Staff
Joel L. Fleishman
Faculty Chair, Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society
Professor of Law and Public Policy Studies, Duke University
Joel Fleishman is Professor of Law and Public Policy Studies and the Director of the Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Center for Ethics, Public Policy, and the Professions at the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University. He joined the Duke faculty in 1971, was the founding director of what is now the Sanford School of Public Policy, and has served the university as vice president, senior vice president, and first senior vice president. He took part-time leave from Duke from 1993 to 2003 to serve as president of the Atlantic Philanthropic Service Company, the United States program staff of the Atlantic Philanthropies.
He is author, co-author, or editor of numerous books and articles reflecting his long-standing interest in ethics, public policy, and nonprofit organizations, the most recent of which, Give Smart: Philanthropy That Gets Results, was written with Thomas Tierney of the Bridgespan Group and published in spring 2011 by Public Affaris Book. His book The Foundation: A Great American Secret—How Private Wealth Is Changing the World, was released in an expanded paperback edition in 2009.
Fleishman serves as chairman of the board of trustees of the Urban Institute and as a trustee of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America; Brandeis University; the Artscroll Mesorah Heritage Foundation; the American Hebrew Academy; and the Partnership for Public Service. He is also chairman of the visiting committee of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In 2003 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In addition to his academic activities, Fleishman is a member of the board of directors of the Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation. For eight years he wrote a monthly wine column for Vanity Fair magazine.
Edward Skloot
Director, Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society
Professor of the Practice of Public Policy Studies
Office location: 240A Sanford Building
Office phone: 1-919-613-7433
Email: Edward.skloot@duke.edu
Edward Skloot is Director of the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society and Professor of the Practice of Public Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University. In June 2007, he retired as President of the Surdna Foundation, a family foundation headquartered in New York City. He was the first CEO of the $1 billion (2007) foundation and held this position beginning in 1989.
Before coming to Surdna, Skloot was founder and president of New Ventures, a nonprofit consulting firm that assisted other NGOs in earning income as a complement to fund-raising. Begun in 1980, New Ventures was the first organization to promote “social entrepreneurship.” Skloot wrote the early literature and helped create the field of social enterprise. He has also served in senior posts in state and local government.
Skloot serves on the boards of directors of Venture Philanthropy Partners, a group of venture capitalists helping youth-serving organizations in the Washington, D.C. region; Citizen Schools, an after-school program located in seven states; the Partnership for Palliative Care; and TROSA, the largest residential therapeutic community in North Carolina. He is a member of the advisory boards of the Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit consulting firm affiliated with Bain and Co., and of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS Center), Stanford University.
Skloot has written and spoken widely on the subjects of nonprofit management, social venturing, and sectoral leadership. Surdna recently published a compilation of his recent speeches in a book called Beyond the Money. He also was the principal writer and editor of The Nonprofit Entrepreneur, published by the Foundation Center, and the co-editor, with Paul Bloom of Duke's Fuqua School of Business, of Scaling Social Impact: New Thinking (Palgrave MacMillan, 2010).
Barry Varela
Director, Teaching Case Writing Program, Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society
Office location: 236 Sanford Building
Office phone: 1-919-613-7434
Email: varela@duke.edu
Barry Varela directs the Teaching Case Writing Program of the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society. Before coming to Duke, he was the project editor for the Early Intervention Training Center for Infants and Toddlers with Visual Impairments, an initiative of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill. He has also worked in trade book publishing and as a self-employed editor and writer. He holds a B.A. in English from Grinnell College.
Mary Collins
Program Coordinator, Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society
Office location: 240 Sanford Building
Office phone: 1-919-613-7432
Email: mary.collins@duke.edu
Mary Collins is the Program Coordinator for the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society. She is responsible for all day-to-day administrative operations. In her previous position, she worked as Staff Assistant at the Heyman Center for Ethics with Joel Fleishman. She is originally from Richmond, Virginia, and has a B.S. in Human Development from Virginia Tech.