Richmond Memorial Health Foundation is pleased to announce the selection of three individuals who will be joining our Board of Trustees in January 2024. We are excited to welcome Amy Howard, Carl Woodson, and Jonathan Zur to RMHF.
“As we embark on a new year full of opportunity and promise, I am thrilled to welcome these three dedicated community members to our Board of Trustees,” said RMHF President & CEO, Reginald Gordon. “They all possess extensive, diverse experience in serving our community and helping to improve lives in their respective fields. I have no doubt that their expertise will prove invaluable as we continue our work to foster health and racial equity across the Richmond region.”
Dr. Amy Howard is the senior administrative officer for Equity & Community at the University of Richmond, leading strategies to integrate, develop, and advance the alignment of the university’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging goals and community engagement efforts. She manages the Equity & Community unit, which includes the nationally recognized Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, external community relations, and the new Office for Institutional Equity and Inclusion. Amy brings experience connecting and catalyzing stakeholder groups to collaborate for culture change. She also teaches community-based learning courses focused on the history of Richmond, Virginia and is both an author and editor, having written a book on public housing and multiple articles on civic engagement and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in higher education. Amy has served on the boards of the Community Futures Foundation, the Better Housing Coalition, and Imagining America. She also served on the City of Richmond Planning Commission and co-chaired the housing workgroup for the Maggie L. Walker Anti-Poverty Initiative. She also served as an RMHF Equity + Health Fellow in 2016.
“I am thrilled and honored to join the Board of Trustees,” Amy said. “Having the opportunity to serve as an Equity and Health Fellow with RMHF was a transformative experience. It inspired me to join with others in my cohort to think deeply about new and innovative ways to center the experiences of underserved communities. And as RMHF continuously strives to view every facet of its mission-driven work through the lens of racial equity, I look forward to being a part of this exciting organization and helping translate those shared values into action.”
Carl Woodson is a Senior Client Manager with Cigna. He is responsible for managing new and existing relationships with producer and client partners while providing consultative benefit support and solutions. Carl’s career began as an individual agent with New York Life. He then worked for 17 years at Aetna. In 2009, Carl received the Glenn A. Faulkner Award, given to a single Aetna representative in the Mid-Atlantic that embodies and displays the Aetna brand and values. Carl currently serves on the Board of Directors of Elk Hill, which enables children and families to transform challenges into successful futures through specialized education, community-based services, and residential treatment programs. Carl also serves on the Board of Directors of The Daily Planet Health Services, which provides accessible, comprehensive, and integrated health services, regardless of housing, financial, citizenship, or insurance status. Carl attended James Madison University, where he majored in Finance. He and his wife Kim reside in Glen Allen and have two grown children, Heather and James.
“I am so excited about this opportunity to give back to the people of the Richmond region in this capacity,” Carl said, “and I look forward to the challenge of meeting the needs of our community through the Foundation’s transformative work and partnerships.”
Jonathan C. Zur is President & CEO of Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities (VCIC), an organization that works with schools, business, and communities to achieve success through inclusion. Under Jonathan’s leadership, VCIC has quadrupled the size of their budget and staff, and the number of programs the organization delivers annually increased by 3,000%. Additionally, VCIC has been recognized locally and nationally for its effectiveness. Active in the community, Jonathan has served in recent years as a member of the Virginia Commission on African American History Education, the Virginia Complete Count Commission, the Virginia Task Force on Culturally Inclusive School Meals and Calendars, the Leadership Metro Richmond Board of Directors, the Capital Area Partnership Uplifting People Board of Directors, and the Asian & Latino Solidarity Alliance of Central Virginia Advisory Council. In 2016, he also served as a RMHF Equity + Health Fellow. Jonathan earned his B.A. from the University of Richmond and he received a Certificate in Nonprofit Executive Leadership from the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.
“I view Richmond Memorial Health Foundation as an essential force for good in the Richmond region,” Jonathan said. “As a member of the first class of RMHF’s Equity and Health Fellows, I learned a great deal and was honored to participate in the development of recommendations for the Foundation and the community. That ongoing effort to improve, gain community input, and co-create solutions with those most marginalized is not only emblematic of the organization itself, but the impact it has had and will continue to have well into the future. RMHF’s mission is closely aligned with my values, and I look forward to doing my part to give back to a foundation that has given so much to me and the community.”