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Executive Director

Thank you for your interest in this opportunity. This search has concluded and is now closed.

Executive Director

Trail Blazers

Brooklyn, New York

Lindauer was honored to bring this search to a successful conclusion in partnership with Trail Blazers. Read the announcement about Shanna Gumaer becoming the organization’s next Executive Director.

As young people navigate a world of digital distraction, experiences of adventure, wonder, and discovery in nature have never been so transformative. Since 1887, Trail Blazers has provided thousands of young people with opportunities to go outside and grow within. In recent years, its mission has assumed even greater importance.

With a portfolio of after-school programs, day camps in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and a flagship overnight camp in northwest New Jersey, Trail Blazers is entering a new era of growth with a focus on deeper programmatic impact, quality, and visibility. The organization is seeking an Executive Director to build on its legacy and lead it into its next chapter.

The Opportunity

The Executive Director will be the face of Trail Blazers, engaged not only in the daily operations of its programs, but also in building and sustaining relationships with key stakeholders. Partnering closely with an experienced senior leadership team and a highly engaged Board of Directors, they’ll oversee the administration, programming, and strategic planning for the organization.

Trail Blazers is looking for a visionary, community-oriented leader who embodies and embraces the organization’s mission, along with a passion for outdoor engagement and youth development.

The salary range for this position is $155,000 – $170,000.

By admin|2023-03-15T20:21:02-04:00March 15, 2023|Comments Off

About the Author: admin

With over 25 years of experience in senior leadership roles, Diane has served as a strategist, executive director, operations expert, fundraiser, crisis manager, and trusted advisor and relationship builder across a broad range of institutions in the non-profit and related sectors. Within these positions, Diane has been directly involved with recruitment activities across countless roles including college and university faculty/deans/provosts/presidents, development professionals, and operations staff/ directors/executive directors, as well as board recruitment and governance.

Diane’s success as a fundraiser has been most notable with leading national foundations. She has developed strong, meaningful relationships with program officers and as a result has worked with teams to develop winning multi-million-dollar proposals and programs. In 2015, Diane led an effort at Community Catalyst—a national health care advocacy organization— to secure the largest single philanthropic gift in the organization’s history: $14.8 million dollars from The Atlantic Philanthropies to develop the Center for Consumer Engagement in Health Innovation. The award was one of the final legacy grants given by the foundation before it completed all grantmaking in 2016.

Trained as a social psychologist and mediator, Diane has had experience leading and partnering with a range of social change actors including advocates, organizers, policymakers, academics, business executives, and cultural leaders. Along with 10 years at Community Catalyst, Diane also has worked at The University of Vermont, Goddard College, Simmons University, Boston Children’s Hospital, and The Health Initiative. Her volunteer and board roles are wide-reaching and most recently include the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, LPAC (Lesbian Political Action Committee, where she served as board chair), and the Equality Fund at The Boston Foundation, among others.

Diane holds a bachelor’s degree from Adelphi University, and a master’s and a doctoral degree from The University of Vermont; she has a certificate in mediation from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, among other highly regarded institutes. She is a passionate art collector and has dabbled in improv, which serves as a constant reminder that keen listening, risk-taking, and co-creating lead to the most surprising and fulfilling results. She is based in New York.

Taylor Beard brings to Lindauer and its clients several years of philanthropic consulting and project management experience in the non-profit sector.

Prior to joining Lindauer, Taylor was the Assistant Director of Leadership Annual Giving at the University of Chicago Law School where she managed the school’s reunion volunteer committees to foster a culture of engagement and philanthropy and increase annual support from alumni and friends. Taylor also spent several years at Grenzebach Glier and Associates (GG+A), a premier nonprofit philanthropic consulting firm, where she held multiple roles. As Senior Project Manager, Taylor partnered with the firm’s senior leaders to develop and execute client training projects, along with managing the firm’s internal professional development program. She managed upwards of 15 client projects at any given time, ranging in sectors from arts and culture, academic medicine and healthcare, higher education, independent schools, to advocacy.

Throughout her career, Taylor has partnered with a range of clients including American University, Carnegie-Mellon University, Chicago Urban League, Colgate University, Da Vinci Science Center, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Englewood Health Foundation, Folger Shakespeare Library, Fourth Presbyterian Church, Germantown Friends School, Instituto Technologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Macalester College, Milwaukee Art Museum, Louisiana State University Athletics, National Cathedral School, Oregon Health and Science University Foundation, Pennsylvania State University Athletics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Minnesota Foundation, University of New Mexico Foundation, University of the Arctic, Trinity College, and Upper Canada College.

Taylor serves as Co-Chair of the Young Professional Board at Deborah’s Place, a nonprofit that provides housing and supportive services to women experiencing homelessness in Chicago.

Taylor holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from The Ohio State University.