Board of Trustees

Charles C. Goodfellow, Chair, former Bank of New York Investment Officer (Cranford, NJ)

William Bush, BDT & Company (Chicago, IL)

Bernie Flynn, former President & CEO of New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Group (West Trenton, NJ) and Chief Executive Officer of Mercer Street Friends (Trenton, NJ)

Shannon Maynard, Executive Director, Congressional Hunger Center (Washington, DC) and Bonner Alum (University of Richmond)

Dr. Beth Paul, President, Nazareth College (Rochester, NY), and former Provost at Stetson University (FL) and Faculty Member at The College of New Jersey (NJ)

Tony Richardson, President of the George Gund Foundation (Cleveland, OH) and Bonner Alum (Oberlin College)

Staff

Robert Hackett joined the Bonner Foundation in 1992 as Vice President and Director of the Bonner Scholars Program and assumed the role of President in July, 2010. 

Prior to joining the Bonner Foundation, Bobby worked at the Telesis Corporation, an affordable housing developer in Washington, D.C. With his friend Wayne Meisel, Bobby helped start Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL) in 1984, serving as its managing director of the during its first three years of operation. COOL organized initiatives that promoted the development of the national service movement and the role of students as leaders within it. In addition, Bobby worked in various capacities with the Youth Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based non-partisan organization that researches and reports on public policies and evidence-based program models on social issues, especially those relating to young people.

Bobby received his bachelors degree from Harvard University in 1985 and a masters in public and private management from Yale University's School of Organization and Management in 1990. Bobby oversaw the Foundation’s work, funded by Learn & Serve America, to seed community-based research at more than 30 colleges and universities and efforts. He also led the Foundation’s efforts to to replicate the Bonner Scholar Program model using AmeriCorps Education Awards. Bobby has continued to expand and deepen the integration of community-driven projects and capacity building (including public policy research) through the development of Bonner’s Know Your Issue curriculum, which teaches students to investigate the root causes and potential solutions to pressing problems. Bobby has worked over the past decade to integrate the teaching of social action into academic courses across the country and world. This work is done in partnership with Dr. Scott Myers Lipton, professor emeritus of San Jose State University, whose course model has students learning social action by doing it during the semester the course is taught.

Dr. Ariane Hoy joined the Foundation in 2004. As Vice President, Ariane leads strategic initiatives to promote program quality and deeper, more pervasive campus-wide engagement. Ariane serves on the national advisory boards for the American Association of College and Universities’ VALUE (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education) Initiative and National Advisory Committee of the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification. She served on the boards for AAC&U’s publications and the Center for Engaged Democracy, which promotes the development of civically engaged majors, minors, concentrations, and certificates. She is a member of the advisory board for Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (CLDE) working to promote pathways for all students. Ari is co-editor of Deepening Community Engagement in Higher Education: Forging New Pathways (Palgrave 2013) and co-author of Civic Engagement at the Center: Building Democracy through Integrated Co-curricular and Curricular Experiences (AACU 2008), as well as extensive resources (such as training for faculty and student leaders) on the Bonner Wiki.

Fueled by experiences as a student and volunteer, Ariane found a passion for civic engagement. While attending Stanford University, she worked with students and faculty through the Haas Center for Public Service and engaged in East Palo Alto with elementary students, teachers, nonprofits, and the school district, developing coalitions to mobilize students and faculty into working with the community. She researched economic and policy issues, creating a credit-bearing CBR course taught by community leaders with student in local internships. She was awarded the John Gardner Public Service Fellowship to work full-time with the Ravenswood City School District, mentored by its Superintendent. Ari spent five years at City Year (which engages 17 to 25 year-olds in full-time service), building systems and training to replicate the national organization. As Jumpstart’s Vice President for Program, Ari oversaw the development of a proven evidence-based national program that engages college students with preschoolers in Head Start programs. At Echoing Green (New York), Ari helped create resources for social entrepreneurs. As Executive Director of Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL), she developed large-scale conferences and programs for student leadership of civic engagement. Ari earned a bachelor's in Political Science. She earned a master’s in higher education from Drexel University and a doctorate in higher education leadership at the University of Pennsylvania, while working full-time. Ari’s research focuses on institutional change and the ways that civic learning and engagement supports student success, post-graduate careers, and the effectiveness of higher education.

