982. In this position, he served as The Globe representative on several community organizations.

He retired in 1998 and moved from Cambridge, MA to Tucson with his wife, Cynthia Dickstein, in 2001.

Frank is a Founding member of the Men's Anti-Violence Partnership of Southern Arizona, Chairs the Social Venture Partners Greater Tucson Investment Committee, and has served as a Partner consultant/HR for SVP Investee Voices: Community Stories Past and Present.

Richard Klipsch
Richard Klipsch evaluates and invests in real estate ventures in Southern Indiana, Southern Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Minnesota. He is also active in Desert Angels, a Southern Arizona investment group that funds start-up companies.

He began his career as an entrepreneur in Evansville, Indiana where he purchased, operated and sold several businesses. Also, in Evansville, he owned and operated Maley and Wertz Inc., a hardwood lumber accumulating plant, which he grew from $500,000 to $3,000,000 over the nearly 30 years. He continues to serve as a consultant and Board member to this operation which has now grown to $12,000,000.

Helaine Levy - Co-Founder and Co-Chair Partner Recruitment
Helaine Levy serves as the Executive Director of the Diamond Family Philanthropies whose primary focus is to provide philanthropic support to a variety of Tucson 's non-profit organizations. In addition, she serves as Director of Community Relations for Diamond Ventures, Inc., helping the real estate development company provide charitable support in key focus areas, such as the environment, economic development and children and family services.

Previously, Ms. Levy worked for Old Tucson Studios in marketing, before rising through the ranks and eventually becoming President and part-owner of the western theme park/movie studio.

She also worked briefly in real estate development with DRD Associates (which later became Diamond Ventures.)

Ms. Levy began her career in the cable television industry working for TCI in the early 1980's, after graduating from Boston University with a Bachelor's Degree in Broadcast Journalism.

Ms. Levy is on the executive committees of the Tucson Jewish Community Center and the Jewish Funders Network Board of Directors. She also chairs the Women's Foundation of Southern Arizona Advisory Council, and is a member of Southern Arizona Grantmakers and Women Investors of Tucson, which she co-founded. Other past board memberships include: The Arizona Motion Picture and Television Advisory Board; International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Board; KUAT TV/Radio Board; Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitor's Bureau; and Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Board. Helaine has also chaired and served on numerous business and civic committees.

Jill Rosenzweig
Jill has more than 40 years of experience as an educator. Since moving to Tucson, she has established herself as one of the leaders in early childhood education. She was the Early Childhood Director for the Tucson Jewish Community Center from 1992-2004 and currently is the Early Childhood Program Coordinator for the Pima County School Superintendent’s Office.

Jill earned her Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership and Administration at the University of Arizona, her Master of Arts in Special Education at Columbia University Teacher’s College in New York City and her B.S. at Simmons College in Boston, MA.

An active and engaged philanthropist both locally and internationally, Jill works tirelessly on behalf of children in need. She also serves SVP as Lead Partner for Make Way for Books.

John Smith - Vice Chair
Dr. John M Smith, a Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, is now retired from medical practice, and has had a varied career. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Alabama , John received his M.D. from the University of Alabama Health Sciences Center, then did an internship and residency at the University of Colorado. Following two years in the Air Force, he was in private practice in Colorado Springs, CO, during which he co-founded Peak Health Care, Inc, a publicly-traded HMO company, and personally developed medical networks in 15 cities in 5 states, before selling the company to United Health Group in 1987.

John is the author of "Women and Doctors, a Physicians Explosive Account of Women's Medical Treatment, and Mistreatment, in America Today". He has served on numerous boards, including the Colorado Springs Symphony(as vice-president and president), the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado, the Colorado Springs Leadership Institute, and the Kennedy Center's National Committee for the Performing Arts. He is currently the Chair of the Board of CEDPA (the Centre for Development and Population Activities), a women-centered international non-profit which works to empower women in developing countries. CEDPA headquarters are in Washington , DC .

