Staff

Philip Li, President & CEO

Philip Li is the President & CEO of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation. Prior to joining the foundation in 2016, Phil served as the Chief Operating Officer at The Century Foundation, a public policy think tank, and before that at the Brooklyn Community Foundation, where he helped the organization convert from a private foundation to a public charity. For four years he led the philanthropic practice at Changing Our World, a nonprofit consultancy and prior to that he worked with the Annie E. Casey Foundation on two of its leadership development initiatives. Phil served as the Executive Director of the Coro New York Leadership Center, a nonprofit that trains and develops individuals interested in public affairs for four years.  He was introduced to Coro as a participant in its Leadership New York program, which prompted him to jump to the nonprofit sector from Wall Street. He started his career at Merrill Lynch and finished it rating junk bonds at Moody’s Investors Service. 

Phil is co-chair of the Leadership Funders Group and a member of the Steering Committee of the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project. He currently serves on the boards of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, United Philanthropy Forum along with two family foundations, and is a past chair of Philanthropy New York, the regional association of grantmakers in New York City.  A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Phil has a BA in Economics and Biology and an MBA from The Wharton School in Finance and Strategic Planning.  

Lisa Pilar Cowan, Vice President

Lisa Cowan is the Vice President and in this capacity she helps with strategy, development and oversight of foundation programs and grantmaking. Lisa has been working with community-based organizations for the last 25 years, first as a community health educator and program director at several youth-serving agencies, then as a Senior Consultant at Community Resource Exchange. Lisa was the Co-Founder of College Access: Research and Action, where she continues to act as an advisor. Most recently, Lisa was the Principal Consultant at Hummingbird Consulting from 2013-2016.

Lisa sits on the board of Brooklyn Workforce Innovations. She served as the Board President of the Red Hook Initiative from 2005-2013. Lisa is a third-generation New Yorker. She graduated from Wesleyan University and was a Coro Fellow in New York City. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Senior Director of Leadership Research & Practice

Trish Adobea Tchume is a first generation Ghanaian-American, a social and racial justice advocate, facilitator and trainer. She is proud to be the senior director of leadership research and practice. In this role, Trish ensures a continuous learning loop between grantees, the foundation, and the leadership development field by connecting NYC grantees with relevant national resources, overseeing the foundation’s Exploring Leadership initiative, and designing the internal systems that hold RSCF accountable to its theory of change. She brings a breadth of experience from her most recent role as the director of leadership development at the Center for Community Change and from former roles as executive director of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, the network organizer for Within Our Lifetime: A Network to End Racism, and the director of civic engagement for the Building Movement Project. 

Trish is a Brooklynite, a proud auntie, a beach stan, and devotes her volunteer time to cool projects like the Central Brooklyn Food Coop and the boards of Change Elemental and the New York Foundation. Trish holds a Masters in Education and has been published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Network Weaver, and the Nonprofit Quarterly among others.

Alicia Sylvia, Grants and Project Manager

Alicia Sylvia is the Sterling Network NYC Associate, an initiative of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation. Alicia supports the growth, coordination and operations of the Sterling Network. She helps foster and support the relationships with Network Participants to build cross-sector partnerships and collaborations that bring about real-world, concrete systems-change. In addition, to her role, Alicia represents the Foundation on several initiatives and builds relationships with other funders and grantees.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Alicia worked for a number of health-related organizations that have contributed to her extensive knowledge of business and operational procedures in both the private and public sectors. Alicia holds a B.A. degree from Hunter College, City University of New York.

Daisy Martinez, Operations Manager

Daisy Martinez is the Operations Manager at the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation. Daisy is responsible for executing the administrative responsibilities throughout the organization.

Prior to joining the Clark Foundation, Daisy worked for over 11 years at Philanthropy New York as the Office Manager, where she managed the office procedures and conference room facilities. Daisy holds a BA degree on Hospitality Management from Monroe College.

Board of Directors

James Allen Smith, Chair

James Allen Smith is Vice President and Director of Research and Education at the Rockefeller Archive Center. His career has spanned academia and philanthropy.

Before joining the Archive Center in 2008, he held the Waldemar A. Nielsen Chair in Philanthropy at Georgetown University where he taught about philanthropy and civil society. Prior to that, he worked with the donor to establish the Howard Gilman Foundation and was its first executive director. He was one of the founders of and served for eight years as board president of the Center for Arts and Culture. He was also a founding board member of the Creative Capital Foundation. He is a trustee emeritus of Colgate University, his undergraduate alma mater. He earned a Ph.D. in medieval history from Brown University and studied as a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Ghent (Belgium). He is the author of three books, including The Idea Brokers: Think Tanks and the Rise of the New Policy Elite, and has written widely about philanthropy, civil society, and cultural policy.

