Board

Board

Kenny Jackson, President

Mr. Jackson currently serves as a Vice President in the Equity Quantitative Research & Analytics team for Delaware Investments in Philadelphia, PA. Kenny joined the Board in 2006 as a way to provide community service to the Fairmount neighborhood, where he has lived since 1998. By focusing on development in Fairmount, Kenny hopes to use his experience with Delaware Investments to aid in the creation of an investment strategy for the organization to help ensure that funding is managed in the most efficient possible ways.

Sharon Hayman, Vice President & Secretary

Sharon L. Hayman, CFA is a VP at Delaware Investments responsible for a team providing relationship management and client servicing for the firm’s financial institutions business channel. She has 16 years of experience in the financial services industry. Her previous position was at Gartmore Global Investments as vice president of product development. Prior to that, she spent seven years at Delaware Investments, leaving the firm as an assistant vice president, product development. From 1989 to 1993 she was a corporate auditor for CIGNA, and she began her career in 1987 at Price Waterhouse. Hayman earned her bachelor’s degree in management from Gettysburg College and an MBA with a concentration in investment finance and marketing from Drexel University. In addition to being on the board of the Fairmount Community Development Corporation, she is also a co-founder and co-president of the Women in Investing Network of Philadelphia.

Anne Bovaird Nevins, Treasurer

Anne Bovaird Nevins is Vice President of Market Development for the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC). Anne is responsible for developing and managing PIDC’s relationships with clients located in and around Center City, including the office, retail and hospitality sectors. In addition to managing PIDC’s efforts to retain the city’s major office tenants in the central business district, Anne works in close partnership with the City to attract new companies and developers to Philadelphia. In 2008, Anne was responsible for settling approximately $15 Million in transactions. From 1999 to 2001, Anne served in the White House Office of Cabinet Affairs, responsible for coordination between the President and all cabinet agencies. She then joined the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games and managed the logistical and hospitality arrangements for all US dignitaries attending the Olympics. Anne also has extensive event planning experience, including Governor Ed Rendell’s 2003 Inaugural Ceremony, consultation to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, and the launch of the Clinton-Hunter Development Initiative in the African nation of Malawi. She earned a Masters in Business Administration from The Wharton School in 2007 and has a Bachelors Degree in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Anne and her husband live in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia.

Autumn Adkins

Autumn J. Adkins is currently the President of Girard College. She is a native of Richmond, Virginia. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric and Communications Studies, with a minor in history, in 1994 from the University of Virginia. In 2000, Ms. Adkins completed a Master of Arts in Education Administration with a focus on Private School Leadership at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College. She also holds a Certificate in Fundraising from New York University. Ms. Adkins comes to Girard College from Friends Seminary, in Manhattan, where she was assistant principal for six years. Ms. Adkins was selected as the National Association of Independent Schools Edward E. Ford Fellow for Emerging Leaders in 2003. She has also made community service a focus of both her work and personal life, having won the Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education Commendation Award for Intergenerational Community Service Program, and volunteered with the Junior League in her free time.

Melony Burnom

Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Melony attended Pennsylvania State University to study Journalism and later received a Master’s Degree in Organization Leadership and Development from Cabrini College. While attending graduate school, she served two years as an AmeriCorps* VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) building capacity in small neighborhoods throughout North and West Philadelphia. As a volunteer she facilitated physical & health education classes, first time homebuyer workshops and computer literacy trainings. Melony is currently a Program Associate at Eisenhower Fellowships, a non-profit dedicated to engaging leaders from around the world, creating global networks based on shared experiences.

Elinor Haider

Elinor Haider, Chief Executive Officer, NovaThermal Energy has 15 years of finance, real estate and government experience. In her tenure at NovaThermal Energy, she has led the company to successfully capitalize and execute pilot demonstration projects, initiated comprehensive intellectual property filings, and built a project pipeline that will accelerate technology deployment throughout the MidAtlantic, transforming a start-up enterprise into a viable endeavor that will dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Prior to NovaThermal Energy, Ms. Haider served as Deputy Commerce Director and Chief of Staff for the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development of the City of Philadelphia. Her primary responsibilities were to define major economic development policy initiatives for the City of Philadelphia, leveraging public and private sources of funds to achieve these goals. Prior to that role, Ms. Haider led the recapitalization of the loan portfolio for the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC). Through a combination of grant, debt, tax credit and securitization programs, Ms. Haider raised over $100 million in new resources, to leverage over $1 billion in private real estate transactions including a first-time award of New Markets Tax Credits. Ms. Haider has combined these resources to finance numerous institutional, commercial, industrial and mixed-use properties. Ms. Haider holds a MBA in Real Estate Finance from the Wharton School, and MA from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She has served in numerous civic leadership roles in her Fairmount neighborhood and throughout the City of Philadelphia.

