Piper Trust Names Four 2008 Piper Fellows

Sabbaticals for Nonprofit Leaders Provide Professional Development, Renewal

PHOENIX (December 16, 2008)-Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust today awarded Piper Fellowships to four exemplary nonprofit leaders who will participate in self-designed sabbaticals for professional development and renewal.

The 2008 Piper Fellows are Edmundo Hildalgo, Chicanos Por La Causa; Mark Nelson, Foundation for Blind Children; Daniel Scoggin, Great Hearts Academies; and John Swagert, M.D., Mountain Park Health Center.

"The pressures of high-impact jobs in the nonprofit world are not unlike the stresses and demands of other key leadership roles in the public and private sectors," said Judy Jolley Mohraz, president and CEO of the Piper Trust. "Piper Fellowships recognize the requirements of nonprofit leadership and provide access to new thinking, new models and the most current resources."

The Piper Fellowships, each providing up to $30,000, are intended to give professionals in the nonprofit field a minimum of one month to a maximum of two months work-release time plus expenses for study and travel. The sabbatical experiences have ranged from seminars at leading universities to visits to nationwide best-practice sites to leadership development programs and personal coaching.

Since 2001, the Piper Fellows program has funded 32 nonprofit executive sabbaticals.

In addition to providing a maximum of five fellowships annually, Piper Trust awards up to $10,000 for new or increased professional development for each awardee organization's staff. "Staff development has enabled staff, who have held down the fort while the executive is absent, to build skills, acquire knowledge and gain insights as a team," said Mohraz.

A committee of three community leaders, including one Piper Fellow from the previous year's class, made fellow recommendations from among 17 applications. Judges this year were Shirley Agnos, recently retired president of Arizona Town Hall; Gene D'Adamo, vice president, community relations, The Arizona Republic; and Theresa Leon, 2007 Piper Fellow and COO, Friendly House. Piper Trust names a new selection committee for each round of fellows.