Julie Muraco, Treasurer

Julie C. Muraco is founder and Managing Partner of Praeditis Group LLC, a capital markets and business consultancy working with serial entrepreneurs, family offices, UHNW investment vehicles, and foundations and endowments seeking direct and secondary investments and alternative strategies. She is te Chair-elect of the Board of Directors for Americans for the Arts in Washington, D.C., the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing participation in the arts.  

Julie is also a member of the national advisory council for Springboard Enterprises in Washington D.C., and of the board of trustees for the Duke of Edinburgh Award U.S.A. She is FINRA licensed with a Series 7, Series 63, and Series 79. Julie holds a B.A. in finance from Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. She resides in New York City and Aspen, Colorado.

Paul Dolan, Secretary

Paul R. Dolan is the former Executive Director of ABC News International and manages negotiations and news exchange agreements with broadcasters from Australia, China, India, Germany, France, Russia, and other countries. He has also served as Editorial Manager of the ABC News program 20/20. He served as Executive Director of the One to One Foundation, which was based at ABC and funded civil rights, housing, and journalism projects focused on the developmentally disabled.

Mr. Dolan helped coordinate the philanthropic response of The Walt Disney Company and ABC following the 9/11 terror attacks. He also edited the report for the Regional Plan Association, which helped lead to the successful preservation of the 22,000-acre Sterling Forest. As a Deputy Director for Governor Hugh Carey Mr. Dolan helped edit and review an independent council’s report on the finances and operations of New York’s educational, health, prison, and mental health systems.

Daisy Auger-Dominguez

Daisy Auger-Dominguez has made it her mission to make workplaces more equitable, compassionate and inclusive. A human capital executive and workplace culture strategist, Daisy inspires and equips global organizations to think inclusively, lead with purpose, embrace courage and shape the future of work.

As the Chief People Officer at VICE Media Group, Daisy shapes, builds and reinforces the culture of the Vice teams, promotes professional growth, engagement and development, helps to accelerate business performance, and champions an equitable and inclusive employee experience.

Prior to VICE Media Group, Daisy founded and led Auger-Domínguez Ventures, a consultancy that transformed the leading companies and organizations of our times by taking them from inclusive workplace culture theory to practice through organizational psychology, applied experimentation, strategic planning and organizational capacity building. She has designed and executed organizational transformations at Moody's Investors Service, The Walt Disney Company and Google. Her impact over the past 20 years reaches across the global business, social impact, entrepreneurial and philanthropic communities.

A dynamic and sought-after speaker, Daisy writes about reimagining diversity, equity and inclusion, workplace culture and leadership. She serves on the board of directors of Planned Parenthood Federation of America as Vice-Chair, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum as Secretary of the Board, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, and on the advisory board of Facing History and Ourselves.

Diahann Billings-Burford

Diahann Billings-Burford, who has spent her career working in and lifting up diverse communities, is CEO of the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE). During the past decade, Billings-Burford held senior positions in New York City government and subsequently at Time Warner, serving some five years in each post and handling a challenging mix of responsibilities.

At Time Warner, she served as executive director, cultural investments and vice president of the Time Warner Foundation. She led the company-wide college internship, employee community engagement and community investments programs in New York City. She also managed the grant making and operations of the foundation.

As the city’s chief service officer, she headed NYC Service, a division of the mayor’s office, engaging more than 1.3 million New Yorkers in a range of volunteer activities. NYC Service worked to help New Yorkers connect to service opportunities more easily, target volunteers to address the city’s greatest needs and promote service as a core part of being a New Yorker.

At various stages of her career, Billings-Burford’s experiences have been in deeply diverse communities and in executive offices; with government agencies and education initiatives; with youth, elderly and the disadvantaged; in innovative startups; and in both publicly funded nonprofits and privately sponsored for-profits.

Billings-Burford’s experience also includes serving as deputy executive director of external affairs for City Year New York, a nonprofit service organization; director of external relations for Achievement First, a charter school management organization; director of leadership development for Prep for Prep, a leadership development organization; and an associate with the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.

She serves on the National Board of Directors for buildOn, an international organization working to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and low expectations through service learning programs in America’s under-served high schools and by building classrooms in some of the world’s economically poorest countries. She also serves on the boards of Philanthropy New York, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and Success Academy. In 2019, she was named one of Crain’s Notable Women in Sports.