Richard Harrill joined the Bonner Foundation in 2025 as Vice President of Operations and Strategic Initiatives, bringing over 35 years of experience in education, nonprofit leadership, and international development. His connection to Bonner runs deep—in 1993, fresh out of college, he was hired by the Foundation to assess all 22 campus programs and designed the first Summer Leadership Institute at Guilford College. After serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Hungary and founding a youth civic engagement NGO that reached 200 cities, he returned to Bonner as a Senior Fellow in 2001 to help develop the Common Commitments framework that continues to guide the program today.

Richard's leadership experience spans diverse educational settings, from directing UNC Chapel Hill's Campus Y for 12 years—where he raised over $12.5 million and launched innovative programs including a Bonner Leaders Program—to managing international operations for PILnet in Eastern Europe and creating groundbreaking experiential learning programs at Bard College and Columbia University. His entrepreneurial approach to civic engagement has consistently focused on supporting first-generation college students and students of color, with his social venture accelerator at UNC producing multiple Forbes-recognized social entrepreneurs under 30. He holds both a JD and BA from UNC Chapel Hill and has taught across multiple disciplines while mentoring students who have won prestigious scholarships including the Rhodes, Truman, and Fulbright.

As VP of Operations and Strategic Initiatives, Richard brings his unique combination of startup experience, strategic fundraising expertise, and deep understanding of the Bonner model to support campuses across the network. His vision for scaling civic engagement and his proven ability to build sustainable programs—from founding an Echoing Green Fellowship recipient organization in Hungary to transforming century-old institutions like UNC's Campus Y—positions him to help Bonner campuses achieve similar transformational results for their students and communities.

Dr. Rachayita Shah brings a rich background and teaching experience in curriculum and instructional design. At the Foundation, her work includes consultations with administrators, faculty, and student leaders around institutionalizing community and civic engagement. She supports Bonner network institutions with designing curricular and co-curricular pathways, managing service-based scholarship programs, and assessing student learning and community partnerships.

She earned a doctorate from Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Ph.D. program in Curriculum and Instruction and Bachelor's and Master’s degrees in English Literature from India. Before joining the Bonner Foundation, she worked at FAU as Visiting Instructor and taught courses focused on diversity, multicultural education, and social justice. She also worked as Program Manager at FAU’s Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education, where she facilitated teacher professional development, provided curriculum consultations to K-12 educators, and managed Holocaust education and human rights-oriented events.

Rachayita’s areas of expertise and research include community-engaged learning, faculty development, curriculum mapping, assessment, and multicultural education. At Bonner, she developed new resources for faculty, staff, and student leaders, including curriculum for faculty development in community-engaged learning  and in course design. She also co-led the Racial Justice Initiative and Writer’s Webinar, guiding more than 20 faculty and staff in their development of public scholarship.

Liz Brandt is a higher education and community engagement professional who works at the intersection of student development, civic engagement, and institutional change. As Community Engagement Director at the Bonner Foundation, she leads initiatives that strengthen the Bonner Program and help colleges and universities create meaningful pathways for students to engage in their communities and develop as civic leaders. Her work includes campus consulting, national program and conference development, curriculum and resource creation, strategic partnerships, and identifying and sharing innovative practices across the Bonner Network. She is particularly interested in helping higher education institutions build the capacity, structures, and partnerships needed to make community engagement a meaningful part of the student experience and institutional mission.

