A third-generation Arizonan, Sam Alpert was the Chief Development Officer for Junior Achievement of Arizona (JA) when awarded his Piper Fellowship, which provides career and financial literacy education to 85,000 K-12 students annually, helping them build the foundation for future success. Since he joined the organization in 2013, he has led JA to some of its best fundraising years in its 65-year history. Previously, he spent 11 years in the marketing field including owning an advertising and PR agency where he represented Dunkin’ Donuts, Cox Communications, and KJZZ-NPR, among other brands. He was honored as one of the Phoenix Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 in 2016. His advertising agency won the Phoenix Chamber’s IMPACT Award for Best Company Culture and was also a finalist for ASU’s Spirit of Enterprise Awards. A proud father of two daughters, Alpert received an MBA and a BA in journalism from Arizona State University.

Alpert’s Fellowship plans focused on helping Junior Achievement continue to be innovative in all aspects—program delivery, community engagement, company culture, and branding—to help position the organization as the leader in educating young people on what it takes to become successful in work and life. He plans to attend the TED Summit, IBM Think Conference, and the SXSW EDU Conference & Festival, as well as the Berkley Executive Education “Innovation Organization” program.

DiCarlo’s Fellowship plans include a combination of academic study at Northwestern Kellogg Nonprofit; intensive personal, staff, and board training by the National Training Institute on Race and Equity; and, experiential, in-place learning and networking focusing on urban and rural American Indian relationships. Through her Fellowship, she will strive to develop into a more mature leader to help drive the culture and strategy of CSCAZ more authentically and effectively, and will work to gain clarity concerning bias, privilege, and the unique lens her experiences create. She intends to build upon her leadership skills, and in collaboration with CSCAZ Board of Directors and staff, address the health inequities that disproportionately impact families of color impacted by cancer.

The CSCAZ informal mission is serving all families in Arizona who are impacted by cancer. However, this omits a critical aspect of the mission—community. The Piper Fellowship will provide the tools to help identify those who are missing from the CSCAZ community due to their feeling a lack of belonging and trust that deter engagement. CSCAZ desires to go beyond “serving” to walking alongside its clients. This is a nuanced but important difference. It changes everything and demands sensitive, informed, and bold leadership.

Early held a two-year postdoctoral position at National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian before returning to Arizona and the museum that sparked her career. She began as associate curator, running educational programming at Mesa Grande Cultural Park. As curator, she manages anthropology exhibits, oversees collections, develops programs, and engages in community outreach. Her latest exhibit “Ologies: The Science of Anthropology and Paleontology” highlights the importance of museum collections. An avid supporter of formal and informal education, Early frequently serves as a judge in science fairs and competitions and serves on the Friends of Pueblo Grande Museum board. The Piper Fellowship will afford Early the opportunity to gather knowledge of twenty regional museums’ practices in the areas of anthropology and natural history, their efforts to decolonize, and how anthropology is visually presented in natural history spaces. As she learns and reflects on how to make these institutional changes, she will pursue training and development in marketing, fundraising, and how to initiate change. A large part of this process will be building effective communication between stakeholders to effectively guide conversations about changing vision in these vital areas. Her goals are to enhance her nonprofit and managerial toolkits while undertaking experiences and building relationships that will stimulate new ideas for the future of her organization.

Heredia currently serves as the Chairwoman of the Community Board of Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center and Westgate hospitals. She also serves on the boards of the Center for the Future of Arizona, the Arizona Council of Human Service Providers, the Arizona Alliance of Community Health Centers, the National Council of Behavioral Health, and the advisory council of the Phoenix Community Development and Investment Corporation. She is a member of Greater Phoenix Leadership.

A leader in her community and organization, Heredia strives for equality and inclusion of underserved populations, especially regarding access to quality healthcare and education. As a Mexican immigrant, she passionately volunteers in Latino civic engagement, various political campaigns, and voting efforts with her family. She lives in Mesa, Arizona, with her husband and three children.

Heredia’s Fellowship plans will focus on honing her technical business skills. She will participate in Stanford Graduate School of Business training courses on strategic investments. Through her Fellowship activities, she will strive to augment her organization’s business portfolio and better layer and leverage opportunities for Valle del Sol with the aim of improving its reach and impact to underserved communities.

