Earlier this week, The Endowment announced a new department of “research and impact” and several new positions. The Endowment's new name comes as the foundation, created from $1.3 billion from the sale of the New Hanover Regional Medical Center, continues to grow its assets, staff, and ambitions.
According to The Endowment, Emily Page has been promoted to vice president of the new department; Page has worked at The Endowment since 2023 and was previously the director of learning and capacity building.
The department has three main ‘units,’ as The Endowment referred to them: research and innovation, impact, and accountability. As CEO and President Dan Winslow suggested last year, The Endowment will rely on outside consultants to get the ball rolling. Each unit will be led by an external advisor for the time being, with plans to hire in-house directors by the late fall. Two of those advisors come from companies based in Boston, where Winslow has his roots.
The research and innovation unit will “focus on exploring bold, data-driven solutions to tackle complex challenges and curate solutions-focused scholarship,” according to The Endowment. That apparently refers to the ambitious process Winslow outlined late last year, in which The Endowment will commission research on key problems facing the community, publish the research results, and translate those results into requests for grant proposals.
UNCW Professor Chris Prentice has been tapped as acting director of this unit (The Endowment noted Prentice will continue to work at UNCW). Prentice has presented data on the affordable housing crisis at several events.
The impact unit will “ensure every initiative is evaluated based on measurable outcomes that benefit our community.” It will be led for the time being by Gabriel Rhoads, who will continue his role as a senior advisor at Project Evident, a Boston-based consulting firm that works with nonprofits to better utilize data in planning and evaluating their work. According to The Endowment, Rhoads will tap Project Evident staff to support his work in New Hanover County. (Rhoades also has a background in theater and film.)
The new department is rounded out by an ‘accountability’ unit, focused on “compliance with legal and ethical standards” across The Endowment’s operations. It will be led by Bethany Hengsbach, who is managing director of corporate global compliance at Boston-based Affiliated Monitors, Inc. Last year, the company was selected as an independent monitor by Asheville-based Dogwood Health Trust a private foundation created as part of HCA Healthcare's purchase of the Mission Health System (the independent monitor role is a legal requirement of the sale).
Other new hires, programs
The Endowment has also hired Christine Tobias as its chief people officer, leading the foundation’s human resources operations. Tobias most recently served as chief people officer at digital pharmacy Medly, and its Pharmaca subsidiary; the companies were based in Brooklyn, although Tobias is a Wilmington resident. (Once a high-profile startup success story, Medly went bankrupt in 2023 and its assets were acquired by Walgreens; in September 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against three top Medly executives, accusing them of defrauding investors; Tobias was not named as a defendant in the SEC complaint.)
Tobias will oversee the launch of an internship program for college and graduate students, and a fellow program offering “volunteer opportunities with local non-profit organizations for retirees, stay-at-home parents, and other community members.”
Earlier this year, The Endowment hired Sophie Dagenais, a former director of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, as vice president of programs and grants. The Endowment also hired Amber Rogerson as communications director and Moussa Toure as a network associate handling “diligence and financial review of grant applicants and performance.” All three are Wilmington residents.
The Endowment also promoted Eileen O’Malley from grants manager to chief technology officer and Crystal Cooper from a part-time contractor to controller (a position that compliments a chief financial officer by handling day-to-day financial operations).
