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, funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service, 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 social action into Bonner’s work, engaging Dr. Scott Myers Lipton of San Jose State University in sharing his successful course model with faculty from around the country. This work incorporates the text Change: A Student Guide to Social Action.

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. These include the Bonner Community-Engaged Learning Initiative, Racial Justice Initiative, and Pathways Project. 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 Diversity and Democracy publication and the Center for Engaged Democracy, which promotes the development of civically engaged majors, minors, concentrations, and certificates. She is a member of the Project HERE (Higher Education Reparations Engagement) national task force and 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 resource material (such as training for faculty and student leaders) on the Bonner Wiki.

Fueled by experiences as a low-status student, Ariane found a passion for civic engagement. While attending Stanford University, she engaged for four years 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 co-taught by community leaders and students that focused on history, policy, equity, race, ethnicity, and economic development. Guided by mentors like Gregory T. Ricks, Janet Luce, and Tim Stanton, Ari found a vocational interest in leveraging education as a pathway for social justice. She was awarded the John Gardner Fellowship, which she used to work full-time with the Ravenswood City School District, mentored by its Superintendent. Ari spent five years at City Year (which engages diverse 17 to 25 year-olds in full-time service), building professional development and strategies to grow and replicate the national organization. As Jumpstart’s Vice President for Program, Ari oversaw the development of an evidence-based national program that engaged college students with low-income preschoolers in Head Start programs, with proven results. At Echoing Green (New York), Ari helped shape its fellowship for social entrepreneurs. As Executive Director of Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL), she developed large-scale conferences and programs that offered a national platform for the 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. Her research focuses on institutionalization of community engagement and its potential to transform higher education. She is also involved as a delegate in the Well-Being Project, working to connect the social change and wellness movement. With a group of friends, she has created the Ripples of Hope Fellowship for young leaders from South Africa and the United States, which currently involves two cohorts in international immersions, education, and movement work.

Dr. Rachayita Shah brings a rich background and teaching experience in curriculum and instructional design. Her work at Bonner includes designing faculty development curriculum and conducting research about the program’s impact. She earned a doctorate from Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Ph.D. program in Curriculum and Instruction. Rachayita earned her Bachelor's and Master’s degrees in English Literature from India.

Before joining the Bonner Foundation, she worked with FAU as Visiting Instructor and taught multiple courses focusing on diversity, multicultural education, human rights, and social justice. She also worked as Program Manager at Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education, where she facilitated teacher professional development, provided curriculum consultations to K-12 educators, and managed Holocaust and human rights-oriented events. As a member of the Florida Department of Education Commissioner’s Task Force on Holocaust Education, she served on curriculum writing team for integrating the content of the Holocaust in middle school civics lessons.

Rachayita’s areas of expertise and research include teacher professional development, community-engaged learning, and multicultural education. At Bonner, she has developed new resources for faculty, staff, and student leaders, including curriculum for faculty development in community-engaged learning  and in course design. She also helps lead the Racial Justice Initiative and Writer’s Webinar, which is guiding more than 20 faculty and staff in their development of public scholarship. She also has developed self-paced resources on course design, community-engaged learning, and other topics within the Bonner Learning Community, an online platform for the network.

Liz Brandt joined the Bonner Foundation staff in August 2018 as the Community Engagement Director. In this role she designs and manages Foundation initiatives for supporting Bonner Program member campuses and campus-wide community engagement. She supports planning of national conferences, resource and curriculum development, conducts campus visits, cultivates and manages strategic partnerships with graduate schools, and identifies and shares best practices and models. As a community engagement professional in higher education, Liz strives to build just and equitable communities by transforming higher education institutions to be agents of collaborative social change and educating and preparing students for civically engaged lives. 

Growing up in rural Kentucky and in a low-income family, Liz understands first-hand the challenges of economic and social inequality. She was the recipient of the Corella & Bertram F. Bonner Scholarship, which created the opportunity for her access and experience the transformative nature of higher education. As a Bonner Scholar, Liz served as the Senior Intern and a Bonner Congress Representative. Also at Centre, Liz had transformative experiences studying abroad in Ghana, Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Guatemala. After graduating, Liz worked as a Campus Organizer for the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, a non-profit that trains college students in grassroots organizing tactics to tackle issues such as hunger and homelessness, renewable energy, and student debt. 

After serving in that role, Liz returned to Centre College to serve for two years as the Coordinator of the Bonner Program and Community Service. In this role, Liz managed Centre's sixty student Bonner Program, including designing training and education, restructuring the Program to incorporate an Issue-Based model, and cultivating and maintaining community partnerships. She also focused on curriculum change, helping to develop a Social Justice Minor at Centre and serving on the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty Internship (SHECP) committee, to develop social justice academic coursework and internships. 

Liz also holds a Bachelors of Arts in Anthropology and Sociology from Centre College in Danville, KY. Liz recently completed a Masters of Science in Higher Education with concentrations in Administration & Leadership and Educational Policy from Drexel University. Her master’s thesis focused on understanding the pathways and barriers faced by Community Engagement Professionals (CEPs), drawing on and delving more deeply into the field’s scholarship to conduct a quantitative study. Liz is leading the cohort of teams producing Making the Case reports that comprehensively describe the value of community engagement to their institutions. Liz enjoys cooking, hiking, reading, and traveling and exploring new cultures and communities. Liz has traveled to five continents, over fifteen countries, and twenty-nine states in the U.S. Liz brings her background, experiences, and passion for civic and community engagement, service learning, and social justice in higher education to her role as the Community Engagement Director at the Bonner Foundation. 

Clifton Davis joined the Bonner Foundation in November 2022 as the Operations and Special Projects Coordinator. Cliff is a 2019 Bonner Scholar and Oprah Winfrey Scholar alum from Morehouse College where he organized many community initiatives on the issues of education access and homelessness.

In this new position, Cliff will manage Bonner Foundation grant making and reporting, annual meeting logistics, internal and external communications and operations. He will also provide support to new Bonner Leader Programs and special projects.

Prior to joining the Bonner Foundation Staff, Cliff served as an Educator with the Stewart County School District in Lumpkin,GA. Worked as an Implementation Specialist for E&T Associates servicing K-12 schools in Atlanta, GA. He worked as Program Coordinator for the First-Year Experience and Summer Academy at Morehouse College.

Cliff received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA.  He is completing a Master’s in Public Service from the Clinton School at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock.

Jeniffer Gonzalez Reyes joined the Bonner Foundation in February 2023 and serves as the Program Manager. In this role, Jeniffer helps ensure that community engaged professionals are effective in building and sustaining high quality campus programs. She develops new or refine existing training and curriculum to provide technical assistance to college/universities with in 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.

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.

Former Staff

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.