from left to right: Nancy Handler, Zabrina Collazo, Alexa Avilés, and Mike Pratt
Mike Pratt, President, mpratt@scherman.org
Mike Pratt has been the President and Executive Director of the Scherman Foundation since 2009. He served as Program Officer from 1996 until 2009, and continues to serve as the Foundation’s Treasurer, overseeing its investment portfolio. He has provided leadership in several outside philanthropic roles, including serving as Chair and Treasurer of the Environmental Grantmakers Association and as Chair of the Advisory Committee of the Initiative for Neighborhood Organizing (INCO.) Prior to entering the world of philanthropy through a one-year fellowship at the Rockefeller Family Fund in 1995, he practiced law with the civil division of New York City’s Legal Aid Society for ten years, developing expertise in equitable development, federal housing subsidies, and landlord tenant law. Earlier, he worked for NYPIRG as a community organizer, later becoming Director of the Straphangers Campaign. He serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of Pratt Institute. He received his undergraduate degree at Amherst College and a J.D. at the NYU School of Law.
Alexa Avilés, Program Officer, aaviles@scherman.org
Alexa has been with the Scherman Foundation as Program Officer since March 2011. Prior to Scherman, she was a Program Manager at the JEHT Foundation, a national foundation focused on funding criminal and juvenile justice system reform; electoral reform; and expansion of the role of international justice norms and the rule of law in the U.S. As the Program Manager for the Juvenile Justice Program, she managed a portfolio of grants aimed at reducing the numbers of youth in contact with the juvenile justice system and promoting more humane and effective models of care for justice-involved youth. While at the Fund of the Four Directions, Ms. Avilés provided seed grants to grassroots groups nationally addressing the areas of environmental justice, racial justice, workers rights, and the revitalization of Native American cultures and languages. She serves on the Board of Directors of Strategies for Youth, a national nonprofit working to improve police/youth interactions and the Management Assistance Group, a national non-profit management consulting organization working to strengthen social justice organizations. She received her B.A. from Columbia University and M.P.A from CUNY’s Baruch College School of Public Affairs. A proud alumna of the National Urban Fellows and A Better Chance, she is also an active community member in her neighborhood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Nancy T. Handler, Administrator, nhandler@scherman.org
Nancy has been with the Scherman Foundation since 2006. She manages the foundation’s human resources, keeps the books, and assists with financial management. Her prior experience in philanthropy consists of serving as executive assistant to the Executive Director of the New York Foundation. She is a member of the NYRAG Foundation Administrator Network. Nancy has a Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from Yale University, a B.S in Natural Resources from U. Mass Amherst, and a B.A. in English from Lake Forest College. She spent five years in the Lomako Forest, Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Zaire) undertaking research on free-ranging bonobos. When further research in DRC became impossible, she and her husband, Richard Malenky, spent another five years directing field research stations in Kibale National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda and helped set up research in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar. On a more local level, Nancy and Richard helped created a pilot Naturalist Program for the Taconic State Park system in New York at Copake Falls and worked as naturalists there for three summers. Nancy continues to enjoy travel and has reveled in the natural wonders of every continent. When she isn’t observing nature, she’s baking.
Zabrina Collazo, Program Assistant, zcollazo@scherman.org
Zabrina joined the Scherman Foundation staff as the Administrative Assistant in 2010, shortly after graduating from CUNY Hunter College, where she studied Race, Ethnicity, and Class, with a minor in Asian American Literature. While at Hunter, she organized with Hunter CRAASH, a student group dedicated to revitalizing the Asian American Studies program and worked at the Asian American Writers Workshop as the Programs Assistant. She is currently a proud member of Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment, a grassroots organization that serves the Filipina community in the NY/NJ area.