Karen was appointed CEO of Stardust in 2011 and during her tenure to date, she has increased diversion rates of usable building materials and launched the Gifts In Kind program that has distributed more than $72 million worth of reusable household items to Maricopa County nonprofits.  She serves as a Secretary of the Board of Directors for the Arizona Recycling Coalition. She is also a member of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Arizona Market Leadership Advisory Board and a member of the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits Policy Council.

Jayne has previously served in leadership capacities on the boards of the Organization of Nonprofit Executives as well as the national Building Materials Reuse Association, and the Social Enterprise Alliance Arizona Chapter.

Karen holds an MBA from Regis University in Denver, Colorado.  Fellowship will allow her to spend focused time developing business opportunities that will prepare Stardust for its next 25 years. Her plans include attending Arizona State University’s Sustainability Opportunity, a professional certificate program where she will learn about sustainability practices and strategy; meeting with other professionals in the reuse sector; and participating in Leadership at the Peak at the Center for Creative Leadership, which will strengthen Jayne as a leader and Stardust as an organization. In addition, the Piper Fellowship will provide access to resources that will allow her to consider opportunities through a more strategic lens.

When awarded the Piper Fellowship, he served as CEO of Valleywise Health Foundation, the nonprofit partner to Valleywise Health, Arizona’s public teaching hospital and healthcare system serving Maricopa County’s most vulnerable families. Lowrie’s personal experience as a patient of the safety-net health system during college gives him a deeper perspective and passion for the Valleywise Health mission which is to provide exceptional care, without exception, to every patient, every time.

For six years with Lowrie at the helm, Valleywise Health Foundation has provided record philanthropic support to the health system through major gifts, grants, and individual giving toward critical patient and program needs. Before joining Valleywise Health Foundation as CEO, Lowrie served as Chairman of the Valleywise Health Foundation Board of Directors. Lowrie previously served as president of L&N Investment Company, was owner and co-founder of local small business Bicycle Haus, and led regional teams as President of Zoe’s Kitchen Southwest. Lowrie graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in business and entrepreneurship from Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business. He lives in Phoenix with his daughter Dillan, son Austin, and longtime partner Harmony Fulton.

Part of Lowrie’s Fellowship will focus on two leadership growth areas: industry knowledge and organizational culture. Plans include participating in Harvard Business School’s Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management program—this coincides with a summit at Mt. Kilimanjaro with Team Courage Rising (comprised of inspiring burn survivors, medical professionals, and supporters of the Arizona Burn Center at Valleywise). Lowrie believes the timing is ideal to grow his skills and apply the lessons learned from what will be a life-changing journey.

Recognizing approximately 60 percent of Valleywise Health’s patients are either Spanish only or first-language Spanish speakers, Lowrie will focus on expanding and improving his Spanish language skills through an intense Spanish-immersion program as he desires to improve communications throughout the Valleywise community of patients, providers, and prospective supporters.

She believes deeply in breaking the cycle of abuse, poverty, violence, and trauma to free women and children to live their best lives. She has lobbied for health and education legislation, advocated for youth, volunteered for the Foster Care Review Board at the state and county levels, and served on the Arizona Life Coalition. She serves on the Maricopa Regional Continuum of Care Committee, the Arizona Adverse Childhood Experiences Consortium Board, and was recently appointed to the Adoption Promotion Task Force.

Magruder plans to use her the Fellowship in a way that builds upon the momentum established during her experience as a Piper Trust ATLAS participant. As CEO, Magruder leverages resources every day for the families Maggie’s Place serves. She sees the Fellowship as an opportunity to leverage resources for personal growth and enhanced organizational health. Magruder will focus on executive coaching, a mix of processing and integrating new skills, and specifically developing the skills to advocate for systemic reforms in child-welfare policy and family well-being. She will attend the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities Executive Leadership Conference and the Prevent Child Abuse Conference—both with themes of systems level change focused on building resilient families. Maggie’s Place is embarking on two major organizational projects—one being longitudinal and in partnership with Notre Dame that will analyze the impact of maternity homes; the other, in partnership with the Health & Human Services Department’s Administration for Children and Families, will evaluate the impact of the aftercare model at Maggie’s Place and its impact on family self-sufficiency. Magruder believes her Fellowship will greatly complement and benefit this significant organizational work underway.

