The Emerita Board honors and draws on the collective wisdom and experience of members who have helped lead Many Hands in the past. All previous Board members are invited to join the Emerita Board. The Emerita Board meets periodically with the Board of Directors but does not play a governing role.

Strengthening Communities

Our grants support women, children, and families in socioeconomic need.

Empowering Nonprofits

We combine donors’ gifts into large unrestricted grants that respect nonprofit expertise.

Engaging Members

Members drive the grantmaking process in our collaborative, all-volunteer model.

Elizabeth Bausch
Elizabeth Bausch
Elizabeth served on the Many Hands Board in a variety of capacities from 2014 to 2020 and remains deeply committed to the organization. Elizabeth is a trustee of the…

…Children’s Law Center, where she serves as board secretary and chairs the Program Committee. She is a reading tutor in the DC public schools with Reading Partners and, together with her family, delivers meals and groceries to medically vulnerable members of our community for Food & Friends. Previously, Elizabeth served as trustee and board chair of Concord Hill School and trustee and president of the Nord Family Foundation, a leading grantmaking organization in northeast Ohio. She is a former television and interactive media producer for WETA and was a producer on the flagship PBS weekly news program, “Washington Week.”

Susie Berenson
Susie Berenson
Susie is the founder of Many Hands.
Ana Collins
Ana Collins
Ana’s professional career was in commercial real estate finance with Morgan Stanley, CS First Boston, and Cassidy & Pinkard before she retired to raise her three children…

…on a full-time basis. She is a founding Board member of Many Hands and served as Treasurer during her 15 years of board service. In addition, she chaired the Education, Health, and Housing Focus Area Committees numerous times. Ana is a native Washingtonian and was an active volunteer at Norwood School, Georgetown Visitation, and Landon School during her children’s school years, and today is a volunteer and active supporter at a number of local nonprofits.

Melissa Rose Dennis
Melissa Rose Dennis
Melissa served on the Many Hands Board from 2017 to 2023. As a regulatory attorney in the US Federal Government, she has worked for more than a decade to help…

…assure the security of retirement, health, and other workplace-related benefits of America’s workers and their families. Melissa serves as treasurer for her neighborhood association and on the board of the Parents Council of Washington. She served as secretary of the Many Hands board from 2018 to 2022.

Tracy Ganti
Tracy Ganti
Tracy is Director, Corporate and Foundation Relations at World Central Kitchen. In her role she cultivates relationships that align WCK’s work with the philanthropic and…

… business goals of institutional supporters. Tracy has over 18 years of experience in revenue generation, relationship management, and strategic planning in both nonprofit organizations and Fortune 100 companies. Tracy volunteers as a nonprofit strategy consultant with Compass Pro Bono and serves as an application reviewer for Spur Local. Tracy also serves on the Advisory Board of Horizons Greater Washington.

Wendy Gray
Wendy Gray
Wendy served on the Many Hands Board from 2016 to 2022. For over 20 years, she was a Senior Associate with the Center for the Support of Families, where she worked…

…with the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement andmany states on projects including business process improvement; strategic planning, performance measurement; training; meeting facilitation; development of outreach materials; technical assistance; and program assessment. Prior to rejoining CSF in 2005, Wendy was the first Executive Director of the Center for Mental Health Outreach at Georgetown University Hospital.

Regina Hall
Regina Hall
Regina, a co-founder of Many Hands, served on the Board from 2003 until 2017. During that time, she chaired multiple Focus Area Committees and was responsible for…

…marketing and communications.Her favorite things about being involved with Many Hands include: making site visits to inspiring nonprofits, working with committed women who want to make a difference in the community, and gathering at the end of the grantmaking cycle to hear the finalists’ presentations. Regina is incredibly proud that Many Hands has granted over $2.5 million to organizations helping women, children, and families in the metropolitan area. Prior to her involvement with Many Hands, Regina worked in advertising and publishing in New York and Washington and was an active supporter at her children’s schools. Since leaving the Many Hands Board, she has been a volunteer for Compass Greater Washington pro bono consulting, a grant reviewer for the Catalogue for Philanthropy, and an alumna interviewer for her alma mater. Regina resides in Potomac, MD with her husband and has four grown children.

Ellen Kay
Ellen Kay
Ellen served on the Many Hands Board for ten years. During her tenure, she chaired several focus area committees but her major contributions were in technology and…

…grantmaking. She took the lead in designing the first Many Hands website and moved the Many Hands donor management into DonorPerfect, an online CRM for nonprofits. Together with fellow Board member Jill Meyer, she also created an online grants management system using LOIs and a more equitable method of evaluating grant proposals. Prior to her involvement with Many Hands, Ellen was a development and fundraising professional at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Georgetown Day School.

