Jim Brady (he/him/his)
VP, Journalism, Knight Foundation

Jim Brady is the Vice President of Journalism for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Brady, who joined Knight in August 2021, is a longtime digital media innovator whose experience ranges from leading major brands such as washingtonpost.com and Digital First Media to bootstrapping a company that built and sold local news sites in three cities.

Mary Peniston (she/her/hers)
Executive Director, CT Early Childhood Funder Collaborative

Mary Peniston currently serves as the Executive Director of the CT Early Childhood Funder Collaborative (established in 2011), whose 20+ philanthropic organizations work together to improve Connecticut’s early childhood system. Previously, Mary played a key role in the start-up and growth of Child First, a national home-based intervention promoting healthy child and family development through a combination of psychotherapy and care coordination. Her past professional experiences have spanned other areas: (1) international development work including as the Women-in-Development Program Officer for the Swedish International Development Agency in Nicaragua; (2) international and community development banking (Manufacturers Hanover Trust in NYC and the NJ Community Loan Fund), and (3) school-community partnerships (as Special Assistant to the Superintendent of Norwalk Public Schools in Norwalk, CT). Mary has an MPA from the Princeton School for Public & International Affairs and a BA in Latin American History and Literature from Harvard.

Paul Di Donato (he/him/his)
President and CEO, Proteus Fund

Paul Di Donato (he/him/his) has been President and CEO of the Proteus Fund and Proteus Action League since 2016. His over 30 years of leadership includes work as a social justice activist, lobbyist, litigator, philanthropic and nonprofit executive, and Board member working across many progressive issues and movements. At Proteus Fund, Paul oversees a wide range of dynamic programming—from Donor Collaboratives and Donor Advised Funds to Fiscally Sponsored Projects (FSPs)—aimed at mobilizing and partnering with foundations and individual grantmakers to support local, state and national movement actors to advance equity, justice, and an inclusive, representative democracy.

Paige MacLean (she/her/hers)
Philanthropic Advisor/Lecturer, Yale University

Paige MacLean is a philanthropic advisor with a passion for connecting high net-worth individuals and families with powerful, impact-driven initiatives and leaders. She is also a lecturer at the Yale School of Management where she teaches a course on philanthropy. From 2010-2021, Paige was the founder and executive director of AF Accelerate, a division of the Achievement First charter network, which grew to support over 40,000 students annually during her tenure. Paige also worked at Wellspring Consulting, a non-profit strategy consulting firm, the Boston Consulting Group, and taught English on a Fulbright fellowship in the former East Germany. Paige holds an MBA from Yale and a BA from Princeton in Public Policy with a certificate in Afro-American Studies.