Borealis Philanthropy is honored to be supported by a board of leaders and experts who represent the power, beauty, and wisdom of the movement and philanthropic ecosystems.
This year, we’re thrilled to welcome three new members to this group:
Stephanie Fuerstner Gillis (She/Her)
Director, Impact-Driven Philanthropy Initiative, Raikes Foundation
Stephanie Fuerstner Gillis is the director of the Raikes Foundation’s impact-driven philanthropy initiative, where she leads a portfolio of work focused on resourcing movements by supporting donors to give in ways that center equity, effectiveness, and systems change. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2017, Stephanie served as a managing director at Arabella Advisors, where she led its practice supporting family and individual donors.
Before Arabella, Stephanie was the COO and Senior Consultant at Blueprint Research + Design, Inc., supporting philanthropy clients on strategy and evaluation. Stephanie worked for over 10 years in the nonprofit sector, including in positions with the Youth Leadership Institute (a Bay Area youth development organization), the Boys & Girls Clubs of Monterey County, and the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies. She has served on the boards of a number of organizations, including College Kids and Food Runners, and has held various school leadership positions.
When she is not at work, Stephanie enjoys spending time with her family; since her sons are both in university, she currently spends more time traveling, and going on adventures with her husband and dog, Marla.
Thena Robinson Mock (She/Her)
Vice President of Programs, Public Welfare Foundation
Thena Robinson Mock is the Vice President of Programs at the Public Welfare Foundation, which she first joined as Program Director in 2021. Thena is a racial justice lawyer with over a decade of experience advancing community-led efforts for education and youth justice. Previously, she served as Program Officer at Communities for Just Schools Fund, a national donor collaborative, where she managed a grants portfolio of grassroots community organizations leading local and national efforts for education justice and an end to the criminalization of Black and Brown youth in schools and communities.
Prior to her work with Communities for Just Schools Fund, Thena served as Director of the Advancement Project’s Opportunity to Learn Program, supporting local and state-based organizing campaigns to end the school-to-prison pipeline. Thena also served as Executive Director of Rethink, a New Orleans-based youth organizing and leadership organization. Earlier in her career, Thena served as a Staff Attorney for the New Orleans office of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Thena is currently an adjunct professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, teaching the Education Justice & Civil Rights Seminar. She is a graduate of Loyola University New Orleans College of Law and Hampton University in Virginia.
Cara Reedy (She/Her)
Founder and Director, Disabled Journalists Association
Cara Reedy is the Founder and Director of the Disabled Journalists Association, a nonprofit community movement of disabled journalists that have come together to create a safe, inclusive, and accessible community for disabled journalists. She spent ten years of her career at CNN producing documentaries as well as writing for various verticals including Eatocracy and CNN Business. In 2019, she produced her most recent short doc for The Guardian entitled Dwarfism and Me, which was an exploration of the treatment of Dwarfs in American society. She has spent the last four years studying disability and its coverage in the media. As part of her work, she trains newsrooms to tell more robust and investigative stories about disability. In addition to her work in the journalism industry, she also works in narrative change in the film and TV industry and is a member of the TV Academy Diversity Committee.
We are grateful to Stephanie, Thena, Cara, and their fellow board members for devoting their time and talent to sharpening our work, extending our mission, and helping us move, daily, into deepened alignment with our vision and values.