WEST HARTFORD, CT -- The Aurora Foundation for Women and Girls is pleased to announce the appointment of Jennifer Bernhardt Steadman, Ph.D. as its new Executive Director. Steadman, who will champion Aurora’s initiatives to strengthen opportunities for women and girls in Greater Hartford, will begin in late October.
Steadman will lead Aurora’s efforts to focus the regions public and private sectors around the need to educate and support innovations that enable women and girls to be leaders and active participants in their communities. She comes to the role with a deep understanding of gender-based challenges and is strategically positioned to serve as the organization’s new face and leading voice.
Karen Jarmoc, Board Chair, said today that Steadman brings a unique mix of academia, philanthropy and non-profit experience to the post where she is expected to lead the organization’s development and roll-out of a new Aurora Report in 2018. “Jenny is a critical thinker and proven leader around the value that strong women and girls offer a community,” said Jarmoc. “She will be a driving force in our collective work to bring public attention to conditions that hold back women and girls, and convene the region’s thought leaders around solutions.”
For the past five years, Steadman has envisioned new programs, engaged new audiences and outpaced attendance and revenue goals as Adult Programs Manager at the Connecticut Historical Society. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Women and Gender Studies from Emory University and a B.A. from Wake Forest University. She was previously a Visiting Assistant Professor at Trinity College teaching graduate and undergraduate students in their American Studies Program and English Department. Steadman brings extensive fundraising experience from her previous position as the Manager of Fundraising Operations and Gala Coordinator for the New Britain Museum of American Art, as well as from her experience designing a successful million dollar endowment campaign for the Atlanta Women’s Fund. She also served as voluntary co-chair of Aurora’s Signature Breakfast in 2012 and 2013, overseeing the event’s shift to its current larger venue.
“I am thrilled to provide leadership and raise Aurora’s profile in this role that is so firmly aligned with my personal commitment to improving the lives of women and girls in Greater Hartford,” said Steadman. “Our supporters have the power to change the world one girl, one woman at a time. I look forward to being a steward of their gifts and their vision of equity and opportunity for the women and girls in their community.”
The Aurora Foundation formed to serve as a catalyst for change in the lives of women and girls in Greater Hartford in 2000. The organization informs men and women about the power of philanthropy through a gender lens, conducts research and convenes communities to promote understanding of gender issues and how we can collectively build solutions. Since 2004, the Foundation has provided more than $550,000 in grants to programs in the region that supported 4,100 women and girls.
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Contact:
Maggie Willard
Interim Executive Director
860-881-4926
maggie@aurorafoundation.org
Website: www.aurorafoundation.org