Jamilah serves as the Executive Director of FaithActs for Education and also served as the Vice Chair of SVP’s Board and a member of the Executive Committee.
Jamilah is a native of New Haven, Connecticut and graduate of Yale University. After graduation, Jamilah worked at Hartford Youth Scholars Foundation as the Placement Manager, where she placed inner-city middle school students into independent secondary schools around the country. Recognizing larger systemic issues facing Connecticut’s education system, Jamilah embarked on a journey to increase the participation of community leaders, parents, and people of color in Connecticut’s education reform movement as the Director of Community Engagement at ConnCAN, a state-level advocacy organization.
During her time at ConnCAN, Jamilah began a robust Clergy organizing initiative that garnered major wins for Connecticut’s education reform movement and went on to found FaithActs for Education. FaithActs is a faith-based education advocacy organization in Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven, that builds relationships, leaders and power through community organizing and civic engagement. FaithActs is 80 churches, 500 members, 6500 committed voters, and 11,000 congregants strong
In September 2014, Chris concluded his 26-year tenure with J.P. Morgan Securities. At the time of his retirement, Chris was a Managing Director in J.P. Morgan’s Corporate Finance Advisory Group and Global Co-Head of Ratings Advisory. He also has experience in the areas of Acquisition Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Credit Risk Management.
Chris is Lead Partner on SVP’s engagement with Career Resources, Inc. and is a member of CRI’s board. He is also a board member and volunteer with ConnectUs, a nonprofit offering after-school enrichment and job training opportunities for Bridgeport youth.
DR. Monette Ferguson
Dr. Monette Ferguson is currently the Executive Director of Alliance for Community Empowerment and holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Bridgeport. She has worked in the nonprofit sector for almost 20 years at Alliance for Community Empowerment, an urban community action agency. She was born and raised in Bridgeport Ct. where she serves the most vulnerable community members with life-changing resources.
Monette began her nonprofit leadership career as a Head Start family caseworker at the agency and quickly advanced to directing the Early Learning division. In this role Monette oversaw more than 300 staff members who provide quality school readiness, SEL experiences and comprehensive family resources to over 1000 families in Bridgeport and the surrounding area. Monette also serves as Vice-Chair on the Governor’s Workforce Council Equity and Access Committee and is on the Board of Directors for Read to Grow and The Workplace.
She is an advisor to the MPH program at Sacred Heart University and is Co-Chair of the Bridgeport Area Nonprofit Collaborative (BANC). She is a past Connecticut representative for the New England Head Start Association and has been honored and travels locally and nationally as a strong advocate who fights for quality education for all in the early childhood space.
Peter Denious
Peter Denious leads the AdvanceCT team as its President and CEO. He came to AdvanceCT in August 2019 as an accomplished private equity and venture capital professional who helped realize commercial and economic opportunity by connecting ideas, people, and capital. Prior to taking on the leadership role at AdvanceCT, Peter had a 17-year tenure at FLAG Capital Management and its successor, Aberdeen Standard Investments, based in Stamford, CT.
He was a member of the senior leadership team responsible for growing the FLAG private equity platform to over $6.5B in AUM from approximately $1B when he joined in 2001. Before FLAG, he worked for J.H. Whitney & Co. a direct private investment firm based in Stamford, CT.
A graduate of Trinity College, Peter received his MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, where he is a board member of the Center for Private Equity and Venture Capital. He is an Ex-Officio member of the Governor’s Workforce Council and has been a Partner of Social Venture Partners Connecticut since 2018
susan adamsen
Susan Adamsen became a Partner of Social Venture Partners Connecticut in 2019 and currently serves as Lead Partner of the SVP Building One Community team. She also served on the Governor’s Workforce Council project team leading work on Adult Education and the Business Services and IT industry sectors.
Susan recently retired from JP Morgan, where she held a variety of roles in investment banking and wealth management for over three decades. Susan is a graduate of Claremont McKenna College and the Anderson School of Business at UCLA. She served on the Stamford Symphony board for many years and has been an active volunteer and contributor to a variety of community and school-based organizations.