Billings-Burford earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Yale University and a law degree from Columbia University School of Law and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Gregg Bishop

Bishop has made a name for himself investing in low to moderate-income communities, growing the capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME's), implementing sectoral workforce strategies, and building resilient technology infrastructure for media companies.

He is currently the Interim Executive Director of Coro New York. He is tasked with leading a civic leadership organization that believes meaningful change comes from collaboration: people in business and communities, schools and unions, government and nonprofits, working together to find creative solutions and strengthen our democracy.

Prior to this role, Bishop served as the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS) where he was charged with running a dynamic City agency focused on equity of opportunity, that leads to economic self-sufficiency and mobility for New York City's diverse communities. During his tenure, he connected small businesses to over $200 million in capital, certified a record 9,000 Minority and Women business enterprises, connected over 100,000 New Yorkers to good-paying jobs, and invested over $10 million in capacity-building programs across the five boroughs. In addition, over 10,000 city residents were trained with new skills in the technology, healthcare, industrial and manufacturing, and hospitality sectors. He also developed and launched several initiatives aimed at structural barriers minorities face, including Black Entrepreneurs NYC (BE NYC) and Women Entrepreneurs NYC (WE NYC).

Bishop has a strong track record in the nonprofit and private sectors. He served as the Senior Manager of Workforce Development at NPower, where he was responsible for doubling the capacity of Technology Service Corps, a nationally recognized technology training program for young adults aged 18-25. Prior to NPower, he served as the Director of Web Operations at Oxygen Media, where he helped guide the media company's web consolidation strategy. He has worked at several startups, including serving as Vice President of Technology Operations at TheStreet.com, where he helped build and maintain the company's internal and external technology infrastructure. He also worked at VIBE Magazine where he helped establish the publication's digital brand.

Born in Grenada and raised in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, Bishop received a master’s degree in Integrated Marketing and Management Communication from Florida State University and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in Business Administration from Florida A&M University. He studied International Management and Marketing in Tokyo, Japan, and is a graduate of Harvard Kennedy School's Senior Executives in State and Local Government program, and Coro Leadership New York.

Bishop is an adjunct professor at Baruch College's School of Public Affairs and serves on several boards including Red Hook Initiative, Junior Achievement of New York, Pursuit (formerly New York Business Development Corporation), The Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, and The Association for a Better New York (ABNY). He also serves on the Hebrew Free Loan Society Microenterpirse Committee, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Local Advisory Committee and is the Vice President of the Alpha Gamma Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

Vincent McGee

Vincent McGee is a longstanding foundation executive and donor advisor. He is also active as an advocate for human rights, non-violence, and access to health care. In 2014 and 2015 he served as the President and CEO of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation.

Earlier assignments included executive leadership of the Aaron Diamond Foundation and the Irene Diamond Fund, Senior Advisor at Atlantic Philanthropies, and board leadership at the Overbrook Foundation, Tides, The Gagarin Trust, Food Change, Hunt Alternatives Fund, D.J.B. Foundation, PATH, and Amnesty International USA. Currently Vinny is President of Frontline Foundation USA, on the boards of The Sister Fund, The Balm Foundation, The Amagansett Food Institute, The Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences of the State University of St. Petersburg, Russia, and The Center for Civic Engagement at Bard College.

 Vinny is a graduate of the University of Rochester and received an Honorary Doctorate in Law from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 2002.

Adriana Rocha

Adriana is Neighborhood Funders Group’s President and leads the next arc of the organization to mobilize its dynamic network, influence philanthropy, and connect people, place and power to support thriving communities. She is a bold, visionary leader and is responsible for external engagement, programs and membership, organizational & team management, and supports the organization’s Board of Directors and governance.  She joined NFG in May 2017 and served as Vice President of Programs for three years. In this role, she led NFG’s biennial National Convening, program team, and the development and evaluation of all new NFG programs including its Leadership Development offerings; Philanthropy Forward and Peer Coaching Circles.

She was a former NFG member while at the New York Foundation. As a member, Adriana found other foundation staff members committed to social justice and a peer network of new Program Officers, particularly other new Program Officers of Color.

Adriana brings expertise in place-based and movement-led grantmaking, organizational capacity building, and nonprofit management. Adriana served as a Program Officer at the New York Foundation and Director of Grants & Capacity Building at the Just Beginnings Collaborative. Adriana served as Practice Director for CompassPoint, a national leader in providing capacity building support to social justice leaders and organizations.

She has served on the boards of the Latino Commission on AIDS, CALNonprofits, and Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Politics from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a Master’s degree from Columbia University, Social Organizational Psychology Program. Adriana is from Toluca, Mexico and emigrated to Detroit as a child.