With a wealth of administrative and musical skills to draw from, Nixon is involved in every aspect of PCM’s business and has been instrumental in continued program growth and curriculum development. Under her leadership, the organization has grown, developed significant community partnerships, and has been honored with numerous awards including the 2015 Arizona Governor’s Arts Organization Award, the 2017 Mayor’s Arts Award, and the 2017 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities through the National Endowment of the Arts.

Nixon attended Arizona State University’s School of Music, Honors Program; the Music Theatre Program as a recipient of The Barbara Long Opera Award; and Glendale Community College’s Music Studies Program. Nationally, she completed training from the Center for Music and Young Children in Princeton, NJ; she also holds several professional certifications from the Berklee College of Music’s Berklee City Music Network (BCMN) where she is also part of an elite group of PULSE instructors chosen for regional and national training presentations. In 2016, Nixon received BCMN’s Distinguished Service Award for Sustained Leadership.

Nixon served as an Arts and Culture Commissioner for the City of Phoenix, Arts Learning and Advocacy Committees (2013-2018); she was Vice Chair for the Phoenix Arts Commission in 2018 and then chaired the Commission from 2019-2020.

Nixon’s Fellowship will include leadership training specific to leading for organizational impact, innovation, scalability, and motivating teams. She will work with an executive coach as well as participate in best practices via site visits at the Music Settlement and the Lincoln Center among other groups that are centered on expanding the continuum of youth development programs through deep early childhood learning. Nixon will also explore workforce development specific to music and music education with a focus on effective and efficient scalability.

Royce spent 17 years in Washington, D.C., where she served at the American Symphony Orchestra League and Points of Light Foundation. After relocating to Phoenix, she continued her work in the nonprofit sector as a capacitybuilding consultant for the ATLAS program, was an instructor for Arizona State University’s Lodestar Nonprofit Management Institute, and served as a provider delivering a variety of services for large and small nonprofits in the Phoenix area.

As President & CEO of Esperanҫa since 2017, she is fulfilling her passion to serve under-resourced communities and advocate for health equity. As a breast-cancer survivor, she has a unique perspective on the importance of health education, access to healthcare, and the role the social determinants of health play in diverse communities. Royce is committed to purposefully leading Esperanҫa to make an even greater impact through its work in health education, community development, and medical intervention for high-risk populations in Arizona and abroad. She was recognized as the 2021 AZ Business Angels Nonprofit Executive of the Year by AZ Big Media and received the 2021 Most Admired Leaders Award by Phoenix Business Journal.

Through the Piper Fellowship, Royce will advance her knowledge and skills in leadership through completion of the final capstone course to receive an Executive Scholar Certificate through Northwestern Kellogg Center for Nonprofit Management, and in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion by completing the Cornell Certificate Program in Diversity & Inclusion. Additionally, Royce will be visiting multiple sites of a national nonprofit operating with a similar model to Esperanҫa to explore the opportunities and implications of expanding into direct healthcare services and growing a base of generated revenue. She will also study Spanish for the entire year with Arizona Language Center to increase communication with program staff, participants, and community-based partners.

He graduated from Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado, with a Bachelor of Arts in business administration. He immediately began his management career with Kmart Corporation and was promoted to general manager in Vista, California.

Charlie was continually promoted to larger-volume stores in a variety of locations throughout California. After a successful 14-year retail-management career, he chose to transition his skills and experience to better align with his faith and spirituality as well as spend more time with his daughters. Charlie has furthered his education by attending Harvard on scholarship and the Arizona State University nonprofit extension.

Charlie completed the two-year certification training and education as a spiritual director. He is a father of two lovely and faithful daughters, Amber and Bridget. He has completed several Half-Ironman races and marathons as well as 13 triathlons. He enjoys his lake cabin in Durango, fitness, travel, art, and is a lifelong learner.

Tiffany is currently chief curator for Mesa Contemporary Arts (MCA) Museum at Mesa Arts Center. Fairall started as the museum’s associate curator, which evolved into a curator of exhibitions. Over the last 14 years, she has organized a variety of exhibitions that demonstrate her interest in popular culture and social commentary, most notably Flora and Fauna: Botanicals and Animals in Contemporary Art (2019); Jazz It Up! Jazz Inspired Art from Today (2019); We the People: Contemporary American Figurative Art (2018); AltRealities: The Fantastical Worlds & Creatures of Contemporary Artists (2017); Boundless: The Book Transformed in Contemporary Art (2015); Messin’ with the Masters (2013); and Beneath the Skin: Artwork Inspired by Tattoos (2008).

