Ambassador Donald McHenry, Chair
Joan Dassin, Executive Director, IFP, board member ex-officio
Ambassador Harriet Elam-Thomas
Pablo J. Farias
Victor J. Goldberg
Karen A. Holbrook
Barron M. Tenny
Darren Walker
Donald McHenry
Donald McHenry served as Ambassador and U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations from September 1979 until January 1981. He also served as a member of President Carter's Cabinet, and as Ambassador and U.S. Deputy Representative to the U.N. Security Council. He has studied, taught and worked in the fields of foreign policy and international law and organizations. He is the author of Micronesia: Trust Betrayed (Carnegie Endowment, 1975) and numerous articles published in professional journals and newspapers. Currently, Ambassador McHenry is a Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and president of the IRC Group, an international consulting firm.
Ambassador McHenry received his B.A. from Illinois State University, his M.A. from Southern Illinois University and has done post-graduate work at Georgetown University.
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Pablo J. Farías
Pablo J. Farías is Vice-President for the Asset Building and Community Development Program of the Ford Foundation, one of the three programmatic areas for the Foundation. With a staff of 28 Program Officers in New York and 12 offices around the world, this program focuses on reducing poverty by expanding the asset base of marginalized communities, families and individuals and developing strategies to expand participation in development opportunities and the achievement of sustainable livelihoods, economic security and strong communities.
Dr. Farías joined the Ford Foundation in 1998 and served until 2003 as Representative of the Foundation for Mexico and Central America. He also served as Deputy to the Vice-President in the Assets Program, supporting the design of program strategies and the development of analysis and learning activities.
Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, Dr. Farías was the founding Director General of the College of the Southern Border (ECOSUR) in Chiapas, Mexico, a research institute focused on the challenges of poverty alleviation and sustainable development in the tropical rural areas of Southern Mexico. As founding director, Dr. Farías oversaw the development of the institutional research, postgraduate education and outreach programs and the establishment of institutional facilities in the states along Mexico’s southern border. Dr. Farías began his career in social medicine and mental health working in the refugee camps along the Mexico-Guatemala border. Together with a group of community health advocates, he established the Comitan Center for Health Research, an organization focused on reproductive health, community mental health resources and development in rural areas.
A native of Monterrey, Mexico, he studied medicine at the University of Monterrey and trained in Psychiatry at the Cambridge Hospital, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was also a fellow in Medical Anthropology. He lives with his wife and three children in New York City.
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Victor J. Goldberg
Victor J. Goldberg is presently an independent business consultant. He retired from IBM in 1993 as a corporate vice president after 34 years during which he worked as president of a manufacturing and product development division, president of a marketing division, and head of three different corporate staffs.
Mr. Goldberg received both his B.S.B.A. and his M.B.A. degrees from Northwestern University. He joined the Board of Trustees of the Institute of International Education in 1979. He is a Vice Chairman of the Board, and a member of the Executive Committee.
He also serves on the Board of Governors of the American Jewish Committee, and the boards of the Mental Health Association of Westchester County, New Alternatives for Children, and Education Through Music.
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Karen A. Holbrook
Dr. Karen A. Holbrook was appointed the 13th president of The Ohio State University on October 1, 2002 after serving in several previous capacities at the University of Georgia, including Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. In addition, Dr. Holbrook has also held the posts of Associate Chairman and Professor of Biological Structure and Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, as well as Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School as well as Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology and Medicine (dermatology) at the University of Florida, Gainesville.
Throughout her career, Dr. Holbrook has held leadership roles and participated extensively in the activities of professional and honorary societies. She is on the Board of Directors of ACT, the Institute for International Education, ACGME (National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges) and NASULGC (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education). A prolific publisher and author, her service on faculty committees, economic development groups, search committees and other academic activities is extensive. She has been deeply involved in national and regional efforts to strengthen graduate education in America and has been active in economic development partnerships at both the community and state levels.
Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Dr. Holbrook earned her B.S. and M.S. degrees in zoology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1963 and 1966, respectively. After teaching biology at Ripon College for three years, she earned a Ph.D. in biological structure from the University of Washington, School of Medicine in 1972 and pursued postdoctoral training in the Department of Dermatology.
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Barron M. Tenny
Barron M. Tenny is Executive Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel of the Ford Foundation, serving in that position since 1996. He joined the Foundation in 1983 as special assistant to the President and was made Vice President, Secretary, and General Counsel in 1984.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Mr. Tenny was general counsel, vice president, and assistant secretary of Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, a community development corporation in Brooklyn, New York. From 1970 to 1974 he was an attorney with the New York law firm of Greenbaum, Wolff & Ernst.
Mr. Tenny graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1969. He received his bachelor's degree in history and science from Harvard College.
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Ambassador Harriet Elam-Thomas
Ambassador Harriet Elam-Thomas retired from the U.S. Senior Foreign Service in 2005 with the rank of Career Minister, following four decades of service. Her varied overseas assignments have taken her to Greece, Turkey, France, Belgium, Senegal, Mali and Cote d’Ivoire. Ambassador Elam-Thomas has been the recipient of four honorary doctorates, from Simmons College in Boston, the American University in London, Suffolk University in Boston and the University of Central Florida in Orlando. She holds a B.S. degree in International Business from Simmons College in Boston and a M.S. in Public Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Formerly the Diplomat-in-Residence at the University of Central Florida, Ambassador Elam-Thomas directs a new Diplomacy Program at the University. She is a Member of The American Academy of Diplomacy and serves on the Board of The Institute for International Education, The Cultural Academy for Excellence and the Board of Cooperators at Simmons College. Ambassador Elam-Thomas was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She and her husband Wilfred J. Thomas reside in Central Florida.
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Darren Walker
Darren Walker leads the Ford Foundation's Education, Creativity, and Free Expression Program. As Vice President of one of the Foundation's three major programs, he guides grant making in public education reform, higher education, arts, media, sexuality reproductive health and religion. Darren joined the Ford Foundation in 2010. Previously, he was Vice President for foundation initiatives at the Rockefeller Foundation, where he oversaw a broad range of programs in the United States and internationally. Darren also served as Chief Operating Officer of the Abyssinian Development Corporation, a community organization in Harlem.
He was involved in two of Harlem's largest privately financed commercial projects in 30 years; and he oversaw the development of the first public school build in New York City by a community organization. He has taught housing, law, and urban development at the NYU School of Law and the Robert Wagner School of Public Service, and is a Fellow at the Institute for Urban Design.
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Joan Dassin
Dr. Joan Dassin is the Executive Director of the International Fellowships Fund, Inc., established in 2001 to implement and oversee the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program. Dr. Dassin was Representative for the Ford Foundation Office in Brazil from 1989 to 1992 and served as the Foundations Regional Director for Latin America from 1992 to 1996. She has also worked as an independent consultant on international education projects based in Washington, D.C., and served as Basic Education Adviser to the Latin American and Caribbean Bureau of USAID, based at the Academy for Educational Development in Washington, D.C. A recipient of three Fulbright fellowships as well as other academic grants and awards, Dr. Dassin has a long-standing professional and personal commitment to international education. Before joining the Ford Foundation, she taught English and Latin American Studies at Amherst College and at Fordham and Columbia universities, and also worked as the Staff Associate for Latin America at the Social Science Research Council.
Dr. Dassin has a PhD and an MA in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University and a BA in English and American Literature from Brandeis University. Among her publications are a co-edited volume, Training a New Generation of Leaders (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars), as well as books and articles on human rights, culture and politics in Brazil and Latin America.
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