We are very honored to welcome three new members to the Archstone Foundation Board of Directors.
- Theresa Marino is a long-time nonprofit leader in the Long Beach community, a former member of the Long Beach Health Department, and an advocate for aging issues.
- Cynthia Banks recently retired from her final position in government as the Director of Los Angeles County's Workforce Development, Aging, and Community Services Department. She is currently serving as Interim President and CEO at the American Society on Aging.
- Heather Young, PhD, RN, FAAN, is Professor and Dean Emerita of the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, having served as its founding dean for ten years, ending in 2018. She is currently national program director of the newly announced Betty Irene Moore Fellowship Program for Nurse Leaders and Innovators.
They take the places of long-time Board members: Joseph F. Prevratil, JD, Mark D. Smith, MD, and Robert C. Maxson, EdD—all of whom helped build Archstone Foundation into what it is today.
There are lots of hard jobs in the nonprofit sector—from standing in the cold collecting donations for the Salvation Army to trying to find, build trust with, and help people who are homeless and suffering from serious mental illness. But at least people taking on these challenges and all of society knows that their work will be hard.
By contrast, being a Foundation board member looks easy but is anything but. After serving on and reporting to boards for many years, I feel confident in saying that being a board member is a profoundly unnatural act. A nonprofit board member is responsible for the success or failure of an organization. And yet he or she has virtually no power as an individual and can act only through the collective. Board members are usually selected from people who have outstanding careers as doers and leaders; but as a board member, they do not do, and their leadership is often far behind the scenes. They don’t even “get to” raise money as private foundations can’t really accept donations after their initial gift.
And yet, for an organization to be successful, it must have a strong board. The board must be able to look into the future and see new risks and opportunities. The board must support the organization to take appropriate risks and to accept and learn when even a well-calculated risk results in a strikeout rather than a home run. The board must be able to bring a wide diversity of experience and knowledge to its work and simultaneously have the uncommon skill of refining that diversity into a working consensus—a board only governs when it acts together. The board must both support the organization and hold its leadership, as well as itself, accountable for performance and behavior. And “worst” of all there are few rules, definitions, or absolutes to guide the work. There is no analog of the bottom line in “Generally Accepted Accounting Practices” that tells you if you are doing the right things or having the “impact” you should.
We warned our new members of all this, and yet they joined us anyway. We are very grateful for our entire Board of Directors at Archstone Foundation, as well as our three new members. We are confident that they have the skills in governance, the commitment to our mission in aging, and the wisdom to help guide the Foundation into the future. Their task is hard, but we hope also meaningful and rewarding.