Maggie Hulce
Maggie Hulce is Executive Vice President and General Manager for Enterprise at Indeed. In her role, she focuses on shaping product and go-to-market priorities for Indeed’s largest global customers. Maggie joined Indeed in 2016, responsible for building the global Sales Strategy & GPC organizations prior to moving into her GM role in 2019.
Prior to Indeed, Maggie was the Director of Sales Strategy & Operations at Google, focused on Google’s largest advertising customers in the Americas. Maggie also spent several years as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, serving clients in the retail and CPG industries. Maggie graduated cum laude from Harvard with a BA in Economics and received her MBA with distinction from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Stefano is a Senior Partner in McKinsey & Company focused on the firm’s work in advanced industries and is the Managing Partner for its Stamford, Connecticut office. Over his 20 years of experience, he has worked in several sectors, including manufacturing, the engineering and construction value chain, engineering and design, mechanical and electrical subcontracting, construction-equipment OEMs, electronic-building equipment OEMs, and construction and building service providers. He specializes in serving midsize multiple business unit companies, both publicly and privately owned.
Stefano joined McKinsey in 2003 in Italy, worked for several years in South America, and now lives in Connecticut. He is fluent in English, Spanish, and Italian. Stefano graduated with honors in Electrical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Milan and received an MBA from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business in 2007.
ALthea Brooks
Althea is the Executive Director of the state’s first Cradle to Career Initiative – Waterbury Bridge to Success Community Partnership. Using a collective impact approach with an equity lens, Bridge to Success collaborates with over 90 community partners including Waterbury Public Schools, businesses, local public and private organizations that are passionate about creating opportunities for local youth to ensure they succeed in school, career and life.
Althea’s professional experience spans at-risk youth development, employment and education initiatives and training programs, affordable subsidized housing development, community economic revitalization efforts, restoring and enhancing the capacity of small businesses, post-secondary efforts for displaced workers, and community organizing.
Karen Brown
Karen is the Executive Director of The Tudor Foundation in Stamford, a private foundation established in 1997 and funded entirely by the Tudor Group. The Tudor Foundation primarily supports nonprofit organizations in the communities of Tudor’s regional offices in the following areas: Food and Shelter; Children & Youth; Education; and Health and Mental Health. She joined The Tudor Foundation in October 2022 after 20 years at Fairfield County’s Community Foundation, where she served in several different senior leadership roles.
A founding Partner of SVP Connecticut, Karen is also a Board Member of Asset Funders Network, a national grantmakers’ affinity organization focused on the asset-building field in the U.S. She previously served on the Steering Committee of Workforce Matters, a national grantmakers’ affinity organization focused on the workforce development sector. She is a past Board Member of The Support Center for Nonprofit Management in Manhattan. She earned a B.A. from Brown University and a MPA from The Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University.
William Ginsberg
Will has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven since 2000. He serves on the boards of numerous local organizations including New Haven Promise, Yale-New Haven Hospital, and ReadyCT. He has also served on the boards of the Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology and the Council on Foundations, the national trade association for the philanthropic sector.
Don has been the catalyst and driving force in the creation of SVP Connecticut. He was one of the founding Partners and served as the organization’s first Board Chair until July 2022. A serial entrepreneur and philanthropist with a passion for creating and leading startups, Don uses the power of business models to solve pressing social problems and works with founders to help their dreams come to life.
In response to the COVID pandemic, Don co-founded 4-CT, a nonprofit to coordinate the statewide philanthropic response to the COVID pandemic focused on the State’s most vulnerable and low-income citizens. Raising nearly $20M in 7 months, the nonprofit provided grants to frontline nonprofits responding to the surge in demand due to the pandemic and launched CT’s first statewide direct cash assistance program. Today the organization continues to provide direct cash assistance to low-income families through community based organizations and federally qualified health care centers and Don serves as Executive Chair.
Jeffrey Meyer
Amy Orenstein
Maria Isabel Mojica
