Nicky Goren, President
Nicky Goren is president and CEO of Washington Area Women’s Foundation, which mobilizes the community to ensure that economically vulnerable women and girls in the Washington region have the resources they need to thrive.  Nicky’s impact on the community and the Foundation was recognized in 2011 when she was named to Washingtonian magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Women list and given Washington Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business award.

Nicky came to The Women’s Foundation after 12 years at the Corporation for National and Community Service.  The Corporation is the nation’s largest grantmaker supporting service and volunteering.  Nicky began her career at the Corporation in 1998 as associate general counsel.  She also served as chief of staff before becoming acting chief executive officer.  As acting CEO, Nicky led the agency through the transition between administrations and laid the foundation for the Obama Administration’s service plans.

Prior to joining the Corporation, Nicky spent five years in the legislative branch, first as assistant general counsel in the Congressional Budget Office and then as counsel in the Office of Compliance.

Raised in the United States and Britain, Nicky is a graduate of Cornell Law School and Brandeis University.  She is fluent in French and has a working knowledge of Spanish.  Nicky lives in the District with her husband and two sons.

Jennifer Lockwood-Shabat, Vice President
Jennifer provides strategic and programmatic guidance and leadership across the Foundation and oversees the major gifts and development function of the organization.

She has spent the past 14 years working to improve the lives of low-income and under-served women and girls.  Prior to joining The Women’s Foundation, Jennifer served as the Director of Public Policy at the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, where she advocated on behalf of publicly funded family planning clinics and worked to improve access to family planning services for the low-income and uninsured.  Prior to that, she spent nearly 10 years at Women’s Policy, Inc., where she directed the organization’s policy research and analysis and worked extensively with the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues.  She holds a master’s degree in international policy studies with a concentration in women in development from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of New Hampshire.  She serves on the board of the Falls Church-McLean Children’s Center and co-chaired The Women’s Foundation’s 2007 Leadership Awards.

Donna Wiedeman, Executive Assistant to the President
In addition to providing administrative support to the President and Board of Directors, Donna is responsible for the day-to-day financial management of The Foundation.  Donna’s  first “real job” as  a Girl Scout camp counselor set the tone for a career in the nonprofit arena, working in such varied positions as a child-care worker at a residential treatment center for emotionally disturbed children, a bus driver for slightly less troubled children, general manager for a puppet company, and administrator for a pet-therapy organization.  She spent 15 years working for In Trust, Inc., an organization that works with trustees and key administrators to improve the governance of graduate theological schools in the U.S. and Canada.  While there, she provided the administrative support that saw the organization grow from a project of the Lilly Endowment into a 501(c)3 membership organization with multi-faceted educational programs and a broad funding base. She came to The Women’s Foundation from Volunteer Alexandria where she was director of operations.  Donna serves on the Finance Committee of BalletNova, formerly Arlington Center for Dance.

Nicole Cozier, Chief of Strategic Operations
Nicole leads internal operations for The Women’s Foundation and ensures cross-organizational implementation of the 2011 strategic plan.  She also oversees the Foundation’s two giving circles: the Rainmakers Giving Circle and the African American Women’s Giving Circle. Additionally, she represents The Women’s Foundation on the grant collaborative team of the Partnership for Prince George’s County. Nicole joined the Foundation staff in 2008 as a philanthropic education officer.

Nicole has 15 years of non-profit experience working on behalf of women and girls, half of which have been in the philanthropic sector.   She began her philanthropic journey with Women & Philanthropy, a 30-year-old affinity group that worked to increase women’s leadership in the philanthropic sector and increase philanthropic dollars to women and girls.  Prior to that, Nicole spent many years working the health care community in both advocacy and direct service.  Nicole has served on the board of directors for Funders for LGBTQ Issues and the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Mautner Project.  Nicole holds an MBA and MS from Temple University, as well as an honors bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto.  A resident of the metro Washington area for 13 years, Nicole has also lived in Philadelphia, New Jersey, USVI, Canada and Barbados.

Mariah Craven, Director of Communications & Marketing
Mariah manages The Women’s Foundation’s external communications using new media, social media and traditional media to keep supporters informed and engaged, and to raise the public profile of the organization.  She maintains The Women’s Foundation website, blog and social media services, which include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.  She also writes The Foundation’s e-newsletters and develops online giving campaigns.

Prior to joining Washington Area Women’s Foundation, Mariah served as press secretary for a New York City mayoral campaign.  Before that, she worked as a broadcast journalist in New York, Kentucky and Minnesota.  In addition to covering general news, she focused on topics including healthcare, poverty, immigration, and women’s issues.  Mariah used her skills and interests to produce a documentary about women in southern Louisiana who were doing outstanding work to help their communities recover from the 2005 hurricane season.  Mariah has a master’s degree in journalism from New York University and a bachelor’s degree in English from Boston University.

