Bios
Chair
Paulette has worked on women's rights, economic justice, and philanthropic consulting for 30 years. She founded Women's Initiative for Self Employment (WISE), a San Franciscononprofit that trains and finances low-income women to start microenterprises. Paulette is currently Chair of the WDN Board. She is also Chair of Equal Rights Advocates (ERA), a national women's rights law firm. ERA engages in high impact ...
Kathleen AndresonProgram & Communications Manager
Over the past ten years, Kathy Andreson, who manages Program and Communications responsibilities for us, has become an integral part of WDN. From conference planning and call scheduling to facilitating member communications, Kathy has a unique ability to recognize and fill needs wherever needed. "The one-on-one contact with WDN staff, members, prospective members, and organizations with which we collaborate is always inspiring on ...
Vice Chair
Deborah Drysdale, PhD recently "retired" from her 30 year private practice as a family therapist, clinical consultant, and teacher in San Francisco. Committed to working for social justice on a deep and strategic level, she has rekindled her 60's civil rights, anti-war, and feminist efforts and "come out" as a donor activist. Her special interests are in movement building, ...
Secretary
After an early chequered career as an academic, Nancy has spent the last 25 years as a social and political activist, donor organizer, fundraiser, and consultant to foundations and individual donors, as well as NGO's. She is currently a senior consultant with Fusion Consultants, which provides a full range of capacity building services for progressive nonprofit organizations and ...
Angela BottumChief Financial Officer
Angela Bottum, our Chief Financial Officer, joined us in January of 2006. Angela handles accounting, investments, and human resources, works closely with the President & CEO on budgeting and operational issues, and manages the financial aspects of our grantmaking initiatives. Before coming to WDN, Angela worked for four years as the Chief Financial Officer ...
Treasurer
Wendy C. Wolf, PhD is a political activist and philanthropist who is interested in organizing women donors in support of progressive social change. She is one of the key individuals organizing the Women Donors Network's work on reproductive justice. She is the treasurer of WDN's board, as well as the head of WDN's action activities. She has worked tirelessly to elect ...
Nancy Aronson is happily retired, splitting her time between New Orleans and Vermont. She has a B.A. and M.B.A. from Tulane University and and M.S.W. from McGill. She worked in the child welfare field for a number of years, had two children and then became the founding Executive Director of the Institute of Mental Hygiene (IMH) a private foundation that supports progressive ...
Perry GoldAdministrative/Program Assistant
Perry Gold joined WDN as an Administrative/Program Assistant in September of 2008. Perry grew up in Seattle and attended Tufts University, where she majored in both Religion and History. During her time at Tufts, Perry's research focused on marginalized groups and the ways in which social structures perpetuate inequality. Perry loves travel and trying new things, and, after graduating from Tufts in ...
A donor activist, Kathy partners with progressive donors, political activists as well as non-profit organizations. She is a National Advisor for the Global Fund for Women, Chair of the VerdePartnershipGarden's Executive Committee (a school based community garden in Richmond CA), a new Board member of the Women Donors Network, and is one of the founders of WDN's Reproductive ...
Chris Desser is a fellow of the Tomales Bay Institute, a think tank focused on developing the concept of The Commons as an overarching analytical structure organizing across sectors and disciplines. Her current focus is The Catalog of Extinct Experience, an art installation about extinct and vanishing experiences in the natural world-like sipping water from a stream or seeing stars in the ...