Leslie Lawley
Leslie Lawley
Leslie is a founding member of Many Hands and served on its Board from 2004 until 2019. As a member of Many Hands, she chaired the Education and Health Focus…

…Area Committees and also served as Secretary and President of the organization. Leslie is an attorney whose practice focused on corporate transactions in the healthcare field. She served on the Board of Trustees of Holton-Arms School for nine years, four of those years as President of the Board. Leslie is an active volunteer with Greater DC Diaper Bank and Reading Partners.

 

Noni Lindahl
Noni Lindahl
Noni served on the Many Hands Board from 2006 to 2017 and founded the Membership Committee. Her professional career has spanned several decades and functions,…

…beginning in marketing, public relations, and fundraising in the performing arts, first with the Boston Ballet and later as a faculty member at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts. Early childhood education became her second career in the 1990s. After fifteen years of teaching, she is now the director of Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church Nursery School.

Noni has held numerous board positions including with Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville, VA , the Combined Cathedral Crew Rowing Club, and the Catalogue for Philanthropy.  She recently joined the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum Board.

Noni lives with her husband Rich in Chevy Chase, MD and has three grown daughters.

Jill Rosenbaum Meyer
Jill Rosenbaum Meyer
Jill is an award-winning news and documentary producer. Her work has appeared on PBS, the New York Times online, CBS News, ABC News, and the…

…Smithsonian Channel. She spent 13 years on the Many Hands Board, and is a former board member and current member of the Council of Advisors at Levine Music. In addition, she mentors young women through Brown University’s Women’s Launch Pad and is a lifelong classical piano student.

Anna Gunnarsson Pfeiffer
Anna Gunnarsson Pfeiffer
Anna was a member of the Many Hands board from 2017 to 2023. She built her career in sales and marketing with AT&T and has served on the boards of numerous…

… nonprofit organizations, including Duke University, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Washington National Opera, the Capital Speakers Club, the Parents Council of Washington, Holton-Arms School, and St. Francis Episcopal Day School. Anna graduated from Duke University with a degree in economics and earned her MBA in marketing from The George Washington University.

Jane Paul
Jane Paul
Jane served on the Many Hands Board from 2022 to 2023. She is a non-profit director and volunteer with focuses on education and the environment. A former museum…

…professional, she managed the national traveling exhibition programs and the federal leadership lending program for the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Recent volunteer roles include Chair of the Board of the Rock Creek Conservancy and Parents’ Association VP at St Albans School. She lives, and raises two sons, in Washington, DC.

Kim Pham
Kim Pham
Kim has been a member of Many Hands since 2013 and was the first minority member on the Many Hands Board of Directors. During her term, she raised…

… over $50,000 in funds and recruited new members, co-chaired the Education Focus Area Committee, and conducted research and made recommendations on how to improve the process to nominate new Board members. Kim advocated for diversity, equity, and inclusion at Many Hands, which led to training and education initiatives at the Board and member levels. She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Boston University and studied wealth and risk management at the College for Financial Planning. She is the director at a boutique intellectual property law firm in Potomac, MD, where she is responsible for business, compliance, and human resources matters.

Kim is a former refugee from South Viet Nam. She is a parent of three independent, kind, and respectful young adults. Her proudest achievement is successfully creating a school equipped with a team of specialists, evidence-based curriculum, and teaching approaches that catered to the strengths and needs of her nontraditional learner child. In her spare time, Kim enjoys learning, working outdoors, and engaging in her community.

Tara Brennan Primis
Tara Brennan Primis
Tara has been a member of Many Hands since 2010 and served on the Board in various capacities from 2014 to 2020. Tara is an attorney who previously worked at the…

…law firm of Shaw Pittman Pillsbury Winthrop, where she specialized in public and private equity work. She has also served as trustee at Norwood School for six years and on the board of Kenwood Citizens Association for 10 years. She currently serves on the College Advisory Committee of Brown University as well as the Brown Annual Fund Leadership Committee. Tara also volunteers on a variety of committees at Sidwell Friends School. She lives in Chevy Chase, MD with her husband Craig and their three children.

Susan M. Sarver
Susan M. Sarver
Susan recently retired as a program officer with a national foundation where she developed a portfolio of education and research projects that supported…

…community-based efforts to improve financial security, particularly among lower-income employees. She continues to consult with nonprofit organizations across a range of topics, including program development and implementation, strategic partnerships, small-dollar lending, program evaluation, and governance. Susan holds a degree from the George Washington University Law School, where her scholarship focused on dispute resolution and consumer protection.

Julie Citren Smith
Julie Citren Smith