Civic Ventures :: Board of Directors

Board Members

Vice Chair

Ann S. Bowers is the Chair of the Board and the founding Trustee of the Noyce Foundation. Previously, her career was in human resource management in California's Silicon Valley. She was the first Director of Personnel for Intel Corporation and the first Vice President of Human Resources for Apple Computer. In both of these high-growth, start-up companies and in her consulting practice, she created and implemented the worldwide human resources policies and practices that fostered the growth of organizational excellence. She now coaches CEOs of several start-up organizations, and serves as a Director of the Exploratorium in San Francisco and the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. She is on the Board of EdVoice and the Advisory Board of New Schools Venture Fund. Bowers also is a Trustee Emerita, Presidential Councilor, and on the Life Sciences Advisory Board at Cornell University. She received a B.A. from Cornell University and an honorary Ph.D. from the University of Santa Clara, where she was a Trustee for nearly 20 years.

Lewis M. Feldstein (Treasurer) is president of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the principal source of venture capital for New Hampshire’s nonprofit community. An expert on civic engagement, Feldstein co-chaired Harvard University’s three-year executive seminar on civic engagement in America with Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone. He and Putnam co-authored Better Together: Restoring the American Community in 2003. In recent years, Feldstein was selected as one of the 100 People Who Shaped New Hampshire in the 20th Century, published by the Concord Monitor, and one of the 10 most influential people in New Hampshire by Business NH Magazine. Feldstein has held a variety of jobs in the nonprofit and public sectors, starting his career by working with the civil rights movement in Mississippi. Since then, he has served in senior staff positions to New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay and worked as provost of the Antioch/New England Graduate School, among many other jobs. Feldstein serves on several boards, including the Board of Directors of Independent Sector. Feldstein is a graduate of Brown University and holds a Master’s in Law and Diplomacy from Tufts University. He has received six honorary doctorates.

Sherry Lansing (Secretary) is the founder and current chair of the Sherry Lansing Foundation, a philanthropic organization focused on cancer research, health and education. Ms. Lansing was the chair of the Motion Picture Group of Paramount Pictures from 1992 to 2005, where she oversaw the release of more than 200 films including Academy Award® winners Forrest Gump (1994), Braveheart (1995), and highest grossing movie of all time, Titanic (1997). A pioneering studio executive, Lansing was the first woman in the film industry to oversee all aspects of a studio’s motion picture production. Currently, Lansing serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Friends of Cancer Research and as a Trustee of the American Association for Cancer Research. She continues to lend her energy and talents to such advisory boards and committees as the American Red Cross Board of Governors, the board of trustees for the Carter Center, and Stop Cancer, a non-profit philanthropic group she founded in partnership with Dr. Armand Hammer. Lansing is a Regent of the University of California and serves as chair of the University Health Services Committee. In December 2004, she was appointed to the Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee of CIRM, the California state agency charged with disbursing $3 billion in funding for embryonic stem cell research. Lansing graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science Degree from Northwestern University in 1966.

Beverly Ryder is an accomplished executive with 30 years of experience in the banking and energy industries. She is currently a Southern California Edison company executive loaned to the Los Angeles Unified School District. Ryder is responsible for helping build business partnerships with the district and is working on a strategic initiative to establish a parent and community engagement office. Ryder joined Edison in 1992 after 16 years in the banking industry. As a vice president in the corporate banking group of Citibank, she was responsible for structuring financial transactions for Fortune 500 clients in the retail, financial services, hospitality and consumer products industries. At Edison International, Ryder served for nine years as the corporate secretary of the holding company and its utility subsidiary, Southern California Edison. Additionally, she was the company’s vice president of community involvement, overseeing the company’s philanthropic and employee volunteer activities. Commensurate with Ryder’s professional career is an active community life. She currently sits on the boards of several nonprofit organizations in the Los Angeles area, including the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Urban League, CORO and the Los Angeles Conservation Corps. She is a trustee of Claremont Graduate University, a former trustee of Stanford University, and a former commissioner of the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System and the Western Association of Senior Colleges and Universities accreditation commission. Ryder earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Stanford University and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago.

Lester Strong is a man who is very comfortable with change. In a 25-year career as a television producer, reporter and anchor in Charlotte (WBTV), Atlanta (WSB), New York (ABC Entertainment) and Boston (WHDH), Strong won a host of national and regional awards, including five regional Emmy Awards and a White House commendation from Ronald Reagan. Then, in 2000, at the age of 51, Strong moved to the nonprofit sector to follow his passions in an encore career. A long-time proponent and practitioner of meditation, Strong became CEO of the SYDA Foundation, an international organization that provides instruction in yoga and meditation in 46 countries. In 2005, Strong became the chief development officer for the BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life) Foundation, which provides tutoring and mentoring services to about 10,000 underserved, low-income children in New York, Boston and Baltimore.

