ACT Board of Directors
Chair - David Frantz, Conlon, Frantz & Phelan LLP
Vice Chair - Molly Dahl, Congressional Budget Office
Secretary - Laurie Flynn
Treasurer - Chris Lewis, Federal Communications Commission
Chair Emeritus - C. Eugene Steuerle, Urban Institute
Board Member Emeritus - Lori Morris, Bruhn-Morris Family Foundation
Kurt Huffman, Alexandria City Public Schools
ACT Staff
Heather Peeler, President and Chief Executive Officer
Ms. Heather Peeler assumed her role in February 2018 and comes to ACT from Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (www.GEOfunders.org), a highly regarded organization dedicated to effective philanthropy and nonprofit success. As Vice President of Member and Partner Engagement, she mobilized a national network of more than 5,000 grantmakers in adopting practices to make the greatest impact on nonprofit performance. She previously served as Chief Strategy Officer at the Corporation for National and Community Service and as Managing Director at Community Wealth Partners. Throughout her career she has focused on bringing people together to make their organizations and their communities stronger. She regularly writes and speaks about capacity building, community engagement, collaboration, and learning and evaluation. Her own community involvement includes serving as Chair of the Board of Fair Chance, an organization that builds the capacity of grassroots youth-serving organizations, and as a Commissioner on the Washington, D.C. Commission on Out of School Time Grants and Youth Outcomes. Ms. Peeler holds a Bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts and earned her M.B.A. from The Anderson School at UCLA in Los Angeles, California.
Heather.Peeler@ACTforAlexandria.org
703-299-8440
Brandi N. Yee, Chief Program Officer
As the chief program officer, Brandi Yee oversees ACT’s philanthropic and community investment initiatives including the Capacity Building Grants Program, IMPACT: Innovation + Philanthropy, LEAD, and Spring2ACTion. She is passionate about strengthening the nonprofit sector and advising donors on strategic and effective philanthropic giving and engaging them in the work of local nonprofits.
Prior to ACT, she worked with Workforce Organizations for Regional Collaboration (WORC) and Goodwill of Greater Washington, opening the Arlington Career Campus of Goodwill that offered bank skills and hospitality skills job training programs, English classes and GED courses on-site. Prior to working in the nonprofit sector, Brandi worked with undergraduate students as a career consultant at the George Mason University School of Management and as a recruiter with User Technology Associates, Inc., a government contractor.
Brandi has an M.S. in Organizational Learning from George Mason University and a B.A. in Rhetoric & Communication and Sociology-Organizational Studies from the University of California, Davis. Brandi is a member of the Diaconate and Women's Leadership Council of Grace Presbyterian Church-DC and is a founding board member of Girls on the Run – DC.
703-739-7778
Betsy Micklem, Director of Development
Betsy Micklem joined ACT for Alexandria at the beginning of 2017 as Director of Development. Betsy spent 20 years with Morgan Stanley and predecessor Dean Witter Reynolds as a financial advisor and certified financial planner before taking leave to focus full-time on managing the Micklem household and raising three wonderful children. While raising her family and since, Betsy has also served in numerous volunteer capacities, primarly for the Washington, D.C. Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (including the Alexandria Great Strides Walk), The Alexandria Hospital and The Twig (including chairing the Historic Alexandria Homes Tour), and St. Stephens and St. Agnes School (including as President of the Parent Teacher Association.) Betsy currently serves on the Alexandria Hospital Foundation Board.
Betsy and her husband Mark are long-time members of the Old Presbyterian Meeting House. They are also long-time members of the Belle Haven Country Club, where Betsy is active in BHCC's tennis and golf programs and is currently chairman of the Ladies Nine Hole Association. Betsy received her B.S. degree from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia in 1980.
Betsy hopes to utilize her deep roots in Alexandria to benefit ACT for Alexandria and help widen ACT's reach into the donor and professional advisor community.
Betsy.Micklem@ACTforAlexandria.org
703-739-7778
Sally Bolger Gardner, Operations Associate
Sally Bolger Gardner joined ACT in September 2017, returning to Alexandria, her hometown, from 11 years in the Northern California town of Grass Valley. Sally’s background is primarily in office administration and human resources with minor detours for graduate school and raising two children, Sam and Clara, whom she and her husband, Gary, adopted from Bolivia.Sally is looking forward to working with the ACT team and re-rooting herself within the Alexandria community.
Sally.Gardner@ACTforAlexandria.org
703-739-7778
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