Helen French, Director of Development
Helen is responsible for developing and implementing the Foundation’s development strategies, philanthropic and donor programs, and fundraising events and appeals.  She has worked in the non-profit sector for 15 years.  She started her career with the Ms. Foundation for Women, running the Executive Office and cutting her teeth on development projects.  As a founding staff member of The White House Project, a women’s leadership organization, she was instrumental in identifying and engaging the national board of directors and worked closely with the president to secure over $2 million dollars in pledges and gifts for the organization.

During her tenure as the Director of the Douglass Annual Fund at the Associate Alumnae of Douglass College, Helen worked with a base constituency of 36,000 alumnae and also helped with the campaign to Save Douglass College.

She is excited to work with the wonderful friends and supporters of Washington Area Women’s Foundation and looks forward to meeting or talking to each and every one of you at some point!  For any questions, comments and suggestions please don’t hesitate to contact Helen.

Maya C. Garrett, Early Care and Education Program Officer
Maya coordinates and manages the Early Care and Education Funders Collaborative, a collective funding effort supported and directed by corporate funders and local and national foundations.  Prior to joining The Women’s Foundation, Maya worked with a diverse group of philanthropic and direct services and advocacy organizations providing them with the resources needed to improve their capacity to make informed decisions through research, policy and best practice strategies.  She has dedicated her career to improving the nonprofit sector, accumulating over ten years of experience in developing, planning, implementing, facilitating, evaluating and coordinating nonprofit programs and philanthropic initiatives.

Maya graduated from the University of Maryland-College Park where she studied psychology and family studies.  She obtained her Master of Science degree in administration and organization management with a specialization in nonprofit management at Trinity University in Washington, DC.

Latricia Allen Crosby, Grants Manager

Latricia is responsible for developing, managing and streamlining The Women’s Foundation’s grantmaking process and procedures.  This includes monitoring grants through their life cycles, managing data integrity and serving as the GIFTS administrator.  Latricia also works closely with Foundation staff to provide logistical support for community engagement events.

She brings a wide range of office and event planning skills to the Foundation, including 17 years of administrative and sales support from her former work at United Parcel Service (UPS Atlanta) and Future View, Inc. in Washington, D.C.  Additionally, Latricia brings six years of event management experience after working as a meeting and conference planner for Danya International and managing numerous conferences and trainings attended by over 2,500 participants.  Latricia is a native Washingtonian and has worked on Capitol Hill for the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues and for Congressman Julian C. Dixon (D-CA).

Latricia also owns a small business, Girl Friday on The Go!, which merges many of her creative talents and work experience.  Latricia earned her B.A. in English with a concentration in African-American Studies at University of Maryland University College and is enrolled in a dual master’s degree program in public relations and business administration.

Julliet Boye, Development Associate
Julliet supports the development team in the implementation of the development plan and the attainment of the overall donor cultivation and fundraising goals of The Women’s Foundation.  Julliet has spent the last seven years working in the non-profit sector in program implementation and development, financial oversight and administrative support both at the national and international level.

Prior to coming to The Women’s Foundation she worked as a program and finance associate with the American Bar Association Africa Law Initiative in Washington, D.C., working closely with the program team to implement a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded project on trafficking in human beings in East Africa. This project afforded her the opportunity to cut her teeth in the area of research and advocacy on women’s issues. She further explored her interests in women’s and girls’ issues when she studied conflict analysis and resolution at the George Mason University. Here, she had the opportunity to travel to post-conflict Liberia in West Africa on an experiential learning program where she worked with women in a variety of peace building projects.

A native of Ghana, Julliet holds a bachelors of arts degree in international affairs from the James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia and recently completed a master’s of science degree in conflict analysis and resolution from the George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia.

Sequoia Williams, Office Assistant
A native Washingtonian, Sequoia came to The Women’s Foundation in the fall of 2009 with more than seven years of administrative experience.  Her diverse work experiences have included an internship at Summit Health Institute of Research and Education and jobs at Jackson Hewitt and a home health care facility.  Sequoia has also spent time volunteering at homeless shelters.  She came to Washington Area Women’s Foundation though Training Futures, a Grantee Partner in northern Virginia that helps people move from dead-end jobs or sporadic employment to stable, professional careers.  At Training Futures, Sequoia got refresher courses on computer software along with public speaking training.  She started at The Women’s Foundation as an intern, but was quickly promoted to Office Assistant.  Sequoia says her time at The Women’s Foundation has piqued her interest in nonprofits, and she plans to continue to work with organizations that help the people of D.C. who are in need.