Meredith Spear - Board Secretary
Meredith Spear recently retired as Vice President of Kurt Salmon Associates and a Principal in KSA's Health Care Consulting Group which offers comprehensive planning services in strategy, facilities and information technology. Ms. Spear is a graduate of the University of Michigan and has an MPH from Yale University . She is a former hospital executive who co-founded Space Diagnostics, Inc., in Madison , WI in 1985. The Kurt Salmon Associates Health Care Consulting Group resulted from the 2000 merger of Space Diagnostics and Hamilton/HMC. Kurt Salmon Associates is an international consumer products and health care consulting firm with 100 partners, over 500 employees and multiple offices in North America, Europe and Asia.

Ms. Spear focused her consulting practice on facility and operational planning in academic medical centers including MGH, the Brigham, UCLA, and UCSF. She remains nationally recognized for her expertise in master planning complex campuses that include clinical, research and academic components and continues to accept keynote speaking engagements. In 2004, Ms. Spear worked with Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano and the Commission on Medical Education and Research to implement a second medical school for the State in Phoenix . She also worked with UC Riverside on their successful application to the State for funding for a new medical school. Ms. Spear is highly regarded for her broad comprehension of the issues facing academic institutions, the creativity of her solutions and her ability to bring groups with diverse or competing interests to consensus.

Prior to founding Space Diagnostics, Ms. Spear spent a decade as a hospital administrator with the Department of Veterans Affairs where she was chief operating officer of the VA's medical centers in Madison and Milwaukee . During her career with the VA, Ms. Spear started the first work-place child care center, an initiative that provided a template for VA medical centers nationwide. Ms. Spear's first positions in health care were with Yale-New Haven Hospital where she implemented both the hospital's abortion program and its Women, Infants and Childrens (WIC) Food Supplement Program, one of the first activated after federal funding was made available in 1975.

Most recently, Ms. Spear has served on the Board of KSA, the first women in the firm's 75-year history to be elected to the Board, and as an outside director on the Board of CG Schmidt, a Milwaukee-based construction company. During her tenure on the Schmidt Board, the company grew from $30 million to nearly $200 million in annual revenues.

As a "retiree," Ms. Spear is rekindling her writing skills (she was managing editor of the "Michigan Daily," the University of Michigan's student newspaper, from 1967-68) and volunteering in the office of Gabriel Giffords, Tucson's newly elected Democratic Congresswoman.

Jane Wilson - Founding Board Member
Jane Wilson has extensive experience as a consultant in client project management, strategic planning and implementation, communications, and training. She has worked as an organizational consultant for the University of Arizona, a human resources consultant for TMC HealthCare, and human resources manager at Canyon Ranch Spa & Resort.

Jane holds a Master of Arts degree from Skidmore College in New York and a Bachelor of Arts from Beloit College in Wisconsin. She is a member of the Tocqueville Society (United Way) and the U of A President's Club. Jane chairs the SVP Portfolio Review Committee. She has served on the SVPGT Investment Committee and the SVP International Conference Planning Committee.

Stephanie Sklar - Executive Director

Sklar comes to SVPGT from the Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault where she has been the Executive Vice President for External Relations, responsible for communications, fund development and public policy for the state's oldest and largest provider of comprehensive services for survivors of sexual assault and their families.

She was formerly the Executive Director of the Arizona League of Conservation Voters, Arizona 's largest member-supported statewide conservation organization with offices in Tucson and Phoenix .

Before moving to Arizona in 1994, Sklar was Vice President for Public Affairs for the National Wildlife Federation, the largest environmental education organization in the US . While in DC, she also served as Vice President for Communications at The Nature Conservancy in Arlington , VA , and was appointed by President Reagan as Communications Director for the President's Commission on Americans Outdoors. She also was an Associate Director of the Small Business Center for the Chamber of Commerce of the United States .

A cum laude graduate of Vassar College , Sklar earned her M.A.T. in English from Brown University and studied post-graduate business at George Washington University .

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