Maryland Philanthropy Network (the Network), a statewide membership association representing more than 130 organizations, announced the appointment of five new members to its Board of Directors, as well as the slate of officers for 2020-2021. The Network’s members steward more than $9 billion in charitable assets to maximize the impact of giving in the community. For more information about the Network, visit https://www.marylandphilanthropy.org/.

Joining the Board of Directors are: Alma Roberts, Interim Director, Kaiser Permanente’s Community Health Department; Destiny-Simone Ramjohn, Ph.D. Vice President of Community Health & Social Impact with CareFirst; Michael Bigley, Director of the Venable Foundation; Linda Keely, Founder and a Trustee of RAW Trust; Talib Horne, Director, Baltimore Civic Site - The Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Newly Appointed Officers are: Chair: Carmel Roques, Keswick Multi-Care; Vice Chair: David Daniels, Bainum Family Foundation; Treasurer: Mari Beth Moulton, Wright Family Foundation; Secretary: Brooke Hisle, The Fund for Change and the Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Fund.

“We are pleased to welcome our new board members and officers. We look forward to working together, using our collective strengths, creative thinking and commitment to advance MPN’s philanthropic leadership, actions and advocacy “said Celeste Amato, MPN’s President.

Maryland Philanthropy Network New Board Member Bios

Alma Roberts, MPH, FACHE

Alma Roberts is Interim Director in Kaiser Permanente’s Community Health Department responsible for strategic place-based initiatives, anchor partnerships in the Greater Baltimore Area including the Future Baltimore partnership with Bon Secours Community Works. She is also leading the Economic Opportunity and Impact efforts in Kaiser Permanente’s Mid-Atlantic Region. Alma is also a member of Kaiser Permanente’s newly formed National Equity Work Group. She is an experienced health care executive who has established and managed HMO subsidiaries for Kaiser Permanente (Baltimore and Suburban Maryland), Prudential Insurance (Atlanta), Grady Health System (Atlanta), and the Detroit Medical Center (Detroit). For 30 plus years, Ms. Roberts has been at the forefront of advancing the principles and practices of population health and health equity for vulnerable women, children, families, and communities across the nation. In 2014, she concluded an eight plus year tenure as CEO of Baltimore Healthy Start, Inc. one of the oldest maternal and child health nonprofits in Maryland. While there, she spearheaded the expansion of programs and services for the 2,000 women and families served annually by the organization. She is a native of Baltimore, Maryland and received her bachelor’s degree from Morgan State University and Master of Public Health from University of Michigan.

Destiny-Simone Ramjohn, Ph.D.

Destiny-Simone Ramjohn, Ph.D. serves as Vice President of Community Health & Social Impact with CareFirst, the largest health care insurer in the Mid-Atlantic region serving 3.3 million members. In this role, Dr. Ramjohn leads philanthropic giving and community engagement where people live, work, play, and seek care to drive measurable impact on health. This purposeful alignment of business impact, social impact, and health impact- with an eye toward equity- enables CareFirst to move health upstream to improve the lives of members and the communities it serves.

Creating conditions that promote health equity are at the core of Dr. Ramjohn’s personal and professional mission. Her work examines the role anchor institutions, such as academic institutions and health systems, may play in generating economic and health impacts that minimize inequities, especially jobs, added years of life from better health, reduced use of emergency departments for primary care, and more. Prior to joining CareFirst, Ramjohn spent five years with Kaiser Permanente developing measurement, evaluation, and high-impact strategies for the financial, material, and human resource investments across the Mid-Atlantic region that directly address the social determinants of health and promote health equity. 

Michael W. Bigley

Michael Bigley is the Director of the Venable Foundation. He has worked throughout his career to develop strategies for nonprofit organizations and institutional grantmakers to impact local communities in meaningful ways. Previously, he served as the Deputy Director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities which, during his tenure, grant dollars increased from $14M to $25M. For 10 years, he was the Program Officer for the arts and humanities, capacity building and HIV/AIDS with The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, one of the largest private foundations focused on the metropolitan DC region. Prior to working at the Foundation, Michael was the Director of Education at Washington Performing Arts and had a graduate fellowship in arts education while serving as the Arts-in-Education Associate at St. Bonaventure University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. Michael’s other experience includes: founding chair of Emerging Arts Leaders DC, vice-chair of the Washington AIDS Partnership and fundraising consultant for the Chance Foundation, an all-breed dog rescue organization. He has an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute, completed the Future Executive Director Fellowship with the Nonprofit Roundtable, and has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Elementary Education/Childhood Literacy from St. Bonaventure University.

Linda Keely

Linda Keely is the founder and a trustee of RAW Trust, a private operating foundation created for the purpose of re-distributing agency and wealth in Baltimore‘s Black communities and beyond.She is also a government reform advocate and subject matter expert with over 20 years of experience at the federal, state, and local levels. She is committed to engaging in the reform of the Baltimore City Police Department and the Maryland Criminal Justice system as well as revealing the truth, stopping the harm, and repairing the damage of structural racism. She has a Bachelor of Science degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and is currently working on a Master of Criminal Justice degree at the University of Baltimore. 

Talib Horne, Director, Baltimore Civic Site, The Annie E. Casey Foundation

As director of theBaltimore Civic Site, Talib Horne leads the Foundation’s efforts to improve the health and well-being of young people and families throughout the city.Horne is a leader with more than 20 years of economic development and nonprofit experience. He most recently served as executive director of Bon Secours Community Works, where he led a strategy to expand economic, educational and health opportunities in several West Baltimore neighborhoods.He also previously served as vice president of community and economic development at the Living Classrooms Foundation, a nonprofit that provides hands-on education, workforce development, health and violence-prevention programming, and executive director of the East Harbor Development Corporation, which helps low-income Baltimore residents accumulate assets and wealth. Horne is a member of the Baltimore City Planning Commission, helping to oversee major development and land projects.He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and a master’s in community economic development from Southern New Hampshire University’s School of Business.