Nonprofit Leadership Advisory Council

Paul L Dann, PhD is the Executive Director of NFI North, a non-profit multiservice mental health and human services agency meeting the needs of children, youth, families, and adults throughout New Hampshire and Maine. He has previously served as the Director of Children and Family Services for North American Family Institute and in various supervisory positions with Northeastern Family Institute in Danvers, Massachusetts. Paul is and has served as a Board member of multiple non-profit organizations. He is a part time faculty at New England College in the School of Graduate and Professional Studies and a core faculty in the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. He is a former Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Innovation and trains nationally on effective leadership development, non-profit management, change management and organizational culture. In addition, Paul is a published author with a focus centering on leadership and management in the non-profit sector. He has a Ph.D. and Masters in Human and Organizational Systems, and a Bachelor of Science in Human Service. Paul is a dynamic public speaker and in his free time he’s the frontman for a regionally recognized blues band. He also teaches in the Pacific University Master of Nonprofit Leadership Program.

Jen Levy, MS, is executive director of the Association of Nature Center Administrators. Jen is an experienced executive director with a demonstrated history of successful work in the nonprofit industry and a passion for sustainable organizations that connect people with nature. She offers strong business development and leadership skills including capacity building, strategic planning, board development and management, event planning, program development, and public speaking. She also teaches in the Pacific University Master of Nonprofit Leadership Program.

Katie McCleary, MFA, is a public speaker, expert facilitator, and coauthor of Bridge the Gap: Breakthrough Communication Tools to Transform Work Relationships from Challenging to Collaborative (McGraw-Hill, 2022). Her work with corporations, schools, nonprofits, and communities has been featured by Inc., Forbes, PBS, Fast Company, Wall Street Journal, Shondaland, New York Post, Mashable, and more. She is the host of NPR CapRadio’s leadership podcast, “The Drive.” She the founder of 916 Ink, a nonprofit that transforms vulnerable youth into confident authors. Katie serves on the board of Visions in Education and nonprofit boards in her beloved city of Sacramento, Calif. She also teaches in the Pacific University Master of Nonprofit Leadership program.

Stephanie R. McLemore Bray has over 30 years of experience in the non-profit sector, having served local, regional and national organizations and institutions. She is currently the Chief Engagement Officer for Seattle Foundation, a community foundation that serves Seattle and King County. Prior to her work at Seattle Foundation, she served as President and CEO of United Way California Capital Region. Her other nonprofit experience includes Executive Director of San Franciso Hospital Foundation, assistant dean for health sciences advancement at UC Davis Health System, and she has held executive positions with the American Cancer Society, UNCF/The College Fund, Learning Ally, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Stephanie is a graduate of Douglass College, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and was a participant in Harvard Business School’s Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management in July 2012. She has co-authored articles on racial equity and philanthropy, Black maternal health, and has been a guest lecturer on philanthropy at UC Davis School of Business. She lives in Seattle with her family and in her free time, she writes fiction. She also teaches in the Pacific University Master of Nonprofit Leadership Program.

Jim Moore PhD has been an independent political analyst in the Portland area since 1990. Moore is currently the elections analyst for KATU television and the political analyst for KXL 101 FM radio in Portland. In addition, he is a regular source for a number of regional newspapers and several national media enterprises. Moore teaches politics at Pacific University in Forest Grove, where he is the political outreach director of the Tom McCall Center for Civic Engagement.

Steve Patty, PhD, spent more than 13 years as a professor and administrator in higher education at Multnomah University and the International University of Monaco before stepping out of formal education to work with organizations in the nonprofit and public sectors. For the past 15 years, he has been developing the capacity of agencies that work with people to design strategy, develop people, and evaluate impact. He has taught thousands of leaders throughout North America and internationally how to design and implement a kind of evaluation that gets below the surface and into the heart of human change and transformation. Over the past few years, teams from over 500 agencies throughout North America have participated in Project Impact, a year-long program to build the capacity of agencies and institutions to run self-studies on their impact. He has also been facilitating leadership development cohorts for public and nonprofit leaders in the U.S., Canada and Europe. He is an author and conference speaker. He lives in Portland, Ore. He also teaches in Pacific's Master of Nonprofit Leadership program.

Rebecca Schoon, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Public Health at Pacific University. She has assisted international non-profit organizations in health development projects in Ethiopia, Haiti, and Vietnam. Prior to her academic career, she worked for eight years as a major gifts fundraiser for national non-profit organizations including Planned Parenthood of America and the Alzheimer’s Association, where she worked closely with staff and board leadership. She currently serves on the board of Health Care for All Oregon. She also teaches at Pacific University.

Jim White is the executive director of Nonprofit Association of Oregon. Jim is deeply committed to social change through private action and has worked in the nonprofit sector both domestically and internationally for more than 25 years. He has a passion for affecting systemic change in the way that the public, private and nonprofit sectors work together to support and strengthen civil society. Through NAO, Jim is proud to help build the capacity, leadership and voice of Oregon’s vibrant nonprofit sector. Before joining NAO, Jim worked for Mercy Corps both overseas and in Oregon. He has also worked for the International Organization for Migration and the American Red Cross. Jim has specific skills and experience in leading responses to complex humanitarian disasters all over the world and in the U.S. He has worked in Afghanistan, Colorado, Chechnya, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Kosovo, New York (post-9/11), North Korea, Pakistan, Sudan, Tajikistan, and West Bank/Gaza providing disaster response and economic recovery programming, emergency food, shelter and housing, and public health support to displaced and vulnerable populations.

Melany Vergara, PhD, is the Professional Development Manager at Adelante Mujeres. Melany has experience working with nonprofit organizations creating leadership development workshops and professional development tools for university students at the international nonprofit organization AIESEC. She co-founded Sikkhona Coaching and Consulting, a startup in Colombia, providing professional development support to the community. She graduated from the University of Florida with a PhD in Romance Languages, Latin American Studies concentration. Her research focuses on the representations of children in Latin American Film and Narrative of the XXI century. Melany has taught Spanish and Portuguese language courses, as well as Brazilian, Colombian, Mexican, and US. Latine Cultural Studies courses at the university level.