Harris Wofford is a former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and former CEO of the Corporation for National Service. He played a key role in the civil rights movement in the 1950s, and was a special assistant to President Kennedy for Civil Rights. In 1961 Wofford helped Sargent Shriver launch the Peace Corps, Wofford has dedicated much of his life to the goal of making citizen service a common expectation and experience for all Americans. Wofford joined the board of directors of America’s Promise in March 2001 and was elected chairman in January 2002. He has also served on the boards of Youth Service America and the Points of Light Foundation, and he is spokesperson for Experience Wave, which advances federal and state policies that encourage mid-life and older adults to stay engaged in work and community life. Sen. Wofford has written extensively and is the author of the highly acclaimed, Of Kennedys and Kings: Making Sense of the Sixties. Wofford has received numerous hornors and awards, including the Independent Sector’s John W. Gardner Leadership Award.

Ruth A. Wooden (Chair) is President and CEO of Public Agenda, a nonpartisan opinion research organization helping Americans explore and understand critical issues. Before joining Public Agenda, she was Executive Vice President and Senior Counselor at Porter Novelli, an international public relations firm known for its expertise in social marketing and health care. Prior to Porter Novelli, Wooden ran her own communications consulting firm and was President and former board member of the National Parenting Association (NPA), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded to spark a parent's movement to make parenting a higher priority in private lives and on the public agenda. For 11 years before joining NPA, she was President of the Advertising Council, Inc., an organization that yearly mobilizes more than $1 billion of advertising space and time, the creative services of major advertising agencies, and financial support from hundreds of corporations. Wooden led the Advertising Council into important new strategic areas, playing an instrumental role in the 1995 development of "Commitment 2000," the organization's 10-year initiative to build support for family issues. She also was a key player in developing and executing "Kids These Days: What Americans Really Think About the Next Generation," a multi-year study that tracks American attitudes toward children and parents. After leaving the Ad Council and prior to joining NPA, Wooden worked on the Presidential campaign of Senator Bill Bradley, serving as coordinator of the Crystal Team, a group of volunteer advertising professionals who created Senator Bradley's advertising. She received a B.A. from the University of Minnesota and an Honorary Doctorate from Northeastern University.

The late John W. Gardner was co-founder of Experience Corps, a founding board member of Civic Ventures, and one of America's greatest thinkers, reformers, and social entrepreneurs. As Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1965 to 1968, Gardner played a major role in civil rights enforcement and education reform, and was instrumental in creating Medicare and establishing the public television network. Following his resignation, he became Chair of the National Urban Coalition and in 1970 founded Common Cause, a nonpartisan nonprofit advocacy organization that serves as a vehicle for citizens to make their voices heard in the political process and to hold their elected leaders accountable to the public interest. He later chaired the Organizing Committee that led to the founding of Independent Sector, a national forum for organizations in the voluntary sector. He served as Chair until 1983, when he assumed a teaching post at Stanford University.

At the time of his appointment to the Cabinet by President Johnson, Gardner was President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. During that time, Gardner served continuously as a consultant to various government agencies: AID, the State Department, the U.S. Air Force, the White House, the U.S. delegation to the United Nations, and others. In addition, he served as a member of President Kennedy's Task Force on Education; Chair of President Kennedy's Commission on International Educational and Cultural Affairs; Chair of President Johnson's Task Force on Education and the 1965 White House Conference on Education; a member of President Carter's Commission on an Agenda for the Eighties and Chair of the President's Commission on White House Fellowships. In the early 1980s, he served as a member of President Reagan's Task Force on Private Sector Initiatives.

Gardner authored several books on leadership and self renewal, and wrote extensively on public service. He was editor of President Kennedy's book, To Turn the Tide, and authored Excellence, Self-Renewal, No Easy Victories, The Recovery of Confidence, In Common Cause, Morale, and On Leadership. He was the co-editor, with Francesca Gardner Reese, of Quotations of Wit and Wisdom (Know or Listen to Those Who Know). In 1991, Independent Sector published his brief treatise entitled, Building Community.

Gardner received his B.A. and M.A. in psychology from Stanford, where he returned as a trustee and professor. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and taught psychology at the University of California, Connecticut College for Women, and Mount Holyoke College. In 1943, Gardner joined the U.S. Marine Corps and earned the rank of captain before his release from active duty. Gardner served on numerous boards and councils and received many awards and honorary degrees. In 1964, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. In 2000, the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities was established at Stanford University in honor of his lifetime of public service. John W. Gardner died February 16, 2002, at the age of 89.