Executive
Partnerships Program

Leadership: Personal Professional Development

Kym Watson and Diane Headley – Class of 2025 – bonded in Greater NY over shared management and leadership styles that center integrity and care. When the Partnership began, Watson was two years in to being President and CEO of Graham Windham, a 200-year-old child welfare organization. Headley was Chief People Officer at Ford Foundation.

Executive
Partnerships Program

Cross-Sector: Trust

James Horton and Franci Blassberg – Class of 2025 – came into the Greater NY Partnership from different professional worlds but quickly built a relationship grounded in candor and deep mutual respect. Horton, President & CEO of the Harlem School of the Arts, was navigating the first two years of his leadership of a complex cultural institution. Blassberg, a retired Senior Partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, brought decades of experience advising leaders and working closely with nonprofit Boards.

Executive
Partnerships Program

Leadership: Recommitting to Mission

Ivy Gamble-Cobb and Patrick Frawley – Class of 2025 – were matched in Greater NY as two leaders grounded in service and mission. Gamble-Cobb is the Executive Director of The Family Center, which she co-founded in 1994 to serve New York City children and families confronting illness, crisis, and loss. Frawley, now retired, spent decades at Fidelis Care, one of New York’s largest nonprofit health insurance companies. 

Executive
Partnerships Program

Cross-Sector: Political Relationships

Maria Lizardo and Bret Collazzi – Class of 2025 – came into the Greater NY Partnership as leaders working in related aspects of community development. Through sharing perspectives, they found that their different leadership positions had a powerful impact on how they thought what makes difference for communities.

Executive
Partnerships Program

Leadership: Collaboration

Taryn Sacramone and Alaina Gilligo – Class of 2024 – bonded in Greater NY over a mutual interest in crafting leadership roles grounded in collaboration. Sacramone is President of Queens Theatre and was, at the time of the Partnership, Chair of New York City's Cultural Institutions Group. She had also launched and led Culture@3, a daily COVID-era Zoom call that, at its height, convened 1000+ leaders from across the city’s arts and culture sector and now continues on a twice-weekly basis.

Executive
Partnerships Program

Cross-Sector: Deliberation

Liz Roberts and Michael Ryan – Class of 2025 – came into the Greater NY Partnership as seasoned leaders navigating complex institutions. Roberts, CEO of Safe Horizon, brought deep expertise in victim services and public systems, while Ryan, recently retired as a Partner at Cleary Gottlieb, brought decades of experience advising executives and organizations through governance and strategic inflection points. Ryan has served on a variety of nonprofit Boards, including Greater NY’s Board, and has completed five Greater NY Partnerships.

Executive Partnerships Program

Leadership: Building Bandwidth

Courtney Bryan and Adam Durrett – Class of 2024 – came into Greater NY with a shared passion for organizational transformation. Bryan had recently become CEO of the Center for Justice Innovation (CJI), and Durrett was winding down a 15-year career in private equity, where he built deep experience advising CEOs on operational change and leadership decision-making. From the outset, their Partnership met Bryan’s need for an operational thought partner with Durrett’s instinct to focus relentlessly on leadership bandwidth.

Executive
Partnerships Program

Cross-Sector: Communications

Melissa Aase and Alan Gallo – Class of 2025 – came to Greater NY from different sectors, but with a shared commitment to leadership that models clarity of thought and action. Aase is CEO of University Settlement, one of New York’s oldest social service organizations, and Gallo is Executive Vice President and Chief Audit Executive at American Express, as well as a seasoned nonprofit Board leader. Their two-year Partnership focused on how to lead transparently through uncertainty.

Executive
Partnerships Program

Leadership: Transitions

Mitchell Netburn and Robert Kasdin – Class of 2024 – came into Greater NY at a moment when both were thinking deeply about leadership legacy. Netburn is CEO of Samaritan Daytop Village, one of New York City’s largest human services organizations. Kasdin, recently retired from Johns Hopkins Medicine, brought decades of experience leading complex institutions and guiding organizations through long-term transitions.

Executive
Partnerships Program

Cross-Sector: Strategy

AiLun Ku and Sarah Pfuhl – Class of 2024 – came into Greater NY as leaders with a shared appetite for candid, fast-moving leadership conversations. Ku, then President and CEO of the Opportunity Network, was leading her organization through questions of scale, governance, and executive clarity. Pfuhl, Global General Counsel at HSBC, brought decades of experience navigating complex institutions and advising senior leaders under pressure.

Executive
Partnerships Program

Leadership: Building Crisis Muscle

Rigaud Noel and Ian Broadwater – Class of 2024 – started their Greater NY Partnership talking about management tactics for a first-time CEO but quickly pivoted their conversations to strategically navigating crisis. Their Partnership built Noel’s “crisis muscle” and offered Broadwater an opportunity to reflect on a new definition of “business value” for nonprofit business.

Executive
Partnerships Program

Leadership: Calibrating Approaches

Gary Linnen and David Resnick – Class of 2024 – came away from their Greater NY Partnership with shared learning about leadership styles and a deepened respect for leadership that looks different from their own. Linnen is CEO of PeerForward, a national organization that partners with schools and has guided more than 350,000 students toward higher education. Resnick is a longtime restructuring executive with deep nonprofit Board experience who brings structure, foresight, and operational rigor to complex leadership challenges.