Denise Horan

FCA Representative
Ms. Horan is director of account management for Dialog, a Thomson company. A graduate of Penn State, Denise has held a variety of marketing and communication roles throughout the US and in Europe. She currently volunteers as an architectural and historical guide in Philadelphia.

Suzanne Low

FCA Representative
Suzanne is originally from Vancouver, where she earned a Masters degree in Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia. She has been a community planner for over 20 years, in Vancouver, New York, and New Jersey. For the last two years, she has been the Executive Director of a environmental nonprofit in northwestern Philadelphia. Suzanne has lived in Fairmount for three years and is interested in neighborhood development issues, including commercial corridor improvement and neighborhood greening.

Tim McAdams

Tim McAdams is one of two partners who own Best In Show Grooming Salon at 27th and Girard Avenue, and has lived in and around the Fairmount area since 1997. Tim currently works as an Account Executive at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Princeton, NJ. Prior to joining Bristol-Myers Squibb, Tim worked as a Production Manager at Delaware Investments and Lincoln Financial Group for over eight years. Tim attended Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, majoring in Political Science.

Warren McMichael

Mr. McMichael is a lifelong resident of the Brewerytown neighborhood in Philadelphia. He earned his Masters of Arts in Education from Temple University and took several graduate level courses at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. McMichael earned his Bachelor of Science from Cheney University. He served as a teacher and department head in the Philadelphia School District for many years. Currently, he is president of the Brewerytown Sharswood Community Civic Association.

Stephanie Mertz

FCA Representative
Stephanie is a graduate of Virginia Tech with a Bachelors of Architecture degree. She has 7 years of experience in residential architecture and after becoming LEED AP BD+C in 2009, has started gaining more experience with sustainable design. Since buying a house in the Fairmount neighborhood and helping her boyfriend open and operate Rybread on Fairmount Ave, Stephanie hopes to continue to play an important role in neighborhood development.

Darryl Miller

A Philadelphia native and Temple University as well as, Realtors National Marketing Institute graduate in Commercial-Investment Real Estate and Business Management. For over 28 years Darryl K. Miller is proactively and professionally involved in investment, management, development, and full service brokerage of residential and commercial-investment real estate. During his career he has effectively maximized his client’s wealth and brokered over 525 million dollars in real estate transactions. For 20 years he has strategically assisted hundreds of businesses, clients and families in procuring a variety of insurance products and financial services. He is the Broker and CEO of eReal Estate Advisors as well as, Principal Broker, & CEO of Asset Insurance Group. When it comes to evaluating your real estate, insurance and financial services objectives to choosing the most balanced and profitable methods of satisfying them.

Jeff Porter

Jeff Porter is an intellectual property attorney at the law firm of Reed Smith LLP, where his practice focuses on licensing issues, trademark protection and litigation, copyright, and multimedia production and distribution. Jeff is a graduate of Temple University School of Law and has an undergraduate degree in international business with an emphasis in economic development from Messiah College. He has lived in the Fairmount neighborhood with his wife, Marnie, for over ten years and has a special interest in urban revitalization and community development.

Angela Vendetti

Angela Vendetti is co-founder of Mugshots Coffeehouse & Café, an independently owned coffeehouse with three locations in Philadelphia. Prior to the coffee world, Vendetti specialized in Internet Security marketing and Multimedia. With a BS in International Business and Marketing from Drexel University, Vendetti has lived mostly in Philadelphia since 1995, and resides in Fairmount. Mugshots received Best Coffeehouse from Philadelphia Magazine in 2005, Best Coffeehouse from AOL City Guide in 2005 and 2008, and the Triple Bottom Line Award from the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia in 2005, recognizing its commitment to people, profit, and planet. Mugshots is a ReStore Retail Incentive Grant recipient for the start up of its third location along the up-and-coming Girard Avenue Commercial Corridor, at 28th & Girard in Brewerytown.