Liz’s commitment to this work is rooted in her own experience. Raised in rural Kentucky in a low-income family, she experienced firsthand the barriers created by economic and social inequality. As a Bonner Scholar at Centre College, she gained access to educational opportunities and transformative experiences that shaped her understanding of higher education as a powerful vehicle for opportunity, connection, and social change. She served as a Bonner Senior Intern and Bonner Congress Representative and studied abroad in Ghana, Northern Ireland, and Guatemala. Those experiences helped shape her commitment to creating similar opportunities for students and communities through higher education. After graduating from Centre, Liz worked as a campus organizer at University of Massachusetts- Amherst, where she trained college students in grassroots organizing and advocacy. She later returned to Centre as Coordinator of the Bonner Program and Community Service, where she led the college’s Bonner Program and worked to deepen its connections to community partnerships, student learning, and social justice.

Since joining the Bonner Foundation in 2018, Liz has worked with colleges and universities across the country to strengthen their community engagement programs and practices. Her work spans campus strategy and consulting, student and staff development, national convenings, curriculum and resource development, and partnerships with graduate schools and other organizations. Through this work, she serves as a thought partner to institutions seeking to strengthen student civic leadership and build more intentional connections between higher education and the communities they serve.

Liz holds a B.A. in Anthropology and Sociology from Centre College and an M.S. in Higher Education from Drexel University, with concentrations in Administration & Leadership and Educational Policy. Her research on the barriers and pathways that enable community engagement professionals to thrive in higher education was published in the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement. She was a 2022–2023 Engaged Scholar with Campus Compact and has contributed to national research examining student-centered civic engagement and the competencies needed for community engagement professionals to thrive in higher education.

Outside of work, Liz is usually planning her next trip, trying a new recipe, exploring a hiking trail, or getting lost in a good book. She particularly enjoys discovering the food, stories, and communities that make a place special.

Jeniffer Gonzalez Reyes joined the Bonner Foundation in February 2023 as the Program Manager and now serves as the Director of Communications & Campus Engagement. In her role, Jeniffer helps ensure that community-engaged professionals are effective in building and sustaining high-quality campus programs. She develops new or refines existing training and curriculum to provide technical assistance to colleges and universities within the Bonner Network. She supports planning for national conferences, conducts campus visits, and manages international and national organizations that enrich and support the Bonner Program and Network. In her communications role, she carries out communication strategies and operational development to further our efforts in sharing our resources and the Bonner model.

Jeniffer is a Bonner Scholar 2019 alum from Guilford College. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics. As a Bonner Scholar, Jeniffer served as a Bonner Congress Representative and Site Coordinator. Jeniffer organized many community initiatives on issues of access to high education and immigrant rights. One of these initiative was Soy un Leader, an annual conference that provided crucial information for access to higher education for 500+ disenfranchised and undocumented/DACAmented high school students in surrounding counties of Greensboro, NC.

After graduating Jeniffer worked as the Bonner Program Coordinator for Allegheny College in Meadville, PA. Jeniffer managed Allegheny’s Hybrid Leader/Scholar Bonner Program of 60 students, including new student onboarding, curriculum/training design, and implementation. She established a more efficient student-led Bonner Leadership Team structure and cultivated and maintained community partnerships.

Prior to joining the Bonner Foundation Staff, Jeniffer was a program manager for UNC Chapel Hill School of Government in Chapel Hill, NC. She worked as an administrative liaison to faculty, NC judicial officials, and attorneys.

Wayne Meisel was hired in 1989 by Mr. Bonner as the founding president of the Bonner Foundation, which he led for the first next 21 years.  In his first two years he launched the two programs that continue to define the Bonner Foundation.  The Crisis Ministry Program which funds anti-hunger efforts and the Bonner Program which is the largest privately-funded, service-based scholarship program in the country with 3,000 students serving annually at 65+ colleges and universities.

Meisel has been a longtime advocate of service, service learning, and community engagement. Click here for a profile that traces his career from college up to the present.