Cecilia A. Conrad, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Senior Advisor, Collaborative Philanthropy and MacArthur Fellows and CEO of Lever for Change.

Cecilia Conrad is founder and chief executive officer of Lever for Change and senior advisor at the MacArthur Foundation. Lever for Change helps donors find high impact philanthropic opportunities and has helped distribute more than $1.7 billion for social good, supporting some 145 organizations and tackling issues like racial inequity, gender inequality, access to economic opportunity, and climate change. Before founding Lever for Change, Conrad led the MacArthur Fellows program. In 2023, The Nonprofit Times named her to its Top 50 Power & Influence List and Inside Philanthropy named her one of the 50 most powerful women in philanthropy.

Conrad is an emerita professor of economics with Pomona College, joining the faculty in 1995 and retiring in 2013. At Pomona, she also served as vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college and later as acting president. In recognition of her academic research and advocacy around racial and gender equity, Conrad received the National Economic Association’s Samuel V. Westerfield Award and the National Urban League’s Women of Power Award.

She earned a B.A. from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University.

Darren Isom (he/him/his)
Partner, The Bridgespan Group

Darren Isom is a partner in the San Francisco office of The Bridgespan Group, a global social impact consulting and advisory firm working with nonprofits, NGOs, philanthropists, and investors. Before Bridgespan he worked as the art, design, and public programming director for Times Square Alliance, planning and implementing programming for public art and performance initiatives throughout the Times Square District. Prior to working at Times Square Alliance, Darren served as VP of Programs for Groundwork, a start-up youth services organization in East New York, Brooklyn, helping young people in underserved communities develop their strengths and skills through experiential learning and enrichment programs. He was the founder and executive director of the Memphis Music Initiative (MMI), an ambitious five-year, $20M grantmaking and community arts development initiative. Darren also speaks and writes on racial equity in philanthropy. His recent publications include: “Endow Black-Led Nonprofits” (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2021), and “Race and Place-based Philanthropy: Learnings from Funders Focused on Equitable Impact” (http://Bridgespan.org, 2021). He currently serves on the board of Beloved Community of New Orleans; Collage Dance Collective of Memphis; Springboard to Opportunities in Jackson, MS; Kingmakers of Oakland; The Mondavi Center for the Performing arts in Davis, California; and The Sciences Po American Foundation.