I'm excited to announce today that Meyer Memorial Trust has named Kaberi Banerjee Murthy to be our new Director of Program Strategy.
Kaberi, who most recently served as vice president of programs at the Brooklyn Community Foundation in New York, brings to Meyer more than 20 years of philanthropic experience in youth, immigration, social justice, education, arts, civic affairs, health and community development at local, regional and national levels.
Kaberi has extensive experience building strategic frameworks and elevating advocacy as the highest value use of philanthropic resources and reputation. She has shared power with community to build constituent led grantmaking and is committed to implementing best practices of the sector to reduce the burden on grantees. As Meyer's new Director of Program Strategy, she will be responsible for fostering organization-wide collaboration while developing and implementing programmatic strategies that reinforce Meyer’s four portfolios and help leverage underlying intersections among them.
"We are thrilled to announce Kaberi Banerjee Murthy as Meyer’s new Director of Program Strategy as we begin to sharpen our strategies and focused objectives,” said Michelle J. DePass, president and CEO of Meyer Memorial Trust. “As a proven change agent, Kaberi will help Meyer to better address the intersection of societal causes of inequity while harnessing expertise cultivated in communities across Oregon.”
At Brooklyn Community Foundation, a racial justice foundation with $75 million in assets, Kaberi led the strategy, vision and implementation of grantmaking, programs and advocacy. Under her leadership, she grew the portfolio to oversee eight giving areas and doubled its annual grantmaking.
Previously, she served as program director at Crown Family Philanthropies in Chicago, senior program officer for education at the Picower Foundation in New York, philanthropic advisor at Hemenway and Barnes in Boston and program officer at the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation in Chicago. She has also worked as a philanthropic consultant for the Ford Foundation’s GrantCraft and the Council on Foundations.
Kaberi earned a Bachelor of Arts, Magna Cum Laude, from Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., and she holds a Masters of Education, Administration in Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University.
“As someone who has been passionate about addressing issues of equity, effecting social change and centering the expertise of impacted communities, I’ve been impressed by Meyer’s embodied leadership, the humility of the staff and the organizational shift to focus on systems-level change. My background and skill set dovetail perfectly with Meyer’s mission to create a sustainable future for Oregon,” Kaberi said.
She begins work at Meyer on Nov. 29.
— Kimberly