Before this appointment, Fairall was the curatorial assistant/assistant registrar for the ASU Art Museum, where she implemented events and programming for the Ceramics Research Center and helped manage the museum’s collection and exhibitions. Fairall holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in art history as well as her B.F.A. in graphic design from Arizona State University.

Even though Fairall remains passionate about popular culture and social commentary, she would like to refocus her professional purpose and investigate how MCA Museum can provide a platform for marginalized voices and use contemporary art as a catalyst for social issues that are minimized or absent in the mainstream dialogue. Her fellowship will enable her to conduct 27 national site visits and interview various museum/art professionals from across the country who are at the forefront of fostering conversations about equity in areas of race, socioeconomic class, gender, LGBTQ, religion, and accessibility. She will pair several of the site visits with museum-focused conferences and a three-day intensive certificate workshop at National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

This fellowship is the impetus for personal growth and will serve as a networking opportunity to engage with others who have successfully transformed their institutions into sites for social action. To process and reflect on this intensive yearlong program, Fairall will conclude her fellowship with a weeklong meditative/mindfulness retreat.

As a passionate advocate, Sherri has become an effective business strategist with the proven skills needed to grow and develop nonprofit organizations, enabling them to expand their reach and impact into the community. Sherri has been recognized through her leadership as the 2015 Nonprofit of the Year by Mesa Chamber and received the Amazing Women Award in 2016 from the National Bank of Arizona and the Phoenix Suns.  Friend’s fellowship will focus on organizational strategy for growth and expansion of services resulting in a five-year strategic plan and the integration of long-term sustainability practices. She will take several adventures researching best practice models, meeting with thought leaders in aging, attending conferences to gain perspective on national trends, and taking a class at Columbia University. Friend’s goal is to help unlock solutions that are not currently being utilized in Arizona to offer greater access to services for our aging community.

Dr. Arianne Powell is the CEO, Co-Founder of Global Heath Leaders. Her position when awarded Piper Fellowship was director of clinical strategy and analytics for Terros Health, a mission-driven healthcare agency that has been saving lives in Arizona for more than 50 years. In her role, she is responsible for organizational transformation and performance improvement for a wide range of population health and clinical quality initiatives, including the execution of value-based care strategy, lean process improvements, and the agency’s strategic initiatives. Dr. Powell leads business development, strategic planning, innovation, and transformation. Over the past 15 years, she has served patients and the community through programs such as wilderness therapy for at-risk youth, residential substance abuse treatment, crisis services, and outpatient physical and mental health services for underserved populations, including seriously mentally ill adults. Dr. Powell holds a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling, a doctorate in behavioral health from Arizona State University, and is a licensed counselor.

Dr. Powell’s fellowship will include attending the Stanford University Executive Education–Analysis into Action program to gain critical knowledge of leadership, team development, and action planning. Additionally, she will attend leadership training that will focus on harnessing the power of commitment, abundance, and purpose to engage teams in mission-driven services to empower the community.

Angie is responsible for childhood hunger programs, ensuring transportation resources are available for members, and the overall strategic direction and management of the anti-hunger organization. Angie brings more than 20 years of experience in public policy research and advocacy, focusing on human services.

Before joining AzFBN, Rodgers served in various capacities for the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES), improving child and family services through advocacy and policy initiatives and community-based partnerships. Angie was Governor Janet Napolitano’s human services policy advisor, serving as the liaison between the governor and DES and the Department of Juvenile Corrections. In this role, she was instrumental in developing high-level child and family welfare services policy and budget negotiation for nearly $750 million in state resources. She earned her master’s degree in social work at Arizona State University and bachelor’s degrees in criminology and sociology from the University of Kansas.

Through her fellowship, Rodgers will develop a communications strategy that seeks to understand various perceptions of hunger and the solutions necessary to solidify public support to achieve a hunger-free Arizona. This will include incorporating new messages of inclusivity and purpose. These themes will encourage individuals to care more about each other and relate to circumstances of commonality with one another’s struggles. She plans to attend the Stanford Summer Institute in Political Psychology and the Aspen Executive Leadership Seminar to explore joint leadership models to execute this new strategy. An avid runner, Angie will rejuvenate by training to complete her fourth half marathon.